England v Ecuador 4 pm

mike65

So its now or never....

Sven has been playing 23 card pick-up again and looks lke installing Hargreaves at right back with Carrick holding and Gerrard playing behind Rooneys lone striker.

---

Robinson
Hargreaves--Ferdinand--Terry--A Cole

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Carrick
Beckham----Gerrard--Lampard--J Cole

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Rooney

If thats how things turn out then its his best shot at a quarter final spot in my book. It looks like it will be 35C pitch level by last afternoon so they'll have to get the ball to do the work.

Mike.

Pepe LeFrits

Big test for Rooney to play the lone striker role with his fitness and that heat, especially considering he isn't that sort of striker either.

England should still win though.

Jammer

Equador are average going forward, and less than average defensively. They are physically strong, and fit though. The weather will be on their side.

Lets not forget their opening day result. Poland and Costa Rica were poor when Equador played them.

England should win....but its the WC, there has to be one upset in every round. Equador getting to the 2nd round was the group stages upset.....they could be the second round upset too...

Alot of pressure on England to win, the expectency on them from the whole nation to do well isn't helping!

As for the starting XI, i'd agree with mike, it's their best shot. I don't know about hargreaves though. Rooney will be hungry, i think he'll do well. Lampard and Gerard will push right up to support him, and let Carrick deal with counters. I can see Rooney assisting the other two, more then looking for the goal himself. He's great at holding up the ball, and we know what Lampard/Gerard can do from 18-25yards.

fade2black

There were times when Mexico have been dirt poor but they stepped up to the plate last night. Equador may well do the same. England have been bugging me with the constant crap they've been coming out with in the press. Terry says they'll "play it like a premiership match and crush them". Indeed.

eirebhoy

England to win comfortably. The only thing I can see holding them back now is confidence. For the first time in Sven's England career I agree 100% with his lineup.

Aquos76

Thats probably the best line up he could have went with, with the players available to him. With regards to Beckham, I would preferred to have seen him dropped and give lennon a chance. When he came on against T&T he changed the game. Beckham without Gary Neville behind him, he has nothing to offer running down that right wing. That was proved against Sweden in the last game when most of the cross field balls were played out to the left to the Ashley and Joe Cole.

A Dub in Glasgo

England have been poor and were lucky to get an easy route to this game. Hopefully the south Americans will send them home today.

The Muppet

I would not be surprised to see England go out this afternoon. They have been a big disappointment so far in the competition.

The formation above is probably their best chance of progressing, Carrick playing the holding role in midfield will allow lampard and Gerrard in particular the freedom to play their club role.

If they go out Sven will have messed up Englands chances by bringing players he should't have and leaving better players at home and playing tactic's that do not suit the squad he has with him.

I hope England go through as they were the team I chose to support at the start of the comp. The big name players have to step up to the mark now and play their best football or they will be out.

Jammer

fade2black wrote:

There were times when Mexico have been dirt poor but they stepped up to the plate last night. Equador may well do the same. England have been bugging me with the constant crap they've been coming out with in the press. Terry says they'll "play it like a premiership match and crush them". Indeed.

Terry is right though? Well, i dont know about the 'crush them' comment.

The football played in the premiership is much much faster then what equador are used to. They're used to having a long time on the ball, which doesnt happen in the premiership. If England unsettle them early on, they'll win comfortably. Don't know how it will hold up in the heat though.

rcs

Well hopefully with this new 4-5-1 formation Sven probably will be trying this afternoon it will give Lampard & Gerrard a chance to play their more familiar forward running games with Carrick playing the more defensive/linking role.

It will be interesting to see how it works out as they can't play much worse than they have in their first 3 games. Also, about time Sven showed a bit of bottle & dropped Beckham in favour of Aaron Lennon.

I thought the Ecuadorians looked very good in their first two games & although they got hockeyed by Germany they rested 7 1st team players. Expect them to give England a run for their money today.

Roll on 4 o clock

fade2black

I think England will manage to drag it into Extra Time. I make it the 1st time that that team has lined out like that for England. The world cup is no place for that kind of experimentation.

rcs

fade2black wrote:

I think England will manage to drag it into Extra Time. I make it the 1st time that that team has lined out like that for England. The world cup is no place for that kind of experimentation.

In fairness when it isn't working, as it plainly isn't for England, you have to do something to try and fix it. Although agree that he should have tried something like this before the WC

Pigman II

I think this will be a carbon copy of the Paraguay game. England to get a goal in the first 15mins and then decide "it ain't 'alf 'ot" and then play within themselves til full time.

