joey_big_nose

I dont know, I think people would have warmed to himif he just managed to match Svens record at the start and made us look like we were developing as a team. All in all he probably would have had a more sypathetic public than Sven did. The fact is Sven, especially at the start, managed to get decent results against good sides and beat poor sides. McClaren is just getting attacked for getting porr results with a side with a lot of quality players albeit with weaknesses in certain areas.

Personally Lennon is much the more dangerous player for me. Bentley could be outstanding in time but Lennon offers a lot more right now imo. I think Bentley exclusion from the England squad this time round was quite understandable. Next time however he should get in if he continues in the same vein.

I wouldn't agree with that. While not nearly as skillful as Bentley and less proficient at crossing Reid has attributes that Bentley lacks- pace and power. Honestly in many of the grittier games we were playing this season (West Ham, Watford anyone) we really missed Reid. His scoring record is comparable to Bentley's also. While I think Bentley is a better player than Reid, but not by that long a chalk at the moment, my point was if Reid comes back and we go out and buy and absolutely first rate striker to partner Benni with the cash might we have a better overall team? Idle speculation, but this summer is going to be full of it!

I would say in the context of the Carrick and SWP fees in recent years that we are probably going to get a bid for around 12m this summer from one of the big four for Bentley. In that light would anyone accept it? My personal opinion would be with Sparky's outstanding transfer record is that we probably would come out of it better than we are now (look at the Neill-Warnock situation), especially if we managed to get in a top class partner for McCarthy. In Reid we have a very good right winger coming back from injury. Dunn can also perform out there. Providing both of them progress I am not actually sure that we would be that much worse equipped on the right. We might well be losing an excellent Tugay replacement though in the longer term. But can we realistically hope to keep him in the longer term? Nonetheless outstanding performance from him today. Great to see a Rover succeed, and obviously I would be delighted if he stayed.

Bellamy has recently been Liverpool's best striker. THey would be insane to let him go. The only way we would get him is if he has another barny! I do have a lot of faith in Sparky to turn up another gem though over the summer. His transfer record has to be one of the best since the Premiership began. We've got McCarthy (2.5m), Savage (3.3m), Roberts (3m) and Ooijer (2m), Nelsen (Free), Warnock (1.5m), Samba (400k), Zurab (500k), Bentley (1m), Henchoz (free), Dunn (1m), Mokoena (500k), Nonda (free), bought and sold Kuqi (-2.5) and Bellamy (-2.5), Sold Neill (-2m), sold Ferguson (-3.5m) all for a grand total of 5.2m net! That any way you look at it is an outstanding couple of years of business. Perhaps we paid over the odds for Savage, Ooijer and Roberts but nothing really that bad compared to other teams in the Prem. The board should back Hughes with big money in the summer with the new TV deal too. Looking forward to see how he spends that cash. And really (if we manage to hold onto everyone and presuming Reid, Sav and Ooijer make full recoveries) it is hard to see where we need to strengthen save a striker. We have good players in every position, a bench that will hold a lot of quality, and promising talents like Brown, Peter, Derbyshire and Gallagher.

I would agree with FLB. It's great to see the axeman doing well, but you have to say that you would be disappointed, and suprised, to see him in the starting XI next season. For me he is the obvious weak link in the side.

We simply cannot afford to lose him at this stage in the season. I will be very suprised if he goes on this tour. He is the captain of Rovers and if we are to make a top eight finish we need him.

Injuries have been huge this season: Nelsen, arguably our best player, was out for half the season while our two startingcentral midfielders - Reid and Savage - are huge losses. Reid particularly would have given us a whole extra dimension to our midifield play. I do agree though that it is hard to really say the loss of Ooijer or Roberts really made much difference at the moment. If we had the luck with injuries that we had last season I am not sure whether we would be that far off last season's position, in fact I seriously doubt it. While we have lost Bellamy I would say the emergence of Bentley, Tugay's Indian summer and McCarthy's excellent goalscoring form has gone some way to compensating for it.

They can have him I would say. I am sure Hughes will feel that he can do better in the transfer market.

