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ok i agree wales are muck. slovakia (not slovenia btw) will be a very stern test. Israel punched way abvove their weight and got results cos of a very average swiss and at the time france side (who started to play when zidane and co came back)
also the notion of world cup hangovers i believe is tenuous, but we may indeed profit from people retiring from the likes of germay and cze.
Meant slovakia sorry - think i'll go away and have a lie down actually. Between Hanson/Lawerenson and slovenia/slovakia i have a pain in my brain.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I don't really know, to be honest. I'd say "concerned" - yes, but "despairing" - no. You?Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
On one hand, I'm absolutely certain that the result counts for nothing. I'm just about prepared to accept that it may genuinely be hard for the players to get fully fired up for such a game at this time of the year & maybe the week spent in Portugal was more important. We've traditionally been crap in May / June friendlies from what I can remember. Home defeats to Greece & Scotland spring to mind as does Nigeria in 2002 and the Unity Cup.
But I have grave doubts over one or two (but not many more) players and I'm concerned that Staunton saw fit to move Steven Reid away from the position he's excelled in for both Blackburn & Ireland recently.
I suppose I'll only be concerned if we fail to learn from some of the OBVIOUS lessons from last week. There's also O'Shea I suppose. Of all the players out there he was maybe the one with the most to prove. I'm disappointed we didn't have an opportunity to look at the likes of Paddy McCarthy, Joey O'Brien, Alan Quinn etc. and in away the lack of availability of certain fringe players made the whole exercise a bit redundant.
I really do think that if we have our strongest players available and when it counts we can improve on last year's performances. Psychologically it'd have been nice to go into the summer on a bit of a high. Reading Bobby Robson's assessment of the match last week made me feel better.
I would not get too down about the chile game in the same way I would not get to up about the Sweden game. I remember thinking coming out of the Game in Holland that times are good for this team, but 18 months later and the team had come 4th in teh group. So friendlies are nice but nothing to get carried away with. Robsons comments after the game show that when it matters I think the experimenting will have shown more of what we cant do rather than what we can do. Stephen Reid in the centre for us is vital for us in my view and a back four containing Finnan is also vital.
bottom line-twas only a friendly. throughout ericssons tenure with england they have lost an absolute rake of friendlies-and ericsson learnt a lot in defeat, lets hope stan can do the same.
Unlike the last two campaigns, I don't have the expectation that we should qualify next time. There are too many variables and the last friendly brought up a few more.
I'd hope that the Chile match brought out few problems "early doors".
Nobody quite knows what happenned to cause the collapse in our last 2 qual games. Eliminating Kerr does not neccessarily eliminate the problems behind the collapse.
I still don't know what Lawrenson wrote, apart from whether he used one small word.
Whatever he gets paid for sitting in the commentary box beside Motson, it's not enough. Lawrenson was an absolute class player for Ireland and would fit in many people's all time Irish teams. We were fortunate to have had him available.
No we didn't. If we made them look good maybe they'd be getting the credit they deserve. They were really poor against us in both games. I seen probably half of Israel's games in the qualifiers (thanks to Setanta) and their performances against Switzerland and France were a lot better than against us. That was mainly down to the fact that they thought of us as the best team in the group and sat back hoping to catch us on the break. The best thing to do in that situation is just don't give them possession and we managed that for just over 90 minutes.:(Quote:
Originally Posted by as_i_say
I think if we'd have beaten Israel in one of those matches we'd be preparing for the world cup atm. They bottled it though in so many games. We were world class in friendlies with no pressure. :)
Someone should send John O'shea a video of Lawrenson's performances under Jack.Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Remind me: did Lawrenson retire from all football prior to Euro '88, or just international football?
Played even better pre Jack.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Yep he had to quit playing football altogether in the spring of '88. Therefore he never made it onto the pitch at Stuttgart '88.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gustavo
He definitely used the word 'we' in reference to England at least once last night.
But not as a converted midfielder?Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
You are fortunate you stuck in the question mark.
You should know there was nothing to convert about Lawrenson's talent.
At least he played midfield in the 2-1 wcq game '80 V Holland and scored the winner.
I only watched the first half but he definitely didn't in the first. I've yet to even get the feeling that Lawro supports England. Alan Hanson seems more pro-England than Lawro.Quote:
Originally Posted by frankbrett
Agree. Like Andy Gray*, Hansen plays to his audience. If he was to diss the English football team as often as he'd probably like to, he wouldn't have a job.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
There was a MOTD analysis on England's WC chances when the draw was made back in December and it was clear that both Lawrenson & Hansen were distancing themselves from England. Gary got a little precious over it, just like he did when both the others said that Robbie Keane was better than Defoe recently.
With Andy Gray, the guy's either a total mercenary, or one of those Rangers hardliners who supports England over Scotland because Scotland isn't "British enough" in a curious right-wing kind of way.
*And also Alan Greene (Norn Irish) on 5 Live and Patrick Barclay (Scottish) in the Sunday Telegraph, though in fairness to Barclay in particular his support is purely for the team, he's very outspoken about the support. Andy Gray wouldn't say a bad word about the English support.
Nothing fortunate - I always cover myself!Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Remember Lawro's goal, diving header at the far post, yes? Not dissimilar to Stapleton's goal in Belgium, the first equaliser, in '86.
at what stage in game?:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by frankbrett
Hansen used it last night and then corrected himself not sure Lawrenson did though. Andy Gray is just a mercenery who gets caught up in the emotion but I am sure his background means he has no hatred of England that an ex Celtic player or a big Tartan Army might have. But I dont think Gray Supports England over Scotland.
Anyone else think the title of this thread would make a great T-shirt? :)
Lawro seems harsh in his comments about ROI. They were unlucky not to qualify last time and with abit of luck have chance in their nxt group. They are probably 3rd favourite for the group.
Could it have been we we.Quote:
Originally Posted by frankbrett
Sorry just a bit bored