[~Rebel~]

Originally Posted by ziggy

In midfield, neither Lampard or Gerrard have performed: both should be dropped! Both cracking players at club level but simply aren't producing the goods. Time for some new thinking.

Dont agree with this at all, Lampard fair enough has done very little in an England jersey, but to be fair Gerrard has always actually been quite good for england. Not quite his Liverpool level, but still good enough not to be dropped. Comes up with some big goals for England as well.

Against the decent teams i'd go with

----Carrick--Hargreaves
Gerrard---Rooney---Young
--------Form striker (Defoe, Heskey, Owen, Crouch, Bent, Ashton)

Against the lesser teams;

-------Carrick
Cole---Gerrard---Young
----Rooney--Form Striker

with Barry filling for whatever central midfielder would undoubtedly be missing as often as not.

[ziggy]

Originally Posted by ~Rebel~

Dont agree with this at all, Lampard fair enough has done very little in an England jersey, but to be fair Gerrard has always actually been quite good for england. Not quite his Liverpool level, but still good enough not to be dropped.

Not wanting to tread on club team sensibilities at all but results would seem to suggest otherwise.

[~Rebel~]

Originally Posted by ziggy

Not wanting to tread on club team sensibilities at all but results would seem to suggest otherwise.

Im not talking about results, im talking about performances. Gerrards haven't warrented being dropped. Its not his fault England don't have a 'brain' type player on the pitch. Id love to see the 2 teams i showed above in action. Carrick is the most intelligent passer of the ball England have and imo would change that team completely in a system playing to his strengths. Against a good team if he has an enforcer like Hargreaves beside him and intelligent runners like Rooney, Young and Gerrard all moving for him it would make such a difference. England have plenty of grand passers, in that they find a man, but imo he's the best at picking the right pass. He's no Pirlo or Xavi, but he's the best they have.

(p.s this obviously isn't about 'club sensibilities' considering im picking a united player as the key to the team)

[eagle eye]

Originally Posted by ziggy

In midfield, neither Lampard or Gerrard have performed: both should be dropped! Both cracking players at club level but simply aren't producing the goods. Time for some new thinking

I think one or the other should be playing but not both. My belief is that the midfield area is too crowded too often for England with these two players almost getting in each others way. I think you will see a much improved performance from either if there is only one of them in the lineup.
My own personal preference would be for Gerard but that is not important.

[PHB]

Whatever you want to say about Rooney for England, don't transfer it to United, its just a completely baseless opinion considering what Rooney did for United last season. And considering his pass for Coles second goal was a peach, its pretty harsh on him.

I maintain my belief that you can only play one of Lampard Rooney and Gerrard in their natural position. Capello has yet to understand the problems of Lampard who in a very specific formation is an unreal player, but not in anything but.

Joe Cole deserves his goals. The guy is criminally underrated (talk of him moving to Villa in the summer like).

At the core of Englands problems against weaker teams imo is the exclusion of Carrick, the only natural passer of the ball in the English team [bar Scholes of course]. They cry out for him every single game. People may not rate him as highly as the likes of Fabregas or Alonso in the same ilk, but teams need players like this, and Carrick is the best England have in that position.