England v Holland

[wxwax]

Sturridge is a beast

I would say that if Mourinho returned to Chelsea, Studge would either have to change his game or he would lose his job.

There is no way Mourinho would tolerate the feeble attempt Sturridge made to track back on Robben's run. His unwillingness to consistently make an effort defending has been a problem all season.

I think one of the most wonderful transformations I've seen of a player is Eto'o under Mourinho at Inter. That man became a complete and fantastic player.

 

[dkw]

According to posts on Chelsea chat it may be a broken toe or even metatarsal. Hope thats not the case. Probably best to wait until official statement from the club though.

Latest is its just a badly bruised toe, which will probably still keep him out this weekend. On Robben, if I remember correctly he wanted to leave so there wasnt a lot we could do, other than get as much money for him as possible.

 

[Spiller86]

Here's hoping he is ok.

I actually thought they played ok. With the addition of Wilshere, JT and Frank before the tournament, they will make the quarters solidly enough.

As for Robben, even if he only played half the year, he'd still be better value than Hazard or equivalent.

 

[andy]

Further to my point earlier based on Chelsea and ex chelsea players all having good games...I could not help thinking last night if we had kept Boulahrouz, Parker and Robben at Chelsea what a team we would have now

Cech

Boulahrouz Cahill Terry Cole

Parker

Lampard Ramirez

Robben Sturridge Mata

Looks good to me

Of course you would need some one to cover for Robben for 2/3 of the season but still

 

[Scott]

Boulahrouz > Boswingo

 

[dkw]

Some rose tinted glasses going on here I think with regards to Boula, he had a couple of decent games (and one outstanding game against Ronaldinho) but he never really settled at Chelsea and had some abysmal displays for us.

 

[andy]

The comment was just based on last nights game... I have not seen him play since he left Chelsea.

 

[ethicalstrategy]

I would say that if Mourinho returned to Chelsea, Studge would either have to change his game or he would lose his job. There is no way Mourinho would tolerate the feeble attempt Sturridge made to track back on Robben's run. His unwillingness to consistently make an effort defending has been a problem all season. I think one of the most wonderful transformations I've seen of a player is Eto'o under Mourinho at Inter. That man became a complete and fantastic player.

I saw a few comments about this in the papers too. I think it is stretching the point a lot to place any blame on Sturridge for Robben's first goal. The fault lay with us giving the ball away high up the field and then backing off him and letting him go on his left foot. Smalling tried to cover Huntelaar's run when Cahill already had that covered.

 

[ethicalstrategy]

Further to my point earlier based on Chelsea and ex chelsea players all having good games...I could not help thinking last night if we had kept Boulahrouz, Parker and Robben at Chelsea what a team we would have now

Cech

Boulahrouz Cahill Terry Cole

Parker

Lampard Ramirez

Robben Sturridge Mata

Looks good to me

Of course you would need some one to cover for Robben for 2/3 of the season but still

I'm sorry but I don't buy in to the Scott Parker love in.

He is no better now than he was before. He is a good, solid midfielder of Premier League standard. He can do a job in a midfield as long as he has the right players around him.

Last night we saw the best and worst of him. He's great at snapping at your heels and throwing himself in front of shots. He is pretty poor on the ball. If he doesn't have good players around him then he turns in to a mad man galloping all over the pitch trying to put out fires on his own. He gave the ball away repeatedly in the second half and nearly cost us a goal on one occasion when he fell over his own feet.

I thought Barry, Milner and Young were also very poor and Baines leaves a lot to be desired defensively.

Holland were just treating the whole thing as a glorified training match. They were streets ahead of us. We don't have any players in the same league as Sneijder, Robben and Van Persie.

 

[andy]

I agree with Barry Milner and Young and I agree that the dutch were in second gear at best.

Sneijder was very ordinary .... as was Van Persie.. they are quality I agree, but if an England player put in a shift like that we would be giving them hell.

