jesus england are poor

Jesus knows.

lump on them not to get out the group currently 5/4 most firms looks a steal .

"Jesus, England are poor" reminds me of one of Basil Fawlty's great comments to his wife Sybil - "Can't we get you on Mastermind, dear? Sybil Fawlty from Torquay, specialist subject, The Bleeding Obvious".

I always look forward to the 4-yearly carnival, with all its great "attractions" .... TV experts and pundits spouting forth, analysis, joke odds about England lifting the trophy, late night licensing with the appalling smashing up of whichever town accomodates the most people with the misfortune of belonging to the nation which eliminates England (Thetford in Norfolk suffered badly when it was Portugal .... where do Costa Ricans congregate in the UK?), weeks of football-speak such as going to ground, played to feet, shooting from range, and the "football's in denial" special, gamesmanship, instead of the C-word (cheating) etc etc. And of course the customary indifference of the England players when the National Anthem is played, masticating their Wrigleys instead of learning and singing the words (Shearer and Tony Adams never had any trouble singing enthusiastically). I'm also looking forward to hearing a few expert comments from some of the agents this time round.

Bring on 2015 and the Rugby World Cup.

the RUGBY WORLD CUP...

the competition thats only any good after the group stages...and thats if you like rugby...

AND I DONT

And the group stages of the football World Cup are "good", are they?

Dear oh dear.

Jun 8, 2014 -- 7:25AM, bigdeal2 wrote:

lump on them not to get out the group currently 5/4 most firms looks a steal .

if u lay them at 1.67 to qualify at betfair or **** you are getting 2.5 on them not to qualify.

the problem i see with england  players is that they are all overpaid and over rated. most of them have very little real skill and quality on the ball.

they need to get some fight and determination to improve as players and as a team. at the end of the tournaments they always end up blaming the manager and the manager gets sacked. what can roy do with that mob???

bet daq*

YOMOMMA is absolutely spot on, both with the advice about the lay at 1.67 and also his comments re the players and manager.

Roy in my opinion is a decent and honourable man, doing his best with (in world terms) very limited resources. As they say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Even if you accept that England has one or two "good" players, "good" doesn't cut it when it comes to winning the World Cup. The team is light years away from the standard needed.

6/4 not to qualify today on sky bet (countdown offer)

10/1 to finish bottom of the group maybe worth a stab

Bring on 2015 and the Rugby World Cup.


Andy Parsons from Mock The Week:

Rugby....the game that only 8 teams in the world care about and 4 of them are us classic

England were dire against Honduras but it was a warm up game and the opposition looked more intent on getting a result than England judging by their physical approach. On a more positive note Hodgson has announced he is confident Oxlade-Chamberlain will make the world cup and his pace and strength is needed in midfield, when England lost Townsend, Walcott and Walker to injuries that's basically a third of your team gone so its inevitable England are having problems gelling at the moment, I was despondent at first watching these warm up games but for all England's problems the Italians look in even worse shape, their front line are not exactly a prolific scoring machine
                                         
                                          games  goals

9 FW Mario Balotelli 12 August 1990 (age 23) 30 12 Italy Milan
10 FW Antonio Cassano 12 July 1982 (age 31) 37 10 Italy Parma
11 FW Alessio Cerci 23 July 1987 (age 26) 12 0 Italy Torino
17 FW Ciro Immobile 20 February 1990 (age 24) 2 0 Germany Borussia Dortmund
22 FW Lorenzo Insigne 4 June 1991 (age 23) 5 1 Italy Napoli

and with the midfield players consisting of a 35 year old Pirlo you wonder where the goals are coming from for them

                                      games  goals

5 MF Thiago Motta 28 August 1982 (age 31) 20 1 France Paris Saint-Germain
6 MF Antonio Candreva 28 February 1987 (age 27) 20 0 Italy Lazio
8 MF Claudio Marchisio 19 January 1986 (age 28) 44 3 Italy Juventus
14 MF Alberto Aquilani 7 July 1984 (age 29) 35 5 Italy Fiorentina
16 MF Daniele De Rossi 24 July 1983 (age 30) 95 15 Italy Roma
18 MF Marco Parolo 25 January 1985 (age 29) 4 0 Italy Parma
21 MF Andrea Pirlo (Vice-Captain) 19 May 1979 (age 35) 109 13 Italy Juventus
23 MF Marco Verratti 5 November 1992 (age 21) 6 1 France Paris Saint-Germain

