Agree with the OP and very much so with Dead Badger. Sven’s squad selection was utter shite. The only exception I can think of is Aaron Lennon.
MacLaren would not be my choice at all, however, if he takes on Alan Shearer as his understudy and gets him ready to take over, I’ll be a happy chappy. Shearer lives and breaths football and everything I have seen him say at this world cup has been spot on.
England Penalty Kick Misses - Post War.
He is one of only 3 players to have missed two penalties for England in regulation play. No other player has missed more than one.
Yeah well we still won both games so he prolly missed on purpose 
Picking Crouch and Walcott over Jermaine Defoe and Shawn Wright-Phillips was a joke. Yeah SWP hadn’t played a lot with Chelsea, but he’s a proven scorer, same as Defoe. Erikson loves Walcott so much, yet doesn’t play him a minute? Odd. And I don’t care if Crouch is seven feet tall and scored three goals against Jamaica, he is awkward (aka Bambi on Ice), and anyone could score three times against Jamaica. Owen is great, but too delicate to have on a squad with only four strikers- I heard he once got a concussion in a pillow fight. And Rooney is great, but a red card waiting to happen, although I think the stomp was not much of a stomp- you have to raise your leg higher than it was to stomp. England fans should ban together to see that C. Ronaldo never plays in the EPL again- he doesn’t like the weather anyway.
What the hell was Owen doing in a pillow fight? :dubious:
(Cue visual image of Owen getting pummelled)
Doesn’t take very long does it?
I actually think Owen Hargreaves was the most impressive player on the English side.
Frankly, I’ve never seen a penalty kick shootout that I thought looked like it was luck-driven, even in my friends’ U17 games back in high school. Then again, I don’t believe in the supernatural, and I tend to attribute the accomplishments of human beings on those humans in particular. I must see things differently from everyone else, because people always talk about what a travesty PKs are and what a shame it would be to lose a game in PKs. I just don’t feel that way at all.
Any nation which has residents who were alive to see them win the Cup is easily in the top 1% of the world.
No, but they’re driven by a skill which isn’t highly selected for in high-level footballers (or any footballers, really; basically a specialist penalty-taker isn’t something any team seriously contemplates, let alone 5+ specialists). Thus the outcome is somewhat random with respect to the quality of the teams 120 minutes.
I still don’t have any problem with penalty shootouts, though; they’re fucking exciting, and after you’ve played two hours without a result, neither team deserves to lose and that won’t change no matter what tiebreaker system you use. And as a Liverpool fan, I obviously think that a certain recent Champions League final that was decided by penalties was the most exciting match of football in history.
As a Liverpool fan, we do seem to get involved in these things a lot. Including this years FA Cup Final. But i have to take issue with your final statement. It comes close but it is a toss-up (or a penalty shoot out) between that and Liverpool’s UEFA cup win over Alaves in 2001.
I’m with you on that. Although not considered a first choice (and rudely barracked by lots of English supporters) he always played his heart out for the team whatever position he was picked for.
I’m not one of Sven’s biggest critics, I think a lot of fans forget the disarray England were in when he came on the scene after the debacle at Wembley, and Keegan quitting.
My biggest gripe was his choice of strikers for the squad. To pick two players that could easily be injured or unfit (Owen and Rooney) and then pick a complete novice at international level along with Crouch, just beggars belief. It was unprofessional to say the least, and I said at the time it would come back and bite him on the arse.
When Owen went sick Sven had to try to wangle a formation out of what he had left and instead of playing Crouch and Rooney as part of a 4-4-2 which the players are more familiar with, he persevered with an out out of touch Beckham and Lampard, with Gerrard not his Liverpool self, and buggered about with 5 man mid-fields.
I just think that England missed a great chance of getting to the final at least.
On the next manager for England, although the subject is moot, I thought Martin O’Neal would have done a great job. I’m not a big fan of McClaren.
Well Sven you’ve buggered off I see.
Don’t come back, not even for a holiday PLEASE!!!
I agree very much. I was one of Hargreaves detractors right up to about the second game. He was a trojan in midfield and the best player for England imo. I was really getting at the squad selection in terms of not taking people like Defoe, Wright-Phillips or Harewood, etc. But taking Walcott and Owen.
Lennon was the greatest revelation for me. I didn’t really explain myself.
Hargreaves was indeed the player that shone. Ashley and Joe Cole didn’t do so bad and Lennon impressed, The rest of them just sucked big time.
I’m of the opinion that had Wright-Phillips stayed at Manchester City where his name was probably the first on the team sheet, then he would have been selected.
As it was he went to Chelsea and played very few games for them. I think Mourinho bought him in order that he couldn’t play for anyone else but £21m is an awful lot for a reserve player.