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Number 1: David Seaman. Hindsight is a terrible excuse but right from the outset of the World Cup I have been telling anyone who would listen: he should not be in goal. The poorly conceded free kick against Brazil aside, his main faults have been his poor distribution from goal kicks and from his hand. Giving the ball back to the opposition 9/10 times is a very poor tactic. The pressure then builds and builds, players start to panic and soon the whole team is launching long balls aimlessly up the pitch. Why not follow the lead of EVERY other keeper in the World Cup and roll it out to one of your OWN players. David James is a superior keeper in every aspect and we can only blame the media for vilifying him and assigning him the tag “Calamity James”. He is our best keeper, idiots.
Number 2: Emile Heskey. He is big, strong and has a powerful shot. How many times have we heard that? His first touch is atrocious, he rarely gets a second and when he does it is usually an attempt to pass the ball away in fear of having to do something with it. If EVERYONE in the country can see he is poor, then he must be doing something wrong. When he occasionally does something average like having a scuffed shot, everyone makes a point of saying how good it was. Liars. Stop defending him.
Number 3: David Beckham. Stop doing those stupid clipped balls over opposition players heads, because our players rarely control them. Keep it simple stupid. Tries too hard to look good, when he should try hard to be good. He’s suddenly decided he must be the greatest player in the World and now acts like it. Why do a 5 yard pass when he can attempt to send it 50?
Number 4: Sven. He is at fault for continuing to pick Heskey, which appears to be a stubborn streak. He must know that Fowler is immeasurably superior to this man. Why he insists on having him in to “drop back into midfield” all the time is beyond me. Very negative approach. Also when the Brazilian player was sent off he should have immediately brought on Sherringham and Vassell-taken off Butt and Heskey. The extra pace of Vassell would have stretched the defence and the cute passing of Teddy would have brought Owen into the game more. So what does he do? TAKES OF OWEN AND BRINGS ON VASSELL WITH 10 MINUTES TO GO. The guy’s a genius. Give him a pay rise please.
Number 5: The Premiership. It’s still too kick and rush, with an inordinate amount of goals coming from errors and direct play. There is no subtlety. Unfortunately the crowds in this country are not very educated about football. Yes the football in this country is exciting to watch but it is rare to see any real craft. If a player has the ball in defence everyone screams at him to kick it “AWAY AWAY!! GET RID OF IT!!!”, why? It is a poor breeding ground for our players.
Number 6: Media. We have produced some great players. Gascoigne, Le Tissier, Barnes, Mc Mananmanmanamanmmanan, Wilkins, Hoddle. Yet they get lambasted. Is it just co-incidence that every sublimely skilful player has struggled to fulfil their potential in an England shirt? Barnes never had the ball to feet that’s why. He had to play in front of Pearce, who never gave him the ball, instead he would put his head down and lump it. Wilkins was criticised for passing the ball sideways or backwards and got the nickname “The crab”. So retaining possession is a bad thing. Get him out of the side and bring in Geoff Thomas. And Batty and Palmer and Wise. There must be a reason why so many players “never seem to reproduce their club form for England”. As for Le Tiss. He got labelled as lazy. If he were Italian or Dutch, they would have called him a gloriously gifted player who plays with an economy of movement and efficiency. He was a fantastic player. His goals are delightful to watch. He got a game against Italy and was the best player on the pitch. He made the mistake of not scoring from a header at 30 yards from goal. They strung him up, blaming him for every single inadequacy in the team.
As Hansen would say, very very poor.
Number 2: Emile Heskey. He is big, strong and has a powerful shot. How many times have we heard that? His first touch is atrocious, he rarely gets a second and when he does it is usually an attempt to pass the ball away in fear of having to do something with it. If EVERYONE in the country can see he is poor, then he must be doing something wrong. When he occasionally does something average like having a scuffed shot, everyone makes a point of saying how good it was. Liars. Stop defending him.
Number 3: David Beckham. Stop doing those stupid clipped balls over opposition players heads, because our players rarely control them. Keep it simple stupid. Tries too hard to look good, when he should try hard to be good. He’s suddenly decided he must be the greatest player in the World and now acts like it. Why do a 5 yard pass when he can attempt to send it 50?
Number 4: Sven. He is at fault for continuing to pick Heskey, which appears to be a stubborn streak. He must know that Fowler is immeasurably superior to this man. Why he insists on having him in to “drop back into midfield” all the time is beyond me. Very negative approach. Also when the Brazilian player was sent off he should have immediately brought on Sherringham and Vassell-taken off Butt and Heskey. The extra pace of Vassell would have stretched the defence and the cute passing of Teddy would have brought Owen into the game more. So what does he do? TAKES OF OWEN AND BRINGS ON VASSELL WITH 10 MINUTES TO GO. The guy’s a genius. Give him a pay rise please.