England do have defensive problems especially with Johnson but if they can field a combination of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling, Lallana, Wilshire and Barkley with Gerrard or Lampard in that midfield with Sturridge and maybe Lambert up front their pace can be effective against a very ordinary looking Italian side, after losing three top players you cannot expect to much but if they do gel on the day everyone will be shouting again for while at least and pride will be restored

The tragedy of all this
from an ingerlund pov, if that is indeed your pov
that the world cup and these international tourneys are eminently winnable

Ingerlund may be no good and still searching for a way to play and who exactly are their first choice xi
but then again at least 2

at least 26 of the other teams are in the same boat
Only Brazil, Spain and Germany seem to me to know what theyre doing
Maybe Belgium too
But I'd be surprised if they won it

Maybe the FA should be concentrating their resources on working out how they can get the national team in tip top condition for these events
instead of thinking up EPL B teams

Just trying to perceive the situation as it is and I think whilst England at this moment have zero chance of winning the tournament I think the majority would be very happy if they qualified from a very tough group, should they win the group the path is made simpler at least until the quarter final, to be runners up would send them into the tougher half of the draw.
To many people are reading into the exact value of these warm up matches that although looked dire at times it has to be stressed that Roy was experimenting with different combinations in the little time he has to prepare some young but talented players into a formation that will get England the right results come the world cup, after losing not one but three major players were he to qualify from the group that would go down as some achievement on its own.

would be an achievement to best Costa Rica , imho

for all the domination and possession not much hit the target , only a friendly but they wont be very sure of themselves now , a game they expected to comfortably win im sure


Stevie g is going to struggle , and poor Roy looked like a man who has just realised he is about to start the world cup , with bitter glen hoddle bitching relentlessly about what they lack and how it should be done the carnival starts

the only positive I see for them is Italy seem equally as poor so I wouldn't rush into qualifying bets , I would be more inclined to lay Italy I think at their price to qualify

I see hodgson has gone down the alf Ramsey route of name checking 'Latin American antics'
That's good for public relations
The epl is the most physical league in world football yet our precious heroes are getting uptight about the latins, the tackling and their refs
Really?
Sterling gets a red for scything down Toni Valencia and is lucky not to get a three match ban imo
This of course is put down to bad luck
Stevie g who has been sent off for more two footed tackles in merseyside derbies than I care to remember labels the Hondurans tackling as a disgrace
Couldn't make it up
The Honduran who did get sent off for an elbow was given both barrels by the itv boys
But when Cahill does the same a couple of minutes later the criticism is negligible

Like it or not
The English have a rep for being hard men
Other teams think they have to fight fire with fire
English players are happy to dish it out in the epl, they should expect it in a World Cup in South America
And take it with good grace

Not the greatest start to the campaign

it was a friendly a week before the World Cup you total imbecile with a massive chip on both shoulders, and Honduras were hacking people down

ffs what a tool

Not the greatest start to the campaign

It wasn't the start of the campaign though

Judorick must be balls deep on engerlund the poor fool

Way I see it is if they struggle to create anything against a 10 man Honduras , friendly or not its curtains for them

Awful nice man Roy but out of his depth here , from the outside he has made a lot of decent calls and changes on handling media and focusing players , everything but the football tho and I don't think he is sure of his best team yet

