Carlton Cole in the England Squad

[loz]

Given the lack of quality options it is not a great surprise that Cole has been called up however despite the fact he has hit a little form for West Ham I think this still shows how little quality we have in England just now.

An entirely deserved call up for Jagielka who has possibly been the most consistent centre half in the Premiership this season.

Goalkeepers: Robert Green (West Ham), Joe Hart (Man City), David James (Portsmouth).

Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Man City), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Luke Young (Villa).

Midfielders: David Beckham (LA Galaxy), Gareth Barry (Villa), Michael Carrick (Man Utd), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Villa), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City), Ashley Young (Villa).

Forwards: Gabriel Agbonlahor (Villa), Carlton Cole (West Ham), Peter Crouch (Portsmouth), Emile Heskey (Villa).

 

[Ruh Buh Juh]

Other than Agbonlahor, it's not exactly a strike force to be proud of is it?

 

[Zola's Love Child]

Deserved for Carlton, he's been playing bloody well the past two months, and has been great to see him finally doing what we all hoped he would be doing in a Chelsea shirt.

 

[ethicalstrategy]

He looked more dangerous against Man U yesterday than any of our players did.

 

[Chippy]

He looked more dangerous against Man U yesterday than any of our players did.

None of our boys were playing

same as when we played them funnily enough.

 

[loz]

We got gubbed!

That about sums it up.

Spain were a country mile better than we were tonight. SWP had a reasonably decent game as did Beckham after he came on for the second half but other than that we were fairly woeful and lucky to only lose 2-0.

Of the Chelsea players out there Ashley Cole was probably the best of the three. Lampard's passing was all over the place and the centre half pairing of JT and Jagielka never really coped with Torres and a hugely impressive Villa.

Xavi was superb - a real joy to watch.

 

[yorkleyblue]

oooh oooh oooh - lets go buy them Spain boys! Specially the forwards, lets buy 'em now !

 

[Nibs]

oooh oooh oooh - lets go buy them Spain boys! Specially the forwards, lets buy 'em now !

You can joke about it YB, but watching the game last night and the Brazil match the night before you can see what we are currently missing.

My preferred choice for Chelsea going forward is for us not to spend big anymore – I would much rather we see the likes of Di Santo, Stoch and Kakuta + hopefully a couple of British lads coming through. That happening and us playing some decent football and I’d be more than happy, even if we won f**k all.

But as a club, we have stood still and you compare the likes of Kalou, Malouda, Ballack etc to Xavi, Villa, Torres and Iniesta and they didn’t even have Fabregas or Artetta. An Iniesta or Xavi is exactly what our midfield is lacking at the moment. A player with the ability and speed of thought to keep the ball and play a killer pass. And on the end of those passes, Villa & Torres – different class to what we currently have to rely on. I know the stats will tell us that Anelka has scored however many goals this season but he’s not at the same level as these guys.

 

[yorkleyblue]

Oh I do agree Nibs - I was cracking at the knee-jerk tossers on here for whom the solution to everything is for RA to splash out a sh*tload more cash on the latest Youtube compilation genius.

I agree with you about the youngsters, though I'm not convinced that, if Guus should take that route and lose a few matches, the crowd wouldn't turn on him big time. You and I might be happy not winning but playing good football, but just think how many wouldn't be, and how a season and a bit with no trophy has cost us two managers.

One interesting thing. You say

An Iniesta or Xavi is exactly what our midfield is lacking at the moment A player with the ability and speed of thought to keep the ball and play a killer pass.

. I think some of us, including Scolari, thought that was exactly what we were getting when we bough Deco, and, to be fair, his first few matches seemed to bear that out.Any road up, we live in interesting times

kev

 

[Barn]

thought last night England played a lot like Chelsea.

X passes to Y (who's only 8 yards away), Y moves back towards X (who hasn't moved for any sort of return pass), then when they're now only 3 yards apart Y gives the ball back to X, the opponent nips in and takes the ball and everyone looks a bit confussed!

Thoughts on Grabby-bonk-the-whore? He's done well for Villa this season but he just never really looks top draw to me.

 

[dkw]

the thing about last night which pissed me off the most was that liverpool had 0 players in the england squad but had 4 in the spanish one. how ridiculous is that, one of englands so called biggest clubs cant even manage to supply one player to the england squad but can supply 4 to the opposition team. and once again its been completely ignored by the media, can you imagine if chelsea had done that.

 

[yorkleyblue]

thought last night England played a lot like Chelsea.X passes to Y (who's only 8 yards away), Y moves back towards X (who hasn't moved for any sort of return pass), then when they're now only 3 yards apart Y gives the ball back to X, the opponent nips in and takes the ball and everyone looks a bit confussed!

Thoughts on Grabby-bonk-the-whore? He's done well for Villa this season but he just never really looks top draw to me.

Something I noticed was that whilst we were doing the pass it across the back for an hour and a half nonsense, the Spanish payers were pressing and pressing, like the old Arsenal, always running to the ball, giving very little time.

It's one of the things that pisses me off about our CFC play - we don't press the opposition and get pressed hard, particularly by the "lesser" teams, for whom hard work outweighs skill and ability

As for Gabby, I've always thought that he was an example of being able to run fast rather than being skillful. despite what some other posters have said, I wouldn't let him near the Chelsea squad. But that's just me, I suppose

kev

 

[yorkleyblue]

An entirely deserved call up for Jagielka who has possibly been the most consistent centre half in the Premiership this season.Forwards: Gabriel Agbonlahor (Villa), Carlton Cole (West Ham), Peter Crouch (Portsmouth), Emile Heskey (Villa).

And Jagielka looked so far out of his league it was almost embarrassing (at least in the bits I could be arsed to watch, perhaps he was genius whenever he noticed I'd gone for a slash or to pour another drink)

Forwards: - Now there's a forward line to scare the bejeezus out of any um, err, um. sh*t, I give up. I can't think of any level of defence that wouldn't be rolling round on the floor with wet pants when they saw the team sheet for that.

I think Loz is right - it just shows the poor poor level of English forwards

I think I might have found a Welsh great-uncle - woohoo

kev

 

[Chippy]

thought last night England played a lot like Chelsea.X passes to Y (who's only 8 yards away), Y moves back towards X (who hasn't moved for any sort of return pass), then when they're now only 3 yards apart Y gives the ball back to X, the opponent nips in and takes the ball and everyone looks a bit confussed!

Thoughts on Grabby-bonk-the-whore? He's done well for Villa this season but he just never really looks top draw to me.

Funny I said exactly that last night, I said when England beat Croatia after the game being pretty even although England had gone 1-0 and it was only because Croatia had a man sent off that it flattered us and people were getting over excited about the new Capello England, they don't look a lot different to they did under Mclaren or Sven to me and thats something to do with the players available.