Vesh, liking the thinking with the younger blood. Thought it has to be done sooner rather than later to maximise the potential of these players. They will only grow from playing with the likes of Cahill. I still can’t believe Kilkenny doesn’t get a game, I might be biased because I’m a Leeds fan, but the guy plays week in week out and looks very assured on the ball. Just because he fell out with Arnold shouldn’t mean he’s ruled out permanently!

Gee, talk about a lacklustre performance last night… no energy, no speed and no plan B. Reminds me very much of the Pim era. Egypt are a good side and there’s no shame losing in Cairo but the manner of the defeat was extremely dissapointing. Maybe Holger should start taking advice from Ange Postecoglu, it might help them play better football!

AF – I agree McDonald needs to be cut now, he’s had his chance and failed to impress. (Even if it was all long-ball stuff to him)

The defence was of most concern though. Carney can’t defend, Lucas Neill’s form is EXTREMELY worrying, and how coaches refuse to be more experimental in these games is beyond me. This game should have been an opportunity for fringe and A-League players to push for the squad and play with no fear – Instead it was all a waste of time and we go into the tournament on the back of a thrashing. Well done Holger.

Sharp comment from Hooplah!

Canberra had their chance and they blew it. Whilst I’m not against them having a team completely, there’s realistically no way they are going to be involved in the A-League for a fair while. Particularly if they’re throwing money into Rugby and AFL instead – just shows what they’re made of really. Wollongong, Geelong and dare I say it Tasmania are probably all more viable at the moment.

I could see them joining as a 14th or 16th team somewhere down the track though, but ultimately they have to make a better effort with their bid even if they have an adequate system at Grassroots. They stuffed up when the Mariners hosted the Glory a couple of seasons back and with GWS arriving on the scene the distance is only going to widen.

Got a feeling FIFA are going to play it safe and go with England for 2018. Can see Russia being too risky.

Australia and the USA in a shootout for 2022. Truly hope we get it, but again, is the safe option in the USA? Possibly.

If it was me personally, I’d love to see Spain/Portugal get it in 2018, given the success of Spain in particular over recent years. It would make for an awesome tournament. Come on AUSTRALIA for 2022!

In addition to winning the hosting rights, it’d also be nice to get one up on those arrogant swines at AFL HQ who clearly only care about themselves.

Another one thats slipped out of the grasp… I’ve never seen Gulum play but if he’s good enough he would have been picked up earlier… Otherwise it’s the FFA and the scouts at Grassroots that are at fault for not recognising the talent. I dare say the latter is still an area we need to work on in order to stop kids slipping through the system.

Fair play to him though, hope he does well.

Robbie – Cracking article

Gotta say that midweek football is a must for our competition, it’s definitely an area where people who don’t normally tune into the football can catch a viewing of the a-league. There is no competition from the other major codes on the Wednesday nights. Completely agree with Oly though, Thursday night games are a terrible idea: If it’s going to be done then do it properly and stick to wednesdays only. Its traditional and it’s definitely a part of the worldwide football culture, and even though its a new concept to most fans here, we do need to adapt it.

The marketing for the midweek matches is shocking as well (over here in Perth anyway). Most people hardly even recognise that there is a match on the Wednesday, because it’s not given ANY exposure to the public. I’d like to hear someones take from over east to see whether it is just us in W.A or whether it’s a competition wide thing, because maybe that’s a great place to start! Surely it wouldn’t hurt to promote a midweek game as part of a doubleheader that goes along with the weekend matches? A buy one get one free concept (just to get the crowds up in the air) – what do you think?

Finally there’s a serious issue with having games kick off at 7pm, most people are in from work at 5:30-6 and generally it would require being straight in and straight out of home! Well… thats what i do anyway. Again I’d like to hear an Eastern states take on that? Maybe 7:30, 7:45 or 8pm would be more suitable, but then it depends on whether kids can be up that late. The buy your weekend ticket and get the midweek match concept would break that barrier though i think.

Never won an away match against the Central Coast Robbie, so it doesn’t bode very well early! (un)lucky 7 is a real possibility.

At least its not in gosford though… that’s a start

Australian Football – Sage is a fantastic leader at the club, I wouldn’t have anybody else as chairman – there’s no-one more loyal to a club as you pointed out. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him before the games in Perth but he walks around the pitch, talks to people in the crowd, listens to the shed singing his name and laps it up. For me that’s what football is all about, but even he will be desperate for success now. He did an interview of Fifa Football Mundial on Foxsports last weekend and he said that this season is the third year of his three season plan for the Glory. If wholesale changes don’t come soon then I’ll be surprised.

Hey guys cheers for the feedback….

