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YankeeCanary

England: The Long And The Short Of It

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Undeniably a subtle benefit of the England strike partnership of Peter Crouch and Michael Owen has to be that opponents will spend the first twenty minutes of the game ogling the odd pair. Opponent groups will be seen in clusters of two''s and threes fully engaged in conversation, generating jokes and even loud guffaws. While this is all taking place, of course, England need to capitalise on the opponents being off-guard by popping two or three goals in and killing off the games early. If Svenn comes to realise the side benefits of this deadly advantage, with a little hard thinking, he may be able to escalate the threat into a full 30 minute benefit. Here are some ideas to get us started:

- Provide Owen and Crouch with two-way radios for communication at all altitudes 

- Provide Owen with a nose buffer to ensure soft contact when he runs into Crouch''s navel

- Provide Owen with barbed-wire body protection so that, if he should score, Crouch isn''t tempted to play leapfrog on him in celebration

- Provide Crouch with the special crotch padding used by male cyclists so that, should he leapfrog anyway and just not get high enough, there is no long-term damage incurred resulting in impotence.

- Keep the partnership intact when Rooney returns and make them a deadly trio. When the World Cup gets underway, spectators from all countries will know them by their acronym.....COR. Cor, they''ll say, aren''t they good. We will all feel wonderful, the Empire is on the rise. We may even win the World Cup.

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aren''t all these crouch gags getting a bit boring? it has been done to death.
let''s remember how good he was to and for us. the guy deserves a bit of respect. but i fear he''ll never get it from most england fans.

considering owen and crouch have never played together before i thought their partnership showed potential. owen should have had 2 penalties last night for a start and anything that, for god''s sake, gives us an outlet while we''re defending a 1 goal lead on the six yard box as usual has got to be worth having. he tired towards the end - should have come off instead of owen - but i think he''d be useful and offers something different to a team looking increasingly short of ideas.

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To be fair I thought consideringthe quality of service he got from an appalling midfield he did OK.  If Rooney had laid the ball off to lampard like that towards the end of the second the papers would have gone wild - held of his man, went to the ball from another pass that was too short and laid the ball perfectly into the path of lampard who forced a save from So Macho.  He was doing that all day and deserves more credit than he has got.  He is not another rooney but he was effective at what he does - but he does rely on service, as does owen. Rooney does not.

The real problem laid with the lack of energy from midfield - little movement and no pace and even the crossing to the lanky piece of... from an apparently in form Beckhm was second rate.

Hopefully SWP and a new partner for lampard in midfield (Cole? Hargreaves? Jenas??) should give us some impetus on Weds.

 

OTBC

 

   

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Bottom line... regardless of the formation, players etc, England need to learn to play as a TEAM.  A complete unit that works for each other.  There is no doubt the talent is there.  I think they need more passion to make them work well together and I''m not sure if Sven is the man to bring it.

Two examples of this are from each end of the scale:

France (2002 World Cup)... bags of talent but did not play as a team.  Got them nowhere.

Greece (Euro 2004)... No superstars, played well as a team.  Won the tournament.

This is the way international football is going.  Don''t be suprised if another unfancied country (similar to Greece) emerges during the next World Cup and a fancied team (i.e., France, Germany, Italy, England, etc) flops miserably.  Let''s hope it''s not England.

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[quote]Bottom line... regardless of the formation, players etc, England need to learn to play as a TEAM. A complete unit that works for each other. There is no doubt the talent is there. I think they need...[/quote]

Agreed  Mr C - our best 11 individuals are not necessarily our best team. 

A holding/defensive midfielder is a must to give us some stability and shape there (step forward hughesy, OK maybe jenas. hargreaves or Parker) even if that player is not a good overall as say lampard, gerrard or beckham in the domestic leagues.  Perhaps those players - as Luke Young did - will also give that little bit extra that we do not seem to get from the so called superstars who think their reputation will mean that they will not get dropped...

 

OTBC  

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