England vs Costa Rica, Tuesday 24th June, KO 5pm

[Guest Boyo]

England fans, Costa Rica (or Costa-muthafudgin-Rica as they should really be called now) are probably going to rest players against you. Just let that sink in for a moment. Costa-mutha-fudgin-Rica.

 

Roy Hodgson has confirmed that England too will give the other members of the squad a go, so we can expect to see starts for the likes of Wilshere, Lambert, Shaw, Smalling, Jones, Milner and Lallana. Out of the lot who started the other two matches, I think Studgy, Sterling and Rooney probably deserve some match time as they've largely impressed this World Cup. Even Rooney, to be fair to him.

 

So, who's watching it?

 

Cheers!

[Guest Boyo]

I will say that, in my opinion, I think not only the draw has been unkind to England but I also think that the order the matches were played in was unkind too. Maybe if England had started with Costa Rica, and assuming they won that match (definitely not a given of course, seeing how they've turned over both Uruguay and the Italians) then maybe, with something to protect, England might have been a bit more disciplined in defence. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my anus, seeing as I thought England did try to be defensively assured, but don't have the class of player available to be defensively assured against Balotelli and Suarez in a World Cup.

 

I think we'll see this team:

 

Hart

 

Smalling -- Jones -- Cahill -- Shaw

 

Wilshere -- Lampard -- Milner

 

Sturridge -- Lambert -- Lallana

 

Give your pal Boyo the chance to pick the team and I'd, knowing we're out anyway and we're playing Costa Rica's second string, pick:

 

Hart

 

Jones -- Cahill -- Jagielka

 

Milner -- Wilshere -- Henderson -- Shaw

 

Oxlade-Chamberlain

 

Sturridge -- Sterling

 

Cheers!

[Guest Ciaran The King]

I'm not really fussed at this stage, I want Costa Rica to win so people can realise how much England have fallen as a footballing nation. Also if Costa Rica win they can stop blaming Suarez for knocking England out and realise we are just crap

[Guest Boyo]

Blaming Suarez? He IS to blame for England going out. Among other people.

 

Cheers!

[DC 536]

Surely it's those who missed chances for England rather than those who didn't miss chances against England who would be more to blame.

[Guest John Hancock]

Surely it's those who missed chances for England rather than those who didn't miss chances against England who would be more to blame.

 

Why? England scored in both games. If England played the exact same game, but you swapped out Suarez for someone who misses, England would have won 1-0. That's like blaming JFK for not being fast enough at ducking.

 

That's not even really what Ciaran was saying though, I think Ciaran means England would have struggled anyway, with or without Suarez. Just being he was, in this instance, the hitman, doesn't mean the assassination wouldn't have happened without him.

Edited June 23, 2014 by John Hancock

[Guest Boyo]

England team to face Costa-muthafudgin-Rica:

 

Foster

 

Smalling -- Jones -- Cahill -- Shaw

 

Wilshere -- Milner -- Lampard ©

 

Sturridge -- Barkley -- Lallana

 

Cheers!

Edited June 23, 2014 by Boyo

[Guest John Hancock]

Is that legit or hopeful?

[Guest Magic]

It's right, except Ben Foster will play in goals.

[Guest Boyo]

Legit, so say f365. Looking back at my post I've got ol' Barkley through the middle. I cannae be arsed to change it now, but I'm sure Sturridge will play on the right at some point :P.

 

It's those players though, that XI, and I'm kinda looking fwd to it. Only one player out from my guess above, and I'm glad I got Lambert/Barkley wrong.

 

You wait, England are gonna trounce this 5-0 or something stupid :lol

 

Cheers!

[Guest Boyo]

Yes sorry, Foster in goal. Must have typed "Hart" on autopilot.

 

Cheers!

[Guest Magic]

England giving them a thrashing and Uruguay winning would be excellent for my group winners bet.

[Guest John Hancock]

I seriously think England will win, because they're England, and there's no more English time to win than after you've already lost.

[Guest Magic]

I think they'll win too. Probably relatively comfortably too. The worst result for me is the draw. If England win, Uruguay can top the group and if Costa Rica win, well England lose again and go out with zero points so that's hilarious. A draw would just be rubbish.

