McClaren says he will have to 'look into the players eyes' before selecting his team to play on Wednesday.
My best guess is that what he's looking for is some flicker of commitment. A bit of drive and ambition. Consequently, Lampard needs to be benched.
Two things are now beyond dispute. One is that Frank Lampard is a menace for club and mediocre for country. The second is that a midfield with him and Gerrard in is cluttered and clueless. Why is his game so poor for his country?
Gerrard is a player who does not 'switch it on and off' and therefore should be handed the starring role to drive England's midfield. Johnson and Rooney got no service worth mentioning. That was the real disgrace against Israel.
Hargreaves's performance smacked of ambition, cynics might add, 'to sign for Man Utd'... Elsewhere, Lennon looked dynamic in patches, but still out of sync with the forward line Would putting Lennon on the right be a solution? An out-swinging ball is far harder to combat for defenders and is travelling into arriving attackers. Either way, Hargreaves, Gerrard and Lennon are the way forward.
It's only courtesy of players who love the shirt and play with passion will England's fortunes dramatically improve.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Lampard, Gerrard, Lennon, Hargreaves & Lessons In Love
Posted by Harry Hotspur at Monday, March 26, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
maybe jenas should play! gerrard hasn't played well for england since germany, 5-1, Lampard hasn't played well since world cup qualifiers, but, still playing better than gerrard, how many goals has gerrard got for england? less than Lampard who hasn't played as long, Lampard - 15+ plus goals last 4 seasons, 20+ past 2, gerrard, about 10 a season.
Lampard has to play, england team should be 4-3-3
foster/robinson
neville ferdinand Terry A.Cole
gerrard hargreaves Lampard
rooney J.Cole
owen
rooney and J.Cole to do whatever they want, i should be england manager, shame Lampard had to help knock the sp*ds out of the fa cup
Erm, don't you think that Gerrard hasn't scored as many as Lampard because he's too busy trying to put crosses in, or playing the holding role?
Lampard has his club team built around him so he looks good - it's a different story when he plays for England.
Gerrard was head and shoulders above him on Saturday - watch the game again and look who was the one creating chances. It wasn't fwank.
Gerrard has 54 caps and 10 goals.
Lampard has 53 caps and 12 goals.
Gerrard has had to play CM, defensive midfield, right wing, left wing, second striker, striker, make shift left back and make shift right back.
Lampard has played Central Midfield and no where else. Plus he takes our Penalties.
Where is Frank Lampard in the big games?, where was he in the world cup (Gerrard was our top goal scorer in that world cup).
Sven was once asked on Sky Sports why not play Frank on the "left of a man midfield or tell frank to share the midfield responsibility with Gerrard" Sven said Frank does not wanna play on the left and he is not capable of playing a out and out central midfielder so it leaves us open to attacks.
And this is why Gerrard and Lampard dont get along because Lampard wishes he was Gerrard!
and as Tony Gale said this week "its time to drop Frank, Frank is a good player but Gerrard is the great player"
Paul Merson, Charlie Nicholas, Jamie Redknapp (Lampard's own Cousin) have all said that Gerrard is England best player.
It seems that only the plastic Chelsea fan cant see this.
Lampard can not play in a 4-4-2, he is simply not good enough.
Jose Mourinho know this, he plays him on the left hand side alongside Ballack and Essien in the Centre.
West Ham used to boo him and slag him off because he could not play in a two man midfield.
Lumps.
Nuff said.
It's about time people realised that Lampard just isn't as good as Gerrard.
Gerrard is one of the best and most inspirational players of his generation, yet because he can play anywhere on the pitch he suffers for it.
You have to ask yourself some questions - Who is the better passer? Gerrard. Who is faster? Gerrard. Who is the better tackler? Gerrard. Crosser? Gerrard.
ETC ETC ETC!
It's ridiculous that it's taken this long for people to realise what is staring them in the face. A midfield of Hargreaves/Gerrard has great potential, and with Lennon on the right and then Joe Cole left side when he's fit, suddenly it looks much better.
The problem with the England team is:
McClaren has the back four lumping the ball in the air to two short strikers, when then need the ball to feet!! Unless the players can play ball to feet, he must pick a tall striker i.e. Darren Bent to play upfront with Rooney
McClaren keeps picking three similar midfielders i.e Hargreaves, Lampard and Gerrard. No balance!!!
He should play:
* Left wing: Downing
* Attacking midfield: Gerard
* Midfield stopper and passers:
Carrick/ Hargreaves
* Right wing: Lennon (more dangerous there than on the left!! NB. Jol take note for our Spurs team!!
McClaren ia a bad man manger i.e. a bad workman blames his tools in his case the players. He should not shout at them after the game!!! That is managing by fear!! (some players might respond, other will not - therefore it is unlikey that they will play as a team!!) He should analyse what went wrong and discuss this with his coaches, away from the players. Then proplerly brief the players the next day. Not rocket science after all!!!
McClaren will not last long as England manager!!!
Whilst even the most diehard of Chelsea fans will struggle to deny that Lamps has been shite for England for the best part of a year now i find it galling that he gets all the stick for the midfield problems whilst media darling Ickle Stevie is untouched.
Obviously i am aware that a part of this stems from this countrys insaitable urge to have a scapegoat but as poor as Lampard has been i find it hard to fathom what excatly Ickle Stevie brings to England. From what i can see he losses possesion most of the time hits 70 yards pases to no-one and plays out of the position he is asked thus putting the team in danger. Yes, he is being played out wide, but doesnt he do this for the Mousers too ? He seems to manage to do as is asked there so why not England , and why is this not picked up on ?
I'm going to be controversial here..
Why the hell is Rooney still starting? He hasn't scored for 2 and a half years.. if any other young English striker else had that record they'd be struggling to make the bench.
Hell, even Crouch has scored 12 or so in the past year and didn't even make the squad!
McClaren should grow some balls and bench Rooney and Lampard an give people who actually do something a chance.
Robinson
Richards Carragher Terry A.Cole
Lennon Gerrard Hargreaves Downing
Johnson Crouch
This team is on the basis that Owen is injured.. he would replace Crouch when match fit. I reckon even though Downing isn't playing well this season, just having an actual left footed player on the left would make up more than the difference in talent/form.
Until the FA sort out there gutless manager choice issues, I'm not really bothered one way or the other. I've always been a far far bigger Spurs supporter than England fan. For a few years now, my main concern whenever England play is hoping that any of our players involved, don't get injured, so I'd prefer it if big mac dropped Robinson & Lennon. That said; I'd have dropped lamps 2 games into the last world cup and any manager who plays a right-footed right winger on the left wing at international level needs to be 'shoulder-barged' off the ball by ben thatcher. I'm bored with the 'England are crap' subject. If the FA gave the job to someone with real character and tactical nous, like Allardyce, I think you'd see a very different team, approach and attitude. Unfortunately, I believe big sam give enough members of the FA the same squits as did Clough.
I'd prefer the made the world cup but if they fail, I'll lose no sleep. Grey suit after grey suit. The FA have forced my hand and I've almost completely lost interest.
GO ON THE SPURS!
Post a Comment