Come on, people. Entertain us __with your wit and wisdom. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Thrill us, Gareth…
Couldn’t agree more __with Sarah Winterburn.
If we are going to be rubbish then at least put an exciting team out which will see a goal frenzy.
We can’t defend for toffee but that probably won’t matter against Malta. Play a front six of Dier, Hendo, Rooney (I wish he didn’t but guessing the capt’n plays), Studge, Rashford and Walcott and treat long-suffering England fans to some fast-paced free-moving football. Add La-la la-lalana and Sterling to that and we have an excellent front six that could hurt any team.
We have a decent pair of full-backs (and decent cover too) who are used to playing high tempo football at their clubs.
Go on Southgate ignore the media who think you have no charisma and put out a swashbuckling football team led by Captain Flatfoot.
H, (deliberately ignoring the centre backs. Can we adopt a couple of Belgians?)
Could we all work together please?
It’s really not rocket science. Or brain surgery for that matter. The majority of England’s attacking talent play for the current top four. And the style of those teams does not differ too much. High-pressing possession football with Spurs and Liverpool placing a lot more attention on the high press. As many of you who watched the Euros would
have noticed, the majority of teams tried to keep it tight at the back and use any kind of attacking talent’s individual skill to open up defences. The reason for this it’s much easier to work on defensive organisation than it is to create a free-flowing attacking team within the few weeks national team coaches have with their players.
So you would be only really helping the national team by hiring a coach who shares a similar philosophy with clubs that have the most English players. Players wouldn’t need to perform such a large transition when going form club to international football which could only really benefit all three parties. The new England manager could also sit down with Messrs Klopp, Pochettino, Wenger and Guardiola to figure out what would be best for all included. And then maybe the press could stop trying to sabotage the squad by publishing photos of possible team sheets and piling the pressure on the players.
But that would be insane. Everyone pulling together in the same direction for the benefit of the whole nation. It doesn’t sell newspapers though unfortunately.
Peter Stevenson, LFC, Cyprus
Start Rooney…then, erm, pull him off
Here is what I would like to happen in Gareth Southgate’s first game in charge.
Rooney starts up front as a lone striker with a five-man creative midfield behind him, allowing him to concentrate on scoring goals.
After ten minutes he is in his own half spraying balls to the right-back to chase.
Gareth spotting this instructs him to push on to where he should be.
Ten minutes later he hasn’t listened and is back being a ‘quarterback’, Gareth gets Rashford warmed up and replaces Rooney for not listening and bad positional sense.
Rashford scores four and the papers demand he is knighted immediately.
Rooney either learns about positioning or is dropped.
Unfortunately Gareth seems too nice for this, he probably goes to the bog at the pub to fart into a tissue to not upset anyone.
Also if anyone here is a billionaire and wants to buy a club, please help Coventry City remove SISU. The fans will love you and we have a statue of a naked bird on a horse, you can probably have it as a thank you.
Sam (Not Big Sam or Sky Blue Sam)
What kind of a player is Firmino?
As there is nothing better to do in international breaks, I would like people’s opinions on what kind of a player Firmino is. He seems like a ‘jack of all trades’ kind of guy and the closest I can relate him to is Müller. These players are not seemingly very fast or very strong, they don’t have amazing vision but they always contribute.
Why is this so? Can anybody explain this?
Zaki LFC (I like Emma Watson), India
‘English’ Zaza is more effective in Italy
Interesting to read KC’s thoughts on Zaza. Seemed an obvious failure from the get-go to me, the reason he stood out in Italy was that he had very ‘English’ qualities, running around a lot, aerial power and decent hold up play. However, his abilities in all of these areas were very limited and below the level expected in the Premier League for example he does none of the above to the level that West Ham perma-crock and jagermeister rep Andy Carroll does.
