Beefymcfc wrote:I'm amazed they haven't tried to get Carragher out of internaltional retirement, or have they?
He's going to be the one who plays just behind the forward.
I was looking at England yesterday and for the first time in my life realised that City would wipe the floor with them (assuming Hart etc could play for two sides). So would the rags, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and, on a good day, Everton.
Defensively, England and City are about equal. As a defensive midfielder, it's Parker and or Barry, so about the same as us. But once you get past that? Shrek is obviously good enough to play for either. Gerrard, if fit, could play, but you'd want him further forward than yesterday. But there's no Silva, or even Nasri. No Yaya. Even if you looked at the rags, who play in a more similar way would you have Valencia or Downing?
For us to get anything out of this, we'll have to do a Greece/Chelsea and also have a huge slice of luck. In some ways, I'd like us to lose all 3 group games, as maybe then someone, somewhere would put a long term strategy in place to sort it, but nothing changed after the last failure.
The FA should put a 1% tax on all premier league salaries (gross as well, not after the clubs have fiddled it) and use it to sort out youth football. Train the coaches properly, provide facilities. And maybe, just maybe, in 30 years time we might start to see a team who can play like Spain. Rather than one which appears to come from 1986.
