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Post by Elliot Kane on Sept 8, 2007 18:28:47 GMT
Don't be fooled by the doubtless rave reviews of the English papers. England were no more than solid throughout, and at times quite lack lustre.
Plus we missed a good half dozen chances, which is totally wasteful.
Russia on Wednesday will be the real test...
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Post by Elliot Kane on Sept 12, 2007 21:13:08 GMT
England 3 Russia 0
And not a bad game, either. Gareth Barry was really good, and Micah Richards has surely cemented his place at right back for the foreseeable future. I can see both keeping their places if McLaren has a grain of sense.
SWP still needs more experience, I think. He did quite well, but Russia exposed his shortcomings a bit too often. Still one for the future is my feeling.
Worst player on our side though was undoubtedly Steven Gerrard, who never made a pass to an England player if he could pass to a Russian instead, and fluffed a couple of reasonable chances on goal. I've been putting his dire performances for England down to the fact that he and Lampard obviously can't play in the same team, but I'm starting to think neither of them belong on the pitch. However good they are at club level, they seem incapable of anything near that at international level. Maybe it's time to try dropping both of them.
What's ironic is that the current team which has put in very solid performances in the last two matches is the result of injury taking out a number of players who would automatically start if fit. Whether McLaren will learn from this and work out who his best players are rather than who his biggest names are remains to be seen.
Best part for England overall, though, has to be Owen scoring 3 goals in two matches, two of the goals being world class. It's hard to say that he's back to his best, but he's certainly striding rapidly towards it.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Sept 13, 2007 0:21:55 GMT
Huge Kudos to Scotland, too. Beating France 1-0 is a pretty awesome achievement!
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Post by Konrad Flameheart on Sept 13, 2007 10:35:59 GMT
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Post by Elliot Kane on Sept 13, 2007 13:03:53 GMT
I could be wrong, but I think they've now beaten Italy AND France in that group! Certainly they're top of the group that contains both. I only wish England had been half as good!
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