Poor performance. Wales were unlucky not to get a point out of that

 

Lampard showing why he was left out of the squad vs. Bulgaria in the first place.. This probably will be his last competitive start as Wilshere and Gerrard will be ahead of him if they come back fit

 

I'd hate to think how we'd play if up against Spain in the Euro's

 

& People calling for Harry Redknapp as manager.. I really don't see what difference he could possibly make. Although, I'd rather have him than Roy Hodgson

24 man squad vs. Montenegro

 

Goalkeepers

Joe Hart (Manchester City), David Stockdale (Ipswich Town - Loan), Scott Carson (Bursapor)

 

Defenders

Leighton Baines (Everton), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Gary Cahill (Bolton Wanderers), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), John Terry (Chelsea), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur)

 

Midfielders

Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Adam Johnson (Manchester City), James Milner (Manchester City), Stewart Downing (Liverpool), Scott Parker (Tottenham Hotspur), Ashley Young (Manchester United), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

 

Forwards

Andy Carroll (Liverpool), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), Darren Bent (Aston Villa), Bobby Zamora (Fulham)

Any particular reason why Daniel Sturridge isn't in the squad?

Confirmed Team:

 

Hart Jones Terry Cahill Cole Walcott Parker Barry Young Bent Rooney

 

Subs: Carson Jagielka Baines Lampard Downing Welbeck Zamora

Decent enough, although I really think he should be playing a right back at right back.

 

I'm not sure if I can be bothered to either go out or find a feed to watch this. It's a complete non-entity of a game with Montenegro caring more about their game on Tuesday and us being virtually guaranteed automatic qualification, with only a highly improbable sequence of results able to stop us.

I think it's pretty poor that there are no highlights on terrestrial television tonight. Whether that is because Sky wanted too much money or the broadcasters just couldn't be bothered, I don't know.

 

1-0 to the En-ger-land :cheer:

Never trust England to get the job done easily

 

Wierd to see how much they seem to be celebrating in Montenegro for finishing 2nd.. and yet with England it seems all doom and gloom

 

Just been confirmed their playing a friendly vs. Spain next month. Footballing lesson right there

I didn't bother with the second half. The first half wasn't exactly scintillating stuff.

Decent result, I watched the first half but not the second. Montenegro were pretty terrible, a 2-0 result would've been fair.

 

Rooney is a complete moron, suspended for at least the first two games of the championships, should omit him altogether.

If he does get a 3 match ban.. it'd be pointless taking him. Take Sturridge instead

In 2008 Arshavin got sent off for violent conduct for Russia in their final qualifier and was suspended for the first two games of Euro 2008.

 

Whilst we might not have anyone as good as Rooney, it's not as if we're anything like being short of attacking options. Bent is now proven, Welbeck and Sturridge look like they're going to be must picks by the end of the season. Defoe and Crouch have proven they can do a job in the past. It's hard to see Carroll not getting a chance at some point, and if Agbonlahor continues his form he'd be worthy of a chance. There's also outside chances for Owen or Johnson, the latter in particular if he can add to the 9 goals he already has this season, and Capello likes Zamora too.

Saw the incident in the post match analysis. That was so unnecessary.

 

I watched the Wales game, that was a good performance.

If England had done better earlier in the campaign and qualified already, it would have been possible to leave Rooney out tonight, particularly as he has other things on his mind at the moment.

If England had done better earlier in the campaign and qualified already, it would have been possible to leave Rooney out tonight, particularly as he has other things on his mind at the moment.

 

This is true, but I don't really think we've underperformed. Switzerland have been at the last four major tournaments and are a good proven side, I think only an unrealistic England fan would've said 4 points were to be a poor return from them. However you'd say a win at Wembley and an away draw, not the other way around. Montenegro have been brilliant so far considering, and it was probably more down to luck than anything that we only needed a draw. Wales are vastly improved with Gary Speed, luckily for us they had to come to Wembley but were at home to Montenegro, a game which they won whilst only a horrible miss stopped them taking a point off England.

 

Secondly, I think we could've afforded to rest Rooney. Have Bent up front with either an extra man in midfield or partner him with either Zamora or Welbeck, two players in good form who'd want to try and cement a place in the squad for next summer. Montenegro had confirmed they were resting three key players because they were on a booking and they needed them for the game they saw as more important against the Swiss. If we had lost Montenegro would still have had to go to Switzerland and win, a tough place to go and another team who've improved in the second half of qualification after the integration of some of their talented youngsters who did so well at the Under 21 Championship in the summer. Ok they lost last night so they wouldn't have qualified but they'd have wanted to end on a high and not finish down in fourth.

 

Even if Montenegro had won both their games and England finished second we'd have been one of only two teams who could've been best runner-up and therefore still getting automatic qualification. The only team who could've beaten us were Sweden who'd have had to beat Holland on Tuesday, the Dutch being the best performing team in qualifying so far winning 9 of 9 and scoring 35, having not conceded a goal away from home. Under the circumstances and with Rooney's history I'd have rested him last night.

Wales finished on a good note, and the Republic Of Ireland also did well. Shame about Scotland, but with the form Spain have been in it always looked like mission impossible at this late stage.

The seeds for the play-offs are Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic and Ireland. The draw is tomorrow lunchtime.

Draw;

 

Bosnia & Herzegovina v Portugal

Estonia v Republic Of Ireland

Turkey v Croatia

Czech Republic v Montenegro

 

RoI are gonna get there.

Rooney banned for 3 matches, i.e. will miss the entire group stage. That man is an absolute moron sometimes.

And the anti-English twats do it again :rolleyes: We invented football yet we don't have power and get stupid overpunishment like this. Arshavin only got two in the last one.