Mails: Stop praising England players for nowt

Mails: Stop praising England players for nowt

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Not impressed with England
What an awful, tedious game of football. The New England: take all the tempo out of the game, pass the ball around at the back (hope Stones doesn’t cock up), get put under pressure, pass it back to Hart who then has a quick look to see if he can pass it to a defender but inevitably hoofs it upfield. It’s like watching Holland; loads of possession, but none of it relevant. I also understand why Pep got rid of Joe Hart. How slow is his decision-making? The best teams (Barcelona, Bayern) play a possession-based game, but in the oppostion’s half. England just pass it around for the sake of it.
G Thomas, Breda

……What’s the point in England playing defensively in a friendly? It is so dull and proves nothing.

Why not go gung-ho and make football, I dunno, entertaining.

In the meantime, to avoid the commentators fawning over Spain and praising our plucky underdogs, I’m off to play Elite.
Rob, London

Stop praising England players for sod all
Am sure the mailbox is going to be full of some sort of bitching about or praise of England’s performance against Spain tonight. Thus, let me save everyone the painful read of why England sucks. The problem is not Rooney, Southgate etc. The problem is Glenn Hoddle and anyone with his footballing insight. Listening to him on STV commentary immediately reveals the problem with English football. Apart from always stating the obvious (i.e. “that was a great strike, Southgate must be devastated”; of course he is, his team just conceded), he praises every mundane thing as long as it’s done by an English player. How then do you hope to have the team improve when the ordinary is made to sound like the hardest thing that has ever been done on a football pitch?

Sometimes people give Roy Keane stick for being hard on players e.g. for saying a goalkeepr deserves no praise for making a save since that’s his job. But maybe English players need that. If Walcott makes a good run behind the defenders, isn’t that what he’s suppose to do? Why praise him for doing what he is suppose to do? England has good and talented players, they just need someone to give them a good kick on the behind and not always massage their bloated egos. See how they perform for their clubs where they know only hard work and sticking to your task guarantees you a place in the team Oh, and you can lamp up the general print press with Glenn Hoddle, they always have a false messiah for every major tournament.

That’s all.
Montero ‘Please can someone exclude Glenn Hoddle from any football commentary’, Glasgow

Stones and Dier swapping is to detriment of England
The commentators during the match tonight praised England when Stones went on a “slalom” because Dier filled in at centre-back in case Stones lost out.

To me that just screams a lack of trust and a completely pointless tactic, there is no net benefit from that move. The whole point of the ball-playing defender is to give the extra body in midfield, but this is negated if you swap them for a midfielder, all you end up with is two people out of position.

If Stones had instead passed then a midfielder would have the ball in midfield with a defender in defence. As it was, a defender had the ball in midfield with a midfielder in defence. This makes the team worse.

Now, if Eric Dier was trying to dribble through two players in midfield we’d call him an idiot, so don’t praise Stones for it whether he’s successful or not, ball-playing is great, dribbling in your own half past players is not.
KC (carry the ball, draw a man, then give it to a dynamic player, no more)

Morning thoughts
England looked OK last night. Maybe Southgate does know how England should be playing.

Lalalanana is brilliant. Hope he is fit for the weekend.

If this system is going to work for England we need a holding midfielder that is not Dier.

Aspas? You gotta laugh! if you average out his crossing ability with his shooting ability you have an average player.

Bubble wrap and bring back Bobby and Coutinho safely please.

Professional footballers are paid huge amounts of money to win football matches. If managers have to point this out the battle is already lost.

Still not tired of watching United fall apart.
H, (can we talk Prem now pls)

It went quite well
Such a sound performance for 85 minutes and then we England-ed that right up in the end.