If they don't score early it could be interesting tho.

Attractive Nun

Decent selection, I still think....

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Robinson
Carragher--Ferdinand--Terry--A Cole

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Hargreaves
--Gerrard----Lampard----J Cole

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Rooney---Crouch

...would be best, but we'll never know unless Beckham gets injured I suppose. The jury will be out on Carrick today, he's been hyped and hyped as the mythical answer to England's woes, but I'm not sure he'll provide the necessary defensive attributes to accomodate both Lampard and Gerrard. And Hargreaves was terrible at right back against Belarus, but I'm willing to give him another chance. If this formation does work, the Owen injury will have been a fantastically lucky occurence.

mike65

Thats a good line up but as you mention Beckham wont be dropped and bearing in mind the heat and possible length of this game its better to have a fresh striker for late on (who said Walcott?!).

Mike.

PHB

This is the best line up that England can play imo, except put in Neville for Hargreaves when he is fit.

If they can't win this game convincingly, they can't win the World Cup.

Hargreaves will make Beckham have a very good match.

Rooney may prefer a withdrawn role, but the times Ive seen him play as the target man for United, he has been fantastic.
He has all the traits required, and the only person better at holding up the ball at United is Ruud, and Rooney is close to him at it.

Ecuador have pace, so I expect Rio to have a busy game. Terry will show them a strong physical side, but Rio will be key to not concedding in this game.

Cole has to get forward more, along with Hargreaves for this formation to work.

Then of course, the big question, the midfield.
I still don't think Carrick-Lampard-Gerrard is going to work, it'll just work better than Gerrard and Lampard. The only way it can work, is if Carrick pushes forward a little, in order to dictate the play a lot more than Gerrard and Lampard, who should be playing the odd killer pass and taking the odd shot on goals. Most of the play has to go through Carrick, and I'm not sure that's something Gerrard and Lampard can do. We'll see though I guess..

My prediction.
England to win. Beckham to get an assist.

evilhomer

eirebhoy wrote:

For the first time in Sven's England career I agree 100% with his lineup.

You agree with Hargreaves at right back instead of Carragher?

I think that this could be a very good system for England, Gerrard can do what he is best at and pretty much have a free role behind Rooney.

Lampard can play like he does for Chelsea and take the ball from Carrick and ping it about a bit.

Carrick should be linking the play between defence and midfield, I'm not sure how match fit Carrick can be though.

Necronomicon

I agree that it's a decent line-up, common sense has finally prevailed and he's dropped the 4-4-2.
I can see Ecuador causing problems, they were full of enthusiasm and pace in their games (Germany game aside) so if England are in any way lethargic or not up for it, I wouldn't be surprised to see an upset.
However, I still have to go for an England win. Big test for Rooney, lone striker in his first full game back in 100 degree weather.
So I'm predicting an England win, but certainly not a walkover.

PHB

common sense has finally prevailed

This is only happening cause Owen is injured and Crouch clearly can't hack it. It's not Sven making a decision, it's being forced onto him.

mike65

Ah deary me...Crouch can't hack it? He's done whats been asked of him. The change is not forced by Crouchs' form but by Owens injury.

Mike.

Paul Tergat

C'mon England!!!!!!

Hope the heat doesn't play to big a factor in todays game (not me making excuses already!). We now have the numbers in midfield to knock the ball about which we have to do in the conditions, so important for posession to be kept.

I'm quite worried about Rooney playing up top alone... he's not 100% fit as we all know and he'll really need the support of the midfield 4. I hope Carrick has a good game, he could be key for us today

England to win 2-1

fade2black

Draw/Equador

25-1

For the laugh like....

PHB

Ah deary me...Crouch can't hack it? He's done whats been asked of him. The change is not forced by Crouchs' form but by Owens injury.

If Crouch was on form, he would just take Owen's place in a 4-4-2.
He has done enough, but had some serious serious misses in the Sweden game for example, comical at times.

mike65

We should remember Crouch was meant to be third choice striker.

Mike.

20 Times 20 Times

Im in bangkok at the moment and the riumours going around here is that english fans were at it again ? Any truth in this ?

elvis2002

Ecuador - 6/1 to win. To good to be true. I'll go with 2-0 to Ecuador just because England believe they are going to win 10-0

Big Ears

England should win this game and most likely in normal time .
Ecuador looked at their worst when they were being pressed and when the other team was playing at a high tempo, Something that is common in the premiership .