Nice comment Judorick "tool" haven't heard that one in a while spot on though.
Honduras did not play it in the spirit of being a warm up and played like they were out to prove appoint that they could compete with the bigger nations but totally over cooked it with their ridiculously over physical approach in a game where England were no more than experimenting with various combinations and trying to avoid injury.
The Italians strong point would  be their midfield with the 35 year old Pirlo with 109 caps and 13 goals and 30 year old De Rossi with 95 caps and 15 goals, to beat Italy England will need to gain control of the midfield and the best way to do that would be with a combination of England's pacey and emerging young stars Stirling, Lallana, Wilshire and Oxlade-Chamberlain(if fit) led by Gerrard. Instead of pumping balls up to Sturridge all the time I would have Welbeck's pace up there with him he looks like he might be returning to form.
The Italians are there for the taking if Roy gets brave and injects loads of pace into the team, they won't like that at all with players running at them from all angles young players with bags of pace that can also help with defending when needed.
Rooney doesn't look fit enough yet and would better serve as a sub right now as would Barkley but 2 very useful subs at that, lets hope he gets it right and doesn't play as safe as many think he will that could be fatal with England's rocky defence and they do say the best form of defence is attack.

a point (even)typo

I think the last two games highlighted the two big problems that England have, against ecuador they were far more exciting and had players on the park namely barkley that could attack and beat players, in the process opening up sides, the down side was that we were far more exposed at the back.

In the honduras game we looked more like what we've become used to in recent times, a stagnant, slow team that offer very little in penetration but are perhaps harder to break down.

Hodgson will fall into the usual category of being afraid to put a side to win the game out there so it will be the dour side we saw against honduras that will face italy in a bid to scrap out a 0-0 .

Oh dear i seem to have touched a nerve with some ingerland neanderthals
Sterling leaves the ground and scythes down Valencia - acceptable
Baines leaves the ground and catches Wilson Palacios - acceptable
Cahill elbows a Honduran in the back of the head - acceptable
Such hypocrisy
Does seem to be a whiff of getting your excuses in first

And anyone who thinks Italy are there for the taking versus an England coach who doesnt know his best team
well
what was that about 'tools'?

Only a complete fool would take the Honduras result at face value when assessing Englands chances for the WC. Just as you wouldn't take beating Spain when we last played them, nor would you take Enland drawing away with Brazil or Italy drawing to the mighty Luxembourg as a strong indicator of their chances.

Looking tepid and largely non threatening with zero penetration and an incredible slowness in the play is exactly what I expect to see from england and as that was precisely what they delivered against honduras  I'll take that as a good guide thankyou very much .

Quite right Sergei
My point was that England's carping about the Hondurans lacked class and was used to excuse the fact they didn't win.
Something which shouldn't have really bothered them
Like u say serg
But clearly did annoy

Main concern for woys boys is that they seem to be experimenting, still, at this late stage
Hodgson really ought to have worked out his World Cup xi during the last two years
Ramsey famously plotted his wingless wonders in a friendly win in Spain the year before 66

Woy has left himself a hostage to fortune here
All this clamouring for the Liverpool way from the press is all well and good
It's one thing banging in the goals at Norwich and Cardiff
But the thought of international virgins like Stirling and sturridge up against the likes of Buffon, barzagli, bonucci and chiellini
Well
I just can not see that working out too well
The phrase candy from babies leaps to mind.
Could be a long night in th jungle

Costa Rica have balls

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Stone_sphere.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PXnEe-CsOAw/UADY3LeYZBI/AAAAAAAAA4M/AwMG1sHinKM/s1600/DSCN0317.JPG
http://crusadingwithkatie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IMG_4843.jpg
http://www.biblelandstudios.com/nuke/images/upload/stone%20sphere400.jpg

You are a tool tarps a complete and utter misread of a bo**cks of tie interrupted by a thunderstorm against a bunch of retards prepared to injure themselves and the England players for the sake of a bit of pride
There's not a lot of goals in this Italian squad and England have enough pace (for a change) to worry them and as for Suarez being confident of making it that's another situation that might not work out to well, if that knee swells up again he's out of the world and even if it doesn't either England or especially the Italians will be targeting him so the legs going to take some stick either way , forget it Suarez your world cups over pal but you just don't realise it yet

the only other side to fail to score against Honduras in past year were Costa Rica

3 shots on target over 90 mins against Honduras isn't anywhere near good enough

Roys got problems before a balls kicked

Trying to judge England or any other team for that matter from a friendly is pointless. Italy must be terrible eh 1-1 with Luxembourg, and conceded 3 against a club team. Better not turn up eh...

