Is Neill playing at CB today then, with Mokoena at RB?

No wonder we're losing then, a moment of madness from Hughes it seems. Mokoena can't defend for toffee, everybody and their brother knows that. Are Zura and Todd injured? That's the only way I'd choose that back four.

Emerton Blow For Rovers - Harsh

But fair.

It's too boring - there needs to be some naked women in the mix.

You might want to establish some guidelines before you put that one infront of the F.A. Dawn French, for example, parading around in the buff wouldn't be my cup of tea.

Mr Blue Sky by ELO

We have a winner.

Jack Walker, Upper Tier. Crap atmosphere, cracking view.

A cheeky bid for N'Zogbia is in order methinks. Cracking player.

Wasn't Fettis about 5'3"?

A combination of Nicky Campbell and Grahan Taylor (mind-boggling I know) have concluded that England are the new Scotland: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/...1819094,00.html

It is true and we saw it at the World Cup- no replacement right back, no replacement forwards and the third goal keeper was also Liverpool's third choice keeper.

Utter rubbish. There are a dozen quality English players Sven refused to select for one reason or another - such as Hibburt at Everton, numerous strikers, Parker, etc etc. The man is incompetent and has wasted a good portion of what some see as our 'Golden Generation'. In my opinion, however, there is a clear correlation between quality English youngsters coming through the Academy ranks and the influx of foreign players - survival of the fittest. Those that do make it through are invariably very good - in yesteryear those plying their trade in the Championship would be stars in the top flight, clearly that is not the case now.

Rovers have just recruited two German Internationals to the Academy bringing the number of Germans in the youngsters to five. Add to that the recruitment of three Irish youth internationals and the Italians, English footballers have all but died out.

You're basing this opinion on one sample. I'll retort with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Middlesboro - how many young, promising, English players have come through their ranks recently? Exactly. Our Academy is vastly overrated based on it's production - right now we're desparate for anybody to break into the first team squad and as a result we're focusing our scouting network abroad.

Got to wonder why the hell Arsenal paid 10 mill for him, his record at Everton wasn't exactly impressive. Seems that when he joins a club, a figure is randomly decided for him to score each season he is with them- he was only capable of 6 a season for Everton, and 2 a season for Arsenal. Wonder what it'll be for us...

Wenger's dubbing of Jeffers as a 'Fox in the Box' should answer that question. He thought he was getting a young striker capable of bagging 20 goals a season in L'Arse's system.

It could turn out to be a very shrewd signing. The lad obviously has talent and he's still young. If anyone is going to get this once promising career back on track it's Hughes and his coaching staff - both physically and mentally. I have no problems with this signing at all. Very much a low risk, high reward scenario.

How anyone can argue against the awarding of a penalty is beyond me, it's pretty much nailed on. Lucas has once again had a lapse in concentration and has gone diving into a situation that didn't require such drastic action. Very foolish.

Lampard should never pull on an England shirt again, he's been woeful the entire tourament.

Same formation next game with Hargreaves holding for Carrick (who's distribution was excellent) and Gerrard. Lennon should also start, Beckham has done nothing to earn his place (thought that free kick has probably bought himself another year of Captaincy). We're unbelievably slow and need an injection of both pace and width - Lennon provides both.

Rooney is not in the bloody top 5 players in the world. He is not even in the top 10 or 15.

Ronaldinho, Henry, Shevchenko, Gerrard, Riquelme, Deco, Ronaldo, Adriano, Puyol, Eto'o, Saviola, Crespo, Kaka, Ibrahimović, Ballack, Cannavaro, Nesta, Robben and the list goes on

Rooney is not even the best player in England, I would have Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and even Owen when in form ahead of him

Oh dear, he's comprehensively better than those in bold already, and a case could be made for many of the others.

Torres plays for a mediocre Spanish side, Rooney plays in the 2nd best team in England along with players like Saha, RVN and Ronaldo.

