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Slipperduke

The Camden Cad
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
4,333
Location
North London
With three wins out of three and a new-found ability to pass the ball about on the ground, the Fabio Capello revolution is gradually gaining momentum. A surprisingly perky Kazakhstan team were eventually swept aside at Wembley, crushed 5-1 with a late flurry of goals. The dark days of the former regime, of long balls and of ineptitude are slowly fading away like a half-remembered nightmare.

Yet, despite the emphatic scoreline, Fabio Capello is unlikely to be over-excited about this performance. After a first half that produced possession without penetration, the Italian manager was forced to scrap his intended 4-3-3 and revert to a more traditional 4-4-2. Capello may have many strengths, but England fans remain most grateful for his ability to understand why a system isn't working, and for his conviction to change it quickly before it's too late.

It seems to be a right of passage for all England managers to fumble about with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, desperately trying to crowbar them both into the same side and Capello's attempts have been no more successful than those of his predecessors. Recognising that neither of them seem able to provide the tactical discipline required in the middle, he installed someone who could, Gareth Barry. The Aston Villa man took care of the menial tasks while the superstars enjoyed the freedom to attack. Unfortunately neither of them proved worthy of the hype, mislaying possession with frustrating frequency. It was most unjust to see the industrious Barry sacrificed for Shaun Wright-Phillips when England eventually reverted to type. Gerrard and Lampard are both fine players, but how long can these experiments continue? If Spain can leave Cesc Fabregas on the bench, why can't England cope with the thought of one of these two sitting out?

They may not yet be world-beaters on the pitch, but off it England are unstoppable. No-one else in the world can boast fans so stupid and so self-destructive. Capello had warned that the impatience of the Wembley crowd was contributing to underwhelming performances, but his words went unheard by a significant minority. Boos and catcalls were heard on half-time, despite the attractiveness of the football and the clear dominance of possession. Much worse though was the treatment of Ashley Cole after his woeful second half back-pass led to a Kazakhstan goal. The Chelsea left-back is not a man who engenders affection, but to mercilessly boo one of your own players for a simple mistake is so jaw-droppingly, brain-achingly stupid that you wonder how some of these people manage to do up their shoelaces in the morning. Who pays SG$300 for a ticket and then spends the afternoon sabatoging their own team's efforts? Thankfully, the majority of the crowd responded by applauding Cole's efforts in an effort to redress the balance, but the day had already been soured.

England fans have had a lot to moan about in recent years, but those times have gone. There is a new manager and a new ethos now. The ball is something to be cherished, not given away on a whim. There is belief, desire and urgency, married with a refreshing ruthlessness and aggression. The first half performance wasn't particuarly effective, but with the introduction of width and balance, Kazakhstan's resistence finally collapsed in the second. England is full of people eager to get behind their nation and support their players. Perhaps next time, the boo-boys could stay at home and make some room for them.

HEARTBREAK - There's no logical reason why Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard shouldn't be able to play together. They're both professionals at the peak of their game, but it just doesn't seem to be happening for them. Maybe this was less the fault of the system and more the players themselves who were culpable but that doesn't make any less disappointing.

TURNING POINT - With Wayne Rooney tucking in behind Emile Heskey, there was no balance to England's first half performance. Kazakhstan needed to be stretched and Fabio Capello rightly concluded that a pacy left-winger was required. In the absence of one of them, Shaun Wright-Phillips deputised and delivered.

ELECTRIC - Eyebrows will have been raised at the performance of Kazakhstan's Tanat Nuserbayev. The speedy midfielder caused a number of problems for Capello's defence and might have caught the eye of a few scouts. He's got a January move to Bolton Wanderers written all over him.

PUNTERS RANT - Against a team ranked 131st in the world, the smart money would have been on England winning by something large to nil, so hats off to Ashley Cole for ruining everybody's day with his daft backpass.

MAN OF THE MATCH - Wayne Rooney was in ferocious form once again, weighing in with two goals which, if you include his strikes for Manchester United, make it five for him in his last four games. The skinhead superstar was tough, tenacious and dedicated, and he's back to his Euro 2004 best.

MATCH STATS

England

David James 7, Wes Brown, 7, Ashley Cole 6, Rio Ferdinand 7, Matthew Upson 6, Gareth Barry 7 (Shaun Wright-Phillips 7), Steven Gerrard 6, Frank Lampard 6, Theo Walcott 7 (David Beckham 7), Wayne Rooney 8 (Jermaine Defoe 7), Emile Heskey 7

Kazakhstan

Alexandr Mokin 5, Aleksandr Kuchma 5, Alexander Kislitsyn 5, Tanat Nusserbayev 7, Ruslan Baltiyev 5, Sergey Skorykh 6, Zhambyl Kukeyv 7, Yuri Logvinenko 5, Sabyrkhan Ibrayev 5, Sergey Ostapenko 5 (Gleb Maltsev 5) , Alexander Kirov 5 (Talgat Sabalakov 5)

Attendance - 89,107
 
"Don't moan at Cole for making a mistake", yet at the end of the article you (relatively) lay into him with the whole arsenal?

Sadly, I'm still getting over the days of McClown and Eriksson, so frankly I was delighted to win, sod the score.
 
