TyldesleyLatic

As a fully paid up member of the dark side, my argument with Bobby playing 4-5-1 last season was not that the formation “doesn’t work” nor do I believe that that was the argument of the other people who opposed Bobby using it.
My argument then & now is that the formation can be used very successfully BUT that you have to have the players to enable you to play the system successfully.
4-5-1 failed (by & large) for Latics last season because we did not have a striker capable of playing that lone striker role. Scotland wasn’t & never will be good enough for the top flight & Rodallega, whilst having the talent to make it in this league doesn’t have the attributes to play that role
On top of that, we didn’t have anyone (with Bobby’s insistance of playing wingers on their opposite sides) to play down that left flank. Rodallega whilst good enough to operate as part of a 2 man forward line isn’t (& never will be!!) a left winger
On top of that the creative hub of the side purchased by Bobby (Gomez) was not (& never will be) good enough for the English top flight
So what Bobby wound up doing was playing several square pegs in several round holes
& that is why it didn’t work – coz he didn;t have the personnel to play it

Likewise, 4-4-2 failed for England not because the system doesn’t work but because Capello picked his squad based on who he thought were his best 23 players regardless of whether that gave him enough specialist cover in all 11 positions.
As a result we wound up with central midfielders playing on the left wing, central midfielders playing on the right wing & no left wingers in the entire squad
He also took players who were unfit – Barry & Lennon & players who aren’t good enough (Heskey, Carragher & Upson)
Add all to that petulant players who didn’t like the conditions & positions they were put in to & that’s why England flopped. Its not because they played 4-4-2
IMO he would have been better playing 4-5-1 coz when you looked at the squad that was the formation best suited to the players he’d taken with him

Hopefully Bobby spends this close season siging players who fit the system & then it will hopefully be a success btu it won;t be because 4-5-1 is the best system to play regardless of who you have playing in it but because he’s bought players suited to that system. Last season he didn’t have those players

Rant over

Re stuart pearce – for me he has some plus points going for him:
1) he’s English
2) he’s passionate
3) he’s patriotic

we had that with keegan & it was a flop & I aint sure Pearce has got much more to offer than that

Griff – whilst I don’t think beckham would necessarily make a good England manager, I agree with No1’s point that you don’t have to have been a good club manager to be able to be a success as an international manager.

The international game is littered with managers who have been put in charge with little or no managerial experience – Maradona being the latest one & have made a good job of it.
Doesn’t mean they’ll make good club managers (look at the relative success Klinsman had with a dire German team as opposed to the flop he has been at club level so far).
It may therefore, if Capello is sacked, for the FA to look outside of someone who has been or is a success at club level

One thing that does need addressing is the England players attitude at international level. They get everything on a plate for them at club level & train for a couple of hours a day that they expect all their whims to be catered to at international level too – then they moan that Eriksson was too relaxed, McLaren was too pally & now Capello is too strict. Apparently Capello may be forced out by player power – if I was the FA I’d tell the mainstay of the England side that the common denominator over the last 10 years or so has been them so if anyone goes is them. This is the manager, this is how he runs things, if you don’t like it then do one

i can’t believe that anybody is giving the excuse for Terry’s awful performance on Sunday as that he was playing on the right side of the centre half pairing as opposed to the left – not on here admittedly but I’ve heard & read it a few times in the last couple of days

This is a bloke who’s paid over £100grand a week to be a centre half. It aint like asking a central midfielder to play on the left wing or owt – its still centre half. Playing on the right doesn’t excuse him completely misjudging the flight of the ball from that goal kick for the first goal.

I do think Johnson is getting a bit more stick than he deserves for his performance on Sunday. Due to the absence of any wingers in that startign line up, both full backs were effectively acting as wingers & had a hell of a job to fulfill that role & act as defensive cover too. There were goals on Sunday when the German wingers were completely unmarked but that’s coz the full backs had had to drift in to the middle to cover that inept pair at centre half

Capello’s problem i think was that he started to panic in the build up to the world cup.
We cruised through the qualifiers looking & playing confidently. he picked players who were in form & if during a game things weren’t quite going to plan he had the nouse to turn it round.
Come preparation for the world cup & he starts to pick players he knows have done a job for him – regardless of their form, injuries or appearance record for their club & to top it off starts to try & beg “internationally retired” players to come back. I’ve heard plenty of “insiders” in the press stating that there were players left out of the squad who were the best in training amongst the 30 man squad but he chose to stick with what he knew & tell the likes of Adam Johnson that his turn will come in euro qualifying. Why??? If he was good enough then he should have gone to South Africa
come the tournament & his ability to know what to do to change things round disappears & his system of play becomes too rigid. I’ve no problem with him sticking with 4-4-2 but if (like Bobby) it “his formation or nothing” to go to a world cup without any out & out left wingers is criminal

That said, its not Capello’s fault that Rooney couldn;t trap a bag of cement during the entire tournament or that Terry & Upson forgot how to defend or that none of the team seemed capable of stringing more than 2 or 3 penetrating passes together

Did you see everybody against Mexico??

Apparently you can only “request” to play away/home on certain dates as opposed to insist on it so even though the rugby are at home on the Friday there is always the chance that the fixtures computer will chuck out a home game for Latics

As long as the Blackpool away game avoids around the time my wife’s due to give birth (2 weeks either side writes off September) then I aint @r$ed who we get