Yes, and they're a vastly inferior side without him. He makes both England and United tick, and he's still only 20 years of age. Frightening.

Rooney, easily - he makes the whole side tick.

Unfortunately, last I heard, they'll both be at United next year

Pardon?

Septic Tank is Aussie slang for Yankee

Id have taken Fowler as the extra striker, dont know why just dont rate Defoe

I'd have taken Owen and Rooney, just as the #4 and #5 strikers. If they come good, fantastic, but your success isn't tied to their fitness.

Ashton, Bent and Beattie for me - not the most threatening of forward lines, I agree, but at least they'll be available for selection every game and they're all capable of scoring goals - not to mention the tactical options they provide i.e, Bent can play upfront on his own, all three provide you with a target man (to a varying degree), Ashton can play 'in the hole' etc etc.

Ah well, at least we've qualified for the knockout stages, eh?

Sven Eriksson, football genius? His smart decision to take two crocks, a kid and a statue seems to really be paying off

The Korean fans are fantastic

It's as if I should blame American for the Vietnam war. (or you, for the appeasement policy that allowed Hitler to expand in the first place!)

Actually that's the Yank's fault again for pulling out of the League of Nations, but I digress

On a related note, it seems like our lads are behaving themselves, which is nice to see.

Would that be the Lampard that was man of the match in the first game? The Lampard that was the player looking most likely to score for 75 minutes? The Lampard that was top scorer in the qualifiying rounds?

I sometimes wonder what game people are watching.

I'd drop him in a heartbeat for a defensive midfielder(in a midfield 4 ) - anything that frees up Gerrard is fine by me. Quite frankly I'm leaning towards a five man midfield with the team we have at this tournament, which incidentally is the only system I've seen Lampard suceed in.

Sack the Swede, utter @#/?. This side is pedestrian, the forward line is a joke and the centre of midfield can't play together. Not that anything will change at half time.

I think it sums it up that the hopes of a nation rest on the shoulders of a 20 year old, a crocked one at that.

Quite frankly the team is a disgrace right now.

As usual, your latest hobby horse is making you blinkered. Leonardo was back in the BBC studio for USA v Czech Rep with Lee Dixon and Alan Shearer - clearly the "B" team but they're all worth a listen - Dixon especially is worth listening to.

In the studio for Italy-Ghana the beeb have Marcel Desailly who has given a wonderful new perspective and some great insights. Not only that, but a significant part of the pre-match programme saw him over in Ghana at Abedi Pele's football academy. I bet your talk sport heroes don't even know where Ghana is.

I'd far rather see intelligent ex-players than publicity seeking journalist jokers like Balague - the only reason you've ever heard of him is because Tabloid TV (Sky Sports News) call him up on his mobile every time they want crap gossip from Spain rather than crap gossip from our own gutter press.

It's next to Togo and the Ivory Coast, a hotbed of football

I've been impressed with Desailly and O'Neill tonight, even if they still struggle to get a wold in edgeways. Mr Hansen has to have his screen time

I've got Togo!

You lot?

You've won then, they have Adebayor for god's sake

The has been and the never was - had to mute the game after five minutes.

I agree Rover6, O'Neill was the only one yesterday who knew what he was talkin about, unfortunately he was drowned out by Hansen and Shearer.

Utter garbage, once again the team hasn't played to the sum of it's parts. If you look at that team sheet (besides the @#/? forward line) they should be steamrolling teams, not squeaking out a fortunate win. Yet again Sven has shown his complete lack of tactical nouse, especially in his choice of forwards- Crouch has about as much mobility as a statue, yet he was upfront on his own, pure genius. Walcott wasn't risked, for reasons unbeknown to me whilst Owen is clearly still not fully fit (his match sharpness leaves a lot to be desired).

Overall we'll get fairly deep into the competition only to be comprehensively outclassed by quality opposition. Which is a shame considering the talent the England manager has available.