lookupsport

I going to go on a bit of a rant about the BBC Pundits in a minute but first a few lines about last nights game.

Yes its a friendly at the end of a long season, which has little meaning but gives Capello the chance to get to know his players better.  It was never going to be a classic, so let’s park that to one side for the time being.

A few other points to make though.

Firstly, Capello has only a couple more games to get to know his team before we hit the first World Cup qualifying match.  He has had the benefit of watching them in any number of Premier League matches over the last few months, and has had them in training for a week or so now as well.  He will also, no doubt have watched them play a few times at least before taking the job and will have access to as many tapes of old matches as he could wish for.  Therefore why did he (and have previous coaches), used these friendlies to “try” certain players.

In my opinion he should have a pretty good idea who his best 11 (or lets say 13 players) are, and what system he wants them to play.  These matches should therefore be used to let these players get used to playing together in a system that the coach wants.  That is how they will improve.  He started off with arguably his best team available last night but at half time the usual mess of substitutes were made.  You cannot possibly tell me that he can judge or test a player by giving him 10 minutes at the end of a match, when half the team has already been changed and is not representative of the players he might play with if he makes the “first team”.  If he really is unsure of his best team or system, then he is the wrong man for the job.

Lampard v Gerrard - he really has to make a decision here and for me its simple.  Gerrard always out performs Lampard in and England shirt.  Lampard should without a doubt be in the England squad but should be used a back-up for Gerrard.  The way Gerrard linked up with Rooney last night was brilliant.  Gerrard has shown he can play consistently well in any position in midfield where as Lampard tends to be more one dimensional.

Defoe - I’m a Pompey fan of course, but for Defoe needs at least 6 good chances in order to convert one.  Against good sides he will be lucky to get one or two.  I thought that with regular first team football he would get sharper.  It didn’t look that way last night.  Owen will prbably get the nod every time if he can stay fit with Defoe and Crouch as back up.

Now a few words about Lineker, Hanson Shearer and Dixon (could easily read Ian Wright).  It started in the last World Cup when they clearly didn’t think Sven was the man for the job, and went on to malign every single decision he made and performance of the team, especially if it meant that Shaun Wright-Phillips was omitted.  It continued with the Mclaren era, and last night was no exception.

As mentioned above the game was never going to be a classic, and they have all played in Internationals themselves, which were by far and away worse than last nights, but they have conveniently forgotten that.   The constant barrage of sarcastic and “humorous” comments really start to annoy after a while (add to this list Mark “Interesting” Lawrenson by the way).

The funny yet interesting thing is that all have chosen to stay clear of coaching and management and chosen the safety of the commentary box.  As predicted in this blog in the past, Shearer is constantly linked with the Newcastle job but will never take it as he would need to put his money where his mouth is.  The whole team bring to mind the old adage “those that can do and those that can’t teach”.  Now while that may not be completely true within teaching circles, it could be adapted to “those that can and have the bottle coach, and those that can’t and don’t justsit back and make sarcastic comments”.  Ok it doesn’t roll off the tongue but you get the drift.

In the past I have always chosen the BBC if a game was ever shown on more than one channel.  Not any more - give me the Sky team anyday.