h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What on earth is Sven thinking?!?!?!!?

3 Goalies to 4 strikers?

Of which two are injured, one has never player a premiership or european game and one has never displayed any aptitude for regular goalscoring?

Darren Bent the most consistant English striker this season in terms of goals (the main job) isnt even on the reserve list.

What the heck fire is going on, has he lost his mind?!?!?!?!?

I was going to say all that!

An off-form captain, two injured strikers, an untried boy, a shell shocked defender, GARY F'in Neville, The German Wunderkind, and wait for it - Calamity James.

Sven's gonna make it easy for McLaren to look good.

I agree, Owen shouldn't be going as he isn't match fit or practised and there isn't a cat in Hell's chance of Rooney being fit (although he can change this pick closer to the time I believe).
The Walcott pick is so ridiculous it's untrue. If Arsene Wenger is so bloody exctited about this, why hasn't he picked him yet?

Right normally when someone gets sacked dont employers usually get them the hell out of dodge to ensure they dsont do any damage, even if that means putting them on gardening leave?

Sack Sven now and get Graham Taylor 2 in post striaght away. At least then we might be shot of him striaght after the world cup.

To be fair to Walcott he probably is the number 1 English striker / attacking midfield player in Arsenal's squad. So on that basis it not right to criticise his selection for England purely on the basis that he hasn't got on the pitch for Arsenal this season.

But on the other hand he shouldn't be going as there are better options available to Sven, namely Darren Bent.

Just goes to show that Sven prefers average players from "big teams" to someone actually good from a smaller one.

What would Darren Bent have had to do to get into the squad?

Sven now deserves to be sacked IMHO without notice of compensation. Get him out before he does any more damage.

Hang on a mo' FB, you're a union person. You know full well that sacking someone without notice or whatever can get the employer into a world of pain.

Yes I know.... I am operating in shock and you are quite right.

Still he does seems to be acting like a mentalist.

I owuld put him on gardening leave and let someone else pick the squad. Like the FA janitor or something.

> What would Darren Bent have had to do to get into the squad?

Where do I begin with this? How many goals did Bent score against teams in the top half of the Premiership this season?

Plus, the highlights on Sunday may have glossed over this, but he was absolutely shocking again Man Utd. And he's not done anything in an England shirt yet, and he's had a few chances to do so. Put it this way, Crouch has done more for England.

To me this squad says Sven is planning to play 4-5-1 Chelsea-style, assuming Rooney isn't fit... something like:

Robinson

Neville - Ferdinand - Terry - Cole

Beckham - Gerrard - Carrick - Lampard - Joe Cole

Crouch (or Owen if he's really gambling)

If he is really planning this then there's no point taking 5 strikers.

Oh, and don't you have to take 3 goalkeepers to a World Cup?

Well he scored 2 vs Tottenham 01/10/05, 1 vs Chelski 26/10/05 and 1 vsd Liverpool 08/02/06.

A much better return that say Peter Crouch (who I do think deserves his place).

I think you have to imgaine that playing in a side that is not performing well hinders rather than helps and DB owuld probably have scored more in a better side. Every Charlton player on the pitch was rubbish on sunday.

What this says to me is that playing for a big team is more important that playing well. So Bent misses out, and for my money that sucks

> What this says to me is that playing for a big team is more important that playing well

I suppose... but in that case, you would have expected Shaun Wright-Phillips instead of Lennon or Downing...

I agree with you - Darren Bent is unlucky. I would take out a midfielder - Jenas - and take another striker, which would be Bent or Defoe, although I guess that might mean taking both of them when they finally realise that Rooney isn't going to make it. Owen might not be fit now but he'll be okay for the tournament - and the reason he's in is that there aren't any other alternatives out there.

"To me this squad says Sven is planning to play 4-5-1 Chelsea-style, assuming Rooney isn't fit... something like:"

He's never shown that sort of imagination before.

I'm disgusted that Walcott is in ahead of Defore and Bent. Defoe's never had a bad game in an England shirt. I think I could probably make a case for Marlon Harewood too. Harewood and Defoe up front doesn't sound at all bad to me.

B

Defoe isn't even guaranteed a Tottenham place at the moment.

