And they will stroll through the qualifying phase with that team, because the opposition aren't particulary compelling.

Then they'll get thrased in the finals and the press will wonder why.

There you go.

England are to International football what Villa are to the premiership. Squash the weaker teams, and you don't want to play them at home, but they won't win anything.

He says he wants new blood in the side.

If everyone's bemoaning 4-4-2, what do they suggest? 4-3-3? 3-4-3?

4-5-1 I reckon, but I'm not manager.

It depends who you're playing. If you play a team with 1 striker and you have a defensive midfielder I'm not sure you really need more than 3 at the back and will lose out in midfield if you don't counteract them packing the midfield.

I think it's overplayed too much, it should be adaptable but then you need versatile players.

You play to your strengths. England have better midfield players than strikers at the moment.
4-2-3-1 becomming 4-5-1 in defence. Would pretty much allow Lampard, Gerard and Rooney to play in the positions they do for their clubs.

Indeed, I did suggest that before the first match along with half of england I think.

Trouble is, we say 4 at the back. Cole and Johnson are known for bombing forward, at their clubs they generally have 5 (or 2-3) in midfield., with england they didn't which obviously left gaps.

That's why 5 in midfield with Lampard central and Gerrard playing off Rooney seemed to make most sense as that's the same positions they usually play for their clubs.

A dismal performance by England saw us through to Euro 2012, hopefully the Roo will be suspended for several matches and lose his place because others will have been playing well. He's such a liability at International competitions with very few goals to his name on the big stage.

Scotland. Oh well, what can I say. Really too much left to do against Spain of all countries.

As for Wales, I really think they're developing into a really good side especially with the talent they have in Ramsey and Bale. One team to watch out for in the World Cup qualifiers I think.

Capello appears to have been quoted as saying England will not pick Rooney again until after his suspension has been served i.e. they'll use all the pre-tournament friendlies to come up with a formation and tactics to play without him. If we do well, it's not necessarily a given he'll get back in.


Played quite well by all accounts. Just bad luck to have such horrible tie at the end of qualifying. I don't know if the order was randomised or negotiated. If I'd been Scotland, I'd have tried everything possible to get the Spain away game out of the way ASAP.


Aye. It would be ironic if they qualified after Giggs retired having failed to do so for his entire career. Haven't the WC groups already been drawn? Who have Wales got?

Jon

Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland and FYR Macedonia.

The way Wales are developing with some talented youngsters I can see that group being there for the taking. It'll be between Wales, Croatia and Serbia in any case. Sorry Scotland.

Yay! A 3 match ban for Rooney!

I don't know why so many people seem upset about this, he's overrated as far as International matches are concerned.

In the past 2 years he's only scored 3 times for England out of 16 matches. He just never performs on the International stage, almost as likely to get a red card as he is to score.

Hopefully this will give some others an opportunity they can take.

Rooney is brilliant for Manchester United, but useless for England.

Group draws. Could have been worse for England, Spain and Italy for Ireland.

Group B looks a nightmare.

GROUP A
Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic
GROUP B
Holland, Denmark, Germany, Portugal
GROUP C
Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Croatia
GROUP D
Ukraine, Sweden, France, England

Russia will be happy with group A. Them plus the Czechs I think. Lowest quality group of the four.
Group B is probably in fact pretty straightforward. Germany are probably favourites, having recently comprehensively beaten Holland in a friendly. Denmark and Portugal are simply not in their class, although possibly they could spring one result between them to decide which of the main two gets to top the group.
Group C is actually 'the group of death' and very, very hard on the Republic. Spain and Italy are obviously very strong (Italy beat Spain in a recent friendly by the way) and Greece, while their victory a few years back was patently a fluke, haven't actually been beaten in something like 18 competitive games. It's sad, but I can see the Irish ending up bottom...
Group D is probably the second easiest after A, so England will I assume be relatively happy. If they play anywhere near their qualifying strength (which they may not, see the last two tournaments..) they should beat both the Ukraine and Sweden. The match with France will probably therefore decide who tops the group - France are not the force they were (shown by them languishing in pot 4 in the draw) but having finally dispensed with Raymond Domenech, they are certain to present a better fist of it than recently.

My quarter finalists : Russia, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, England, France (not necessarily in that order in the groups). Looking at that list, I'd be very surprised if England got past the quarters - I'd say 4 out of the 7 (Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany) would beat England 80% of the time, France is currently about 60-40 and the other two are 50-50. I wouldn't expect England to be favourites against any of them.



Jon