Gerrard unlocks Andorra's box

[panix04]

See what i did there? Well, its still not good enough, but hopefully we can build on the result and get a bit of momentum. You can't follow up 5 games without a win with the greatest match in the world, but the important thing is the three points! I was chuffed to bits to see Nugent nab Defoes goal off him, being a hammers fan i'm not a big Defoe fan! Oh well, crap 1st half, but we got the win! Its like Sven's in charge again!

[keefmoon]

Football's not as easy as rolling over teams. We have have a (wrongly) high reputation, where people think we are one of the top five in the world. With a reputation like that we are going to struggle a lot of the time because teams shut up shop and play for a draw. We wore them down and eventually got the win, and that's all we could hope for. We aren't world beaters. At best, we're top ten in the world. And three points are three points at the end of the day. No-one is firing on all cylinders at the moment- France won by 1 tonight, Italy are underperforming, Spain too, Sweden lost to Northern Ireland, etc etc. A win is what matters, and we got that. Maybe it shows that I'm a Southend fan that I take results of any kind in any style! EDIT: Oh by the way- love the title Panix! Top stuff!

[panix04]

i agree that the current England team without Beckham, Owen, Neville, Lampard and Joey Cole does not look like world beaters. But they have dropped points against teams they should be beating cormfortably and it has seen us drop to 4th in the table. I'm sure no-one would have seen our group and predicted 4th place. Its simply not good enough. England may be overated, but i'm sure they should be good enough to be atleast 2nd in a very easy group. Downing doesn't do it for me i'm afraid, sure he's a good solid premiership player, but his crossing isn't amazing and it seem's that McClaren wants to marry him because he has a left foot. Poor decision really. Michael Richards is a good find at right back and by the time Neville vacates the right back spot we will have good cover in that position, with Luke Young being a good solid full back. Lennon always looks like he can beat a man and spark something, but he doesn't quite have the metal for it i feel. Sure he will play well when you have the ball and the team is peforming, but he does drift in and out of games and even if he gets to the byline it doesn't mean he's definatly going to deliver. Controversial, but i'd take Becks over Lennon anyday. To be honest he should warrant a place due to his presence alone! But up front is were we are weakest these days, Rooney is an amazing player, but unlike when Michael Owen was Englands talisman up front, Rooney can go long periods without scoring, Owen just always seemed to get a goal when you really needed it. I can't wait for him to get himself fit again.

[keefmoon]

I don't think it was quite as bad as people were making it out to be. I never felt in much danger, and it felt like a matter of time as we were working away at them. Andorra's dirty tactics were shambolic. Rooney was harassed all game and the elbow on Hargreaves in the first half was disgusting. It's hard to break down a team with 10 men behind the ball at all times who are kicking, shoving, elbowing and complaining throughout the match. I felt it was just a matter of time before we scored, but I agree with the sentiments on here and elsewhere- it's not good enough. We should be performing better but a result is what counts. At the end of the day, I can't remember the last time England played really well. It may even be the 5-1, which was five and a half years ago now. ANOTHER EDIT: Seeing it again on MOTD, I'm not happy with Nugent. England's biggest problem is we aren't great as a team and nicking a goal like that proves why. Nugent is a good player (and as a football league fan I've seen more of Nugent than most) but he won't last in the England team with an attitude like that.

[weirdo_man]

Ok so when I first read your title and then thread panix, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I had to see "Football's not" before I knew what was happening. gg england

[sebsplex]

[QUOTE=keefmoon;217340]ANOTHER EDIT: Seeing it again on MOTD, I'm not happy with Nugent. England's biggest problem is we aren't great as a team and nicking a goal like that proves why. Nugent is a good player (and as a football league fan I've seen more of Nugent than most) but he won't last in the England team with an attitude like that.[/QUOTE] To be fair, Nugent probably won't play for England for a while again anyway and I'd happily wager that had Defoe or Johnson been in the same position, they'd have likely done exactly the same. Oh and nice title Panix.

[panix04]

I'm not so sure thats fair on Nugent Alan Shearer took his fair share of goals like that! To be honest its nice to see a player want to score that badly!

[keefmoon]

Eveyones entitled to their opinion, and yes it's nice he wants to score. However, I was pretty good at footy in my younger days (only Sunday League, but pretty good at that level) and was captain for a lot of the time. Had a player in my team done something like that I'd have given him a right earful. While comparing Southend to England is plain ridiculous (although Flahavan should be in the squad! :p ) Southend were a League Two side two years ago. We're now on great form in the Championship and may stay up despite not having nearly a good enough squad. We're only doing well because of team spirit. Working as a team counts for so much nowadays, and I think that stealing goals from team mates is not the right way to go about it. I can understand what you're saying, though.

[Nevermore]

Count me out of the discussion as I don't follow England. However, I wanted to say congras on the pun... truly terrible yet, somehow, strangely brilliant :D. Quote The Raven Nevermore

[weirdo_man]

I thought that "Gerrard unlocks Andorra's box" meant that a guy named Gerrard got into a girl named Andorra's pants.

