Football Focus

[steveo]

Yawn

[Mick Mac]

I had to laugh - 60 mins of boring match and Hodgson and Neville, both put their hands over their mouths when speaking to each other.

1) no-one can hear

2) no-one wants to hear

3) no-one cares

4) it's a friendly

5) dumb and dumber

[Alan Medic]

I think it's more to do with lip reading than being heard. If Roy was saying "maybe Rooney isn't the best fit for this team" or anything along those lines, it would be big back page news.

[Mick Mac]

That's a great insight AM - but not very funny.

[Alan Medic]

I didn't think it was funny either Mick.

[Mick Mac]

This is funny though

A move to Manchester United remains the favourite at 4/9, with Celtic now second favourites, LA Galaxy at 6/1 and a return to AC Milan priced at 14/1.

[Alan Medic]

If Zlat is half as good as some of the things he says about himself, he would be brilliant to see in the EPL. I can't see Celtic being able to afford him even at the age of 34. If he's not motivated by money he could go anywhere, even Malmo.

[Mick Mac]

It's funny though isn't it. And yours isn't. ;)

[Jah Lush]

The Irish. God love 'em.

[Mick Mac]

That's funny Jah, but you don't like it up yah so I'll keep it to football.

Looking forward to the Euro's, what price one of the Irish teams getting as far as Engerland...?

[Otta]

Haven't they already reached the group stages? Job done probably.

[Jah Lush]

I'm much more looking forward to seeing how the Welsh get on. I think Bale could really light up the tournament. However, being English I'm going to be optimistic as we normally are when tournaments come around and say we'll make it as far as the semis. I've got a semi on just thinking about that.

And another thing - James Milner has 60 caps. That's more than Jimmy Greaves, Glenn Hoddle, Alan Hudson and Gazza. He's a very good player but that can't be right can it?

[Alan Medic]

Mick Mac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's funny though isn't it. And yours isn't. ;)

[Mick Mac]

That's the point. Maybe you should give it a go AM.

Otta. If either Irish team gets out of the group it would be a surprise but maybe NI are underrated after a long unbeaten run and could squeeze into the knockout stages.

England. I just can't get optimistic. I didn't think it was a good managerial appointment and found England difficult to watch against Portugal. They seem to have no real drive.

They do however have very good strikers and the goals could come given a chance.

[Alan Medic]

Why Mick? You fail miserably. Same would probably happen to me.

[Mick Mac]

Fair enough but when a line is intended to be tongue in cheek and rhetorical, coming back by stating the obvious doesn't really add a lot. It's a dull world so maybe cut loose every now and again AM.

[Alan Medic]

My last post was tongue in cheek Mick. As for stating the obvious, there are probably people who don't know why managers and others put their hands over their mouths when speaking.

[Mick Mac]

Maybe.

And is that your new sign off ? That's quite funny.

[titch juicy]

Have we compared preferred starting XIs for the first games?

Mine for England, with rationale.

The defence more or less picks itself with right back the only exception.

Hart

Rose

Cahill

Smalling

Walker/Clyne

Dier

Wilshere

Rooney

Alli

Barkley

Kane

Walker/Clyne is a tough call. Before the Portugal game I would've plumped for Clyne as I think he's better defensively. But there's been a fair bit of talk about setting this team up the Tottenham way (more on that to come) and Walker is better for me going forward.

I don't think we need width up front as we have two full backs who bomb forward and get on the overlap. We do need two intelligent players playing left and right (not necessarily wide left and right) that can hold the play up, pick a pass and slip the full backs in on the overlaps. Rooney (left) and Barkley (right) fit the bill perfectly for me.

Rooney HAS to start in my opinion. A lot was made about him disrupting Kane/Vardy/Alli. Possibly Alli because he played Alli left, but not Kane and Vardy. I don't think those two should play together. The Tottenham set up is one up top with Alli behind.

