One of my best mates is a sports writer for Fox Sports and used to work radio on a station that Lucas used to be a regular guest for weekly on phone and when he visited Australia in the studio. My mate is a mad Liverpool supporter and on one of these occasions OFF AIR and just the two of them talking asked Lucas when is he coming to Liverpool. Lucas said something along the lines to him then that he loves playing for Rovers and that he couldn't ever see himself leaving unless it was to finish his career back in Australia.

He is making comments on how well he is playing at central defence with Australia compared to how he plays there with Rovers He got tounge tied FFS He should have said "I think playing in the style that the manager Guus Hiddink adopts means I can play a versatile role like central defender and also it opens up options for me to play out to available players. We play a different style for Rovers which doesn't suit me as well in the middle. No offence to Blackburn, but in central defence, I am better playing like Australia do." Hence his reason for not playing as well for Rovers in that position as he currently is playing with Australia.

Read further down FLB, there not just big but MASSIVE I am glad we didn't put a bid in for the young man, he obviously has no 'effin idea

Eddie, by going to ground he was trying to decieve the officials, that should be plain If he had time to 'move' out of the way of a 'dangerous' tackle by going to ground he had time to keep on his feet and play on Wait till that little indian bloke Karma is sitting at the England game at the WC and you guys go out 1 nil from a dodgy penalty. Imagine the uproar how England were once again ripped off in a major tournament

Ah bahhumbug AiUK, the English 'B' side should still beat the Belarusian 'B' side

I think the Belarus game showed how they would go without him

What is a B international anyway? Aren't all the English players in the WC squad? Surpised there hasn't been more hunting for managerial blood

What the hell is going on? Dave are you trying to lead yourself into a situation where you aren't going to be let down if we don't make it out of the group stages or something? No one is expecting Australia to win the bloody thing but your negativity is quite surprising, you are acting like we don't even deserve to be there Show some faith man, get behind the boys. The perfomance was promising, there is room for improvement but they have a couple of weeks yet to get it together. FFS, England lost to Belarus and you don't hear them writing the death notes yet I can count on one hand the amount of 'game breakers' playing in the world cup and four of them are from Brazil

Serbia and Montenegro are definately going to be hard to beat, if they weren't drawn in the group of death I thought they could have been surprises further into the competition.

Fair enough too, what does that guy have to do to prove he is number 1 keeper?

I am putting 20 on Portugal

Dave, I won't disagree with Greece being poor but if anyone watched the European championship you would see that is how they played the entire tournament. Slowed the play down, miserly defence, boring as ###### to watch but relying on a counter attack to score a goal and win 1-0. Australia countered that with excellent posession and passing to get in behind the greek defence and then flooded back to handle the greek counter. Hiddick has the way to beat Brazil, just keep the ball away from them. IF Australia can play attacking football, hold posession and dominate the midfield then I say we have a chance at getting through the group stages. We will get better mate, for sure.

Dave we just defeated the European champions, there is still some work to do but we broke down the defence with some beautiful interchange passing and played the ball out fo defence with confidence. First 20 minutes of the second half we lapsed but were put under some major pressure by Greece defending very high up the field. Grella, Bresciano, Culina, Skoko and Viduka were class tonight. Neill was fantastic and Emerton was better once he came inside. We weren't troubled in defence at all in the box and as far as I recall Greece had all their shots on goal from outside the box. 1-0 was going easy on Greece, the way we dominated it could have easily been 3 or 4, and definately should have been two if the ref saw Viduka's shirt being pulled. Excellent signs ahead, we are going to be very competitive in Germany. See how we go with Kewell, Cahill and Schwarzer back in the team before you write us off.

I'm in as well

Neither of those three will be alongside Puyol. A back four of Lopez, Pablo and Marchena with the others on the bench is very strong. To me the midfield is along with England probably the strongest of the competition. In saying that they will choke again at the quarter finals, so we at least agree on that.

When I saw Scaloni for Depor he was quite good, he is certainly failing recently though. The sceptic in me see's some dodgy play at hand. South America has always had lingering problems with agent's pushing selection of their players for national teams to try and lift the player's profile in Europe. Scaloni is looking for an out from Depor what better way for his agent to get him exposure then the WC. I remember the same thing happening at the last WC for the Uruguyan striker (I think Nunez) and Brazil have had a history of awarding one or two appearances for players to lift their stature in Europe. By the looks of his choices in defenders it looks as if he is going to go with a back three with the option for a back five

As far as I know Palace aren't really the sell all our talent types? He will struggle with no money to spend

I think it is still quite a strong squad but Mexes omission was a surprise. I have been really impressed with Ribery, I think (and about a million others) he will be the next big thing out of French football.

Just saw Sven's latest comments on Gerrard "'I'm sure he could also play as a first striker, and he's also excellent at right-back. " What kind of formation is this man tinkering with?

So the way he tore apart probably the best defence in Europe (Chelsea) earlier this year doesn't count for much then? How is Zidane your example? Zidane was years above anyone when he played for Juve. Get off the substances mate

I had something similar

I always have played on Snowchicken but they are launching the fantasy world cup in June

Not playing for Barcelona or Madrid he won't

I think there defence is one of the best in the comp. Pablo and Lopez have had an outstanding year and Puyol is all class. The only question mark would be Marchena, but they great cover in Sergio Ramos. I think that when the forwards are concerned he has named Luis Garcia and Reyes in the midfield so they could easily slot into a strikers position.

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