It's great England are playing well and stuff, but can I just say...

 

I f***in hate international football being played in the middle of the season. :manson: 3 bloody times now Torres has got injured in 1 year whilst on international duty. He was almost cyring as he left the field too. And Babel's injured too.

and another reason why Gerrard shouldn't play :lol: How the hell did he miss an open goal, that's right he tried to be clever and slip it in with the outside of his foot <_< Did make an impressive sound off the post though :D

Once Belarus made the score 1-1, England woke up and started playing Football.

 

Second half they were superb, Rooney on this form is arguably the best player in the world, Heskey looked class and worked hard, Gerrard was great bar hitting the woodwork .....

 

But my happy mood dissolved with the news regarding Torres injury playing for Spain.

Gerrard performing really well is arguably worse than if he'd played badly again. Lampard isn't exactly poor (especially as Gerrard was given the more attacking role) and he's playing his best football in ages for Chelsea...

 

I also don't think we can afford to play like that against better teams (no disrespect to Belarus). I think we need to play 4-4-2 with Cole and Walcott and a holding midfielder. Barry or Hargreaves and Lampard or Gerrard. I can't see it happening though.

 

Oh and Heskey = Amazing. The people who say he shouldn't play need their heads testing, they clearly know nothing about football.

Gerrard performing really well is arguably worse than if he'd played badly again. Lampard isn't exactly poor (especially as Gerrard was given the more attacking role) and he's playing his best football in ages for Chelsea...

 

I also don't think we can afford to play like that against better teams (no disrespect to Belarus). I think we need to play 4-4-2 with Cole and Walcott and a holding midfielder. Barry or Hargreaves and Lampard or Gerrard. I can't see it happening though.

 

Oh and Heskey = Amazing. The people who say he shouldn't play need their heads testing, they clearly know nothing about football.

 

I think we have to accomodate both Lampard and Gerrard though. They're both too good a players to leave out (I hate Lampard, but he offers something from set pieces now that Beckham's gone, but then again Barry is very good at them too). If you give Gerrard an attacking role he'll flourish like he does for Liverpool. He's given pretty much the freedom of the pitch to roam wherever he wants, and his record of goalscoring since Rafa came along has improved drastically. I don't like the idea of Walcott starting all the time too... as good as he is he still seems very inconsistent and the media expect so much of him now, and it's not right.

 

I agree of Heskey too. He's a player England have lacked of late, and he only gets stick because he never scores, which is true, but he's instrumental in setting up, and being a part of the build-up play of a lot of goals!

I think we have to accomodate both Lampard and Gerrard though. They're both too good a players to leave out (I hate Lampard, but he offers something from set pieces now that Beckham's gone, but then again Barry is very good at them too). If you give Gerrard an attacking role he'll flourish like he does for Liverpool. He's given pretty much the freedom of the pitch to roam wherever he wants, and his record of goalscoring since Rafa came along has improved drastically. I don't like the idea of Walcott starting all the time too... as good as he is he still seems very inconsistent and the media expect so much of him now, and it's not right.

 

I agree of Heskey too. He's a player England have lacked of late, and he only gets stick because he never scores, which is true, but he's instrumental in setting up, and being a part of the build-up play of a lot of goals!

We probably do, I thinkg both are great players really. Gerrard probably has more to his game and can play in more roles but I do feel Lampard still played well tonight. He wasn't great, no but Gerrard had the attacking free role and he sat back with Barry, that's not something he's used to and it's certainly not using him to his full potential but he did what he was asked to do. I guess it's true with Walcott, I would pick Joe Cole over him, which would leave Gerrard on the right rather than the left, he's probably better there and imo, popped up there a bit too much tonight, we missed Ashley Cole I think, Bridge was often too exposed and he's not as good. Against better opposition we'd have been punished heavier.

 

You only have to look at the last year and a bit to prove how much Heskey is needed. McClaren was pretty useless, it's the opinion of everyone, however he brought Heskey in for two games against Israel and Russia (both two good teams. We won both 3-0 (by far McClaren's best results), unfortunately he was then injured for the remaining games and we failed. Capello had started fairly average and people were questioning whether anything had changed. Again, he brings Heskey in and starts him for three games. We win 3-1, 4-1 and 5-1, our most convincing games under Capello yet. He might not score the goals (just over one in five at club level and 5 goals in 50 caps for England) but he offers so much, certainly more than Crouch. Crouch would never play the left side as well as Heskey did for periods tonight. The assist for Rooney's goal was class. I'm a huge fan of Heskey, I think he's about the most underrated player in the Premiership.

Once Belarus made the score 1-1, England woke up and started playing Football.

 

Second half they were superb, Rooney on this form is arguably the best player in the world, Heskey looked class and worked hard, Gerrard was great bar hitting the woodwork .....

 

But my happy mood dissolved with the news regarding Torres injury playing for Spain.

 

He's going to miss the Athletico games. :( I feel so sorry for him. Was sod's law that he'd be injured for the game, just after the twits at UEFA announce that the ban on Athletico Madrid won't come into affect until after the Liverpool game. Seriously, with them and FIFA in charge, they're going to screw up football for good. Is stupid how the two most powerful men in football are absolute t****.

 

And I fully agree about Heskey. He's vastly under-rated. He gets a lot of stick, but he offers so much more to the team as he's a work horse and is great at holding the ball up. He definitely seems like Rooney's partner, and while although I want Owen back in the England squad, there's not a chance he could dislodge the partnership of Heskey and Rooney up front at the moment.

Once Belarus made the score 1-1, England woke up and started playing Football.

 

Second half they were superb, Rooney on this form is arguably the best player in the world, Heskey looked class and worked hard, Gerrard was great bar hitting the woodwork .....

 

But my happy mood dissolved with the news regarding Torres injury playing for Spain.

Meanwhile they put me in an even happier mood about things at club level :P

 

I fully agree about Heskey, he always works he socks off for the team and I was really happy to see him prove it by setting up one of Rooney's goals! Gerrard playing well tonight gives me a headache though as I was thinking he'd have to be dropped to as Lampard seemed more adaptable to bring out the best of him for England. I would agree with trying him on the right as then it'd be better for a free role so he can get into the centre to be like he is for Liverpool and if Gary Neville is back by then then he can sometimes provide the width (i.e. decent crosses) into the box. Also if Ashley Young keeps up his form then he may get a chance soon over Joe Cole even though imo Joe Cole has been our best player over the past couple of years, Walcott hasn't been consistant for England so right now I'm not sure about him starting every game but this week has proved that Beckham still has plenty of life in him and he should have been brought on earlier last night imo.