Don't disagree with Parkers ball skills however he has been brilliant all season, it does actually pain me to say it. I think he has been more the driving force behind Spurs 3rd place than any other player, including Modric who we bid stupid money for.. He faded in last nights game but I am not surprised the way he put himself about in the first half.

another thing did you see the national anthem ? I wish a few more England players would show just half that level of passion

 

[ethicalstrategy]

I'm probably being a bit unfair on Parker. It's not his fault that everyone is going overboard about him. He doesn't lack for passion or commitment. I just think he is limited.

Agree about Sneijder and Van Persie. From what I read the Dutch press gave Van Marwijk and the team a roasting for their attitude.

 

[CFCCAN]

The first half I thought I was watching Chelsea play, slow, slow, sideways, backwards football. Danny livened things up a bit when he came on, but defensively he is a very lazy player at tracking back, something he seriously needs to work on. Once the Dutch were 2-0 up they just stopped playing ..after all it was a friendly...England overall piss poor as usual in the final third, mind you half the regulars were absent. Well taken goal by Gary, defensively there have been a couple of goals recently where he seemed to be slightly out of position where the ball has floated over his head only for someone to come in behind him and score...last night and recently little Pea for Man U.

 

[Valerie]

I watched the first 20 minutes of the match, and after nearly dozing off, I decided I wouldn't waste my time any longer, and switched off. I therefore missed the goals, the clashing of heads, the hobbling off with dodgy toes, the Chelsea goal (that's my take on Cahill's goal), oh I missed all the fun.

The Dutch players reportedly think their second half was worthy of vice-world champions. Hmmmppphhhh, they got their heads up their own asses again. Wait til you play in the Group of Death, lads, instead of a..... how shall I put it.... yes: English national team in transition. Sounds familiar ?

Highlight of the evening: Gerard Stevens not made captain.

 

[Spiller86]

I'm sorry but I don't buy in to the Scott Parker love in.

He is no better now than he was before. He is a good, solid midfielder of Premier League standard. He can do a job in a midfield as long as he has the right players around him.

Last night we saw the best and worst of him. He's great at snapping at your heels and throwing himself in front of shots. He is pretty poor on the ball. If he doesn't have good players around him then he turns in to a mad man galloping all over the pitch trying to put out fires on his own. He gave the ball away repeatedly in the second half and nearly cost us a goal on one occasion when he fell over his own feet.

I thought Barry, Milner and Young were also very poor and Baines leaves a lot to be desired defensively.

Holland were just treating the whole thing as a glorified training match. They were streets ahead of us. We don't have any players in the same league as Sneijder, Robben and Van Persie.

Disagree es.

Not only is his movement off the ball fantastic,that ability to make a pass and then bust a gut to get it back and do it again, and again (something we desperately lack)

But the intangible qualities like his mentality and his leadership are what make him a fantastic player, that we should have jumped to have back in the summer. To put in some of the shifts he did in a dogsh*t poor Spammers team last season, to the point where they would have been relegated a month before they were if he hadn't have been there is quite extraordinary.

Not pointing the finger at you es, but people don't tend to appreciate those kind of things as much as they should. They are key to having a successful football team. We went for Romeu in the summer, and that was nice because he is young and talented, but at the same time, Parker is a player who you want in the squad, because during the 'bad moment' he would have been a player we could have counted on. I'd wager we would have been better off right now had we signed him instead. (queue enormous whinge from the youth brigade)

 

[Castiel]

I think he's a decent player with a strong work ethic. He's been overhyped to ridiculous proportions by the media and that has been pissing a lot of (non-spurs) fans off. When he was in our squad he was up against Makelele so he didn't really have a hope of breaking through. I think the fact that he could probably have improved us this season is a testament to how far we've fallen rather than evidence of how much he has improved.

Romeu on the other hand has talent that Parker will never have. All he's missing is hard experience (and admittedly Parker has more graft than Romeu). If we manage to hold onto him he could anchor our midfield for a decade.