EURO 2012

So semi-serious question, who's going to be in mainstay of the England team (if we qualify) for Brazil 2014?

Joe Hart

Glen Johnson
Joleon Lescott
Martin Kelly
Leighton Baines

Jack Wilshere
Tom Cleverely
Theo Walcott
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Wayne Rooney
Danny Welbeck

I'm not filled with confidence.

phil jones
gary cahill

rooney lol

cleverly
smalling
young

the possible team in 2 years time >>>>> the possible and actual one this summer

That's okay imo - Wilshere and Cleverley, if fit and developing properly, might sort out the minor problem of ball retention. The centre of defence looks weak tbh, Lescott has never convinced me. Though Smalling's good. I'd've had Theo on for Rooney instead of Milner last night personally, and have him as a second striker - Theo with Young means half the midfield is too lightweight, Ox may yet develop into a beefier presence. There might be a couple of new lads too - I'm thinking Sterling at Liverpool, but who knows if that'll happen really.

Hart, two schmucks
Richards, Kelly
Baines, Gibbs
Smalling, Jones, Lescott, Cahill
Livermore, Colback, Wilshere, Cleverly, McEachran
Dyer, Sinclair, Lennon, Ox, Walcott
Rooney, Welbeck, Sturridge

I would have liked to see Oxo cube, the iron baby, come in to the midfield for Parker and Walcott on for Young who should have been subbed if not at the start of the second half then at the start of the game or the tournament itself

Would never have let him take a penalty tbh

I guess that is 1 player too many (23 man squad innit) before Milner, Carroll, THUDD...

oh i forgot Young as well, maybe because he was so shitty last night.

I'm quite excited about the future England team if the young quick lads are allowed to run about a bit and pass the ball around - think it's a better combination with Walcott/Ox/Welbeck than with Carroll upfront though

repeat every two years forever

now that the joke team of the tourno is out we can concentrate on some decent semi finals.

germany 2 - italy 0
portugal 1 - spain 3

Watching the game last night I somehow didn't notice England were as bad as everyone is saying, I thought they did alright. They played quite well for 30 minutes of the game and had some chances, and that exceeded most of my expectations. I just wish Young had got subbed because he looked like the worst player on the pitch and there no point him being there

Although my friend - who doesn't watch football at all - said Rooney should have been sent off "for being shit"

no livermore, thudd, no credibility btw

I'm not seeing a glittering England future for Carroll, who, as someone said on Twitter last night, looks like an early-90s ecstacy dealer.

He looks like the first man who ever lived

He looks Brendan Fraser in that one film

A neanderthal living with humans for the first time and trying to work out how the world works

3-1 is madness. It'll be 1-0, I dearly hope to Portugal.

Looking forward to the remake of that with Kevin Nolan teaching Andy Carroll how to be a human being xp

no livermore, thudd, no credibility btw

― irrational angst that makes me innocuously thingy (darraghmac), Monday, 25 June 2012 11:15 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hart, two schmucks
Richards, Kelly
Baines, Gibbs
Smalling, Jones, Lescott, Cahill
Livermore, Colback, Wilshere, Cleverly, McEachran
Dyer, Sinclair, Lennon, Ox, Walcott
Rooney, Welbeck, Sturridge

― Smothered, Covered and Chunked!!! (a hoy hoy), Monday, 25 June 2012 11:09 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh hei

Ronaldo will score 2 is my predo.

I should add that I'm not quite excited about future England team in the sense of them winning anything, I just massively prefer them to these guys and can't wait for Terry etc to get tae fuck. It's a team I'd be happier about supporting however shit they may end up being

I mean I support Arsenal, winning isn't the most important thing

Pretty blasé tbh

they come as a unit imo sam

Oh Suedey, but I'm p certain that just because Terry and Stevie Me are leaving doesn't mean Carroll and Wilshere and maybe one or two more unsavoury characters (Morrison?) won't take their place.

Wilshere is a lovely lad how dare you

Guy Mowbray: "Gerrard is England's Pirlo"

(^o^)

Carroll is indefensible obvs, and not in the sense that he's unplayable etc etc

Come to think of it, why was nobody closing down Pirlo? The only other thing I noticed during the game, and esp after everyone ever was like "yeah you can't give him an time or you're fucked"

Gave him way too much time on the penalty, Hart should have mooned or something. I expect he still would have been indifferent tho

<3 Pirlo

Easily the 4 best teams in the tourney have made it thru to the SF's so that's cool. Possibly Croatia the only other one to feel unlucky. If Germany-Italy is as good as '06 I'll be happy, happier still if Germany win this time.

England were England, able to draw against the first decent team they face in the knockout stages.

Pirlo was magnificent.

Got Thurs, Fri and Monday off so I can now watch the rest of the tourney without managing on 3 hrs sleep a night. Hurray!

Wilshere only spits on Tottenham fans.

Lawrenson was a disgrace last night, just fucking awful

England seemed happy and keen to mark Pirlo for the first 40 minutes or so, and then gave up, as if they (like the commentators) were convinced he'd get tired, or something. Because someone playing the way he does is likely to get tired, with all those gut-busting runs from deep. Idiocy.

Lawro's best moment: the main commentator said something like "What else has Pirlo got up his sleeve?" and Lawro responded "His shirt". wtf?!

i'mma stan harder for carroll the worse ye get

We all come to expect ITV to be shite but the BBC coverage has been abysmal, far worse

Keane's misanthropy has been a beacon of joy.

IMO Hart, Glen Johnson and Lescott have all been good in this tournanment, the rest have ranged from ordinary to Dyer dire. Surely Stevie G's England career is over, he completed 30-something passes in 120 minutes that's less than West Ham reject Diamanti managed in a third of the time! Good riddance too, most overrated footballer in my lifetime.

These semi finals are definitely as they should be, glad England aren't there clogging it up

Thought the QF's were pretty disappointing in all though, thought Italy England was actually the most enjoyable and entertaining game among them

Germany Greece was ok but Greece, so

Yeah, seconded on Hart, Johnson, and Lescott, they've all been really good. Kind of baffled that Johnson is 27, nearly 28 - kind of assumed he was still about 24 and we had years and years left of him as a quality rightback.

There was some stat going around that Gerrard only got passed the ball something like 23 times by teammates? Which was less than Cole/Johnson etc, about the same as Parker and that when play is supposed to be going through him that's pretty shocking

And that the most frequent passing combination was Hart to Carroll, for all the good that did

Were Greece any less entertaining and ambitious than England - remember they were playing Germany!

Seedorf and Klinsmann have made BBC tolerable.

Yeah, but I wish they didn't feel the need to be so polite about England

It's not been a great tournament so far, hardly any really exciting games.

"When I was director of football at Real Madrid I had to evaluate the players coming through the youth ranks" he said. "We had some who were very good footballers. They had technique, they had athleticism, they had drive, they were hungry. But they lacked what I call knowing-how-to-play-football. They lacked decision making. They lacked positioning.They didn't have the subtle sensitivity of football: how a player should move within the collective.And for many, I wasn't sure they were going to learn. You see, strenght, passion, technique, athleticism, all of these are very important. But they are a means to an end, not an end in itself.They help you reach your goal, which is putting your talent at the service of the team and, by doing this, making both of you and the team greater. In situations like that, I just have to say, Gerrard's a great footballer, but perhaps not a great player."

For ten minutes last night I thought we were in for an awesome end-to-ender, but clearly that petered out. I love watching the Spanish from a technical POV, but they're not exciting, no. The Germans are probably the most exciting team for me, with Portugal second (and some distance away, because basically I mean 'Ronaldo is exciting').

Who's that quote from? It's spot-on.