Rooney has played well from that attacking left midfield position before, but there are many other reasons he has to start. He's captain. He has extensive major competition experience but the most important reason for me is to keep an eye on and keep in check Alli and Wilshere. Rooney was that young player with talent to spare and a questionable temperament- Alli and Wilshere will benefit no end from having Rooney on the pitch for guidance. Also, Rooney is still a brilliant passer of the ball and still scores (7 in 10 qualifiers).

Wilshere is approaching a decent level of fitness and has to also start for me alongside Dier, with the mandate to move forward, linking defence and attack. A la Dembele at Spurs. I love the thought of Alli and Wilshere in the same team- bundles of talent and a bit of bite.

No-one is talking about Barkley, but for me, on his day he's as good as anyone in the England team and he edges that right attacking midfield spot for me ahead of Lallana (what does he do?) and Sterling (one trick pony that decent defenders know how to play against).

Sterling and Vardy as imnpact subs with pace to burn late in the game and Rashford might just become important too. Kane looks knackered to me.

[red devil]

I'm with you on the formation and not playing Kane and Vardy together, hopefully Roy will not try to accommodate them and Rooney, it just doesn't work, and as you say, we definitely need Rooney's experience, leadership and guile.

I think Smalling has had the best season out of the 3 centre backs, so him and either of Cahill/Stones.

I don't have a strong leaning for the full backs, Rose and Walker are more attack minded, and as we have no natural width up front their selection makes sense. But I'd go for Rose and Clyne as I thing Walker always has a mistake in him.

The only other difference I'd make is having Sterling in for Barkley, in fact I wouldn't have picked Barkley for the squad. Yes, on his day he's very good, but his form in the second half of the season has been poor. He looked over-muscled and very laboured in the friendly against Australia, needs some conditioning training. Dfensively we are suspect as a tots of exciting attacking options to come of the bench

[red devil]

I'm with you on the formation and not playing Kane and Vardy together, hopefully Roy will not try to accommodate them and Rooney, it just doesn't work, and as you say, we definitely need Rooney's experience, leadership and guile.

I think Smalling has had the best season out of the 3 centre backs, so him and either of Cahill/Stones.

I don't have a strong leaning for the full backs, Rose and Walker are more attack minded, and as we have no natural width up front their selection makes sense. But I'd go for Rose and Clyne as I thing Walker always has a mistake in him.

The only other difference I'd make is having Sterling in for Barkley, in fact I wouldn't have picked Barkley for the squad. Yes, on his day he's very good, but his form in the second half of the season has been poor. He looked over-muscled and very laboured in the friendly against Australia, needs some conditioning training. Defensively we are suspect as a team, but we have lots of exciting attacking options to come off the bench, so hopefully we'll see an England team that at some point in the games takes the handbrake off and just goes for it...

[titch juicy]

I think Barkley's late season form is more symptomatic of Everton's. Stones suffered because of it too (and Lukaku with Belgium in mind).

Agree with you about Walker- he's always prone to a gaff.

I just think Sterling offers little more than Andros Townsend (i don't think either of them are good enough). Both with pace, can beat a man, but bad decision making and (especially recently in Sterling's case) little end product. Both are found out when playing against a decent defence.

But, there aren't many decent options there. Perhaps Milner?

[Otta]

Koeman to Everton.

What the hell is wrong with Southampton, do they not want success? I know it would be hard to keep him if a champs league club had come in, but letting him go to Everton is shocking.

[Jah Lush]

Indeed. It shows a serious lack of ambition to the fans and players alike. Just when you think they've got a good thing going they open the trap door again. I'd be thoroughly pissed off if I was a Southampton fan.

[red devil]

That's all a bit harsh on Saints. It's very hard to keep a player if he wants to go, likewise a manager. Koeman strikes me as a very ambitious, and probably covets the Barca job, and sees Everton as a stepping stone towards that. Don't be surprised if he does well at Goodison, for a couple of seasons, he then moves again...