[Evil Gringo 279]

I'll watch it and if England win or lose I will skip the pundits on ITV because a) if we will win they will go back over the previous games and lament over what might have been or b) we lose and they all sit there, thinking they all know what is best going forward.

 

Sorry Gordon Strachan and Glenn Hoddle, when was the last time you managed a top class club in a competitive league and won anything? Plus Mr. Strachan has enough to worry about with the future of the once good Scottish national team to weigh in with his two penny's worth on England.

 

The problem is that England produces good young players who then don't get the chance to progress at club level at the highest level because it is too risky for the top clubs to push untried talent ahead of proven and expensive players. Sure some break through elsewhere like Lallana, Barkley and Shaw BUT there isn't enough of them to round out a good solid squad and even then we can't seem to turn out the kind of midfield players you need to succeed at the top level.

[DC 536]

Why?

Because if those players had converted their chances, then it wouldn't have mattered that Suarez scored two.

England scored in both games. If England played the exact same game, but you swapped out Suarez for someone who misses, England would have won 1-0. That's like blaming JFK for not being fast enough at ducking.

And if you swapped out Rooney for someone who scores the point-blank header he missed and the free-kick he missed, then England win 3-2. It's all semantics because blaming Suarez for scoring is just as valid as blaming Rooney (and others) for missing.

 

Also, Suarez wasn't playing in the game against Italy, so surely you can just as easily blame one / both of the Italian scorers if you want to go down the "let's blame the team who won for their successes instead of blaming the team who lost for their failures" route.

[Guest John Hancock]

Because if those players had converted their chances, then it wouldn't have mattered that Suarez scored two.And if you swapped out Rooney for someone who scores the point-blank header he missed and the free-kick he missed, then England win 3-2. It's all semantics because blaming Suarez for scoring is just as valid as blaming Rooney (and others) for missing.

 

Also, Suarez wasn't playing in the game against Italy, so surely you can just as easily blame one / both of the Italian scorers if you want to go down the "let's blame the team who won for their successes instead of blaming the team who lost for their failures" route.

 

Because that's not how blame works. For the Uruguay game, Uruguay won because of Suarez. They won because he's really good, you take away Suarez and they had nothing. Virtually every other striker in the World Cup wasn't going to score the chances he was given. Rooney, on the other hand, actually did score, he scored England's only goal of the game. England didn't lose because of Wayne Rooney, they lost for a variety of reasons, but the only player, the only individual on the pitch who stood out as having evidently changed the game was Suarez, his performance was the stand out performance of the match, and he's the one player who you could see had the most impact either way, for better or for worse (in his case, for better). The fact is that Suarez was better than Rooney was worse. The change in the game comparing that game without Rooney, and that game without Suarez, in terms of the impact it would have on England, isn't really comparable. He was, without question, the most important player on the pitch in terms of the result, and has dragged Uruguay, kicking and screaming, into the possibility of qualification.

 

As for the Italy game, that kind of makes everyone's point for them. No one's to "blame" for the Italy game, because it was a team game. As a team, Italy were simply better, they outplayed England as a unit, and they beat them. The reason people use the word "blame" with Suarez was because his impact on the Uruguay game was so evident, and it was such a stand-out, game-changing performance. Uruguay without Suarez weren't beating England, England without Rooney still weren't beating Uruguay.

[Guest Ciaran The King]

How right I was to get in from work and choose Raw over this crap.......

[Guest Magic]

A draw would just be rubbish.

 

Yep.

[Omega 354]

Shaw should start over Baines? Nope.

 

Jagielka should be dropped for smalling? Nope.

 

Ross Barkley should start. Nope.

 

Welbeck should be dropped. Nope.

 

 

 

The only player that came into the squad and proved to be anything of a revelation was James Milner. The guy was more created more than Lallana, Barkley and Wilshire combined. Sometimes it's not that a player is the most skillful in the world but that they can do the f*cking job given to them and do it well. He was the only player I saw not giving the ball away constantly in attack.