by jonnymac1979 » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:31 pm
I weren't going to bother typing this but I might as well.
Watching England bores me to tears lately. I usually like a good England match with a few cans of lager, and when you look at our side on paper, we shouldn't have to be frightened of anyone. Some of the players we have are in the top bracket in European and World standings as far as the game of football is concerned. We have a manager with a massive reputation, who I believe should be judged after the World Cup and not before it (I think we'll get there no problems by the way). Still, he's far from perfect and this ice-cool Swede exterior is a falsehood. Sometimes he can come across tactically limited and timid in his decision making.
This STUPID formation that Sven is playing though is a complete waste of everybody's time and talent. Garth Brooks asked point-blankly in the post match interview, spelling it out to David Beckham in question form, that the new system we employ exists to accomodate Beckham. As much as I believe Beckham looked very pissed off with Sven last night in his post-match interview, Beckham must surely know that he is on borrowed time. At least under any other manager he would be. Remember Scolari substituting Figo against England in Euro 2004? Can you see Sven doing that? Thought not.
Beckham had a blinder for half the game last night, and was again excellent against Wales last week. The way he pings them balls about the pitch are second to none, and his reputation as one of the best passers of the ball in the game is well justified in my opinion. He is not the player he was between 1997 - 1999 though when he could charge up and down that right wing like lightning. With a cross to match, he really was a feared right winger. England had one of the best players in the World in that position playing there. That isn't the case anymore.
Shaun Wright-Phillips needs a run in the side and needs to be given the reins to make that role his own now. He has pace and confidence and more dribbling ability than Beckham will ever have (or ever had). He is the best right-sided English midfielder in the country now.
I don't think Sven is all that he is cracked up to be. I lost a little bit of faith in him last night even though like I've said, he should stay until at least after the World Cup.
But the fact of the matter is that Beckham I believe has to go. Sven is accomodating the player just to keep him happy and keep him in the side. What about all the other top class players we have over the park who are suffering, just because Sven doesn't want to risk upsetting Beckham and his reputation that comes with it?
What this England side needs to do now is look towards the future. This side, dare I say it, needs to be built around Wayne Rooney. He's simply sensational. he looks a threat every time he gets on the ball, and there aren't many special players around like him. Blasphemy on a Liverpool forum, but look past the bias and look at the facts. The boy can fucking play like not many who walk this Earth. Michael Owen up front on his own with Rooney in the hole supplying the balls for him will score all day. Put the ball in front of Owen and he will score. End of. We all know that. That's what Owen does. He's the best at it as well.
Then a flat midfield of four, and this is only my opinion remember. I am going with a 4-4-2. Or really what I am describing is a 4-4-1-1.
A left winger (I don't like Joe Cole and Downing is too inexperienced, but Sven played the lad out of position when he won his first cap, the prick, anyway, he's paid £5 million a year to live and die by his left winger choice, I'm not), Gerrard, Lampard and Wright Philips. Fuck the diamond formation. I don't like it at international level. But again, the point is no place for Beckham.
A flat back four picks itself. Ashley Cole, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville. Unless Sol Campbell and Johnathon Woodgate sort their injuries out, I would have them as my first choice centre-back partnership, with Terry definitely first choice above the over-rated Ferdinand, possibly Ledley King playing just in front of the defence in the new Beckham position, if a change of tactics was required, substituting/sacrificing the left midfielder and letting the pacy Ashley Cole have the run of the whole left side to himself if need be.
No place for Beckham.
I haven't really thought deeply about this obviously, anyone can read what I have written above and say "That's fucking obvious Jonny Mac!" but the fact that this England side picks itself and we should be accomodating them in a system that suits the team, not Beckham, it's worrying me that we've been so lacklustre in the last three games. Especially when Wales and Northern Ireland were two out of thise three games.
Sven's on £5 million a year to makle decisions like this though. He should just drop David Beckham and fucking move on. It will improve the team no end. Look at last night, was it just me, or could anyone else believe the minute impact that Lampard and Gerrard had on last night's game. I thought Gerrard looked slightly injured actually, but these are two of the best midfielders in the world, and they are being stagnated just so 'Lord Undroppable' Beckham has a role in the team. Where's the logic in that? Beckham has always been a specialist right-midfielder, and now a natural replacement in Wright-Phillips has been found with talents that demand a starting place, the team has been shifted around just to keep Beckham in it.
Sven needs to pull his head out of his arse. The whole country could see it last night bar him.