Raj

He is a good keeper, but very injury prone. The guy is young and IF he ever manages to get over his injury problems he could become a very good keeper. Good business for us and possibly for Wigan. On another note, my understanding was that we bought Kirkland for £3 million, with the rest based on clauses. Surely he never met all those clauses!?!

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I was only joking (just realise that I deleted the similie). I wouldnt have him ahead of any of our title winning strikers.

Don't forget Rooney.

And Zenden.

That's close to the truth, but I have bought a flat now, so I am skint.

Due to financial constraints, only go to Euro Aways and the odd home/London away games. Football and travelling is too expensive to make it a regular thing anymore

Fair enough, but I would imagine he mentions it as you normally have to win something of substance to play in the Charity Shield, Super Cup or World Club Championship.

Really? I know they were far superior on Sunday, but I thought we were the better team last season, even though we lost.

Finally managed to figure out how to upload photos. A very good trip, with 3 points to boot. http://raj-khush.fotopic.net/c1114957.html

I couldnt even blame the Stella for that!

Well, Zenden was doing my f***ing head in!

I dont expect Terri to be on time, but the pub will keep me occupied whilst I wait.

Cool. See you all then.

Can do, but I'll give you a call when I get to the airport.

Its ok getting through Luton. I was there last Tuesday with no problems. As Terri mentioned, its much better since the refurb. I will be aiming to get there about 12.30pm. Cant be bothered with any last minute rushing. No doubt I will see you in the pub.

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I have a very strong constitution you know. I just have a problem with fish trying to wriggle off my plate, after I have cut it in half.

I'm quite happy to go with the booking, if its a decent recommendation. Quite fancy a decent meal, compared to the usual McDonalds run after 8 pints.

Possibly, but bearing in mind the system that England employed, it was never going to work. The wing backs are not good enough on the ball, and played far too deep. it was more like a 5-3-2, than a 3-5-2. My idea of a 3-5-2 would require the wing backs to play further up the pitch and provide more width and therefore more space in the middle. The way they set themselves up positionally ensured that there were 4 players against 3 in the middle. The 2 wing backs were in no-mans-land and the 3 defenders were left left marking 1 or 2 players, with the other defender not knowing what to do. Moving onto the players. I dont disagree with the assessments above. But, you can aid players by playing them in their true positions. The players were poor and were fully to blame on Saturday. But the decision-making by the manager was very poor yesterday. It was a gamble in a high-risk game, and it didnt come off.

I would have played 4-4-1-1. Its a variation on 4-4-2 anyway and the players would understand their roles better than a 3-5-2 Crouch Rooney Downing Parker Lampard Wright Phillips I would have included Phil Neville instead of Parker, due to his experience, but bearing in mind he injured himself, Parker would have been the only cover. I dont think Carrick would have had enough time and space to play with this line up. The team has natural width, but both Downing and Wright Phillips work very hard and are defensively sound. It would enable England to remain solid, but enable them to have better ball retention than last nights 3-5-2, where neither A Cole or G Neville are good enough. Playing 3-5-2 against your most competitive rival in the group, away from home, is naive at best.

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There lies the problem though. There is no balance in midfield and McLaren has tried to compensate this fact, by amending the formation to a 3-5-2. It has been exposed again that apart from Joe Cole, there is not one player who is capable of playing left wing with any consistency, or quality. Downing is solid, but unspectacular and Richardson is dogs***. I would like to see the following midfield - J Cole Gerrard Hargreaves Lennon/Wright Philips As Joe Cole likes to cut in from the wing and with Ashley Cole overlapping, England would have a decent balance on the left. I would choose Lennon or Wright Phillips as a more direct, conventional winger. Someone who will stretch a defence and provide natural width. Finally, I would choose Hargreaves and Gerrard as the central midfield pairing. For me, Lampard is a decent player, but Gerrard should be ahead of him everytime. He has more to his game and is defensively more disciplined. The other reason for excluding Lampard, is that he seems to occupy much of the space that Rooney likes to move into. Also, Lampard is a t*** with a big f***ing moon face, and I dont want to see anymore of his s*** goal celebrations. Last nights game was a total balls up from McLaren. Not only were his tactics woeful, but his substitutions were baffling. Time to see whether he can step up and make the right decisions.