He has the best stats of any england manager ever, and I would certianly take him over anyone in the last fifteen years apart from Hoddle and Venables. 3 QF is actually quite a decent performance, if unexceptional. The worrying thing is that we clearly need a change in coaching style but McClaren is merely going to continue the boring insular nature of our football.

I would say in raw players every team left in the tournament are better than Germany. But they seem able to get the best out of their side (to the point where the team exeeds the sum of its parts) unlike ourselves. I still think germany won't win it though.

Chiles is a legend, never ever gives the impression he is control of a situation or that he posesses a good knowledge of football in general. However that's part of his charm and he is eminantly watchable. Quite a trick to pull off! I would rather have Chiles presenting than the studio of egos that dominate the analysis in every football highlights show. I do like Lineker too though- also not full of pretense. What irks me are analysts like Hanson who present opinions as facts, although to be fair he is the best of a bad bunch. Also Wright get me in that he doesn't even have opinions, he is essentially just a cheerleader fro the national team who fails to redeem himself through wit, charm or prescence. He has enthusiasm by the bucketload, but since when was that the only requirement to appear on television? Ho hum.

We have got a very good defence. One of the best certainly. We let in two stupid goals against Sweden which showed vulnerability at set pieces but in open play we were hardly threatened in a ll four maches. Admittedly however the opponents were all pretty average. Portugal will be the acid test, but I expect the defence to play well. I'm more worried about creating up front to be honest- at least two out of Rooney, Cole, Lampard, Beckham and Gerrard are going to have to have very good games. All of them save the odd spurt from Cole, Rooney and Gerrard have been decidedly average.

Bad taste...

Is that an English bookies though? What are the odds in a neutral country that knows it's football, say Italy or Germany? Personally my opinionis that Portugal have a better set of taechnical players but fewer that can turn a game. I can't pick a winner between us and the Portuguese. It all comes down to who turns up on the day. Portugal might have an edge in that they have already played a quality team in the Dutch but England have not really got out of second gear. Also there is the heat.

Okay I accept that Torres, Messi, Ronaldinho,Kaka and a couple of others are players you could interchange with Rooney as they are all incredible. My point was all those players you listed, particularly Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo, are clearly not on the same plane as the boy or indeed Messi etc.

Don't be an idiot. Rooney is the best player attacking England has produced since Gascoigne. That much is obvious. The coaches of the players you have listed, with the one exception of Adriano possibly, would swap them for Rooney. I'm not one of those who think England have an awesome team, but get over yourself and recognise the boy is brilliant. He might not win as many medals as those blessed to be in an Argentinian or Brazillian side but he is a fantastic player. The point is not who won the most medals but who most coaches would pick to put in their team. Who in their right mind would select Ronaldo, Crespo or Ibrahimovic ahead of Rooney? To play with him perhaps but if it came down to an either/or situtaion then the lad would get it.

Thats sort of true. England fans/commentators/pundits/managers used to be very 'diving is shameless cheating that should be driven out of the game'. But now as we are quite good at it, particularly Owen, we aren't so bothered. Its almost getting to the point where it is just accepted as part of football. Disgraceful.

Snap. Your name wouldn't be ian would it?

Don't really agree with that we haven't had such talent across the park in thirty years at least. Rooney, Terry, Gerrard, Neville (not fit! bugger), A Cole, J cole, Lampard and Beckham (although mainly for his set pieces) are all world class. Plus the supporting players- Lennon, Ferdinand, Robinson are all quality individuals. Honestly I would take this team over the 1990 or 1986 squads any day. However just because we have the best squad in ages does not mean we are the best in the world. Clearly Argentina and Brazil have better atacking players than us and Spain have a squad comparable to our in many ways but with more strength in depth. While Sven has been a good coach he is not operating at the same level that the likes of Hiddink and Klinsmann are in terms of finding the best team and willing to make big substituions and drop under peforming players. So I would say we have the best team in a generation at least, but the fact of the matter is we are still not as good as some other teams, and also our coaching setup, while competant, is not up to the standard of other teams in terms of technique and flair.

Well I got that all wrong, I thought England were going to play really well... There are a two major excuses that can be made- the heat, the absolute disinterest of the Eucuador players in trying to win the game (in the knockout round! christ...). However, Beckham was clearly finished as a force in the game in the 70th minute- he was throwing up! Why didn't Sven withdraw him? The next game is in the afternoon too, hopefully it will be cooler. As for what formation I haven't got a clue... ps. I said before the tournament that the quarter finals were the stage we absolutely had to reach. We managed that so well done!