The 4 - 5 -1 is the only option that makes sense with what he's taking, but that makes the entire system entirely dependant upon Crouch.

He's gonna be playing 4 - 4 -2 and it'll be

Robinson

Neville - Ferdinand - Terry - Cole

Beckham - Lampard - Carragher - Gerrard

Crouch - Owen

Well, as I said in another thread, it is part of Sven's job to give us an excuse/moaning/debating point when we go out in the quarter finals, so to that extent it is a job well done, as we'll be saying 'Well, if he'd taken X or Y...' until the cows come home.

On a personal note I'm livid. He's not only pretty much told Bent he might as well leave the Valley this summer if he ever wants an England place again, he's also de-valued him by a shedload as well. Still, if Liverpool were daft enough to pay £9M for that donkey Crouch (who I suggest doesn't scare Trinidad and Tobago, much less a properly organized European defence like Germany, France, Spain or Italy and crucially Sweden) then we should at least be able to cash in on some of his value.

On an England note, we're going to score more goals from midfield than we will from the front, because we are going to score nada from the front. Be interesting to see whether or not Chelsea's summer clear out comes before or after Wright-Philips and Cole put in their transfer requests, mind.

>Plus, the highlights on Sunday may have glossed over this, but he was absolutely shocking again Man Utd. And he's not done anything in an England shirt yet, and he's had a few chances to do so.<

The whole Charlton squad was shocking on Sunday - especially at the back. A disgraceful way to say farewell to Curbishley. BUT Bent wasn't taken off because he was shocking but because Curbishley saw no reason at that stage of the game to risk possible injury to a player he assumed was going to be part of the World Cup Squad.

And by a few chances I take it you mean 'one'? A game in which only David Beckham seemed to know how to make the most of him and did try. Just to set the record straight. Which of course is as many chances as Andy Johnson has had, and that poor even got played out of position to boot.

GD - Hang on a mo' FB, you're a union person. You know full well that sacking someone without notice or whatever can get the employer into a world of pain.

and like, this ISN'T a world of pain? as for sacking SGE, it's too late now (should have been done while he was still on a plane from the emirates). 4 strikers of whom two are injured and one has 0 caps is one thing. hargreaves is another.

To be perfectly honest I can't say that I'm that fussed who Sven takes to Germany. I don't particularly follow international football; and when I do, I tend to support the Welsh for no clear defined reason.

> And by a few chances I take it you mean 'one'?

Is it really only one? I take that back then. I would have Bent on the standby list instead of Defoe. But he still doesn't convince me - he's not as good as Andy Cole, for example, and what did he ever do for England?

I think the point is that all the strikers have played (or will play, in Walcott's case) Champions League football. And, like it or lump it, that is important for international football. How many of the Italian or French squads, for example, are going to come from teams not in the Champions League or the UEFA Cup?

> Still, if Liverpool were daft enough to pay £9M for that donkey Crouch (who I suggest doesn't scare Trinidad and Tobago, much less a properly organized European defence like Germany, France, Spain or Italy and crucially Sweden) then we should at least be able to cash in on some of his value.

Okay, so he did nothing in the friendly against Argentina? Are you saying Argentina's defence isn't any good? I know I'm a biased Liverpool fan, but the addition of Crouch to our squad this season has made a big difference. I'm not saying he got us to 3rd from 5th on his own - far from it - but it's basically the same team as last year aside from Crouch.

> Be interesting to see whether or not Chelsea's summer clear out comes before or after Wright-Philips and Cole put in their transfer requests, mind.

Wright-Phillips, maybe. Joe Cole? Are you joking?

No, I'm not. I don't think Mourhino believes him in enough to guarantee him first team football. If Duff hadn't lost a yard this year, Coles career was in the same Chelsea owned skip as Scott Parker's and Wright-Philips'.

You're not convinced by Bent, I'm not convinced by Crouch. He has no ability to turn on the ball, no first touch and doesn't really seem to understand that even if he is the tallest man in the league, he might have to jump for the odd cross. I saw your lot play us this year - your strike force couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo, and a sensible full back of even Hriedarssons quality had no difficulty in coping with Crouch.

As for Argentina, are you suggesting they'll let themselves be turned over by us in a proper competition?