Hargreaves was the right selection ahead of Carragher because of the intense heat and him being a better player than Carragher physically .

Playing Carrick was the right selection as he might be able to give the passes to break down the Ecuadorian defence , something England have really struggled with .It also allows Gerrard to push on into a more natural role and I expect him to have a good few long/medium range strikes today .

De La Cruz is one of Ecuador's most threatening players but with A.Cole being very pacey he should match up well with him and Cruz won't be as much of a threat as usual .

Expect Ecuador to get their chances off mistakes from England rather than inspiring play and for England to have plenty of half chances and convert 1 or 2 of them .

mike65

Im in bangkok at the moment and the riumours going around here is that english fans were at it again ? Any truth in this ?

There were two nights of 'disturbances' which got loads arrested (450-ish) but just 3 charged, most have been released, Germans were a the root of most of it as far as I can tell while the Police have taken an 'act quick and appolgise later' approach.

Mike.

fade2black

mike65 wrote:

We should remember Crouch was meant to be third choice striker.

Mike.

But first choice Lewisham Under age Basketball player.

He's not a poacher...he's a poacher's friend in the box. This is why they'll miss Owen and should have brought Defoe. I'm beginning to think that Sven doesn't actually know much about football.

Rollo Tamasi

i agree with the selection except that i would put Beckham in the centre and drop Lampard for Lennon and use Lampard later in the game. Lennon on the right as England have no width down there with Beckham.

GNeville at RB if fit. Heargreaves is a better option at RB than Carragher and it goes to show that PNeville should have been in the squad too. I believe if he was in the squad he would have Carricks place and the RB place too over Heargreaves for todays match.

evilhomer

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

I believe if he was in the squad he would have Carricks place and the RB place too over Heargreaves for todays match.

I never thought Phil Neville was good enough to play two positions at once

jArgHA

predict a 1-1 draw. i threw a fiver on ecuador to win on penalties @ 18.5 on betfair

The Muppet

Early days yet but a England appear to be playing better than in their previous games.

The Muppet

Can I take that back.

elvis2002

lol, almost a perfect start for Ecuador

pp_me129

Fergie's Bein threaten beckham So no shootin From him to day Or he'll get the boot!

Necronomicon

Feckin hell this one is boring.

MrJoeSoap

Necromomicon wrote:

Feckin hell this one is boring.

Big time. Borefest... zzzzzz....

jArgHA

not a whole lot between them but ecuador look more comfortable and are working hard. the best chance of 1st half was to ecuador when tenorio hit the bar, apart from that f3ck all other chances... bit of a bore alright

A Dub in Glasgo

Poor poor game so far. Both teams are muck but strangely enough, Ecuador should be 1-0 up with the only real chance of the game. Pity one of these teams will get to the Quaters considering the quality of some of the teams out of the tournament so far.

KdjaCL

Boring x 2




kdjac

fade2black

Haha...go Liam Brady...

Put on the Munster Final...

That's what i did anway...at 4 0 clock. Shocking game.

stevenmu

The Muppet wrote:

Can I take that back.

Please do

Did somebody forget to tell England that this is the World Cup ? None of them look like they want to get the ball, or even to be on the pitch. If by some misfortune one of them does end up with the ball they just kick it forward so it's someone else's problem. Rooney looks up for it but he's too isolated on his own up there, they'll have to bring Crouch on at half-time, with all the long balls going up they may as well have someone up there to get some knock downs. Other than that there only chance of a goal is a David Beckham free kick, assuming that A: they get a free kick in a dangerous place and B: Somebody can actually find him and wake him up to take it.

PHB

I think England aren't palying a 4-3-3 properly, with Carrick not getting on the ball as much as he should be doing.

acquiescefc

btw it is nearly 100 degrees out there.

Not gonna be an end-to-end game.

Necronomicon

acquiescefc wrote:

btw it is nearly 100 degrees out there.

Not gonna be an end-to-end game.

Not to mention the two **** teams

pp_me129

this is worse then the el!!!!!

PHB

For me, the problem with England is totally based on Lampard and Gerrard not being willing to play a simple pass, with them always trying to play the killer ball.

Like just there, on the 57th minute.
Gerrard coulda easily played it down the right, but instead tried to make a 100 to one pass.
Same again on the 66th

PHB

Same old same old from Beckham, he does it again.

Necronomicon

1-0. About ****ing time something happened.

Sven was about to make some changes too.

acquiescefc

goldenbaaaaaaaaaaaaaalls

woohoo