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"England 1 - 3 Australia"

Well, this is a result that speaks volumes. England have looked mediovre in their last two competitive games, and now in a meaningless friendly, the first choice 11 were made to look like a lower division outfit by a team they should have beaten comfortably.

Sure, they had a goal disallowed, but they gave the ball away too often, didn't defend well, and were almost inept at trying to get past the Socceroos stubborn defence.

So poor were they that a bunch of previously uncapped wannabes made a far superior performance.

Pathetic.

For once I am being negative about my lovely country. :D

Moneys all well and good, but what I think we lack is the passion. Sure we have pasionate youngsters, but nothing to Italys, Spains and in particular the South American teams.

Giving youngsters like Rooney a lot of praise and a large contract so early could increase the sense of 'Oh I'm great now, so thats okay'.

In Australia the lengths they go to to get good sportspeople is amazing.

I'm not saying we are not passionate at all, but the best players need a good kick up the Jacksie.

:)

It was all downhill from the moment D. james was announced as starting in goal.

What have you NOT got to do to get in the England squad seems to be the more reasonable question to ask these days.

Absolu† Neó wrote:
> '66 was a one off, the English side have gone nowehere since then.


Home advantage worked a treat too. Even South Korea made it to the semi's with home advantage.

We still suck at everything....

(note the use of present tense)

'66 was a one off, the English side have gone nowehere since then. They have been 'nearly' there at times - but always not quite and thats the story with most English teams/players in any sport today.

Absolu† Neó wrote:
> Little Hobbo wrote:
> >Now we suck at everything.
>
> That's always been the case anyway.

I distinctly remember in back in '66......

It's time we looked at our team's set up. Our players are very over rated and generally have an easy time in the Prem. We should therefore adopt other country's policies and pack our team with the so called better player, regardless of their prefered positions. The Aussies played Lazaridus at left back for example, at club level he plays left wing, the Croats do the same with Stanic.

Therefore I reckon the Gerrard should replace Neville at Rightback, he's played there before for Liverpool and if he doesn't like it, play Wes Brown there. Bring Jenas into the midfield alongside Scholes or J Cole (we need someone creative/maverick as we are just too predictable). Dyer might be fine down the left but surely there was a chance to play G Barry (who is a left footed player, playing down the left), Erikson is clueless perhpas?

Beattie did well enough but Rooney is the better prospect and he needs to form a partnership with someone. Owen is good but I think someone like Defoe would be worth a look: he's is similar to Owen in pace/stature but his finishing is in a different class. There may be a case to push Scholes forward a la MUFC and partner him with Rooney (let's build for the future now). Then we can play J Cole in the centre.

My future team (for what it's worth)is:

Robinson
Gerrard
Ferdinand
Brown
A Cole
Beckham
J Cole/Scholes
Jenas
Barry
Rooney
Scholes/Defoe

Little Hobbo wrote:
>Now we suck at everything.

That's always been the case anyway.

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I can't help but think that this 'friendly' has made things worse, the players and their club management didn't really need a game like this at this time of the year and the effort put into this game was nothing more than poor.

I feel embarrased to be English. Now we suck at everything.

I think Jenas, Rooney and Jeffers had good games (should that be half a games), which is promising, but if we can't even beat the Aussies then we should give up on football and concentrate on the Tiddley-Winks World Cup later this year!

Its not even West hams fault its only a lame excuse... ah well FA cup this weekend! And then the champs league restarts.