To my mind, the only way england can hope to do well in this tournament is to park a bus, nay, a plane in front of the goal, and play on the break.

We have players like lennon, walcott, milner, gerrard and rooney that can be absolutely devastating on the break.

But we are simply crap at trying to dictate games, keep the ball and create opportunities against well organised teams. So let them come onto us and we'll counter. That's our best bet.

We should play 4-5-1

carragher, ferdinand, terry, cole at the back.

Carragher may not be a good attacking right back but he's a fantastic all round defender.

In midfield, it's tricky. I'd have barry as the holding midfielder but he's injured. Carrick has been off the boil. Parker is perhaps too ferocious in his tackling for the world stage, and how often has he played for england recently? Is huddlestone are holding midfielder?

apart from that you'd have joe cole on the left, walcott/lennon on the right, lampard in the centre with gerrard playing off rooney up front.

This system provides great flexibility, theres so much scope for switching it around during a game.

Crouch has too many free kicks given against him. He just does. I remember 06. He'd jump for the ball, do nothing wrong......free kick against him. It keps happening again and again. Refs on the world stage don't like him.

He's a good scoring record in friendlies and qualifiers but I just don't think he's got the guile or the touch for a world cup. He's also very slow and for his height is relatively poor at headers. Also when crouch plays we fall into the trap of simply hoofing the ball up and it just comes straight back at us. The likes of bent, defoe and whatever other strikers are in the team offer more I think.

I posted some weeks ago, that england now are absolutely no better than they were under Ericksson. Sure we've improved.....because McClaren was in charge before Capello. The difference now is we have a better manager, but the performances are still the same as they were under Ericksson. Whether having capello instead of ericksson, who won't be a soft touch and will make better tactical decision in the crunch, will make a difference, remains to be seen.

It will probably mean a semi final, instead of a quarter. Which is good. We were never that bad under Ericksson, just people got carried away with expecting us to win.

Which isn't of course happening now



The Scum are just [udying[/u to put the extra star above the England badge...

For me after seeing that friendly against Mexico, my team for the first game would be :

1. Green

2. Johnson
5. Ferdinand
6. Terry
3. Cole

7. Lennon (raw pace is what we need to get at defenders)
4. Barry (Milner if Barry doesn't make it)
8. Lampard
11. Gerrard

9. Crouch (international record speaks for itself)
10. Rooney

So after the fantastic season Milner's had and winning young player of the year he wouldn't even be in your team? you prefer an overrated and unfit midfielder who hasn't played much of the season? Deary me, you'd fit right in at the FA, you should apply to join the other muppets.

Carricks preformence on Monday and the fact that Milner isn't a holding midfield player just adds to the importance of Gareth Barry to this England side.

Him being fit would be a huge boost to our chances imo because he allows guys like Gerrard and Lampard do their thing. I thought Carrick looked very sluggish the other night and didn't protect the back 4 or give the attacking players a licence to get forward at all.

Gareth Barry just gets the job done.

Thanks. Like I said if Barry isn't fit, then I'd play Milner. England need a holding midfielder, because Lampard isn't the type of player to sit back and protect the back and in my opinion Barry is the right man to do that.

Whilst Crouch and Rooney seems the most likely partnership up front, it has to be said Rooney plays much better with Heskey.

His performances for Man Utd suggest he plays much better on his own with attacking wide men.

Which is why we should play 4 5 1 as i suggested.

This means all our best players can play to their strengths, and not out of position to fit into the formation.

No way!

Milner and lampard the central midfielders? We'll get passed apart without a holding midfielder, and neither one of them are it.

James in goal instead of green. He's a better goal keeper and really doesn't have many brainfarts anymore.

Johnson isn't a good enough defender. Your defenders need to be rock solid, even the wing backs. They will be constantly tested.

Crouch is a free kick machine and doesn't score against the top nations.