England v The Swiss

[CumbrianRam]

Settled for a draw.

[CumbrianRam]

Swiss almost score a late winner!

They deserve at the least a point to be fair.

[Day]

Has that "friendly" feel to it, perhaps the players have forgot the time we didn't qualify for the Championships, I haven't and this is crap.

[CumbrianRam]

Has that "friendly" feel to it, perhaps the players have forgot the time we didn't qualify for the Championships, I haven't and this is crap.

I'm sure they'll love the prospect of play in the Baltics in November!

It'll serve them right.

[CumbrianRam]

FT: 2-2

Good performance by The Swiss, England most do better.

[StaffsRam]

Downing - not enough time to make an impact, but easily enough time to prove once again how completely fooking useless he is. C***.

[CumbrianRam]

The only English player who played half decent was Ashley Young!

Very lucky to get a point.

You can tell half the media support West Ham, how the hell did Parker get PotY.

[StaffsRam]

No matter how vvank a qualifying group we have, we always have to make it go right down to the wire.

[trekkie_ram]

Why did we only take one fit striker? If Crouch and Zamora are broke, then why haven't we replaced them in the squad, or why didn't we have the 4th striker sooner? Capello picked a poor squad for the world cup, and that is the failing again here.

Downing isn't good enough, Bent should have put those two chances away, he's been good recently for England and Villa, but hasn't scored for England when it mattered, Parker was poor, but I can forgive him G.Johnson was missing all game. Poor, performance, although the press underestimated the Swiss, we still had the chances to win.

[Alph]

Andy Townsend liked the look of the team 10 mins in. Right players, in favoured positions.

10mins from the end he "always felt" like Ashley Young should start.

Why are England doing the whole Downing thing again? Haven't they been through that? But then, i forgot they did the Heskey thing a few times before it clicked that he's useless.

Walcott is pretty poor. About as good as Wright Phillips. Yet he still gets in ahead of some far better players. Lampard is a passenger as always. Still gets picked and will be picked ahead of Wilshere and Young next time around. Ferdinands spot is invincible (not that i think he's poor. Just stating a fact) Terry too can't be touched. Is Glen Johnson the best English RB?? I'd be worried for England fans if he is.

Find it much easier to like the U21's. Infact, i reckon they'd of done a better job today. More purpose about their game when they play. Hungrier players who don't have massive wages and a huge club reputation to cushion their blow.

Let the U21's play instead next time. It'll give a plastic Wembley crowd less to boo and complain about. It'll mean the rest of us can support players still in regular contact with planet Earth.

Can't wait for them to meet Spain, Holland or Germany.

[Asanovic]

I still haven't watched England since Germany last year and thank god.

Why not just say the players over 30 (Parker excluded) are out? They've all had two or three world cups and choked every time.

[Alph]

Why did we only take one fit striker? If Crouch and Zamora are broke, then why haven't we replaced them in the squad, or why didn't we have the 4th striker sooner? Capello picked a poor squad for the world cup, and that is the failing again here.

Downing isn't good enough, Bent should have put those two chances away, he's been good recently for England and Villa, but hasn't scored for England when it mattered, Parker was poor, but I can forgive him G.Johnson was missing all game. Poor, performance, although the press underestimated the Swiss, we still had the chances to win.

We only took one striker because Kevin Davies and Jay Bothroyd had their twenty minutes to score a hattrick. They didn't even score a bicycle kick!!

We can't give our players too many chances you know?? Every player must know every game could be their last.

Duh!

[WorksopRam]

I think at the minute, I would genuinely rather see the U21 squad put out for the full team. Total overhaul, along with the manager!

[Alph]

I think at the minute, I would genuinely rather see the U21 squad put out for the full team. Total overhaul, along with the manager!

Certainly couldn't do much harm. Sprinkle a few senior players on them, Cole, Rooney, Bent, Wilshere and Hart. See what works.

That was Switzerland afterall. Just your average average European side. Technical, but rather drab. Lack ideas or sometimes the players to pull them off.

What's with England playing like Spain among the back four only to hoof it 40 yards when i gets to about 10 passes?

Is that a tactic?:eek:

[desmond_tutu]

The best player for England by a mile was Young, why does Capello pick Walcott over him? Parker was a passenger in the midlfield.

