Hardeep_Singh

ligament damage, poor sod

Cossie Helen

iTrader: (1)

Escort-Ian

thought it'd be something like that! you could see the pain he was in when the physio tried to put pressure on it

he's not had the best of luck with injuries, just hope he can make a full recovery

Gary F

iTrader: (1)

So the question is can we still do it?

Mr Brannen

Of course we can

I think Owen will never ever regain the form he once had, and that hurts me to say it as Im a Toon fan

bud-weis

we are obviously no worse off than when we had Owen tbh,as he was so ineffective........the question remains,why take Walcott if you are afraid to use him??? i think he would have a positive impact on matches!

i think our best formation now would be a 3 5 2

--------------robinson

Terry----- Rio/Campbell----- Carragher

-------------Hargreaves

Lennon----- Beckham---------- Cole

---------------Gerrard

----------------Rooney

-------------Crouch/Walcott

probably go with Crouchinho to start with Theo coming on to terrorise Lampard dropped in favour of Hargreaves (who was excellent last night) to hold the midfield,Becks back in the middle to spray the ball around like he did for Madrid 2 seasons ago.

Gary F

iTrader: (1)

na dont think so either tbh

RsToy

i think he'll be missed big time.......the giraffe and that good,showed his worth last night against good opposition and just wasnt good enough.........theo untested.........god help us if rooney gets injured.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

the blindingly obvious question is:

HOW THE FOOK DO YOU SCORE A GOAL BY THROWING THE BALL FROM THE TOUCHLINE AND EVERYONE MISING IT? EVEN THE OPPOSITION

bud-weis

Mellberg got the final touch i beleive, but how on earth Sol missed it i'll never know,deserves to be dropped on that alone!!!!

Zetecfiesta

bad game imo! saw the reply of owens fall, looked like it hurt ALOT, saw his knee kinda pop in the slow mo replay

Redkop

Eh? Not good enough? Crouch has put more into the recent England games than ever Owen could. I can assure you that Owen will NOT be missed big time. He should never have been taken to Germany as an unfit player.

Owen's best footballing days are past now, he is a poor shadow of what he was like when he was Liverpool & England's boy wonder.

DanRSturbo

There will need to be a dramatic improvement in the next game. 1st half was good, 2nd half was dire IMO.

So far, the Arge's have laid down the gauntlet, and I reckon tonights game against Holland will be a cracker.

I reckon Ecuador would of watched that match and will be confident they can overturn us

jumpin jack crash

oh well he didnt do much in the world cup anyway, dont get me wrong a world class striker when he's fit but he defo wasnt fit in any of the group games and he looked scared to go into 50-50's.

svens gotta use walcott now and if it goes tits up it goes tits up

Terry Tibbs

At the end of the day Sweden played VERY well in the 1st and second half, we only played well in the 1st half and they couldn't get a goal. We have 12/4 shots at one point. As soon as the second half started it all went tits up. Its Sven's tactics rather than the players as a team. We can beat almost everyone in the World Cup, just depends whether Sven puts us in a shitty formation. I don't think Equador have the power to overturn us. I dare say they'll be on the defensive throughout the game.

Growler

what game did yu watch

have never ever seen hargreaves play a good game i dont even know why he is there

SPADGE

What game did you watch last night
Hargreaves was one of our best players last night

Growler

i admit he did do well but i just dont rate him sorry

he gave away alot of free kicks last night

maybe he tries too hard for me

still what counts is the result

(keeps stirring pot lol)

GOODYST24

basterds that means we got to play that useless lanky garaffe that couldnt hit a barn door

Smiggy

Not much to argue with there. Think you've hit the nail on the head Redkop.

As much as I really don't want England to win this thing I did feel for Owen last night. I went down in a similar way playing football 10years ago, was off my work for almost 6 months and I have never played since. I can run in a straight line but can't twist and turn or my knee just swells up.

I really don't think Owen will return as the same player - in fact I don't think he's been the player he was for quite a while now - he's had a bad run with some really frustrating injuries.

England took a big gamble on taking him IMO. Defoe and Bent must be sitting in the house going nuts the now. To go into a major tournament with only 4 forwards 2 of which are recovering from injuries and 1 untried potential star striker. Was a big gamble to take when the majority of your squad is in their prime and could potentially go all the way.

I think Sven has cost you any real progression in this tournament tbh. You should still be able to take care of Ecuador tho.

SMG

skeg

I agree, Hargreaves was one of the best players. In fact i'd say only Cole was better. Beckham apart from that long drive to Rooney looked abscent. In fact i can't recall him doing any crosses. Imagine how good it would be if we played Owen with Gerrard as well. That would allow Gerrard to push right up, even more than Frank. We need Rio Ferdinand back too if we are to go beyond Equador, he was amazing last night and outshone Terry who made a couple of mistakes.