I wasn't originally planning on going but as it was a good friend's birthday and they had a spare ticket going, I thought I would give another £30 of mine for the FA to misspend somewhere and go and watch. I have to admit that this was much better than most of the games I've seen at Wembley.

For their part, the Kazakhs were very decent in posession and genuinely sought to get something out of the game even when two goals down. In fact, had they spent more time working on defending set pieces or brought in a better set piece specialist, they could well be celebrating a lucky point or a narrow defeat. I don't know if sporting minnows celebrate narrow defeats in other sports but footballing nations seem to revel in it sometimes.

England never looked to have much penetration and this still separates them from the top table of International teams which unfortunately we've only flirted with in recent times. There were just too few times where any England player did anything which was strikingly impressive and as soon as Walcott's early flourish was done, it was very laboured to half time.

Capello is completely right about patience. If you're 0-0 at half time against a team but have dominated possession as England did then you will have gained a physical advantage over a team. As long as you don't resort to long balls which don't move the opposition around then they will be tiring as they chase the ball. Still didn't stop a decent number of people around me booing at half time and shouting some crap about "passion for the shirt" or some other Ben Sherman sounding national pride mumbo jumbo. Unfortunately, the more times I go to see England play at Wembley, the more I realise how much I dislike a significant minority of England fans. My very occasional away experiences have been with a vastly better group of supporters and it really makes me wonder what drives these people to go to Wembley at all.

It got worse after half time with the booing of Ashley Cole. It was an error and a biggie but he'd not really done anything wrong in the rest of the match. I'm hoping the boos were generated from thousands of people coincidentally picturing lovely Cheryl's face but then football fans aren't exactly known for being OK readers. I wouldn't say the majority were applauding at the same time as the booing but I'm sure Cole would have got the impression by the end that the crowd wasn't entirely intent on killing him.

The goals weren't broadly anything to write home about although Heskey and Defoe's understanding for the fifth was good. All in all, job done I'd say. Nothing else to go overboard about or worry about. First time in some time that the Kazakhs have actually been routed.

yet at the end of the article you (relatively) lay into him with the whole arsenal?

Not really, but his error was rather lazy and almost inch perfect for the striker and anyone with a 0 scoreline would have been annoyed. Realistically, I think it would have been a bad day for the bookies (as bad as it gets anyway). Oh, and me. Having backed the Kazakhs with a 3 goal handicap, the moment they pulled one back. Have to admit that the guy running to get the ball back to take it back for kick-off did have me worried and as soon as Defoe was getting ready to come on I knew the game was up!
 
"Don't moan at Cole for making a mistake", yet at the end of the article you (relatively) lay into him with the whole arsenal?

Sadly, I'm still getting over the days of McClown and Eriksson, so frankly I was delighted to win, sod the score.

Wasn't intending to lay into him, was sort of trying to be flippant about the whole thing, but perhaps that hasn't quite come across. I hate Punters Rant. I couldn't give a **** about betting, so it always feels like the weak spot in every feature.
 
Cashley is a twunt though, end of!
See my current Facebook status!!!

For a man on such a daft income, he's no more than a legitimate thief.
If I performed as badly as he does regularly at my work, I'd fully expect my P45 to land on my desk at any minute, especially if you apply a ratio of talent/effort:remuneration.

That doesn't even begin to mention what an odious little individual he is!
 
I couldn't really disagree much more on the talent bit! He could probably do a bit more work on his crossing but that's about all and he was one of the reasons Chelsea finished the season so strongly last season.

I don't tend to believe everything I read in the press so I disregard that but the content he sanctions in his own book paints him as a hugely dislikeable person. I guess that's a pretty big reason why it only sold 4,000 in 6 months.
 
Cashley is a twunt though, end of!
See my current Facebook status!!!

For a man on such a daft income, he's no more than a legitimate thief.
If I performed as badly as he does regularly at my work, I'd fully expect my P45 to land on my desk at any minute, especially if you apply a ratio of talent/effort:remuneration.

That doesn't even begin to mention what an odious little individual he is!

Oh, he's an absolute twunt, make no mistake of that. He's an nasty little ******* with precious little regard for the organisations that pay him or the individuals that love him, but that's beside the point.

He's playing for England, he's made a mistake and the game is on a knife-edge. Will he perform better with support, or by being barracked?

Boo when he's playing for Chelsea, by all means, but not when he's representing all of us. At least not until full-time anyway
 
Cole has now withdrawn with a hamstring from England's tricky tie in Belarus.

Well done you ****ing morons who booed him.
 
Cole has now withdrawn with a hamstring from England's tricky tie in Belarus.

Well done you ****ing morons who booed him.

What a ****ing baby. He made a criminal mistake and when you combine that with his loathsome attitude and greed, I don't blame fans for booing him. Good riddance.
 
coles error was schoolboy stuff..........nuff said


however i feel his mrs is rather a tasty little bint and i would love to hump her every day,possibly several times per day.
 
I've no love for Ashley Cole, I think he's greedy little twunt too but the booing was completely out of order. He made one mistake in a game we were always going to win. TBH Wayne Rooney has made far more important mistakes in big tournaments (ie getting sent off) and never been booed.

If Cole has pulled out because of the booing, over-sensitive it maybe but understandable. Those that booed him have to look at themselves when we play Lescott or Shorey at LB when we could have had a world class LB playing, albeit one who's a ****.
 
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