A good performance with a game plan to execute, many positives for Gareth Southgate so extremely disappointing to end the game like that.
Parmjeet, Gravesend

Dirty Ander
Just wanted to say that Ander Herrera is a very dirty player. The elbow to Dier is only the latest addition to his collection of cynical fouls. Clearly he is that ‘type of player’. I truly hope someone ‘shows up on him’ – Karl Henry vs Joey Barton style.
Jamo, Nairobi (explains why Mourinho likes him so much)

Panama again
For those who saw yesterday morning’s Mailbox and were interested in how Panama did against Mexico, the answer: 0-0. But a glorious 0-0, in which Panama were the better team throughout. They let Mexico have the ball, intercepted pass after pass, made every 50-50 ball look like 80-20, and countered at pace. Mexico had a grand total of one shot from open play, and that only because of a botched clearance. Meanwhile the home side created several decent chances, but either couldn’t get their shots on goal or were thwarted by keeper Guillermo Ochoa. But it was a great night in the capital city, and the Marea Roja are in this for the long haul.
Peter G, Pennsylvania, USA

And what happened in Japan?
Japan came through the international break with the best possible results: a comfortable and comprehensive friendly win over Oman, a win over Saudi Arabia to move equal top of the group, and the realisation that the younger players can do just as good a job as the more experienced players.

Friday night’s match was never really about the result but more an opportunity for a desperate Vahid Halilhodzic to see more of his squad play. Yuya Osako started up front and scored two well-taken goals, enough to earn him the start ahead of Shinji Okazaki against Saudi Arabia. Yuya Kubo came off the bench and made a nuisance of himself, while Manabu Saito impressed down the left and Hiroshi Kiyotake was his usual calm self in central midfield.

Keisuke Honda was criticised by Halilhodzic for his performance against Oman and was left on the bench for the start of last night’s game against Saudi Arabia. Despite recovering from injury, Shinji Kagawa was also a substitute. As an Englishman it’s refreshing to see the manager of the national team picking players on performance rather than reputation.

Japan started well against Saudi Arabia but despite creating plenty of chances they couldn’t score, until a penalty just before half time for handball. The Saudis spent several minutes remonstrating with the referee as they thought the ball had struck the defender’s chest, while the Japanese were trying to get the offender a second yellow card, and players from both sides engaging in shoving. None of this bothered Kiyotake, who scored the penalty. Genki Haraguchi was once again dangerous, and in the 80th minute he scored his fourth goal in the last four qualifiers to make it 2-0. Saudi Arabia pulled one back in the 90th minute – a deflected shot eventually just squirming over the line – but couldn’t get an equaliser, and the game ended in something of a farce as their captain earned himself a second yellow for a foul committed after play had been stopped for a foul by another player.

This result, combined with Australia needing two penalties to come from behind and draw against Thailand, who gained their first point, means that Japan and Saudi Arabia are joint top of the group, with Australia a point behind in third. Halilhodzic has encouraged Japan’s more experienced players to change clubs if they are not playing regularly or risk losing their place in the national team, so it will be interesting to see if any make moves during the transfer window.
James T, Kanazawa, Japan

Every Gunner distrusts Ramsey
Frankie AFC – every Arsenal fan I know shares your views and fears about Ramsey. He is to Arsenal what Michael Bradley is to the USA – overrated, over-hyped and a momentum killer unable to complete simple passes, tackle or head the ball; but worse still from an Arsenal perspective, he gets in Ozil and Sanchez’ channels with his lack of discipline and his me me me demands for the ball (usually followed by a pointless showboat of a 180 or 360 and a give away or backwards pass). But, yes, Wenger will shoehorn him into the team. I challenge those who disagree to watch him closely and see how many times he misses a simple pass by more than five yards, gets caught in possession or run past like he’s static, jogs back when a sprint is needed and shoots when he has no right to.

