Window Cleaner

But he's not English, England do not develop players of the calibre of Morgan or Cabaye and probably not even Mavuba or Gonalons. These lads don't need a partner, they can "tenir la baraque" all by themselves, that's why Morgan doesn't really like playing with Wanyama. France's system is basically 4-1-2-3 with one holding MF and 2 powerhouses in front of him coupled with 3 out and out attacking players who aren't expected to track back too far, just defend at corners and free-kicks and in their respective zones. If England want to adopt that system then they'd have to ditch Gerrand and put Phil Jones in his place and swap Henderson for a far more attacking player, if they even have one of sufficient calibre.

just as I said...or at least I think I might have done. Once Barca and Real come sniffing around any Hispanophone is a goner. It's their spiritual home(s),even though they come from the suburbs of Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

But if it comes from Marca or As then it's probably fairly factual. Obviously they don't get it right all of the time but they have direct access into the top level management at Spanish clubs and don't usually need to make stuff up to sell their rags. Football isn't so secret squirrel outside of the UK.

Well I think there's a dearth of real strikers in England, the very fact that Lambert is in the group tells you that. Then again Walcott and JRod are injured, they are real strikers,f'in fast as well. However you'd expect Sturridge to be a bit more adept than he has been to date, perhaps he's just sh@gged out. Perhaps Wickham will finally kick on before the next major tournament.

perhaps we need to get a few of our younger players out of the PL and into other major championships. Now I'd not know this for certain but we (England that is, not my own particular favourites) must be one of the few participating sides at this WC where all of the players are drawn from the same national championship. Leads to a lack of variety of experience, playing styles etc.

I can't help but agree with him, although being I Saints follower for many years I just can't see that Lambert or Shaw amongst others had their place in this 23. Should have taken Cole (always said that) and he should have taken a real winger instead of Lambert, doesn't really matter who, as long as he can get down a flank and past the defender. Johnson showed them what to do eventually, imagine if we'd had a real winger doing that for 90 minutes. Spain left their wingers at home as well and look at the result. It's true that you can play without recognised wide men, but there you need better players in CM than Gerrard and Henderson because if you're going to throw your FBs forward a lot then the 2 CMs need to be rock solid...and fast. Still if Walcott and JRod weren't injured then I think England's campaign might have been better.

Interestingly (or perhaps not) they had a chap on TF1 last night who said that he knows a bit about Suarez (can't remember why) and that he has a sort of built in instinctive radar for these things, he knows where the keeper is without looking and knows exactly where to put the ball to beat him, could be poetic licence and all that but all of the experts seemed to be in complete agreement with him.

Need to cut the bloke some slack, he's 34 and a scouser, probably be a grandad soon. Blokes obviously got things to think about other than performing adequately at football.

Hart had no chance with either goal, Suarez doesn't miss those, you could put whoever you like between the sticks and all other things being equal Suarez would have scored both times. Change the defence and maybe not who knows but Hart wasn't at fault.

Well I expect he didn't count on losing against Italy and being up against the wall in only the second match. A squad of 23 including 3 keepers isn't too much provided you progress in the tournament, if you're going to get knocked out at the initial group stage you might as well only take 14 or 15, that's largely enough. After that accumulated yellow cards and injuries force you to use the depth of your group, I match suspension for just 2 cards idoesn't give you much scope especially in key areas like CM where players get cards often enough. Think there are a few suspended already after only 2 games max per pool. But Shaw was a poor choice, should have taken Cole and played him from the start, big game experience like CL and EL finals is useful enough in games such as England have had already. That's one of the England squad's biggest problems in my opinion, there are too many players without CL experience, it's what guides players in difficult situations, they've been there and done that. I know Deschamps is fanatically keen about it.

According to some Uruguyan exile that we had commenting on Infosport after the game last night Suarez is still on 1 leg with injections.

really, thought that was Cavani, might have been getting another tinny out of the fridge at that moment I suppose, can't get any maid service around here any more.

Perhaps that's what the coach told him to do eh. Should never have left Ashley Cole at home, that way Hodgson would have had an alternative at LB. Bad squad selection was always going to handicap England. We have to get to a point where the popular press doesn't pick the squad. Oh and stop taking walking wounded just in case they have miracle recoveries before the final which we wouldn't qualify for anyway. England could still have won last night...if they had Suarez,wasted too many 70% chances. Loads of shots on goal, only one beat the keeper. Suarez 2 shots, 2 goals.

perhaps not....on a "free", if he'd cost them even 5 million over say a 4 year contract that means about 25 K more a week that they can pay him without taking much of a hit. Being out of contract is a great advantage for desirable footballers, look at Sagna, on the open market he'd cost at least 12/15 million, on a free he's got so much more negociating power.

T'was in L'Equipe a while back, Vincent Labrune (CEO at OM) isn't really a "football man" per se. So he used his network of friends and aquaintances to help him fill the managers role at the OM, Anigo the Sporting Director having been sidelined by then. MP was amongst his first targets but was known to be uninterested in the job. Labrune reached out to Luis Fernandez (known to MP at PSG) who persuaded Mauricio to get in touch with Bielsa for them, did that and then assisted in the rest of the recruiment process. Labrune wanted the style that the Bielsa stable brings, he found a way to get it that's all.

It would be interesting to have a complete demography of ST holders actually, including the number of very young spectators.

Spurs are trying to buy Lukaku , they won't need Osvaldo who's obviously unsuited to the PL game, MP knows that by now.

must have missed that then, ties in with other info that we've been given though, albeit from a less official source, might be a tidy sum at the end of the day then. Mind you disinformation is spread in devious ways, LR can't back track on that if indeed it's what he's actually said, surprised he's been so forthright over it actually because if we're even a couple of bob short there will be reclamations.

Did Guan2.0 not assure us that it's roughly 35 million plus a bit if we get some incoming fees. Then again I don't always believe all I read on this forum, even from ITKs. I'd think that if we don't spend at least as much as we receive there will be a bit of weeping and wailing, plus of course a few mandatory "I told you sos".

Well if it's anyything like my undergrad poker experience the first of the "last hands" was at about midnight and the final,final last hand was just before the 9am lecture.

define net spend, if we sell for say 50 million or so that means we could easily buy a player for 15 million or so (which we'd have to do if we're trying to replace Schneiderlin,Lallana,Shaw or Lovren) and still be well within a low net spend bracket. If any of those 4 leave we'd be looking at a significant sum for a like for like replacement.

30% drop for a faw quid more, surely not, well unless Cortese's mum bought 5000 tickets or so last season that is. That is a serious initial revenue drop, something up around 3 million £ I'd think.

Surely not ....

Won't risk him for a dead rubber though, depends if England can still qualify by then or not.

What because he's 6ft 5" you mean,