The England team are going through a transition of getting a settled squad together, its very clear Capello doesnt know who his best 11 are, after 3 years in the job. Capello did the whole army drill disapline thing, which worked great in the last qualifiers. But he seems to be restricting what the players can do, in terms of creativity and flair, maybe thats down to his negative tatics.

[StaffsRam]

FT Montenegro 1 Bulgaria 1

Bullet dodged. Still top.

[TimRam]

Darren Bent is the new "Barnes" and "Heskey". Expect him to reach 100 caps and score about 3 goals (all tap ins).

[Alph]

Darren Bent is the new "Barnes" and "Heskey". Expect him to reach 100 caps and score about 3 goals (all tap ins).

Had that in the back of my mind too. He's brilliant at club level which makes it so frustrating. Not just his goals either!

Djourou is a terrible CB. Even when he plays 'well' he's only playing OK when Arsenal are winning. Today he was as bad as when Priskin and Ipswich targeted him in the League Cup. He couldn't deal with anything. For England to only just scrape themselves back into the game with him at CB should embarass them. But it wont.

Looking at the highlight program;

Fabio thinks the players are tired after a long hard PL season. Spain seemed to cope alright in the last two tournaments?

Young thinks England deserved to win. Nope, HE deserved to be on the winning team. That's it.

Terry thinks England outplayed them in second half. 1)it was Switzerland. 2)England created a few more chances. But Switzerland enjoyed plenty of unchallenged possession. 3) They almost won the game in injury time. 4)Many England chances came through unforced Swiss errors. Plenty from Djourou. Hardly any chances created were a result of creativity.

But yes, other than that Terry you did outplay them. Well done. Did you win? Shall we see a comparison between transfer fees and wages?

Andy "i like the look of this team" Townsend still thinks Young should of started. He could argue with himself

[Bris Vegas]

Had that in the back of my mind too. He's brilliant at club level which makes it so frustrating. Not just his goals either!

Probably because the PL is littered with sh**t defenders and GKs that it's easier for him to score.. He thrives on through balls but we have no creativity.. He'd be lethal playing with creative midfielders.. Young and Wilshire look good in fairness, but our other midfielders are awful.

If we was to use the best international team in the world (Spain) as a yardstick, we really are miles behind. Who do England have that are of actual world class ability? Rooney and thats about it, and he still wouldn't get in Spains team.

I honestly think England are going through our worst spell (in terms of players ability) in years.. Apart of it I blame on the 'seeded teams' meaning we only play against average/poor European teams in qualifiers and our choice of friendlies is a joke.. Get them up against the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Germany, Italy, France or at least give us tricky away fixtures at the likes of Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, South Korea, Mexico, Paraguay, USA.. Playing against sh*te just allows the players to limp through the qualifiers and then suffer the inevitable at the big tournaments.

All our friendlies seems to be against no hopers like the Carribean countries or Canada and then everyone gets excited when we comfortably win 3-0.. Why does all our friendlies (with the exception of Denmark) also seem to be at Wembley?.. And even when we play the likes of Ghana and France (decent teams) at Wembley we fail to win. We'd get thumped playing away at a decent side.

Fustrates me bigtime..

[Alph]

Agree with you Bris.

I think Rooney might get in Spains side though. Only Rooney though. No one else. And only at the expense of Pedro (who is an excellent player. Does he start? Can't remember). I think Rooney is immense at times. Can be very technical, suprisingly quick and unselfish. His only weakness is that he doesn't score enough goals. But with Villa i doubt that'd be a problem. That's the only bit i differ on.

other than that..... Wilshere is Englands most gifted player? He'd not get on the bench for Spain. Not Holland either. I consider him one of the finest players in Europe based on age and potential. But without a correct blend of players around him...... well, England didn't give him much of a platform today.

Even at Wembley, some of the technical stuff that the likes of Serbia/Croatia play looks beyond England sometimes. If some of these teams had a world class player for them.... well, they'd then have someone to move them up a gear to beat England. England perhaps have that player, Rooney, but not the foundations.

Forgot to mention Ashley Cole. Magnificent LB. But still, LB's dont win matches. And in Coles case, matches aren't lost there either. No one likes him but he still gets plenty of praise. Says something of how good he is.

Unless England can use the battering ram approach of domestic football in international games, they look technically inferior. France played them off the park. Had Switzerland had a gem of an attacking midfielder today, England would of been beaten. They just dont boss/dictate matches against half decent European opposition.