The English Football Team Thread

The only proper old school world class defensive midfielder I can think of gets played at centre back - Mascherano.

 

Thiago Silva I think is actually a good defender although not as good as them but Pique and Hummels aren't too great at defending they're definitely more skilled players than good defenders.

Guys like Montero, Iuliano, Aldair, Hyppia, Materazzi and less glamourour centre-halves of the 90s/2000s would be Godin's of nowadays yet Godin sticks out like a sore thumb now because theres hardly any proper defenders anywhere.

 

Think all three are great at defending, just not to the same level as those I mentioned before.

I * love Diego Godin, what you would call a proper defender.

 

Aye, theres always been the other type who are a bit less good defensively but better on the ball like Cocu, Redondo, Cambiasso, Thiago Motta, Matic types but even that has been watered down to now where guys who arent really defensive at all can play in the positions like Bitton for us.

Nowadays players like Gundogan, Vidal, Verratti, Alonso and Modric can be classed as defensive midfielders but guys like Lennon, Simeone, Keane, Gattuso, Makelele would look at you in disbelief if you said they were defensive midfielders when they played.

 

I think it's because teams are more likely to defend from the front these days. It lessens the need for a real high quality anchor man. Alot of sitting midfielders are now ball players.

 

Hodgson has already killed Vardy's momentum sticking him out wide isn't helping

 

Aye everything has really changed as back then too people played mostly 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 type formations were the wide players were actually midfielders now the vast majority of wide players are just forwards.

Funny to think that not too long ago players like Nedved, Rui Costa, Beckham, Scholes, Seedorf, Guti were used out wide by teams, guys who never had any pace, you'd never see it now even like Liverpool would play Murphy and Smicer on the right and left. Celtic played Petrov and Thompson out wide in the 2003-2005 seasons.

 

Most teams had a striker with some aerial threat. So I think a good delivery was very highly sought after. How many top wide men are known for their crossing ability now?

 

Very few, they're mostly known for scoring goals.

Proper wingers from 15/10 or so year ago like Giggs, Figo, Joaquin, Vicente, Ljungberg, Salihamidzic, Zenden, Overmars, Kily Gonzalez doing well to score 12 goals a season. Mostly they wouldn't even have scored double figures.

 

It's all inside forwards these days. With the increasingly attacking fullbacks(if you can even call them that) providing the width. But not many of those are great crossers now. Trying to think of a top team who has a proper old school winger...

Navas, but he's pretty * tbh. Bale plays inside forward now too. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just different

 

Douglas Costa puts in a decent cross but not really an old school winger style he is more than most though.

 

I like Kante, cracking wee player. 25 as well and noone had heard of him last year

 

Similar to Makelele, he was in his mid to late 20s before he established himself too, probably as technically they aren't the best of players so probably never appeared on the radar of bigger teams until they matured and started to do the business in their own way and were then noticed.

 

Aye true. They're the type of players to easily go unnoticed.

 

Something I've been thinking about recently, how there doesn't seem to be many traditional hard * defenders anymore. I think there's too much emphasis on centre-backs who are good technically at the expense of defensive quality. England last night had Stones and Smalling at the back, there not half as good imo as the likes of Terry, Campbell or Adams.

Only Godin, the 3 Juve CB's and big Robert Huth really fit the bill as a traditional CB.

 

Do England need a holding midfielder in there group? If they can't beat Slovakia, Russia And Wales there's something very wrong

 

England have some decent young players, it's just a shame that their manager is a doddery old moron.

His time at Liverpool showed him up for the outdated pensioner he is, and he's simply continued it with England.

Failure is pretty much guaranteed.

 

Anytime I've watched him this season he's been everywhere on the pitch, good few times he's been the furthest up the pitch closing folk down. Rather than just holding it.