Hargreaves played well the other day, and I think will continue to. You seem to be in a rather isolated position on that front. Jenas seems the most pointless member of the squad for me. I cannot think of a reason we would ever need to play him short of an injury crisis of mammoth proportions. Hargreaves on the other hand is our only true tackling defensive midfielder and can cover right back.

Completely agree with that. He offers far more to the England team in terms of options and scaring defenders than Bent or Defoe. Ashton is the only English striker imo, apart from Rooney and Owen, who should be ahead of Crouch.

Come on! You can't say that your giving up just because we are not going to win the thing. Makes you sound like a Man Utd/Chelsea fan. Football is about the taking part! I mean good lord we aren't the favorites and our chancs of winning are small but thats no reason to throw your toys out of the pram.

I have been really impressed woth Argentina so far but I thought they actually looked little vulnerable at the back. If Mexico had beter strikers I rekon they could hae comeout of that with a win. However you have to suspect that Argentina were playing at around 70% for most of the game. If anyone can beat them I would imagine Germany, the way they are playing, are the team to do it. I hope they don't though!

I don't know about anybody else but (presuming that we get past Ecuador fingers crossed) I would much rather play Holland or Portugal than Argentina, Germany (godammit, why are they suddenly so good?!) Spain or Brazil. On current form the Portuguese are better than us (the dutch are not, about the same) but I still reckon we can beat those sides. The four I mention above however would have me seriously worrying.

I think this is is going to work and we will put inby far our best performance of the tournament so far. It looks balanced and skillful with threat all over the pitch. The inclusion of Carrick will enourmously improve our ability to retain the ball. --------------------Rooney--------------------- ------J Cole----------------------Gerrard----- ------------Lampard----Beckham----------- -------------------Carrick-------------------- ----------------------------------------------- ----A Cole--Ferdinand-Terry-Hargreaves- ----------------------------------------------- --------------------Robinson----------------- I have a really good feeling about this. If Lampard, Gerrard and J Cole as they can support Rooney well then this could is the change that transforms the team. With Carrick sitting in the full backs and the central midfielders are goingto have much more opportunity to get forward. It is the first time Sven has made a real tactical gamble and I applaud it! Come on England!

I thought South Korea-Swiss today was an excellent advert for the world cup. Outstanding technical ability combined with a real, especially from the koreans, give it your all attitude. A joy to watch. I wouldn't mind seeing the Korean right back at Rovers! Excellent player andcould physically mix it with the big Swiss guys.

I have a funny feeling that we may see Walcott yet, but more than likely in the 80th minute when we are two down and it's too late. Im still of the opinion Defoe's presence in the sqaud would not increase our chances any.

Nelsen is world class. If you want more glamour then why not Tugay or Pedersen? I think I am going to plump for Tugay.

The unbelivable was not a not of suprise, i am aware how good Argentina are, just that the stuff they were sticking together out there was incredible. Sublime short passing. As for England clearly we are not is the same league technically as some of the argentine players but I wouldn't say we are too bad- Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Beckham and even Lennon all have good feet. So do Rio and Terry at the back in the context of defenders. If we can make other teams play to our drum we have a chance- fast paced football and a strong physical dimesion to the game. I do agree thought that unless we imposed ourselves we would be murdered by Argentina or Brazil. Spain are also a great team but I am a little less worried about them. Italy do not really frighten me. Anyhow this Argentina side are the best technical side i have EVER seen. Bugger. ps. The one thing I have garnered from wathcing the game is that if we play them we have to have Hargreaves or a defensive midfielder in the side. We would never get the ball otherwise!

To be fair to Sven I would not be full of any sort of confidence if we were coming into games with Defoe or Bent up front. Decent players but hardly going to worry the likes of Puyol or Ayala. At least Crouch's height gives us something different. Realistically I think we are better of playing Cole or Gerrard as strikers rather than using those guys so I guess that was Sven's idea. Still clearly we could have used Defoe rather than have Walcott just in case, asyou say Rev, Rooney breaks down and we are really screwed. And yes, the inclusion of Jenas does seem utterly pointless!

Well, I'm watching Argentina at the moment and they are a million billion times better than us. Unbelievable. I guess, as that article suggests, we could play a line up like this: We could play some really nice football that way but we would have no height in the box? Suppose I could maybe see Sven being this bold next game, maybe not dropping Beckham and instead putting him in instead of Lampard. I think Sven is being a lot more open to tactical experimentation at the moment.

I don't think in terms of posession and good football we are certainly not weakend by losing Owen. But he scores goals against the run of play ALL the time. We need that. Forexample when Sweden were battering us in our own half it would of been typical Owen to score one at the other end. Still, we have enough good player still to progress in the tournament. Its a case of getting them to play well together for 90 minutes.