He's worse than Dean Marney.

Jermaine Defoe is the new Andy Cole.

The problem is the following.....

You have a crap goalkeeper(s).
Your main striker does not score enough against the top sides and your second striker is unknown at the moment. It may be Crouch, Defoe, Carlton Cole etc but none of them are good enough.
Despite all the hoo-ha the last time Engerlund played in a tournament, you STILL do not have a left sided player that is good enough to win the world cup.
And this year, ditto the right hand side. Beckham is not gonna play 90 minutes and Lennon and the likes are not good enough.
Lampard and Gerrard never perform in big tournaments.
Rio is getting past it.
Glen Johnson is over-rated big time.
A lot of hope is being put on Walcott who is not even a regular starter for his club.

Barring that, you are ok.

Ok, lets not bother turning up eh

Eddie, look at the Italy side that won the last world cup or the Greek side that won Euro 2004. Hardly the greatest side at either tournament and hardly oozed world class players in each position. Sometimes, tactics, momentum and luck can play bigger factors.

Nice to see Gerrard upto his old tricks, shocking and not even mentioned on MOTD. YSB.

United squad that have travelled to Wolfsburg

Ben Foster, Gabriel Obertan, Magnus Eikrem, Paul Scholes, Darron Gibson, Antonio Valencia, Oliver Gill, Michael Carrick, Matty James, Michael Owen, Darren Fletcher, Danny Welbeck, Ji-sung Park, Anderson, Patrice Evra, Cameron Stewart, Tomasz Kuszczak, Nani, Oliver Norwood.


If you are going, take your boots.

Matty James is a good one.

The last 3 world cup winners have all had weak spots in their teams, in the case of Italy one of the weakest teams on paper to have ever won it IMO, but their tactics saw them overachieve. FFS, Greece recently won the Euros with a squad no coach in the world would have fancied. I fancy this world cup to be one of the most open by virtue of there being several of the usual top nations with wobbling or below-par squads by their usual standards. In contrast, we are about as good as we have been for almost 20 years.

Those last 2 reasons along with the relatively favourable draw are why we should be looking to make a final.

I'll state again, clearly: I'm not saying we will make the final. But there are no excuses why we shouldn't challenge for it, as teams with all of the attributes we are going into this world cup with, both good and bad, have done.

Agreed. If a foreign team had a core group of players of the capability of Gerrard, Terry, Rooney, Lampard & Cole, we would regard them as serious contenders, presuming that they should be able to muster another half a dozen reasonably competent players to go with them. I dont see anything wrong in applying the same logic to England. I think Brazil & Spain are a cut above the rest but dont see any reason why England supporters shouldnt have a degree of optimism.

I am getting more and more convinced by Milner. I think he would maybe be my first choise right side now for England. Although I do like Lennon.

I think Milner is almost a shoe in now. Can play left side, right side or even full back positions at a push.

Exactly. Some people and pundits are tipping Ivory Coast on the basis of the likes of Drogba, both Toure's, and Keita. But then when you look and see that the likes of Eboue, Meite, Zokora, Dindane, and Kalou are regulars, it's clear they are just as plain as us if not weaker throughout the rest of the side/squad. Not every position needs to have a world class player in it in order to do well.

Even the Brazil squad has players like Elano, Lucas, and Baptista floating around the first team, and they're most people's 2nd favourites. On paper, there's only Spain that look massively strong IMO.

I want England to do well but I'm not sure I want them to win it. I think there are players in there who already think they are gods gift without adding a world cup winners medal to boot.

Pig

Gill - Carrick - Gibson/Fletch - Evra

Park - Fletch/Gibson - Scholes - Anderson - Welbeck

Owen