England 0 Portugal 0

[Shaddy]

I was fooled in over-estimating Sven and thinking that he had a plan to use Walcott's searing pace to England's advantage.

But now I believe that Sven had some half-formed idea of Walcott coming off the bench to trouble tired defenders but saw him in training once the squad was picked and realised he wasn't ready or didn't have the confidence to perform on the big stage.

Yep, and that's exactly why he should be criticised from pillar to post. Whilst there are no imminent England internationals to prepare for, he and his team should have come to that conclusion well before Walcott was picked... and not just a developed hunch (as could be speculated), but be absolutely sure that he could use the player.

I don't have the level of derision that England supporters have of Sven, especially leading into this World Cup. But faced with a crunch situation, he very obviously failed. Last World Cup, I felt the criticism was sour grapes, because I didn't feel it was tactical defeciencies as much as a brilliant Brazil team that was his undoing. But a better manager would have taken this England squad further this World Cup.

And that's a real shame. I also agree with AESF's last point.

Edited July 6, 2006 by Shaddy

[American]

I think he probably did have a plan, but it was never right to use Walcott and there was no reason to stick him on for the sake of it just so that he could shut a few people up. I'm sure he expected to be able to put him on during the group stages, but tough games against Paraguay and T&T meant that it was never right while the Owen injury meant he couldn't come on against Sweden. Ecuador was another tough game and it was never right to bring him on. Maybe he would have come on against Portugal late in the game had we had 11 players on the pitch but the sending off meant we needed someone to hold the ball up with pace around him, with Lennon already on it made sense for the replacement to be Crouch. If someone can show me a moment in the game when they would have stuck Walcott on then that is fine, but having a 23 man squad doesn't mean that you have to use all 23 and it also doesn't mean that simply because he didn't make it on that he isn't good enough.

I can think of moments he should have/would have brought on Bent or Defoe, though.

Rumors also are going around he was so crap the senior players told Sven not to put him in...

[joey_big_nose]

I can think of moments he should have/would have brought on Bent or Defoe, though.

Rumors also are going around he was so crap the senior players told Sven not to put him in...

I doubt that he is crap. Word I have heard is that he is going to tear the premiership apart next season. I was wondering however that if Arsenal sign Saviola as well where is Wenger going to fit Walcott in? Henry, Van Persie, Reyes, Saviola and Adebayor will all be ahead of him up front.

[Eddie]

I can think of moments he should have/would have brought on Bent or Defoe, though.

Rumors also are going around he was so crap the senior players told Sven not to put him in...

I've seen him for Southampton, in no way could what I have seen be described as crap. He may well not have been up to international level, not many are at his age, but he isn't crap.

[McClarky]

My main concern with England throughout this WC has been the lethargy with which they seem to be gripped. In all the games we seened to be playing with lead weights attached to our legs and even when we had a good start to a game it only ever lasted for a bit and then they seemed so leggy. It must be something to do with the way the squad prepared because I don't remember seeing anyone else suffering from the same thing and all the teams have gone through hard seasons. Its definitely something the management need to look at because we'll never win anything if we can't last right through games.

The only time when they shook this off was after Rooney got sent off but thats no good because you are fighting to stay alive when you are down to 10 men anyway.

Maybe they should second some of the players to Rovers because we seem to have good trainers who can get players running for the whole game.

[USABlue]

Bogus info

Edited July 7, 2006 by USABlue