Imagine what Hughes could do with 7m In net transfer spending he probably hasn't spent that in his time since he joined the club.

Roberts offers power and pace, two things that none of our other strikers really seem to have. Derbyshire is quick but Roberts is quicker. Its all about options and I think Roberts fits into out set of forwards well. I would imagine Nonda and Jeffers will leave in the summer and we will look for a high quality regular partner for Benni with Roberts and Derbyshire offering the backup.

I just can't see McCarthy getting as dangerous as Bellamy mainly becuase while McCarthy is deadly in the box Bellamy cause the opposition problemswherever he picks up the ball.

I don't know about that, I am sure Sparky could have got Mido playing too (although probably not quite as well as McCarthy). In fact if he is available in the summer I would have a look. Him and Benni could be a very good combination! No complaints at all if we shipped out Nonda and Jeffers and got in Mido.

I don't know, I would say WHL lane is our second hardest game after a trip to Old Trafford. I wouldn't mind losing or drawing there provided we pick up the points against the weaker teams. We do have a very favorable run in. Only Man Utd, Spurs and Newcastle away look like games where we are in danger of being seriously put under pressure. All our home games are winnable and Fulham away has been a happy fixture for us in recent years.

He will get his chance I think, but not at the moment as clearly we have a settled side. Also with us out of the UEFA cup our fixture list has decongested dramatically. Aditionally yhe signing of Dunn means that there is more competition for that spot on the left. Nonetheless his time will come when the Ped loses his form or gets injured. Although Gally actually got a few minutes today it is he who probably has more to worry about. He must be fifth choice striker and fourth choice right winger at the moment. He is also a bit older than Peter.

True. With the money we got for Neill we bought Warnock and Samba. We came out of it infinitely better than when we went in. Neill was a very good player for Blackburn Rovers but Sparky has done an outstanding job in using the money well.

This is what Derbs does I would say. No Bellamy for sure, but then how many players of his calibre are there around? If we can get one in then great, but otherwise I think Derbyshire can do this for us. I suppose a bid for Camara might be a good idea if Wigan go down.

I would say that is the actual gist of the interview, putting in more effort all round which is heartening to see. While I agree to with Yoyo to an extent - there is no point in Benni running around like a headless chicken - if he did work on his pressure game and get more involved in the defensive side of things it will only be to his advantage as a player. He will force more errors and unsettle the defenders which will only help his scoring rate and his value to the team. After the draw at the Emirates and the excellent result at the weekend Benni will realise his starting position is under threat. Nonda is on form, Derbyshire is always good value because he runs the channels, and Roberts will be desperate to show what he can do. McCarthy will know that his stock is threatening to drop from being lauded as one of the best imports of the season to being a bench player. As an aside, Benni has to give the best interview out of any footballer I have seen in ages. Always positive about everything. Savage is very good too. Helps the fans take to them.

Agree with this. Roberts has been disappointing. We need him to find his feet really to really make us look like a decent outfit up front. Derbyshire is a real addition because his enthusiasm puts McCarthy and Nonda, both more relaxed sorts of striker, under pressure to up their work rate. It will be interesting to see how Benni responds to being dropped. Between the four of them it is hard to say who should start the next game as all have their strengths. Good problem for Hughes to have.

Well I agree with the sentiment that England over hype themselves, but I wouldn't say we are not good enough to win the WC or EC. We are the equal of the likes of Italy who won it last year, better than the German side who reached the final in 2002. While player for player we lack the talent of Brazil or Argentina I don't really think it is an issue of quality. Italy lacked the talent of Brazil and Argentina yet prevaled. Greece managed to win Euro 2004 without a single world class player. It is a case of building a team which plays to our strengths, understands itself and is a unit. This is the conundrum. Not getting more world class players. We have a few, we have enough, and the rest of our squad is very good.

Won't get to now either with Pedersen looking like he could be the premier free kick specialist in the league at the moment. Strange that he didn't take them pre-ped though. Neither Steven Reid nor Amoruso were particularly brilliant.

