Barry's Beef

Good news! Tactical genius and all-round superb choice as national manager, Steve McLaren has had his midfield selection dilemma solved by Frank Lampard pulling out of tonight's match with a...fractured wrist, please no jokes. I think this will mean I'll watch the match tonight. come on England.

p.s Genius Lampard pic was lifted from an old Guardian gallery.

Labels: England, Frank Lampard, Steve McClaren

I was supposed to miss the latest debacle served up by Macca and the boys, I was supposed to go to Leytonstone to a meeting with speakers including Harry Cohen, John McDonnell and Katy Clark. However, when Gutbuster pulled out I didn't fancy it on my own and, somewhat strangely, I felt a calling, a duty if you will, to watch England.
Well it's a case of what might have been. That was a pretty piss England performance. England didn't turn up and looked toothless. Big Boy up front on his own didn't do anything. Macca did, however, solve the eternal problem of England's left flank. He literally didn't play anyone there. Thank goodness Macca wasn't a General at Waterloo. Nominally it was Lampard but in reality Lamps was about as left as the current Labour heirachy. With Barry and Downing in the squad, Macca decided to start with Phil Neville. That's a good omen.
I know we were lacking a number of players, but the lot who turned out were proper poor. This is a combination of the players and the tactics. It just seems that whatever formation Macca goes for, he doesn't seem to tell the team until mid-way through the anthem. Just play 4-4-2 mate. If you can play left-footed players at left-back and left-midfield and stop trying to fit Lamps and Gerrard into centre midfield we might even turn in a performance worthy of the name. This is no slight on Lamps purported weight, but Gerrard is far and away the better player.
What Macca needs to recognise, and pretty damn soon, is that you pick a formation and then pick the players to fit into that system. You do not, sorry you really really should not, pick 11 players and put them into a formation. Lamps/Gerrard is a case in point. Macca, and Svennis before him, seems besotted with putting them in the same midfield. I am not sure how many more times they have got to fail to click not to get picked. I mean look at Spain, they had Alonso and Fabregas on the bench and, for my money, they're better than Lamps; hell Alonso didn't even get on at all. This means that you drop Lampard and play Hargreaves. If Hargreaves is injured again, you pick someone who can play the holding role, whether that is Carrick, Barton or Butt or anyone frankly. You don't put Lampard there and hope he'll play in a way that is totally alien to his instinct.
Equally, you pick someone who can play on the left of midfield and don't just put the odd one out of the centre midfield there as if you were, in effect, sending them to Coventry. For goodness sake, it's not rocket science. The idea continues: you play strikers who can score, have pace and compliment each other (not in a "oooh Wayne I do like that shirt" way, although it's quite an amusing concept.) Crouch on his own? Now I know the big-lad-with-a-good-touch is a bit of a freak, but he's alright. Yet, playing on his own he's about as effective as the Liberal Democrat party. We have loads of young, quality strikers so if Macca is hell-bent, as it seems, on not giving Defoe a proper chance he could call up, say, Leroy Lita or David Nugent or Gabriel Agbonlahor or Ashley Young. Just take the plunge Macca.
The current team and the current management are treading water. Next up Israel and, sadly, they're not the mickey mouse outfit they were a few years ago. I'd even go so far as to say if it wasn't for a rather heated second-half debate on who's better Sharpe or Jack Bauer (it's Sharpe by light-years) this would have been one of the most deflating 90 minutes of my life.
Mind due, it could always be worse, I could be Barry O'Beef and I could be Irish and could have just watched my team scrape a 2-1 win over San Marino, a team with all the class and talent of the Queen's Head 3rd XI.

Labels: England, Frank Lampard, Mclaren, proper tactics, Steven Gerrard

Ok so he has had what some would call a chequered past (he's only 24), but Joey Barton sure can play. Yes he's stubbed a cigar out in the face of a youth team player, beaten up some kid in Thailand and bared his arse against Everton back in September but Barton's high point must surely be his response to England players releasing their autobiographies after the World Cup. His exact quote is as accurate as it is blunt: "Why were they bringing books out? It’s like 'we got beat in the quarter-finals, I played like s***, Here’s my book.' Who wants to read that?" I don't think you can argue with that.
So what if this has put the noses of such literary luminaries as Gerrard and Lampard out of joint, frankly their performances during the World Cup did the same to a large portion of the country's football fans. Barton is set to remain unrepentant and fair play to him.
Also included are Kieron Dyer and Jonathan Woodgate after their injury woes and recalled after 4 years is Gareth Barry. These are all plusses, so I'll put my hand up and say 'Well done Steve McLaren'. The squad doesn't quite score an A* though. I would have had Matt Taylor in as left-back cover and wouldn't have included either John Terry or Andrew Johnson. It's only a friendly and as neither of these players are fit yet, wouldn't it make more sense to brave it with kids? Any one of Agbonlahor, Young, Lita, Nugent, Walcott or Derbyshire (all in the U-21 squad) may have been worth a go. And at the back you got to think Sol Campbell's renaissance at Portsmouth has been mighty impressive.
Out goes Kieran Richardson (back to the U-21 squad) but sadly there is no call-up for Scott Carson and Jenas is still in the squad. I would have liked to see Kevin Nolan or, as an outside shout, Tom Huddlestone.
All in all though, it's the most encouraged I have been during the McLaren era. Now we got to see who he actually plays. As ever, come on England.

Labels: England, Frank Lampard, Joey Barton, Sol Campbell, Steven Gerrard, young strikers