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McLaren has to go, he was the wrong decision at the time and is the wrong man now! The FA bottled the decision when Sven went. I believe Allardyce, O’Neill or Curbishley would have all been better choices.
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Despite the constant talk that the manager should do better with the talented (golden era) group of players, the the reality is we don’t have the strength of depth in the squad. How many of those that played last night are World class or European class, how many would make a World or European XI?
Carson: Should not have been playing to start with, not enough experience for such an important game. Even calamity James would have been better!
Richards: Still learning his trade but one of our best young talents, not there yet!
Campbell: Past his best 5 seasons ago!
Lescott: World class centre half, I don’t think so!
Bridge: 2nd choice for his club, says it all!
Wright-Phillips: No end product, plenty of running but only any good as a sub!
Gerrard: One of the only truly world/european class players we have, we spoil his game by where we play him.
Barry: A decent club player but that’s it!
Lampard: Very rarely does it at international level, can’t play him and Gerrard in the same side, we prove it every time!
Joe Cole: Plenty of effort but has one god game three bad, not good enough!
Crouch: Took his goal really well but never a world/european class centre forward! Crazy to play him up front on his own, asks to much of him.
Defoe (46): Again can’t get in his club side.
Beckham (46): Still the best crosser of a ball we have and plays with 100% pride for the nation, maybe past his best but still offers something.
Bent (80): £16 million worth of striker, I don’t think so!
Subs Not Used:
James: Although his national career looked over and has never excelled for England his club form should have made him first choice last night.
Ashley Cole: As everyone acknowledges, Ash the Cash is more bothered about the pay cheque! Still our best left back (behind Brownhill of course)!
Brown: Again, struggles to get into his club side. Sub at best.
Hargreaves: Despite lots of criticism his performances for England have been better than most, should have played for Barry or Lampard.
Out of all the above Gerrard is the only real World/European class player. We were missing Terry, Rooney, Ferdinand and Owen who all would have started, but you cannot disguise the fact that the squad as a whole is very poor.
We have arguably created one of the best leagues in the World with the Premiership but this is all down to the volume of foreign players. How many English players are playing in Argentina, Spain, Italy, France - not many! The problem is the cost of British players, Chelsea paid Man City something like £21million for Wright-Phillips - you could but a Serbian, Croatian or pratically another nationality for less. If we reduced the quota of foreign players that a side can field then the British player values will only increase!!!
The FA have to look carefully at all sorts of proposals to move our game forward, for example they could at least cap the number of foreign players that can play in domestic cup competitions (FA Cup and League Cup), thus forcing home grown players into the game. These competitions are already lower value to the top sides but if European places in the league were reduced to the winner only then cup competitions could be taken more seriously if they offer a european entry! There is no easy and quick answer to the problem but the people running the game carry the responsibility to make some changes!
Anyway, a much bigger game to look forward to this Saturday!!!