[panix04]

[QUOTE=keefmoon;217372]Eveyones entitled to their opinion, and yes it's nice he wants to score. However, I was pretty good at footy in my younger days (only Sunday League, but pretty good at that level) and was captain for a lot of the time. Had a player in my team done something like that I'd have given him a right earful. While comparing Southend to England is plain ridiculous (although Flahavan should be in the squad! :p ) Southend were a League Two side two years ago. We're now on great form in the Championship and may stay up despite not having nearly a good enough squad. We're only doing well because of team spirit. Working as a team counts for so much nowadays, and I think that stealing goals from team mates is not the right way to go about it. I can understand what you're saying, though.[/QUOTE] I see what your getting at, but when i played Saturday/Sunday league, we would have considered that part of the team building experience. I used to find the changing room banter was what made it all seem worthwhile and you know that Nugent is gonna be given Defoe a hard time over that one! Having said that, the teams i played for were all rubbish! But i don't think thats really relevant!:)

[James Casey]

The goal wasn't certain to go in - it was moving pretty slowly, and there was a defender closing in. Nugent and Defoe can banter about it, and it'll give Nugent an in with the rest of the team. Besides, who'd deny a guy a goal on his debut? Still, the performance was wretched. Andorra made the most of every tackle and played as though a draw was the ultimate limit of their ambition. I don't remember seeing a single shot on England's goal (I was barely watching, though). England tried, but didn't seem to gel until well into the second half. The fans probably had a lot to do with that. Saying that, the players are, in the main, experienced internationals who should know how to cope with time-wasting opponents. I don't know what to think about the way the fans acted. They have a right to voice their opinions, but I think it's a joke the way the papers are up in arms about their treatment of McClaren - they were responsible for Guus Hiddink not taking the job, remember? Still, te ans would do well to stick to comments on McClaren's ability at his job - there's plenty of material available, after all. Massimo Maccarone, anyone? Far down the list of candidates for the job, McClaren's a coach with a mediocre record who seems to have actually taken England backwards in his time in charge. His continued avoidance of the Gerrard/Lampard issue was proven to be a joke last night - Gerrard was the best player on the pitch, while Lampard wasn't missed. If we have to pick Lampard (and his goals:games ration in the Prem is impressive) then there's nothing wrong with him being a sub for Gerrard or Rooney. England appear to be the only major team in the world determined to shoehorn their eleven best players into the team, regardless of position. Saturday's debacle saw us play three men out of position, resulting in a tepid goalless draw. That can't go on - a fundamental rule of football is that you keep it simple and easy wherever possible, at least unless you're playing for Holland in 1974...

[panix04]

We did somewhat brach into a holland-esque total football routine at one point. I noticed that Ashley cole had come central and chipped it out wide to the right were it was picked up by waste of sp....sorry, Stuart Downing and Downing floated it in towards John Terry who was in a centre forward position, very bizzarre!

[panix04]

[QUOTE]"The booing or the McClaren chants are not helping the players." [/QUOTE] I was amused by this John Terry quote claiming that the booing wasn't helping the players, when following all the booing and Jeering England banged in 3 in the 2nd half. He didn't really think that one through did he?

[keefmoon]

[QUOTE=panix04;217551]I see what your getting at, but when i played Saturday/Sunday league, we would have considered that part of the team building experience. I used to find the changing room banter was what made it all seem worthwhile and you know that Nugent is gonna be given Defoe a hard time over that one! Having said that, the teams i played for were all rubbish! But i don't think thats really relevant!:)[/QUOTE] I see what you're saying, and banter and stuff is part of the fun. But I think that working as a team is so absolutely vital. It doesn't matter who scores, you are a team, and there is no ego in it. I would have gone in whether he touched it or not WITHOUT DOUBT. The Andorran's didn't chase it back and it was moving mre than fast enough. Lets face it, half the ball was over the line when Nugent touched it.

[Rob4590]

Let me give you my 2c worth on the match. I was actually there at the game in Barcelona, and the first half was dreadful. The crowd, who were entirely English, apart from about 100 Andorran supporters, got behind the team for the first 20 minutes, but it was clear at that point that England had no clue how to break Andorra down. So then the "McLaren is a w****r" / "You're getting sacked in the morning" / "Theres only one David Beckham" / "Youre not fit to wear the shirt" chants started. The only response we got from the players was Rooney looking like he was gonna give us the finger at one point after getting clear and blasting it way over the bar - which we all told him was crap. Mind you, Rooney was just looking for a fight with someone all night - he and his marker were going at it from about 2 minutes in - and Rooney gave as good as he got! The reaction the crowd gave to England's performance was just frustration at the pathetic display, and IMO was pretty much spot on. They were only really boo-ed at the end of each half as they came off. Its a sad state of affairs for English football when our best player in the first half of a match against Andorra was Micah Richards, a full back. The 2nd half was better, Gerrard was good, but unfortunately that was it. It seemed like Englands only way to create a chance was to hit it wide to Lennon or Downing (who was crap all night) who then cut back inside and laid it off for Gerrard to hit a long shot. Nugent's goal was definitely going in before he got a touch - we were level with the goal line, about 6 rows back in the crowd so had a very good view. The problem that McLaren and the England team have got in matches like that, is that they are in a no win situation with the press and the public. If they win easily, they will get no praise, as everyone will just say that they were only playing a small team that they should beat easily. If they play badly but still win they get crucified, and god forbid if they ever lose a game like that!