Steve McClaren's tactical unawareness could cost England dear - Sportingo


The worse thing with having no sense is being stubborn and arrogant with it. That's Steve Maclaren. Steve Maclarens 3-5-2 is what cost England qualifying for Euro2008, he should be playing to Englands strengths 4-4-2 only the fool thought he could try a ting and turn it back round in time if it went pear shaped but by that time the players were a bunch of nervous wrecks, Maclaren dug his and the teams own grave....the average Sunday league team would have beat them.

How can you have 3 in defence when your opponents are master craftsmen at unlocking defenses. What are 5 people doing in what should be the most creative area on the park - instead of having the sense or the guts to play either Gerrad or Lampard he plays everyone to get in each others way.....it was pure suicide....even Liverpool with Gerrard and Alonso have issues when more than one fulcrum tries to dicatate the direction of the game when they play together...pure suicide.

Talent is wasted if not used where it will have maximum impact, it's like saying England are rubbish or haven't the skill to qualify when the manager is playing Wayne Rooney at right back and David James as centre half....it's tactical suicide....and that's not even mentioning him dropping David James altogether for the last crucial match for some rookie goalie who was shell shocked by the entire experience.

BNP? I'd say it's your blatant racism blinding you from the deeper realities of the facts, you can't see past the Queen

^^^ Funny but true. lol

I'm surprised that Holland is doing so well...............can they hold on or will they fade away come the next round?

England could get away with playing a 4-4-2, but for some reason people always want to put Lamps in the middle of the pitch with Gerrard.

If the new manager has any balls he would either push Lamps out to the left or sit him on the bench.

Barry can play the supporting midfielder and seems to be willing to leave his ego at home and let Gerrard dictate the middle of the park and supports him. Beckham and Bentley could be slotted on the right for 45 min/ea as Lennon is too erratic and SWP disappears in big games.

On the left, I would have to say Hargreaves because most European teams have a good attacking right mid and back. Hargreaves will not a great attacker would shut this sh*t down, but you give up goal scoring opps. Cole is the exact opposite, as you will have great attacking opps but he does not defend like he should due to tiring from his many moves to slot in passes. Lamps would probably be perfect out here if a manager had the balls to tell him to STAY LEFT which would actually be a load off of his shoulders. He is a balance of the two

Defensively? Terry as the hard man because he is slow as hell but he dives in at everything Captained by Rio who can really read the game/attacks which to me seems to escape a lot of people. No one in the EPL read the game like he did last season and you can see this during the games he was out in which Man U looked confused on D several times. Rio made the game easy for them.

At the wing back positions? I would go with big book ends Joleon and Wes. Like it or not lescott was solid on the left for Everton and to me easily kicks out A Cole (or hole) because of his scoring touch and his penchant to play it safe instead of gambling like Cole does often.

The backline at this point would be big and any forward coming through here would be molested if he was dancing and if it was a big forward like Zlatan or Torres he would have to fight to get past any of these 4 because he would not have a size advantage and would be getting off the ground often.

Up top we have no choice but Owen up top with Rooney under him, but I think that I would throw in the bean pole for 45 minutes and we would batter the hell out of you on corners because if I pushed forward my backline in the box on corners with Crouch who are you gonna stop? My midfield is doggedly enough that even on a break, Barry, hargreaves or Gerrard are going to knock you down hard and stop the break. Then after battling with these giants for 45 minutes, I bring Owen or Defoe off the bench for you to chase them on breaks. At that point the other's teams d is going to show signs of battling with the big guys allowing a Stevie G or Rooney run or a room enough for Barry to momentarily release his holding duties and fire one from 30.

England cannot play continental footbal, but England could win it playing England football. Screw playing pretty and picking the lock(ed defense), let's break down the door (ala Stevie G and Terry).....

At the back no one else but David James qualifies now he has the silverware to prove it..

I wouldnt play Lampard, because hes in direct competition with Gerrard and Gerrard is better. Barry gives the side a much better feel and balance as it was evident under Mclaren. I'd have Joe Cole on the left before Hargreaves and would use Hargreaves to 'shut up shop' at the expense of a forward when its time to defend a lead. Cole has more flair, gets in more crosses, can defend ok and scores more goals-its a no brainer. Ashley Young, Bentley or Beckham could do a good role on the right. Probably have Becks as first choice but take him off at the first sign of him lagging.

SafetyB - in there in lies the conflict of interest, the premiership littered with continental players to the degree over the last few yeras they've made the Champions league their own so now the FA are trying to appoint continental managers yet do not have the rights to continental players - that's illogical captain...if these continental managers are coming in believing they are going to convert raw English talent into continental style football then we have a long wait before England are represented in any tournament with a winning chance....it's a good thing these tournaments are 4 years apart.


Mclaren simply got his knickers in a twist somewhere in between the continent and home, you'll notice in his attempts to revert back to the raw british bulldog way the amount of black players seemed to decline under his reign as well.

The only team that played like England but with the ball control was the German team of days gone by. They had it locked down to a fine art, their game was regimented as opposed to flairy like the Italians. Many of the games we watch now like the Holland France game only look good because they styles are the same, a real game of football is seen when two different styles collide with both styles at the top of their game.

Watch out for Croatia. Think they got a few world beaters in there and the ability to grind out results.

Luka Modric is a joy to watch. Cant wait to see him down The Lane.

Lemoor

You are right about Lamps though, but I think he could be used out on the left, but the competition with Gerrard could upset the chemistry, so I have to agree with you there and apply Cole and Hargreaves.

You know I had forgotten about Ashley Young and he loves the left. Man I would have to fit him in there somewhere.

Bredder Tukoma

Don't forget Dos Santos. You guys are going to have two starlets who we all will enjoy watching and your forwards will finally have someone who will feed them the ball instead of them having to chase down everything.

That was a game for the ages, but for the C(z)echs to to collapse like that was unbelievable.

I thought that one was in the bag and when I came back to watch the game it was 3-2....luckily I could watch it over on ESPN classics.

First rule of tournament footy, to ensure a "deserved" winner ( a team that attacks, plays with flare and Creativity win) somebody has to (when they have the chance) knock Italy and Germany out, otherwise the fore mentioned nations will fight, drag and bore us to the final - I'm putting my money on the Italians beating Spain on Sunday...shiiiit

Yeh, that turkey-czech game was a classic. It had passion, drama, flair. Good game to watch.

Like pele said, i expected the italy-france (effectively a play-off) game to be an exiting one. The moment i saw that red card i knew the game was over.

Fifa has got to do something about mindless referee's, because this is NOT the first time such actions has effectively killed a game stone dead... I was looking forward to that match too..but once he sent the man off..that was the game to Italy...it ruin the game!!!