http://www.the6yardbox.com/article/englands-inevitable-world-cup-tactics (13th May 2010)
Now we have Barry back from injury, and Green revealed to be shit in goal, we're back to square one (see above link).
Of course Carragher will be in rather than the injured Ferdinand.
The only doubt is Heskey or Defoe or Joe Cole in behind Rooney. I prefer the third option to force Rooney to play up top, if not let's not play Defoe. Rooney will just drop back into midfield, frustrated, and get booked.
I'm still sticking with a draw - and a score one at that, perhaps 2-2.
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Let's just get this over with before we have to suffer through mid-June.
We'll draw against the States and Algeria, then beat Slovenia by 2 goals to scrape first place in the group and get some false hope going around the nation.
Then Australia will take us to extra time before a Frank Lampard deflected effort off the scoreboard, corner flag, goalkeeper, post and finally crossbar gives us the win - despite never actually having crossed the line.
We'll then lose on penalties in the quarter finals.
The Same Again
This is despite Capello's facade of a new England. Mentally, this may be true but we've been beaten fair and square on the pitch at recent tournaments and the way we still play suggests that's not likely to change. We're still such a good target for other teams to beat - we're a bigger scalp than our talent suggests and this is a massive motivator for our opponents.
At The Back...
Terry's lack of pace over this season makes him an able replacement for...
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When England line up against USA, there will most likely be two irrefutable facts about the starting line up: firstly, Wayne Rooney is by far the best player on the team, second, his strike partner will be the worst.
At the beginning of the season, you'd have put money on the four strikers going to the World Cup being Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch and one out of Owen and Defoe (you can't take two dwarfs).
Now Zamora is widely tipped to have a shot at the England squad. So who might stand in his way?
I'd say Jermaine Defoe has to be the second shoe in. He shouldn't start, but he's fast, nimble and an excellent goal poacher. A fantastic option to have on the bench when England need to step up the pace.
The international record of Peter Crouch says he's very good against crap international opposition and very crap against good opposition. So he'd be useful against Slovenia and that would probably be it (don't be...
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The Infamous 39th Game
Over two years ago, Richard Scudamore and his money grabbing friends of the Premier League decided to propose a 39th game: 10 games, each in different venues outside of England, on one weekend in January. The proposal was eventually blocked by FIFA, but not before the various supporters unions had kicked up all kinds of fuss.
The proposal was no doubt inspired by the NFL's International Series - since 2007 held at Wembley. The benefits of it to a league are obvious - the New Orleans Saints, current NFL champions, have an enlarged UK fanbase after their high scoring victory over the Chargers in late 2008.
"Franchise Relocation"
Another common occurrence in American sports is "franchise" relocation - where a team packs up into a bus and moves city. The MK Dons tried this trick in 2004 and their fanbase completely abandoned them, creating a new club. While they have since found some on field success, they spent 5 years in a 5,000 seat...
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On Saturday morning, Chelsea were 1-6 on to win the Premier League and end Man United's 3 year reign over the league. Today, they find themselves just a point clear of United and 2-3 - still favourites but now definitely back as a contest.
The weekend's action started with the Manchester derby lunchtime kickoff. An open game, in which the likes of Antonio Valencia and Craig Bellamy frequently found space, the contest was ultimately settled by another last minute winner for United, this time via the unlikely source of Paul Scholes' head.
Man City will rightly feel frustrated with the outcome of the 3 Mancunian ties this year but only have themselves to blame - in both ties their ambition to get forward and score a winner has given the ball to United for them to put it in the net at the death. While City are deservingly making a serious challenge on the top 4 this year, they need to know when to settle for a point - and the last minute of Manchester derbies should be included....
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* This and my future fantasy football blogs will be geared mostly towards the official game... until next season when we have our own game that is!
Week 18 Fixtures
Portsmouth v Liverpool
Aston Villa v Stoke City
Blackburn v Tottenham
Fulham v Man United
Man City v Sunderland
Arsenal v Hull City
Wolves v Burnley
Everton v Birmingham
West Ham v Chelsea
Wigan v Bolton
The 5 teams I think are likely to score highest are bolded: Spurs are coming off the back of a great result, the mancunian sides are set for responses to their poor defeats last time they played competitively (Wolves doesn't count), and Arsenal and Chelsea will surely make light work of their lower table opposition. I've left Liverpool out because I consider them to be a generally poor fantasy football team - you could only realistically consider Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard (unless you like nabbing the dirty points with...
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