Smirking_Saint

Gerrard proved who was king in the battle of midfielders tonight, bossed it and was so composed on the ball, except for one or two of his hollywoods he rarely gives the ball away. Welbeck, works so so hard, I think thats part of the reason he doesnt get so many goals but make no mistake the kid is a talent, he has all the physical stats plus technically he is very good, needs to work on his composure though, but that comes with age. And Rickie, pushed Gerrard to the last for the MOTM award and not just because Im a saints fan, but I think RL should have had it, a too game, 2 assists and a goal, plus we all know what Stevie does, what Lambert did tonight was deserving of the award. Special credit to Wilshere and Barkley, two very special young midfielders

This, plus they are the darlings of the media for a reason, they are two very good players

Because forgive me for removing my saints tinted glasses, but Rickie is starting due to a lack of options upfront ? He hasnt even been that good for us !

Lampard, gerrard and Lambert are all penalty takers so atleast it gives you options !

We did, but I imagine it was talking about his Spurs career when he struggled at LB and was almost shifted out to WBA before there was an injury crisis

Wont be far from it I dont expect, swap cleverley for carrick (and shift them around a bit) and I think its a decent enough line up all in all.

Funny I read too 'raw' as the fact that he has only ever had two seasons outside of league 1 ?

Lol I have a degree in electrical engineering which is pretty much pure maths Major fail

Wrote this just after U21 tourney ------------ We have had entirely the wrong idea for tournament preparation and getting an international side to the level required to perform under those conditions. Too much emphasis is put on how the England marketing machine is there to make money in the way that we play too many prestiege friendlies and concentrate on our more marketable players making appearances. It all has to be changed from the top down, they need a director of football and the respective managers of the England teams (U19s, U21's, senior) all singing from the same hymn sheet and understanding how to build an international side. This includes keeping the best possible teams together for the underage tournaments, not whisking them away for pointless friendlies. Making more use of our technical training centre. And not picking players in a side that are too old for the next WC, whether its a euro season or not. The team needs to bed and gel and the fact you get little time to coach internationals mean that its vital to get them to gel. The prem and the FA need to stop banging their heads together aswell, and personally if a player refuses to play in an under 21 tourney I would refuse to pick then for the full side. Itll be a long road, so will need to ignore the media and fans clamour for overage players that just show some short term form in order to bring younger blood through. Even at international levels a team can go through transition. Hermany did, spain did, italy did. Sadly England and the FA are more concerned with money than success.

Exactly right, also to compound matters, players can openly say they do not want to attend U21 tournaments and seemingly there is no punishment. They will end uo earning a cheap senior cap anyway. (i wrote that before too)

Ahhh I now remember the balance

Basically shows you how far they have fallen, that said they look pretty competetive this year, Rodgers is showing why you stick to a manager that has obvious calibre.

Currently a 'dance with dragons' the fifth game of thrones book, good reads, much better than the Tv series, it is a pain trying to remember all the characters. Also reading Pep Guardiolas auto biography, for obvious reasons, also a good read, Ill report at the end..... (Nb - Ill probably forget)

Oh right, Ive been saying this for about the last 3 months and now its gospel... Stupid agenda ridden saintsweb nazi's Its like when I tell my wife something, she ignores me and a week later she comes back and says she should be doing exactly what I told her as she has been advises it by someone else.

Which pretty much mimics exactly what I have written a hundred times before, which is nice to know

My bad

Very much so, atleast just the stage 1 if it interests you, a lot of the time you can get it funded aswell.

I think Ive commented at length on this about 12 times this month...... FWIW from an FA point of view he has said basically what I wanted then to do, within reason, I agree with Monk, unless you force the clubs to change (which is essentially what EPPP achieved) they will not as the money that follows success in the PL is too great. But as I said before, they need to set up their decelopment squads to the same system as the senior side, ensure that clubs will release youth players to the development squads and make sure that players respect an England call up at all levels

Out of interest have you been involved in coaching ?

You wrote the answer in your first sentance

Not exactly, it took a bottoming out of cash in both the german and spanish leagues to essentially kick start their revival, most of them decided that proper coaching of youngsters was the way forward as it enables you, as a club, to develop new 1st team talent or at the very leadt cash in on them. No club is ever going to put the England squad first, ever, so we either change the rules or develop a way to encourage the decelopment of youngsters which is why the new academy set up has been set up. (EPPP) Unfortunately it will always be a better risk to purchase a cheaper exp player from abroad then to blood an unknown youngster, of course you still get some coming through but they tend to be the elite youngsters, we need to give time to the level below that aswell. Part of it could possibly be to somehow stop top youngster being hoovered up and sitting on benches at top clubs ? The changes at grassroots and in academy structures will improve coaching, but its going to take years. FWIW part of the reason I got out of coaching was because the majority (at the time) would not embrace chsnge or new techniques, Saints did and have for a long time but coaching needs to be stronger at all levels, not just the top.

my bad

Been too much of a rot for a long time at every level, the influx of foreigners to the prem, although making it a very much more exciting place has made life difficult for the average youngster coming through the ranks. A lack of proper directive or decent technical guidance from coaches, especially at youth levels is now finally getting the attention it needs but had been neglected for too long. Also there is the problem of obesity and kids these days shunning exercise etc Its gonna take a while

QPR I think

Agree entirely The loan system should be for players that are under a certain age and should not be able to be loaned to teams in the same league IMHO