Lawro says Forget It!

[Stuttgart88]

I think Finnan, Duff and Robbie Keane would walk into the England team right now no problem. Throw in Given and you have 4.
I think those 4 are possibly the best we've EVER had in their positions.

Again, I think we WERE good enough to qualify, they just goofed it up for whatever reason. There was some element of bad luck too. I mean, I think we played far better against France at home than we did when we beat Holland. People wax lyrical about Roy Keane that day, but would they have done so if we'd lost 3-0 which could EASILY have happened?

[shakermaker1982]

I think those 4 are possibly the best we've EVER had in their positions.

Again, I think we WERE good enough to qualify, they just goofed it up for whatever reason. There was some element of bad luck too. I mean, I think we played far better against France at home than we did when we beat Holland. People wax lyrical about Roy Keane that day, but would they have done so if we'd lost 3-0 which could EASILY have happened?

Yep I agree, we dropped 4 points against Israel. That is why we are not there. Their goalkeeper did have a blinder in Dublin but God almighty we had some chances. This WC should have been Keano's send off, I have no doubt that if we did make it then we'd make the 2nd round again.

Let's just hope that starting in September we start to believe and take any chances that come our way. England have shown you can play poorly for large sections of a game but still punish teams with set pieces so why don't we work on corners and free kicks?

[Stuttgart88]

Step forward Ian Harte!

Duff, Kavanagh and McGeady are all excellent dead ball deliverers, though some of Kav's efforts in qualifying were crap. I think our first 2 goals against Cyprus were from corners but that was it I think. It really looked like we never worked on set-pieces during qualifying. Some of the lame efforts in Tel Aviv were worthy of contempt.

Steven Reid puts in a very good ball too. It was his inswinger for Kilbane that gave Kerr the first goal ofhis tenure, up in Glasgow. I'm sure Andy Reid can do the same. In fact he hit the post against France.

Only a fool would ignore set-pices as having the potential to decide marginal games.

England have an advantage in that players like Lampard, Cole & Terry all work day-in day-out together on this at Chelsea, though I concede that Terry attacks the ball far better than most centre-forwards can.

[shakermaker1982]

as long as Harte stays clear from penalties (bloody Spain still makes my blood boil!!!).

To be honest with you whenever we have a corner or free kick against a top team I'm not confident that we will nick a goal. This needs to be worked on and any other chances we do create need to be snapped up. Keane missed a decent chance against Chile and if it was scored this negativity from Lawro and some of the fans would not be so prominent.

I accept we were crap against Chile but it was an end of season friendly, flat atmosphere and Chile are a decent side anyway. I don't think they have lost a game on this European tour and a lot of their players going forward did impress me.

[bwagner]

I think we have a solid enough group but there are leaderless and seriously demoralised with no real self-belief apart from some friendies.....
What the hell was Cyprus away 05.... oh my god we made them look like Brazil.
We well not get anything worth a damn away form home in euro 08.
I think the czechs roast us in the two games and show how much we have declined....

[nedder]

I think we have a solid enough group but there are leaderless and seriously demoralised with no real self-belief apart from some friendies.....
What the hell was Cyprus away 05.... oh my god we made them look like Brazil.
We well not get anything worth a damn away form home in euro 08.
I think the czechs roast us in the two games and show how much we have declined....

It's been a long time since we got a roasting...

[bwagner]

It's been a long time since we got a roasting...

A roasting we shall have a chara and i aint talking about three of our boys nailing a fan in the hotel either....we are goosed.

[Reality Bites]

I don't think we'll get a roasting but the genuine lack of leaders and strong personalities in squad is worrying, i mean one of our best players Duff is also a player severly lacking in any sort of leadership qualities, Keane is more of a whinger and moaner than inspirer of men, Finnan is sullen, O'shea is plain weak more like a member of Westlife than a footballer, the rest well maybe dunney or given but still not the best when yer 1 one down to Slovakia in Bratislavia...This i believe is the rock we'll perish on!!

[Irish_Praha]

I would just like to say that so many people (even old Liverpool fans) forget about how great Ronnie Whelan was.

[Emmet]

It's been a long time since we got a roasting...

Last year's friendly with Italy was very one-sided ... they changed most of their team at half time which calmed things down but first half they played us off the park. I know it was a friendly but it was eye-opening & I have a feeling that affected a few players going into the key games against Cyprus and France.