God that England game was depressing, and that's coming from someone who's dearest wish is to see them fail. I really cannot believe they played that poorly, lumping the ball forward again and again like a Premiership team fighting relegation. Lampard and Gerrard proved for the million billionth time they shouldn't play together. Capello needs to have the courage to drop one of them when Barry's fit, if not before.

I switched over to ITV as Heskey was being taken off. Tydesley and Townsend thought he was outstanding. Anyone watching could see he was crap, including Capello who took him off. What is wrong with pundits and commentators in England? Are they told to not honestly criticize the team? It's so embarrassing to watch them.

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England played well. Deserved to win. Although Lamaprd didn't do much Gerrard ran the mdfield. You want Lampard or Gerrard to be dropped/moved to the left wing in order to bring in Barry? Not a good move imo.

Actually I thought their game was decent (maybe as a german I have lower standards, lol), but their offense didn't really create good chances .. Rooney a world class stiker ? I'm not convinced.

Heskey probably doesn't have any striking skills judging by the way he missed his big chance, but I thought he played pretty well ..  the most disturbing thing on the pitch in my opinion was Carragher.

BTW they really didn't nominate Hargreaves? Did he have a dreadful season or are his legs broken? I can't imagine England going anywhere without him tbh.

What I want is for England to get knocked out. What I think should happen is for one of Gerrard and Lampard to be dropped, or played entirely differently. Do you not remember four years ago when England were having the same problem with the two of them in midfield. It's never worked. Neither of them put in the graft to receive the ball from the back, Hence the constant stupid long balls. They're both great players but obviously both like to be moving forward ans supporting the strikers. They can't both be doing that and they've proved it time and time again.

Gerrard was okay but I wouldn't say he ran the midfield, and this was against an average team. England really didn't try to pass it about that much. They created what, three good chances? That said, they were of course the better team and they will qualify but I'm very surprised you could be happy with that performance.

They wern't an average team. They are 14th best in the world. The manager can't really drop Gerrard or Lampard though, they are excellent players in their own right and over the past 5 years have been the best midfielders in the Prem.

I also thought it was a good, exciting game.

well, it surely was better than Algeria-Slovenia at the moment *yawn*

I thought it was really good, this game on the other hand shows the lack of quality. England (I don't think) should have any problems in beating these two sides and finishing top of the group.

I made a sarcastic remark about this in the other thread, along the lines of "14th best in a 32 team tournament, what isn't average about that?" I also said that FIFA rankings are bullshit, and to look at the players rather than the ranking. Very few of them have made it at a very high level, unlike almost all of England's players. I don't like having the two seperate threads.

It's exactly that type of thinking that has stopped England managers dropping one of them despite it being painfully obvious they can't play together. Just because they're great players in their own right doesn't mean they should automatically be in the team.

The english team is all smoke and no fire in my opinion!!!

Technically it is about football. But you are right it should be kept elsewhere and from now on i will at least.