IMO Italy are pretty poor also , time will tell

Late money coming in for costa rica to qualify tho I hear

Roys problem is that 72% of  premiership players are foreign until somethings done about it nothing will change.

I think that is made out to be a bigger problem than it is. How much of a % were foreign in 94? I don't know myself lol but there were certainly lots of English players getting in to prem teams and we had the delights of Brian Deane, Tony Daley, Carlton Palmer etc as we failed to qualify for the WC. The real problem is grassroots, but that is probably for another thread.

Its both

How can any manager find top quality when he has an average of three or four players a team in top league , great for us as viewers but no strength in depth

Grass roots is changing but two decades behind

In Uk you had primary kids playing 11 a side runnin around like headless chickens after a ball they will not get near and coached by well meaning but clueless coaches , and I use that term very lightly

For example the dutch kids play 4 or 5 a side till mid teens growing with plenty time on the ball and space to develop , also coaches are all about future development rather than win win win

its effected Scotland in the same way

thinking of the gazza goal against the sweatys

Forget all this only 28% of premiership players are English I think that's been exhausted and is not very interesting, the general topic of conversation here is England's apparent poor displays in the warm ups which at first had me in extreme despair of a poor world cup showing but in hindsight we have read this all wrong and this is the last hurrah for the older players like Gerrard and lampard and the beginning of a new era with Stirling (19) Luke Shaw (18) Oxford-Chamberlain(20)Barkley(20) Wilshire(22)Sturridge (24)Welbeck(23)Henderson(23)and Jones(22, I don't remember a group of England players with so much pace and any team with one pacey player is dangerous but England  have at least 4 very quick players, so please stop talking about these rubbish mean nothing warm up results where Woy was using every conceivable combination to find out who was going to be 100 % ready for the Italians on Saturday.

how many new eras was this , or is it still the golden generation lol lol

Gazzas goal against Scotland was untouchable in world football and gets nowhere near the press it should , lob a defender then volley it into the net before it hits the ground , can see it now


And by the way , he was the greatest footballer England ever produced , NATURAL talent and had a flair on the ball more akin to a Brazilian

somehow these types get missed in engerlund

Costa Rica: Costa Rica have lost their last four World Cup matches, conceding fourteen goals in the process.
England: England haven’t won a World Cup match where the opponent has scored, since beating Cameroon in 1990.
Italy: Italy have scored in each of their last fourteen World Cup games, the longest current run of any team.
Uruguay: This was the fourth time in a row where Uruguay had to go through the play-offs to reach the World Cup finals.

Golden generations well gone and after stuffing Germany away from home they learnt absolutely f all unlike the Germans.
Obviously we have yet more old stats here which have absolutely no relevance whatsoever to what will happen on Saturday.
Italy will play tight as always and if they're getting battered by England's pace will no doubt resort to their usual must not lose the first game tactics and sit very deep making it hard for England to break them down which could turn it into a bore draw.

They don't have much hope if their main man cant hit the pitch with a corner

Only a slight edit required

England: England haven’t won a World Cup match where the opponent has scored, since beating Cameroon in 1990.
Italy: Italy have scored in each of their last fourteen fifteen World Cup games, the longest current run of any team.

holiday time , hondras game told all

exactly.... the writing was on the wall in that friendly in Miami

Sad but true, England didn't have much time together as a unit but much of England's failure has to go down to Hodgson's picking of players like Welbeck who has been woefully out of form and Rooney (the most overpaid player in the premier)not being able to perform on the biggest stage(mainly because he's over rated and not good enough)and his inability to inspire his team.
An utterly awful performance against a half fit Suarez and an average Uruguay, hard to remember more embarrassing times for an England outfit, the only good thing is Van gaal will be arriving at United and saying " How much are you paying rooney ?get rid of him".