Tone_E said:
You put it in a way that makes it hard to disagree with you. Rooney will exponentially regain his old form the further England advances.
You mentioned that Beckham cant beat anyone, but rarely did he ever try. Hes best streaking down the wing crossing the ball into the box. I haven't seen that from him this year too often, instead he is the one delivering the ball to the streaker. Regardless he is a great midfield presence. I do not know enough about your squad to question his leadership abilities, so I will take your word for it.
As for Lampard, I dont know what to say. He can't buy a goal, but continues to put himself in scoring positions, and will eventually net one for you guys.
How is your press treating the English national team's performances in general? You have done enough to win, but you and I both know you guys are capable of so much more.
Rooney is our best player. And that's saying something in a team that contains Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Michael Owen, Joe Cole, etc. Those metatarsal injuries are usually much longer recovery periods than the 6 weeks that Rooney took. To have the 2nd half that he did with no real football in 7 weeks was testament to just how good he is.
Beckham never tried to beat anyone because he actually can't beat anyone. At Manchester United, at Madrid and with England, I genuinely don't recall him ever taking on a man and getting past them.
In terms of his leadership or otherwise, Terry leads Chelsea like a man possessed, with real leadership abilities. You'd want to go to war with him. Gerrard leads by example. With Liverpool he simply will not allow anyone to do anything other than play to his level. And as someone who has played football at a high level over here, I'd rather play for the latter than a screamer, but both work.
The press are troubled. They want to criticise and rightly so, but they're very aware that we're in the 1/4 finals with a great chance of going to the semis having not played at all. They make mention of 1966 when we struggled in the group and laboured to the last 8, then beat Portugal in the semis and West Germany in the final. And Italia 90, where again we struggled in the group, scrambled past Belgium with an injury time winner, then turned it on and beat Cameroon 3-2 in the quarters and lost on penalties to West Germany in the semis after drawing 1-1 and then hitting the post twice in injury time.
They know we can play better. Lets hope we do.
