[3006]

(Original post by DontBuyTheSun)
You want to bench englands best player?

who do you mean by their 'best player'?
beckham is too old to play a full game, best to use him as impact sub
gerrard is good but rarely seems able ot pull off same consistency and performance at international level as lampard, and lets face it, their **** in the same team
ashley young isn't really good enough to play first 11 football yet. doesn't fit in as well as joe cole

[Jim-ie]

(Original post by munn)

Gordon
Hutton Caldwell Weir Whittaker
McCormack Brown Fletcher Commons
Miller Boyd

Squad:
McGregor
McManus
Berra
McNaughton
Morrison
Ferguson
Hartley
Adam
Robson
Fletcher
Clarkson
Naismith


that's a world cup winning squad

was under the impression mcgregor and ferguson will never play for scotland again?

both are dire anyway

[stattotheblade]

If everyone was fit!

Almunia (once Capello realises he's ''English'')

A Cole
Terry
Ferdinand
Richards

J Cole
Gerrard
Barry
Walcott

Rooney
Defoe

Subs
Jagielka
Heskey
Crouch
Green
Lampard
Beckham
G Johnson

And also on the plane, dunno how many we are allowed in a squad, 23?
Upson
Lescott
Carrick
Young
Owen

Note - No need for a third goalkeeper as usual when you have Jagielka in the squad

[stattotheblade]

(Original post by munn)

Gordon
Hutton Caldwell Weir Whittaker
McCormack Brown Fletcher Commons
Miller Boyd

Squad:
McGregor
McManus
Berra
McNaughton
Morrison
Ferguson
Hartley
Adam
Robson
Fletcher
Clarkson
Naismith


that's a world cup winning squad

Can I ask this about Scotland, why has Nick Montgomery NEVER been called up, he was in the Scotland U21 squad and let's be honest he'll never play for the English team. He's been a rock in the holding midfield role this season. Good luck for your qualifying campaign by the way

[good mermington]

Can I just ask why are people putting Richards in at right fullback when Glen Johnson is clearly superior. Also, Gibbs, WTF??

[munn]

(Original post by Jim-ie)
was under the impression mcgregor and ferguson will never play for scotland again?

both are dire anyway

you would say that
there's so much confusion about the mcgregor/ferguson situation, i recently read (ie in the last 2 weeks) someone (gordon smith probably) saying that the SFA didn't hand out a life ban as reported, just that they would never play for the scotland team again, but that was purported to mean under Burley. If I was scotland manager then I'd be able to call them up, probably.

(Original post by stattotheblade)
Can I ask this about Scotland, why has Nick Montgomery NEVER been called up, he was in the Scotland U21 squad and let's be honest he'll never play for the English team. He's been a rock in the holding midfield role this season. Good luck for your qualifying campaign by the way

if there's one position that Scotland have absolutely no need for more players, it's centre midfield.
Fletcher, Brown, Thomson, Robson, Hartley (and Ferguson).
These are all players with champions league experience playing at Man Utd, Rangers and Celtic, one of which has 2 CL winners medals, and another 2 who've played in a UEFA cup final.
No disrespect to SU but I don't really think their midfielders can compete.

[Jim-ie]

(Original post by munn)
you would say that
there's so much confusion about the mcgregor/ferguson situation, i recently read (ie in the last 2 weeks) someone (gordon smith probably) saying that the SFA didn't hand out a life ban as reported, just that they would never play for the scotland team again, but that was purported to mean under Burley. If I was scotland manager then I'd be able to call them up, probably.



if there's one position that Scotland have absolutely no need for more players, it's centre midfield.
Fletcher, Brown, Thomson, Robson, Hartley (and Ferguson).
These are all players with champions league experience playing at Man Utd, Rangers and Celtic, one of which has 2 CL winners medals, and another 2 who've played in a UEFA cup final.
No disrespect to SU but I don't really think their midfielders can compete.

I would but lets be honest, Ferguson isnt getting any younger, his international career is over.

[munn]

(Original post by Jim-ie)
I would but lets be honest, Ferguson isnt getting any younger, his international career is over.

indeed, but his experience would still be welcome if the world cup started tomorrow.
i'd much much much rather have thomson in there but he's going to be out until september they're saying, so we'd have to make do with ferguson. I mean he's younger than Hartley and only 6 months or so older than Robson, both of whom aren't of the same quality really, but both of whom I've still chosen because they're still the next best thing, Fletcher, Thomson and Brown are the future of the Scotland midfield for the next 6-7 years I'd say

[Papo1489]

englands not going to win for another few years yet, sorry but i just don't think that these are world cup winning players

[stattotheblade]

Well I wouldn't have said that about Italy last time, or Brazil before that they weren't the best in qualifying.

[mermania]

I tipped Italy to win before the tournament in 2006
won a wager amongst my friends for it too

[DontBuyTheSun]

(Original post by 3006)
gerrard is good but rarely seems able ot pull off same consistency and performance at international level as lampard, and lets face it, their **** in the same team

That was true when they were both playing CM maybe.

But you want to throw a player who hasn't played for nearly an entire season in, over the most consistent and talented footballer in England now CR has ****** off.

[Jim-ie]

England will never win the world cup again as long as you think you have a divine right to it.

Northern Ireland to win it Sir Warren Feeney to score the winner against Brazil.

[jimjomjam]

You need to at least have Beckham as a substitute, otherwise how is he going to come on and play for 5 minutes to increase his cap count?

[WoWZa]

(Original post by mermania)
have you seen Defoe's international scoring record?

Well if you are going by that logic, why has Owen been seemingly ruled out?

[mermania]

(Original post by WoWZa)
Well if you are going by that logic, why has Owen been seemingly ruled out?

Because he's constantly injured, has lost his pace and has been in crap form to boot?

[WoWZa]

(Original post by mermania)
Because he's constantly injured, has lost his pace and has been in crap form to boot?

But you were saying about scoring record =/

[mermania]

Yes. Owen has an excellent international scoring record because when he was in his prime he was a brilliant player. Now he is no longer in his prime and is not a particularly good player who it's unwise to rely on because of his injury problems.

Defoe, on the other hand, is a very good Premier League striker at the peak of his powers but has never shown the same goalscoring ability at international level. He collects all of his goals in cupcake games against useless footballing nations (7 of his 8 international goals were scored against Andorra, Kazakhstan and Trinidad & Tobago). If you're going to play a non-scoring striker at a world cup it might as well be Heskey, since he seems to bring the best out of Rooney.

To be fair I don't know why I replied to that selection in particular, this thread is full of crazy and misguided teams. For example, people saying that if the world cup started "tomorrow" they'd put Richards at right-back when Glen Johnson has been the best right-back in the Premier League this season and Richards hasn't even been the best right-back at Man City. Or playing Gerrard centre midfield.

[cunningstunt87]

(Original post by good mermington)
3 at the back

Johnson and Cole are attacking full backs anyway. It gives them more of a free license to get forwards and utilise their strengths.

[good mermington]

(Original post by cunningstunt87)
Johnson and Cole are attacking full backs anyway. It gives them more of a free license to get forwards and utilise their strengths.

no one plays 3 at the back in the premiership, and whenever anyone's tried, (Pompey, Newcastle) its been a resounding failure. None of England's centre backs can play in a system of 3 because they've never done it before. In fact, no successful team in the past 5 years has played with 3 at the back afaik.

There's a reason tbh