Smoky – I think that comment is a little harsh on the central coast mariners, given the way we are playing at the moment!

Luke – It would be interesting, doubt Foz would come into coaching – he likes his “Chief football analyst” chair at SBS

Midfielder – Thanks for the feedback, passion is what the roar is all about! I don’t dispute that Ferguson is hard working and a giver of 100% for one minute, I just struggle to see what he’s going to bring to the table that’s different to Mitchell, Ron Smith and McMahon. While he is a grafter, Perth need to start playing football because at the moment they have no system in place or a gameplan to do so – and I don’t believe Fergie can provide that. You’re right Stange was superb (reminds me a bit of Blieberg)

Robbie,

I do agree with your comments – I, like many others personally do not like seeing hacks from overseas coming out for an easy contract at the end of their careers. I suppose you’ve just gotta bite the bullet though sometimes with signings and admit they don’t always work out… overseas or not in this instance.

While it’s maybe a stupid solution, do you think that clubs need to implement a restriction on the age of players we are bringing to the A-league to play? Rather than bringing in people like Jardel and Romario, it’s been proven that the Flores’s, Broich’s and Perez’s have been the real impressive players in our competition. Then in your instance of Fowler, use that international marquee spot to bring a NAME like him in to bring the crowds through the gates and help with your off-field. Performance on-field will then be judged seperately.

Geoff, what does Mitch Marsh have to do to get a game? Surely he’s the sort of bloke the Aussies should be turning to!

haha @ Art Sapphire – I was waiting for somebody to comment on that! I suppose that’s what happens when you open yourself up to predictions.

I watched it this morning and I thought it was awful, reminded me of performances from South Africa all over again! Great result for Montenegro though (they deserved it), and after seeing Jovanovic hit the bar late on, I suppose good result for England too. The performance was a concern though that’s for sure. Rooney still looks out of sorts, but it was nice to see Adam Johnson finally get a start. Oh well, an 11 match winless streak comes to an end, and it’s the first time we haven’t scored at the new Wembley as well. Hopefully not a sign of things to come, especially after it looked like we were “starting” to turn a corner after Bulgaria and Switzerland.

The Scotland and Spain match was much more entertaining on another note.

I like this article a lot mate, well done – good read.

These players like Hart and Johnson should be squad regulars, they’re in better form, they’re confident and they want to play for England. I’ve always liked Micah Richards myself as well, i think he’s a much better player than Glen “I don’t know how to defend” Johnson. Lee Cattermole is also the sort of player passion-wise who I would love to see in a three lions shirt (if he wasn’t send off every second match). They need to make a plan though, keep a core 3 or 4 players in the 28+ bracket and rebuild for the 2014 world cup.

International football is a lot different to U-21 football, both technically and physically. These guys need to be regular starters at their clubs to be playing well though. England just need to bite the bullet and tell players like Lampard and Ferdinand that they’re finished if they’re not 100% or playing well in the side. (I prefer Gerrard as skipper).

As for the names you mentioned in that bracket earlier, only Carroll and Wilshere (sort of) are playing 90 minutes at the moment. We can’t throw the other blokes in at the deep end with no form or anything behind them. They should be playing but they aren’t because of the EPL’s obsession with foreign players, but that’s for a different article!!

Good read Dejan

Must say I wasn’t surprised at all with the German win, but I was surprised by the magnitude of it. It was HUGE!!!

I think a lot of people under-estimated Germany before the world cup, especially when Ballack went down in the FA Cup final… I think that’s turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The run that the Argie Bargies had to the quarter final was hardly challenging, and they hadn’t come across a defence as rock solid as Germanys to date. At the other end, playing centre backs in the full back positions will eventually be exposed against the better teams.

The Germans really are the real deal but, they’ve not only beaten sides but they’ve completely dismantled them! Amazing counter-attacking and solid at the back. I think they can beat Spain as well and then beat the Dutch in the final (at their own game ironically) – In reverse it seems that the Dutch are playing like the classic Germany sides in the past!

And isn’t it a coincedence that they’ve played with the Jabulani in the Bundesliga this season? The only european nation to do so……

I agree completely. Richards has to come into that team. Too early to call on Jones at the moment, but Gibbs could work depending on gametime. I’d still like to see Leighton Baines given a fair go though first.

I’m sticking to my guns with Cattermole though (provided he stays injury free)

2014 is a long way away though, they need to just prepare themselves for the next qualifying campaign for Euro 2012. We always see teams for “the next world cup” come out. Pointless articles in my opinion because we are getting too far of ourselves.