Crouch has done well to finish those goals but lets be fair it was mainly Jamaica. Apart from Heading and holding the ball he never really looks like he is going to score from open play. Walcott is clearly not good enough.

------------------------------Robinson----------------------------------------------
Caragher/Neville----------Rio--------------Terry-------------------Cole---------
---------------------------------Hargreaves----------------------------------------
Beckham/Lennon------------Lampard--------------------------J Cole------------
------------------------Gerrard-----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------ROOOOOOOOONEY-------------------------

GOODYST24

the reason owen hasnt scored and rooney didnt yesterday is because they have had no service at all. every one has been shooting from 25-30 yards out. give rooney and owen some service and they will score no prob.

Redkop

Smiggy

Owen never got back to his 100% best after the hamstring injury he had at Liverpool. He seemed to lack confidence in himself, as if in fear of it recurring. Maybe he still subconciously thinks this.

I'm afraid that people will associate him as being injury prone now. Thank goodness L'pool backed out of paying 16m for him last summer.

He has been an expensive buy for Newcastle.....

RsToy

precisely........also isnt it funny how everyone is puting hargreaves into there line up now....all because of one game!!!

RsToy

didnt he score 13 golas for real madrid from the bench !!!
didnt he score 7 from 10 games for newcastle.

SPADGE

I havn't put him into my line-up i just said he was one of our best players last night!
I would change 3 or 4 players from last nights team sheet personally.

DanRSturbo

Playin Lennon and Downing will provide this

SPADGE

I would put Beckham on the bench and play Lennon wide right and make Gerrard the captain permanently

Redkop

Liverpool's midfielders score more than that

skeg

The thing is though that Hargreaves played 20 mins here and there out of poisistion. Last night he has 90 minutes where he plays for Bayern. He made so many tackles and didnt slide in or act rash. In fact his yellow card was for hand ball. Sven takes 30 caps to realise where to play Hargreaves when all it may have taken is 3 or so friendlies there.

Sven seems to do this with substitutions or new players. He knows he doesnt have the balls to leave out one of the big names who may be out of form in the past like Owen or Beckham so he tries people like Andy Johnson who is a striker on the RW. Bent too, got 18 goals more than Walcot and 30+ games more yet bairly got a full 90 minutes in friendly.

Michael Owen for me will never again achieve the Argentina days, he was 18 then and has been average ever since 22 or so. Hes 26 now and what has he done last 4 years? Out of favour at Liverpool, on the bench to fatty at Real and signed for a middle table (usually) club he never would have normally. Yes hes our top scorer but he always plays so he will get goals. Overall compared to his predecessor, Shearer, he is weaker in every department but pace.

Good luck to him and his recovery but if we had a decent striker (apart from just Rooney) to replace him with i wouldnt even be botthered he was out.

Smiggy

Totally agree, what I'm trying to say is that I think he was included in the squad on past reputation rather than current form. Just think England have blew a great chance to do really well in this tournament.

Walcott should have been thrown on last night, it was a game which England didn't need to win. If you're not going to play him in that situation when are you going to play him. Crouch done well but he's not the solution, and Gerrard had to be brought on as Sweden were running all over the England midfield.

Hargreaves is not England class never will be, had a decent (nothing more) game last night.

SMG

It's Czech Mate

To be fair to Hargreaves he's never let us down in a competitive match, certainly when he's played in his own position. The first half performance showed how good we could be with a decent holding player........Gerrard and Lampard just dont work in a 4-4-2

AJ should have been in the squad for me..a direct replacement for Owen with REAL pace. With AJ and Rooney running at them any centreback would be shitting themselves.

Richie Russ

Im not a fan of Hargreaves either, but will admit that last night he did very well, why he was giving free kicks away when there was no danger dumbfounds me a bit but ho hum, im even thinking leave Lampard out and stick Hargreaves in the middle so Gerrard can get forward more as his form is far better than Lampards !!

The player that we are missing is Gary Neville, not the greatest player in the world but he will run all day every day which allows Beckham some time and space on the right to get some crosses in which is what we badly lacked in the game.

Joe Cole was superb and so was Gerrard when he came on, John Terry by his standards was not as commanding as he normally is, its like they are all on tenderhooks, they should have enjoyed the game and let it flow, i was livid with them when Sweden scored at the end i punched the sofa cushion and didnt realise my other halfs foot was unde rthere !! ooops...

Beckham should have been taken off and replaced with Lennon, Crouch should NOT have come on at all, he should have given Theo Walcott a run out, but why is it that 90% of football supporters say this and the 1 Swede that's in charge doesn't do it

Neil@FastFord

Fair point Richie lad, iv been sayin we are missing Neville. I dont like the guy but he does a good job in an england shirt!

Joe cole is brimming with confidence and walcott should have had a run for sure, if not why bring him?