General Chat / Euro 2004

Mort I know your a Man Utd fan, and you all love the little Ginger bastard. However this season he hasn't stood out and he hasn't scored a goal for 2+ years with England. While Lampard and Gerrard have both excelled as box to box midfielders for there respctive clubs (+ lets be honest Scholes doesn't offer much defensively) and therefore I feel they both warrant a starting place ahead of the Ginger Midget.

*stargazer*

3 years actually.

I'd place Gerrard ahead of Scholes as well. Lampard is slightly lacking in international experience for me, so I wouldn't place him above Scholes personally although I agree his current form is better. But I'd play Scholes ahead of Bridge down the left anyday, Bridge is a left back who likes to push forward, he has virtually no experience in midfield, and absolutely none at international level. It's a decent enough idea, but it would need practice and testing in friendlies first.

I would play heskey or vassel instead of owen. Owen may be classed and over-rated as an amazing striker, but i dont think hes anything that special. + if heskey played, he would give some height up front, and strenght along with rooney. If owen finds some good form great, but untill then hes useless.

(this coming from a liverpool supporter)

If I was England manager, I'd play Maggie Thatcher up front before I let Emile Heskey onto the pitch.

If I was England manager, I'd play Maggie Thatcher up front before I let Emile Heskey onto the pitch.

lol, yeah i think im one of the few people that like heskey. I wish he didnt leave liverpool, although cisse is better, i must say

------------------Robinson-------------------

--G.Nevile---Campbell---Terry---A.Cole--

--Beckham--Lampard--Gerrard--Bridge--

------------Rooney-----Owen----------------


There's no point in playing Scholes, an attacking midfielder who can't score and who plays balls through to a striker who can't score is just useless. Bridge has played on the left wing for Southhampton before and is allways venturing up their with Chelsea, he and Cole would be our best bet for a naturaly decent left side really. Robinson is in ahead of James for the pure fact James just can't command the area and drops 50% of shots, crosses. He also gets very nervous and makes too many mistakes, in the friendly against Portugal his first kick of the match, this is a goal kick mind, he shanked out for a throw and repeteadly swore at him self because of it. He then went on to almost conceed a goal due to not talking to his defence and running into the back of one of them letting a cross go right over his head only for Neville to clear it of the line. I just don't trust him and this is coming from a West Ham supporter.

Oh and as you now know I support West Ham I might as well say that Matthew Etherington will end up in the England squad and be our cure to the left side as soon as he gets in the Prem, if Erikson had a brain he'd be in the squad now instead of Joe Cole.

I think you'll find Robinson's injured.

And Matthew Etherington? wtf? He's been playing in the first division all year (David James has been prem since christmas) and has no experience at this sort of level. That would be silly.

As for the Scholes can't score comment: it's just the luck of the draw that he hasn't scored for England recently. He's been scoring regularly enough for England this season. And if you think Owen can't score why have you put him in the team? Have faith in Owen, he scored a hat trick against the krauts and one of our best goals ever against the argies.

And Joe Cole has a quality that very few players have, in that he can come on with 20 minutes to go and completely change the course of a match.

but the "krauts" won last game in wembley. hehe cause of that the englsih put wembley down.
and remember england was never european champion.
imo england will come in the quaterfinals, but they have to play against portugal or spain. i think it'LL be portugal, cause they'll win theri group and england will be second behind france in their group. the Portuguese will take that game and england won't be european champion again.

the germans will be 3rd or 4th in their group. the netherlands are mucht too stopg for them and the Czech Republic either.

the other groups are mch easier o predict in my eyes. italy and denmark in group C and porugal and spain in group A

and france will win the final again

Lol. Wembley was going to be destroyed anyway.

No, we've never been euro champions - but that doesn't make a difference as only a handful of players in the whole tournament will have had that experience before... as you say, Germany don't look promising in their group - but they always do well at tournaments, however bad a team you guys may have on paper. An England v. Portugal q-final would be very interesting. On paper, the teams would be reasonably even, perhaps England with a slight edge, but the home advantage would more than make up for that. Plus, they knocked us out last time...

