Tragic Football Stories - Let us Kick Around the misshapen Jabulani that is English football right here

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool amirite?

Foster (Birmingham), Hart (Man City), Green (West Ham); Gibbs (Arsenal), Cole (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Jagielka (Everton), Lescott (Man City), Richards (Man City), Ferdinand (Man Utd), Smalling (Man Utd); Walcott (Arsenal), Wilshere (Arsenal), Young (Aston Villa), Gerrard (Liverpool), Barry (Man City), Johnson (Man City), Milner (Man City), Henderson (Sunderland); Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Bothroyd (Cardiff), Carroll (Newcastle), Crouch (Tottenham).

More like Jay Bollocksroyd

class player, if not the most consistent. has played abroad too (perugia?) so fuckit why not. england not blessed with great strikers.

carroll is england CF of ten year tenure if he can (i) cop on and (ii) avoid prejudice in the way k davies hasn't

dunno why bother with terry gerrard ferdinand tho, developmental squad and all that.

where's thudd?

Carroll wd be okay as an impact sub but fuck starting a target man at international level.

rong

Wd rather lose than play that way

'that way' = guy that's good on ground, amazing in the air. newcastle dont play 'that way'

Fair enough I've not been paying much attention since they stopped being lol but I think we're a bit premature with the "good enough to play for England" chat. Need to suck it and see.

I've seen moments of class from Bothroyd but they've been sandwiched between hours of poncing about doing fuck all.

i disagree with the 'wait and see' approach. given the level of talent these guys must have to get to the level they do, (trusting a lot here, out of character) i think form >>>>>> every other aspect of the striker's art.

it's the same kind of thinking that left terry, gerrard, heskey, rooney as undroppable going into the WC- 'who do we have to replace them'?- well. loads of guys, actually. get them into an england short, ask the question of both sets of players- the shirking untouchables, the flushing youth

No, I agree Carroll deserves his chance, I just don't think him doing well is a foregone conclusion.

never is. fabianski for england tbf

@kevindaviesbwfc
Kevin Davies
Not in the England squad time for a beer!!!
19 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

for crouch to be in there ahead of him is shite, but then i dont get that squad tbh

Smalling, though?

nah, not up front

Smalling over Jones is the most hilarious part imo.

Just turned on ESPN to find Germany Under 21's 2-0 up on England. England appear to have Henri Lansbury in goal! Isn't he one of yours a hoy hoy and James M? Also isn't he a left winger! lol

They're showing Argentina vs. Brasil tmrw btw.

He... doesn't really have a position. And when I say that I mean like James Milner, not like 'he can be a goalie'. wtf.

goalie sent off in that game fyi

He's like a new signing. LANSbury.

not like 'he can be a goalie'. wtf.

Also, this is Arsenal. Anybody can be a goalie at Arsenal.

haha

true true

can totally see that- arsene only ever scouts wingers, and the slower they progress they further back the pitch they land from 15, 16, 17 onwards

haha

arsene only scouts deep lying playmakers

England looking awfully scrappy.

Carroll's playing, then?

Stream went down and I missed the goal. What happened?

Yeh, Carrol's upfront, pretty ineffective so far.

GOAL! England 0-1 France (Benzema 16') That's a lovely goal, as the England players could tell you, given that they stood idly by and watched it.

It was a one-two between Malouda and Benzema on the edge the box which ended up with Benzema beating Foster rather easily at his near post. England are being schooled at the moment.

Carroll's done enough in the last five minutes to suggest that this is how England are going to play from now on.

i.e. won three or four headers from longish punts

it does a lot more for the team in terms of keeping opposition pushed back and wary than just that tbf. wish spurs had the option.

Yeah I know, but it's still not going to win things. I'm on his side, he's a potentially amazing player, not exactly Ronaldoesque but maybe the closest we're likely to see. It's not going to work out that way of course.

ha i'm a fan but he's maybe fabiano-esque if we're making unlikely potential-fulfilling comparisons

BALE IN.

bailout

wot no ilxors anywhere discussing last nights, ahem, performance?

Think they're all over on the international football friendlies thread which hasn't been moved over here yet (hi dere plz a real mod who can move stuff?)

hi dere no longer a real mod ;_;

there isn't actually anything to discuss btw

not from last night.

capello needs to start picking players on their last league game and nothing more. that's only as good as you are anyway iirc

Can't tell what's a challop and what isn't any more.

pretty sure capello's squad was actually a challop.

downing should have started left side for england, based on nothing but his performance against utd. i'm not really invested in chasing the rest of it tbh.

Sadly, I felt last night more or less vindicated Capello's sticking with the old guard in the summer.

Downing is a better option than most of the other England left midfielders on any given, I think. The rest of it doesn't bear much chasing tbh.

last night vindicated jack wilshere