Terry, Cole Gerrard and Rooney would be the other players I’d retain for my next XI. (experience down the spine)

Hart, Richards, Dawson, Terry, Cole, Milner, Cattermole, Gerrard, Adam Johnson, Agbonlahor, Rooney.

I think the four players i’ve retained are worthwhile keeping, while these new additions also have plenty of u-21s experience and should be able to slot it. I mean look at Ozil, Khedira and Boateng… It was only 12 months ago they were playing our 21s and now they’re thumping our first team!

Colin – I’ve seen glimpses of Wickham at Ipswich and he looks a real prospect. Wilshere also with more game time will grow as a player I’d hope.

I think the difference is though, if we were to put all those names together there isn’t somebody in there who is an out and out wonderkid. These players are all quite good, but most of them need to develop and play regular first team football. Arsenal in particular have been criminal over the years with English kids whos careers have spiralled. Walcott looked amazing at Southampton then he just didn’t get a game at Arsenal and look what happened!

I think Young and Downing need to be more consistent, but they can play a part. They need to persist with Milner and Johnson on the flanks due to all that U-21s experience they have. Squad players though for sure. Also, I for one was surprised Agbonlahor wasn’t on the plane in the first place.

Art Sapphire – I’ve always been a big fan of Micah Richards. I think it’s only a matter of time until he gets given a shot at right back for Johnson (or even at centre back) who clearly looks out of his depth against better opposition. Also what happened to Newcastles Steven Taylor? He’s represented England at every level and has just dissapeared completely.

I like Cattermole a lot, I think he has the right attitude and would be a good leader eventually. A lot of the current U-21 squad depends on how they develop though, and whether they get given gametime or sent out on loan?

Kyle Walker, Victor Moses, Jack Rodwell and Fabian Delph are a few names I can think of, that look like bright prospects. I do agree that they aren’t superstars like Muller and Ozil though.

The non-goal was obviously huge Dejan. We can’t hide from the fact that it was such a game changing moment. We would have been a lot more conservative at the start of the second half and probably wouldn’t have conceded Mullers double as we did. That said, I still think we would have lost.

The media over there is the worst in the world. There’s a perception that because the Premiership is one of the best leagues in the world, England are one of the best teams in the world. It’s completely false and it puts the pressure on us before a ball is even kicked.

As for Crouch, I would have started him particularly with the giant Per Mertesacker in their defence. I dont have a problem with Defoe and Rooney, but as I touched on in my article Capello really didn’t play the gameplan that suited Defoe or Rooney. It definitely suited the type of player Peter Crouch is. If you are going to play long balls, you don’t play with two smalls up top, its commonsense. Defoe or Rooney may have been more effective off the Crouch flick-on.

I can understand keeping the same XI though at the same time though. England just needed to win that last group game and hope momentum would see them through the Germans. Clearly not.

Yossarian – you are spot on about the media, I think they’ve finally realised that our performance didn’t warrant any progress in this tournament.

I’m not saying that England should play kick and hope because sides like Slovenia will put 10 behind the ball and better sides like Germany deal with it easily. I was talking more about the pace of the domestic league and questioning why we “try” to play a style that is different to way our league plays. After all our whole squad is from the Premiership, so why are we trying to play Italian football. If we had started diving around and feigning injury, i might have thought i was watching Italy.

Dejan

Agree completely with you mate.

The reason FIFA haven’t introduced goal-line technology is because everybody on the FIFA panel is old and refuses to even consider it. These guys think the game is still played like it was back in the 60s and 70s, but they’re ever so wrong. The modern era surely demands that technology must be used in a world where we use I-phones etc.

Unfortunately though, the game will be solely be discussed for the error but i think Englands problems are much deeper than that, and that’s coming from a three lions fan as big as they come!

I agree with you Mackem, he’s been terrific this season and it’d be a shame for him to not be on the plane. I mean, if he scores 24 goals and isn’t going to the world cup, then what hope does anyone else of making Fabios team.

Rooney, Crouch (for his freakish height) and Defoe (who capello seems to like in the squad) will most likely fill three of the four spots you’d think. 1 of Heskey/Bent will probably take the last place (or both perhaps)

Heskey is very lucky boy in that he plays a position/game that really suits Capello’s plan. (and most importantly Fab seems to like him)

Bale seems to be a contentious one, which is fair enough i guess. It was neck and neck between him and Evra. Both have impressed me though for different reasons.

Also N’zogbia is a good choice apaway, he’s had his best season for sure (although the stats are in Malouda’s favour i guess)

Schwarzer had another excellent season for Fulham. Like Friedel, he seems to be getting better with age! A number of goalkeepers would have been nominated i’d have thought, Lukasz Fabianski aside.