Liverpool FC Forum

The Ace1983 wrote:Right now, the England team needs whatever help it can get, right? So I had thid idea in the pub yesterday. It's just a theory and an interesting talking point, but hear me out. At the moment there is a sort of stagnant swamp where there shuld be a pool of English talent to be possibles for the national team. The problem is that a lot of players who play week in week out in the Premiership are overlooked by the England manager. Not that SvenII is a good manager, but everyone would have the same problem.

There are a few established players that are guarenteed fr every squad, barring injury. Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand, Carragher, Cole, Cole, Robinson, Owen, Crouch and Rooney. Maybe Hargreaves too these days, but most squads are 22 or 26 man outfits and we always have the same problem at every tournament. The starting XI is strong, but as soon as there is an injury, we get stumped. Well we have that XI, whose selection is based on quality. Quality does little good as a sub, unless it is in form. Form players can make a tournament. I'd rather have a good player on top form than a great player whose in the dumpster anyday. These players may not be clever, but they can have real big impact.

So these are the players who you put into B games right? Why? B games are always against B teams or weak nations. They're there for fitness reasons and lasts nights game against Albania was pretty much exclusively for Michael Owen. These games tell you nothing, because there is little pride, terrible competition and just no point.

So, if I were the England boss, I'd do the following. Say I'm taking a 23 man squad to the World Cup in a couple of months. I'd have my starting XI, my goalkeepers and a couple of proven players who would definately make the bench. That might leave 7 or 8 places up for grabs. Instead of just picking players based on their reputatin and a couple of league games, I'd organize a game. England Red vs England White. Maybe even Red Lions vs. White Lions. I would appoint my two top coaches to pick teams out of a squad that I selected, and have a few subs as well, so I could sit in the stands and observe. I could even use my sub keepers to give them some practice. So the sheets would look like this:

.                 Carson
L. Young                          Warnock
        Dawson        Woodgate
                  Parker
Wright-Philips              Downing
                   Sidwell
        Nugent            Smith

vs

        D. Bent        A. Johnson
                   Dyer
A. Young                        Pennant
                 Carrick
            King       Dawson
Barry                            Konchesky
                  Foster

Now before someone says "He's out of position!" or "You've forgetten X!" or "Why are you playing Y?" let's focus on the real problems. If you want to submit your own teams then great, but the point of this was to find a solution to the poor English subs bench. Instead of a pointless B game, you would have 22 players on the pitch at all times who really want to play for their country and therefore they would put their backs in. And if they didn't, then you can see them and avoid them. You can assess form and skill together, measuring the levels and finding what you want. You can cover everything and you can see at least two players in every position. And you could use it for fitness too, if there was a player who was questionable.

Its just a theory, but if we had had this prior to the last world cup, we might not have taken Walcott and replaced him with a real striker. I'm just putting this forward as a theory and feel free to respond with all the problems and plus points that you can see. We have the quality in the XI, but we need the entire squad to be on form, and this might just ensure that. Give it some thought.

Yer he is look