In Serie A he offered a different option which would be unusual to defences and cause some problems as he was atypical of the general profile of striker, in England folk like Fonte, Evans etc would give as good as they got and are used to this style of player, whereas perhaps a small technical player may struggle to ‘stand out’ in Italy but give our centre halves some real trouble. Are our clubs’ scouting priorities wrong?
Nathan (not sure my beloved Pompey will be scouting Serie A anytime soon)
Back to the stove…
After spending the last couple of days scrolling through the pointless d*ck-swinging contest that has been the Liverpool-Spurs ‘rivalry’ (you’re both as bad as each other, go stand in the corner and think about what’s really important in your lives), this story cropped up that I thought was worth pointing out.
After the Zbrojovka Brno 3-3 Sparta Prague match on Sunday (which was an absolute belter, as you can see), after Brno scored a 92nd-minute equaliser (later shown to be offside), Sparta ‘keeper Tomas Koubek said in his post-match interview that “in my opinion, women should stay by the stove and not officiate men’s football”. The comments were referring to Lucie Ratajova, the assistant referee who missed the offside. On top of this, their (currently injured) midfielder, Lukas Vacha, tweeted a picture of Ratajova captioned “to the kitchen!”
This caused a bit of bother, as you might imagine. So how did Sparta react? These are two current internationals, remember, and big players for their club.
They’ve sent them to train with the women’s team. They’ve made them club ambassadors for the women’s team, and they will be made to report to the coaches, and bosses of the women’s team for a month, as I believe. This is in order, said Adam Kotalik (Sparta’s general manager) that they “see with their own eyes how talented our women are”.
FA Chairman Miroslav Pelta said: “I would like to emphasise that women are, and will be, an important part of football, and their presence in its structures and in the stands is important for the game. Football belongs to the wider public, including women and families. This will be a topic at the next disciplinary meeting, and I expect the committee to react in a corresponding way.”
So, a bit of a good news story. Now, if only the league could stop the racism and fighting from the stands, we’d be on our way!
David (Zbrojovka and Coventry City) Szmidt, Brno, Czech Rep
These men didn’t ‘know the league’ either
Since you guys are eager for any sort of mails (and Rooney, Liverpool vs Spurs, and internationals are boring) – here are a few managers who didn’t “know the league” upon joining English football, on the off-chance anyone reading actually thinks Sutton has a point:
Wenger
Ferguson
Mancini
Mourinho
Benitez
Klopp
Pochettino
Guardiola (Early days, but, well…)
Ranieri (Chelsea era)
Pellegrini
Van Gaal (first season was good?)
Flores
Koeman
Houllier
…
Anyone who thinks Giggs, Sherwood, or their ilk is more qualified than any of the above seriously needs to rethink things.
Rick (Hoping I get published for using the word ‘ilk’) Andrews
PS. Interesting that Di Matteo, Garde, Di Canio, Zola et al don’t get ‘know the league’ points…
Most awesome football shirts
After reading Calum’s mail about his personal favourites it brought up some huge nostalgia.
I always remember Liverpools awful ecru-coloured jersey and owned it despite it being horrendous. I still feel dirty about longing for the black (and the blue come to think about it) Man UTD tops, grey top less so.
But for me it will always be the Ajax away jersey of the 95 season when they lost the Champions League final. It had the classic abn amro down the side, different shades of grey and to top it off an immensely talented Ajax team. I remember starting high school that year and in GAA Ireland and it being the first ‘soccer top’ I owned. Being shy and geeky but quite good at football I was worried I wouldn’t fit in. My mum took me shopping and I convinced her I needed it for school. I went to PE feeling like a pro wearing my exotic foreign top. I remember feeling beyond cool, and loving that year at school, all down to that jersey.
As an aside I got married last year and my wife bought the jersey for me as a wedding present and told me it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen or bought in her life.
Also does anyone remember Liverpool and Rangers away jerseys and goalie tops in 1995 being exactly the same, just different colours (weird square jerseys). Adidas really did phone it in that year.
Michael from Derry (Brackets)