Israel v's England

[Neil]

Was it just me of did England show an absolute lack of urgency in that game tonight?

I must say though, I was impressed by Steven Gerrard.

[Woody]

Absolute pants. Rooney looked totally disinterested. No service for Johnson. Lennon did okay first half but drifted out of the game second. Why wasn't he switched to the right hand side for a bit. Gerrard kept drifting inside. Lampard was the invisible man. Hargreaves hustled and bustled well but that was about it. Yeah OK Robinson never had a save to make all night but we had 3 points there for the taking tonight and lacked the conviction and drive to grab them.
I don't think we are going to qualify, still got to play Russia home and away and Croatia at home. It's not looking good.

[Pablo]

I still think we will qualify because we have so many home games at the end of the campaign and I think Wembley is going to be a fortress. The two strikers were living off scraps up front because there wasn't enough service to them, I thought AJ played well though.

I do think we should have got a win yesterday though, but a very dissapointing performance by England.

[Pablo]

And the Croatians got a late winner, so they are steaming ahead at the top of the group!

[Woody]

I still think we will qualify because we have so many home games at the end of the campaign and I think Wembley is going to be a fortress. The two strikers were living off scraps up front because there wasn't enough service to them, I thought AJ played well though.

I do think we should have got a win yesterday though, but a very disappointing performance by England.

There may have been no service for the front 2 but isn't Rooney supposed to be a genius that can make something out of nothing? He looked like he would have struggled to make his bed last night let alone anything else! As for Wembley being a fortress, i hope you are right although it could have the opposite effect and inspire visiting teams!

[Adder]

I do think we miss Owen, both him and Rooney upfront together are the perfect partnership. I think we also need Scholes back along with a decent goalie.

[bobcarolgees]

Having watched Boro for many years, and putting up with McLarens drab tatics, yesterday didnt suprise me at all. He is perhaps the most unadventurous manager ever. We still havent got a manager who has the balls to drop Lampard. Him and Gerrard can not play together, they have had long enough. Lampard is not the player he is with Chelsea for England. Moving Gerrard to the right just to let Lampard play is unbalancing the team.

McLaren is just like Sven, rather than picking players in form in the positions we are struggling for he'd rather play Gerrard, Phil Neville, Carragher etc out of position.

We have perhaps the most talented squad we've had in years but im afraid a lot of this generation would rather be putting their energy into promoting the latest pepsi, playstation or Nike gear,lending their "personality rights" to computer games or bragging about their wealth on MTV cribs.

Some of the players seriously need to be brought back down to earth. The comments from Gary Neville and Lampard who have critised the England support recently shows this. Nevilles comments at the last home game about how the England support is fickle and the players expect to be jeered if we dont win were appalling and shows just how out of touch the players are with their support. They were jeered because they were crap. I know a few people who earn a average wage-not 70 grand a week-and literally spend all their spare money following them around the world, and those kind of comments are a kick in the teeth.

One of the main reasons I stopped paying way over the odds going to watch them.

Hope I'm wrong, but I don't think we will qualify

[Pablo]

I think we also need Scholes back along with a decent goalie.

You won't see Scholes back in a England shirt, and Robinson's the best we've got at the moment, by quite a way...

[Pablo]

McLaren is just like Sven, rather than picking players in form in the positions we are struggling for he'd rather play Gerrard, Phil Neville, Carragher etc out of position.

Precisely, why not play Micah Richards from the start of the game and play Phil Nev at Left Back? And I don't know what they can do about Lampard and Gerrard, it seems like they can't play together, but if he drops either of them people are going to be unhappy one way or the other.

I do feel for people like Leighton Baines and Gareth Barry though, they can both play left back naturally, but after Cole and Bridge apparently Jamie Carragher is our 3rd choice left back??

[tigermatty]

If a club team played like england have been for the past 5 or so games then there would have been wholesale changes. It is so blindingly obvious that Gerrard needs to be at the centre of everything we do, not lampard. Aaron Lennon perhaps wasn't as explosive as he has been for spurs, but he did his job and got a fair amount of decent crosses in, we just have nobody on the end of them. It almost seems like our players are embarrased to show their abilities. And why do our defence constantly bypass the midfield. Rio Ferdinand is the biggest long ball merchant going, for a player who is supposedly a cultured defender who can carry the ball out from the back, he has an uncanny ability to launch the ball into the opposite corner of the pitch more often than not.

No win on wednesday and McClown must go.

[Neil]

Surely it can't help when teams, even at home, put ten men behind the ball and show very little ambition to score themselves. Watching England is very frustrating and I don't think it's all necessarily our own fault.

[Woody]

No but that's part of the conundrum, we should have the players with the skills and tactical nous and guile to break them down and create openings and chances. Instead we seem totally inept at breaking teams down. Teams will put ten men behind the ball even at home. That's the nature of international football nowadays when lesser teams come up against the so called BIG teams on the international stage. That's why we should have held out for Big Phil. Portugal were drawing 0-0 at half time to Belgium at home yesterday. One half time bollocking from Scolari later and Portugal run out easy 4-0 winners. That's what we need to get the best out of our so say superstars. Oh and drop Lampard and play Gerrard in the middle.

[DCM]

The FA need to listen to Trevor Brooking who was on TV earlier in the year commenting on the urgent need to review the youth set ups throughout the leagues to ensure we develop youngsters who have the skills to play the game the right way. At the moment we are producing athletes. These lads have a place in any team but at the end of the day they will not win the World Cup.

Yesterdays result was as predictable as it was disappointing. With a pack defence you need pace and skill to pick the lock. In Lennon we had the pace and he looked sharp on occassion, but did not see anywhere near enough of the ball in my opinion. Where were the others?

[tigermatty]

I see McClown will face a UEFA rap now because he failed to attend today's press conference. The man is a fool. If Lampard doesn't get dropped tomorrow then it will prove that McClaren is the most gutless England Manager ever. Based on the players we have available, my team for tomorrow would be:

Robbo
Richards Terry Carragher Cole

Hargreaves
Lennon Dyer
Gerrard

Johnson Rooney

I very much doubt that this will happen.

[Woody]

Agree with Matty's selection and with the player's we have we should be putting 6 past Andorra but we will probably scrape a 2-0 and everything will be alright in the world again!

[IJD]

Anthing less than 5 goals tomorrow and the knives will be digging in further to McLaren's back. Personally I believe that he was the wrong man for the job in the first place. As a coach he is ok but to give him the top job shows how little the FA know about football. In fact, they know FA:) :) :)

[Adder]

Lampard has been ruled out for tonights game after suffering a cracked bone in his wrist.

[Neil]

****er!

[Pablo]

Lampard has been ruled out for tonights game after suffering a cracked bone in his wrist.

That´s all we need!

[tigermatty]

That´s all we need!

Yeah, we might now play with a balanced midfield and not have to suffer another inept performance from Fatty Lampard. Apparently Downing will start on the left, god knows why because he is not and never will be an international class player. Rumour is Carrick will come in for Hargreaves, which is fair enough in my mind as the Andorrans shouldn't pose too much of a threat so we can afford a bit of luxury.

[Woody]

I know it's only Andorra but i hope Hargreaves, Gerrard and Lennon all have blinders tonight so that FAT Frank never gets back into the side.