Also watch how many times an exasperated Ozil or Sanchez throw up their arms in frustration when he kills yet another move. Can anyone other than the blindest of Welshmen really see him competing for a place in any other top six team in any of Europe’s top leagues? Let him blossom in mid-table mediocrity at Stoke under his compatriot and equally mediocre manager.
NC Gooner

Bring in Carrick for Arsenal clash please
I have just read a statistic which has got me thinking. Michael Carrick has played six games this season and won them all, he’s completed 96% of his passes. That’s a lot of completed passes. I’m not going to lie, Carrick has always been a favourite of mine and I so wish he wasn’t 36. People can’t make digs about sideways passes or in the past passing to Paul Scholes (why is that a bad thing?) but Carrick really has had a bloody great career for Manchester United. Sadly it wasn’t to be with England, mainly because of the press love in of cheeky chappy cockney, huff and puff, run around merchants like Scott Parker and managers bowing to that pressure (something which continues in my opinion Jack ‘2 goals against Slovenia’ Wilshere) and previously the persistence with a Lampard – Gerrard midfield axis which really should’ve been a three with Carrick mopping up behind.

I think in England we prefer to see a player with a lot of touches and hard running as oppose to a player like Carrick who prefers to keep the ball moving rather than himself and looks for the first time pass rather than driving at a team. Sadly he wouldn’t be able to cope with the demands of tournament football these days so his England career will be left unfulfilled

However as he winds down his career I think people will realise just how good Carrick was, big European performances such as the Roma 7-1 and the Schalke semi final away leg will forever be in my mind. Michael Carrick started three Champions League finals and won a lot of medals in his decade at United, he has always had a tendency to play well against Arsenal. The quiet Geordie should be well rested after a week off so I would hope he’ll be anchoring a midfield with Pogba and Herrera (more likely Fellaini) ahead of him and United can get a positive result this weekend off the back of another composed performance in midfield by a quiet man who probably didn’t do enough talking off the pitch to get himself the recognition he deserved.
Rob, Guangzhou

Predicting The Watcher’s Football League game of the weekend…
I haven’t yet read any mails about this weekend’s selection of beautiful games. Man U/AFC, Dortmund/Bayern, Madrid derby etc. However I’m naturally drawn to the Leeds/Newcastle game on Sunday. Sky Sports, Sunday afternoon, just perfect. The job Gary Monk has done at Leeds is phenomenal, it speaks volumes that he’s still there and wasn’t sacked after 52 minutes into his first game in charge. He sold our best player (in fairness Lewis wanted to go) for a moderate sum. Recruited unbelievably well, out of 10 I’d give 10, having said that Pontus Jansson accounts for 8 out of those 10. Never have I seen a player that is so obviously in a class of his own in the Championship. His good self and Kyle Bartley were exactly what Leeds needed after years of Bambas et al (who remembers Andy O’Brien at Leeds? Yikes).

For years we have treaded in the murky waters of the bottom half of the Championship. Monk has made Leeds fans believe again. As a sceptic I would usually have low expectations but with Monk at the helm I’m starting to believe the hype.
Barry (I’d bring back Viduka, Giles, Kewell, Dacourt, Lorimer, Bremner, Martyn, Harte, Kelly, Radebe…I need to stop) LUFC, Dublin

The ballad of Stevie Finnan
Seeing as the responses for former players returning were a bit tame, I thought I’d chip in with my own oddity.

It’s Steve Finnan.

I remember being 12 or 13, kneeling by my bedside banking Hail Marys and Our Fathers in the hope that Liverpool would sign Finnan from Fulham. I was bewitched by his steadfastness and quiet realiability, and of course there was that peach of an assist for McAteer v Holland at Landsdowne Road.(Incidentally, McAteer was my first football obsession; when he was at his Liverpool height I once put a floppy disk and banana into an envelope addressed ‘Jason McAteer, somewhere in Liverpool’ as a sign of my appreciation).

My fate most certainly peaked when Houllier moved for him in his last season with Liverpool, and to my totally unbiased eyes, he was magnificently dependent. Even when he left Liverpool his performances in green provided many happy memories. History shows right-back was a problem area for Liverpool for many a year which was of course only due to a lack of Finnan and nothing else.

The prayers are over these days, and of course Steve has performed in life off the pitch as he did on it, quietely going about his business with efficiency (He’s a property developer now). Beautiful.

Anyway, I hope this made someone laugh. Lets hear about some more football crushes from childhood to get us through the week.
Paul, Master of embedded clauses, LFC, Mönchengladbach