Number 5: The Premiership. It’s still too kick and rush, with an inordinate amount of goals coming from errors and direct play. There is no subtlety. Unfortunately the crowds in this country are not very educated about football. Yes the football in this country is exciting to watch but it is rare to see any real craft. If a player has the ball in defence everyone screams at him to kick it “AWAY AWAY!! GET RID OF IT!!!”, why? It is a poor breeding ground for our players.
Number 6: Media. We have produced some great players. Gascoigne, Le Tissier, Barnes, Mc Mananmanmanamanmmanan, Wilkins, Hoddle. Yet they get lambasted. Is it just co-incidence that every sublimely skilful player has struggled to fulfil their potential in an England shirt? Barnes never had the ball to feet that’s why. He had to play in front of Pearce, who never gave him the ball, instead he would put his head down and lump it. Wilkins was criticised for passing the ball sideways or backwards and got the nickname “The crab”. So retaining possession is a bad thing. Get him out of the side and bring in Geoff Thomas. And Batty and Palmer and Wise. There must be a reason why so many players “never seem to reproduce their club form for England”. As for Le Tiss. He got labelled as lazy. If he were Italian or Dutch, they would have called him a gloriously gifted player who plays with an economy of movement and efficiency. He was a fantastic player. His goals are delightful to watch. He got a game against Italy and was the best player on the pitch. He made the mistake of not scoring from a header at 30 yards from goal. They strung him up, blaming him for every single inadequacy in the team.
As Hansen would say, very very poor.
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The thing I found with Ronaldinho's free-kick, is that 9 times out of 10, the keeper will try to claim the ball from that sort of position, since you would expect the opposing side to attack the ball, from a free-kick from that angle. They didn't. Ronaldinho spotted Seaman ready to come and claim and just dinked it over him.
Not sure if anyone remembers a similar-ish goal against England a few years ago at Wembley, where Carlos was taking the run-up to take the free-kick, but Juninho quickly stepped up and took it before Carlos got to the ball and caught England out. Think that one finished 3-1, with Graeme Le Saux scoring England's only goal.
Not sure if anyone remembers a similar-ish goal against England a few years ago at Wembley, where Carlos was taking the run-up to take the free-kick, but Juninho quickly stepped up and took it before Carlos got to the ball and caught England out. Think that one finished 3-1, with Graeme Le Saux scoring England's only goal.
Mr Snuggly!
Seaman does give the ball away all the time. Watch the highlights (and the previous game's too). Every time Seaman has the ball he kicks it aimlessly up the pitch. I bet the official statistics will show that he concedes possession far too often. He is a good shot stopper and solid at catching crosses but so are most reasonable goalies.
Owen and Vassell can't play together? That's why Vassell scored 3 goals in 4 games playing alongisde Owen in the friendlies b4 the WC. The idea that we need a big lad alongside a small nippy lad died out with the Velociraptors. No-one can play with Heskey as he can't actually play football himself.
To sum up my whole arguement: when watching the game against Argentina, there was one glorious instance where we strung 20 passes together which culminated in a Sherringham volley. This was great football, patient, precise, controlled, just like how football should be played. However I was watching the game with 100 people and half way through the move many many people started to shout "get rid of it!", "we're going to get caught in possession" etc. WHAT! Stop passing the ball about like a proper team and kick it away aimlessly, in case we give it away. No wonder this transmutes into the psyche of the England team. IDIOT PEOPLE WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FOOTBALL SHOULD KEEP THEIR OPINIONS TO THEMSELVES. AND YES WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS DOES MAKE MY POINT MORE DRAMATIC.
Seaman does give the ball away all the time. Watch the highlights (and the previous game's too). Every time Seaman has the ball he kicks it aimlessly up the pitch. I bet the official statistics will show that he concedes possession far too often. He is a good shot stopper and solid at catching crosses but so are most reasonable goalies.
Owen and Vassell can't play together? That's why Vassell scored 3 goals in 4 games playing alongisde Owen in the friendlies b4 the WC. The idea that we need a big lad alongside a small nippy lad died out with the Velociraptors. No-one can play with Heskey as he can't actually play football himself.
To sum up my whole arguement: when watching the game against Argentina, there was one glorious instance where we strung 20 passes together which culminated in a Sherringham volley. This was great football, patient, precise, controlled, just like how football should be played. However I was watching the game with 100 people and half way through the move many many people started to shout "get rid of it!", "we're going to get caught in possession" etc. WHAT! Stop passing the ball about like a proper team and kick it away aimlessly, in case we give it away. No wonder this transmutes into the psyche of the England team. IDIOT PEOPLE WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FOOTBALL SHOULD KEEP THEIR OPINIONS TO THEMSELVES. AND YES WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS DOES MAKE MY POINT MORE DRAMATIC.
It was not Seamans fault.
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