My mate always says Spain are going to win and he almost always looks right on paper, but they never do.

As for the Scholes can't score comment: it's just the luck of the draw that he hasn't scored for England recently. He's been scoring regularly enough for England this season. And if you think Owen can't score why have you put him in the team? Have faith in Owen, he scored a hat trick against the krauts and one of our best goals ever against the argies.

Agree with the comment on Scholes

My mate always says Spain are going to win and he almost always looks right on paper, but they never do.

i had them winning in my prediction thing too, however, i still doubt it. But you can doubt any team, 'tis simply not predictable =P.

Seedorf 'll be back for Czech Republic. *dances.

seedorf??? PLZ come on man!

there is only one player in holland that is good MAKAY!
he is so great! Nistelrooy also a great player!

Seedorf is by far the best player imo. And makay won't even play..

anyways. Portugal. lmao. so much for all those predictions haha.

I think you'll find Robinson's injured.

I didn't know that, he looked fine in the friendly must have been after it then?

And Matthew Etherington? wtf? He's been playing in the first division all year (David James has been prem since christmas) and has no experience at this sort of level. That would be silly.

Just because someone is playing in a lower division does not mean they are not a good player, granted he doesn't have the experience at this level but he has to get picked first to gain that experience and if Erikson bothered looking in Divison 1 then I am sure he would have been called up by now for a friendly at least. Mark my words he'll be our future left midfielder.

As for the Scholes can't score comment: it's just the luck of the draw that he hasn't scored for England recently. He's been scoring regularly enough for England this season. And if you think Owen can't score why have you put him in the team? Have faith in Owen, he scored a hat trick against the krauts and one of our best goals ever against the argies.

Luck of the draw? Give me a fucking break. "Oh sorry Sven I can't hit a barn door at the moment I've just had bad luck for the past 3 years". Even if it is luck of the draw, luck most obviously isn't on his side at the moment so I wouldn't pick him anyway. As for Owen, you have shown from your two examples of his goals that he is still living off past reputation which isn't going to get us anywhere at the present. I chose him because in all honesty there is no one more likely to score, but that's not because he is excelling but because the other strikers aren't at a high enough level yet. If Defoe was in the squad I would choose him over Owen, but he isn't. So you have to put Owen in really, he also has the exeperience and I'm sure he'll pop up with the odd poached goal.

And Joe Cole has a quality that very few players have, in that he can come on with 20 minutes to go and completely change the course of a match.

I agree but if Erikson's not going to play him then I'd rather have someone in the squad that if needed could be a natural left sided back up for, surpsie, suprise, the left side.

Spain 1 - Russia 0
Portugal 1 - Greece 2

Spain 1 - Russia 0
Portugal 1 - Greece 2

have seen both games.

greece was really good. otto rehagel is for me the best coach at this euro. winning against potugal isn't that easy. and it's the best result for greece at a big tournament. the first time they made 2 goals.

russia wasn't that bad either. thought their team wouldn't be that good. have u seen the numerb of yellow card

but today euro 2004 starts really france-england. imo 2-2, but there can happen that many things.

The results yesterday shook things up abit in that group. It looked certain Portugal and Spain would progress before the matches but Greece defended amazingly and captalised on Portugals mistakes and really deserved the win. Now Portugal will most likely have to beat Spain to get out of the group, although it depends on the other fixtures and with the way things are going so far anything can happen.

I'm counting the mintues until kick off between England and France I hope it lives up to the hype and is a great game.

Wow, what a match between England & France... I'm still in shock... England had it in the pocket and Beckham should've finished it with the penalty...
But Zidane has proven to be the best player of the world again, he's just a phenomenon... dunno, but he's not from earth...
Defenitely one of the best matches I've seen...

SF

Heh. France comes back from 1-0 to win 2-1.

Ouch.