I don't have any problem with Lampard as such, he is a decent player. But he cannot play on the left and we need a holding player in the centre. And as Gerrard is a better player the only place for Franky to go is on the bench. I like the idea of Johnson up front, but I just feel Gerrard is wasted out right- especially when we have quality young wide players available like Lennon, Dyer and SWP who will use the touchline. Gerrard there makes us very narrow.

What I would say all of them lack the confidence to create a gameplan and stick to it. The good managers in the Premiership- Wenger, Mourinho, Ferguson, Allerdyce, our own Hughes all come into the clubs with a defined way they want to play with the resources they have and make the players fit that model. They stick with it. Sure club managers have the advantag eof being able to buy players in but you have to say that the England team does have a large selection of quality at it's disposal. Gerrard, Lampard, Hargreaves, Rooney, Ferdinand, Terry, Neville, A Cole, J Cole are all world class individuals. The likes of Robinson, Downing and Crouch while not brillaint are hardly poor players. And then, especially in the centre and wide right, we have a plethora of playes who can come in and work for England. Hoddle out of that four you have mentioned (and like Venables before him) was the one manager who looked like he was confident he knew the best way for the team to play (and with generally poorer players than we have now) and we reaped the benefit. McClaren needs to come up with a solution and an ethic and apply it come hell or high water and be willing to take it on the chin if it doesn't work out. His own nervousness and chopping and changing is undermining the confidence of the team. The one thing that unites the other candidates like Allerdyce, Hiddink, O'neill who I feel woul have been much better choices for the job is that they have that bit of arrogance to impose their own style. McClaren needs to develop it because unless things radically change he is going to have the reputation as one of the worst England managers ever.

The decision to play Lampard on the left yesterday was absolutely ludicrous. I'm not one to think that I know better than the manager usually but in this case everybody in the ground could see the enormous swathes of pitch dwon our left hand side. I'm not sure why SWP has got such a cussing, he was our best attacking option by a mile even if he sometimes messed things up. McClaren is going to lose his job in record time unless he sorts things out, and if I was him I would do something a little radical and see if it works. Far more important than just putting the best players in the land out is constructing a team. THis is going to mean dropping the likes of Lampard to the bench despite his club excellence and including lesser player like Downing just so we have balance. The only alternative is to play 5 in midfield or Gerrard up front (which I think might actually work, albeit sort of wasting arguably our best player). My first team would be, if everyone was fit: -------------Crouch----Rooney-------- Downing--Hargreaves--Gerrard---J Cole --A Cole------Terry---Ferdinand---G Neville -----------------Robinson Subs: James, Richards, Bridge, Carragher, Lennon, Lampard, Defoe Those are good players, the team has balance, it would work if not be absolutely ideal, but of all our options I would say it is the best. And just stick to it, and make it absolutely clear to the players that if they do not put the work rate in they will be dropped. For every position bar left midfield and striker we have considerable strength in depth (we have about at least 6 high quality players at each of cm, cd, rm, 2 good left backs, 2 good rightbacks). Beat the players with that stick! Even the likes of Lampard.

Interesting team that McClaren has put out tonight. looks like it could be: ------------------Crouch -----Dyer----------------------------SWP ------------Gerrard-----Lampard -------------------Carrick P Neville--Woodgate---Ferdinand--G Neville ----------------------Foster The only selection I really disagree with is Phil at left back, surely Barry should have got a shot even if he has been playing midfield this season? And I would have preferred Parker to Carrick to give us a bit of bite, but Carrick isn't too bad, and Dyer on the left is a bit daft, if that is what happens. But you have to remember it is a friendly so we need to try new things; reading the 606 boards though you would think that the world has ended! Personally I think we should perform decently mainly as a result of Lampard and Gerrard being free to dominate midfield. In a free world I would have gone for: -------------Crouch-----Gerrard -Downing----Parker----Lampard----Dyer ---Barry---Woodgate--Ferdinand--Neville --------------------Foster And it still isn't that good a team. It shows what McClaren has to conted with.