Tone_E said:Hey Boomer. Has the pressure been lifted on Beckham? And why aren't you guys as hard on Rooney as you are with Beckham. I've heard a paper in England was questioning Beckhams leadership abilities (from the commentator of the game) and am just curious what your press is saying over there.
Hey mate......not really. One goal shouldn't mask the deficiencies from the rest of his game and they aren't. I think a lot of people watching England believe that there are 3 problems with the team:
1) the manager
2) the captain
3) Frank Lampard.
To my mind, there are 2 real leaders on the team, John Terry the Chelsea captain and Steven Gerrard the Liverpool captain. Beckham can't beat anyone, so he tries to go long everytime which is a major part of the problem. Watch these same players week in and week out and they pass the ball round, spread it about, one twos, give and gos, etc. I've seen none of that. And Frank Lampard is so out of form that he shouldn't be in the side. He has contributed 21 shots, 0 goals and little else. But neither he or Beckham should be dropped.
In terms of being hard on Rooney, I don't think anyone would be hard on Rooney. He's arguably in the top 3/4 players in the world, he broke his foot 7 weeks ago and that was his 1st 90 minutes in 7 weeks on Sunday and in the 2nd half against Ecuador he was superb. He's rounding into form and he's a brilliant, brilliant player. I see no reason why ANYONE would criticise him and no-one in this country or the press is doing that.