FT: Slovakia 1-1 Republic of Ireland

Great point for them but it means they've gone down from 1st to 3rd behind Russia and Armenia

Scotland have just come back from 2-0 down to draw level with Spain

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is shite. That is all.

fixed

fixed

We're not that much better based on tonite

Clearly not as shite as England. And before you say anything...we would have beaten Montenegro.

Ive had it with England, what a fucking disgrace our national team are.

I wouldnt have half the shite that played tonite in the Toon team, its fucking depressing seeing shite like Barry, G Johnson, Lescott, Crouch, Davies, SWP get games for our country.

What other country in the world plays a midfielder who's sole purpose in the team seems to be to take any impetus and pace out of his own teams attacks??

Capello's team selection is just a fecking joke and a huge slap in the face to those young players that have worked their socks off and played well enough to at least merit a shot, and we were promised a whole new generation of players making up the nucleus of an all new England team, but what have we got? The same old shit getting picked of course.

Its just shit.

We persist with the most out of form player in world football and expect to score goals. This time last year, i honestly believe Rooney was in the form of his life and a better player than even Messi, now he is simply shit.

Is it the tabs, the pressure on his personal life or has he been playing out of his skin up until now and finally leveled out into an average football player? Maybe its the injury he got, maybe he's just lost interest. He looks slow, unfit and isn't sharp at all.

What a little cunt.

That was fucking shite.

Why does Capello keep picking Barry Gareth when he is a lardy, useless, slow, ball-wasting pile of shite?

For the first time in nearly forty years of watching England, I am teetering on the edge of boycotting watching them while this useless fucking manager is in charge.

HE'S GOT TO GO!

Agree mate. I have to say there was a point where I was happy to see the manager persist with him simply because he is one of our only World Class players but its gone too far now, he is simply not contributing anything.

The problem is whats the alternatives, Darren Bent and Kevin Davies?

I'd certainly give Bent a shot, he scores goals regularly in a shite side and has done so for a long time, currently he is the best English striker around of that i'm certain.

Kevin Davies is 5 years too late sadly, i don't mind him but there is no poitn at all giving a 35 year old a run about.

I have slowly lost interest over the last few years, I used to watch every game religiously. Now I tend to watch the qualifiers but give the friendlies a miss, im now at a point where I cant be arsed to watch any.

Its not just the manager, its the whole squad and their attitude for me.

As a whole from the FA themselves, through to the management and the players its just a load of fucking shit.

No problem with those 2, but they are totally useless in the formation and tactics Capello is using.

Admittedly Bent has never really had a proper crack which his club form probably deserves but im still not convinced he is international class - there are plenty of players who have scored regularly for their club and not done it for England, players far better than Darren Bent.

Davies getting a game is a fucking joke, hes a one trick pony who just gives away free kicks.

If those 2 are the alternatives to Rooney then no wonder Capello is sticking with him!

I think Bent would have been perfect to bring on as sub for the last twenty minutes tonight. He has bags of confidence and is scoring which is more than we can say for the others. I hope his injury lasts for a while though

Carroll would have put away that free header that Crouch ballooned over the bar in the first half. That's one of the only bits of the game I saw thankfully.

I kept switching over to watch the Scots and the Spanish. At least there were goals in that one.

I agree whole-heartedly. I have enough misery in my life supporting NUFC wihtout another shower of piss to follow. I'm really not very patriotic anyway, nor a fan of patriotism in general.

Who hear thinks Capello deserves a slap?

What formation and tactics were we using tonight? 4-4-2 looking at the line-up? You wouldn't play Bent and Davies in any other formation realistically.

Formation was 4-4-2, tactics im not really sure but whatever they were they didnt work.

I dont think anyone came out with any credit really, defence never really looked troubled apart from when they rattled the bar from 25 yards with about 5 mins left but the midfield and attack were shocking.

Going forward we just looked clueless - aimless long balls to Crouch who either did fuck all with it or gave a foul away as usual. The odd time he did win it Rooney was nowhere near him and just looked distinctly off the pace.

Johnson and Young got into a couple of decent wide positions and just wasted each one of them.

In fairness to the front two the supply from the midfield was fucking shocking which included about 10 horribly wasted free kicks.

I honestly wouldnt have Barry in Newcastle's reserve team.

Is it me or does the Wembley pitch seem too big and too wide? I would be interested to know the length and width of it, there just seems far too much space especially out on the wings. Make it narrower and shorter, more compact, this should aid our traditional quick attacking play (although I'm not so sure after watching that shower tonight).

Does look big but I think you are clutching at straws Dorts blaming that

Was he playing in defence tonight?

The state of play

GROUP A: After victory in Kazakhstan, its simply a case of when and not if Germany will qualify as group winners, they are by far the class of the group, elsewhere in the group a major shock tonight with Azerbaijan scoring a 1-0 win over Turkey

P : GD :Pts

1. Germany ................ 4 : +12 : 12
----------------------------------------------
2. Austria ................ 3 : +5 : 7
3. Turkey ................ 4 : Equal : 6
4. Belgium ................ 4 : Equal : 4
5. Azerbaijan ................ 3 : -7 : 3
6. Kazakhstan ................ 4 : -10 : 0

GROUP B: Russia now lead aftera win in Macedonia with Ireland, Slovakia and suprise challengers Armenia all following. Ireland though missed a wonderful opportunity for a vital away win after a penalty miss meant they only left Slovakia with a point

1. Russia ................ 4 : +3 : 9
-----------------------------------------------
2. REP' OF IRELAND ................ 4 : +2 : 7
3. Armenia ............... 4 : +5 : 7
4. Slovakia ................ 4 : Equal : 7
5. FYR Macedonia ................ 4 : Equal : 4
6. Andorra ................ 4 : -10 : 0

GROUP C: Very controversial night in Group C with Italy's game at home to Serbia abandoned after crowd trouble. This should have opened the door for Northern Ireland to top the group but they could only manage a measly 1-1 draw away to the Faroe Islands

1. Italy ................ 3 : +6 : 7
----------------------------------------------
2. Slovenia ................ 4 : +4 : 7
3. Estonia ................ 4 : +1 : 6
4. NORTHERN IRELAND ................3 : +1 : 5
5. Serbia ................ 3 : +1 : 4
6. Faroe Islands ................ 5 : -13 : 1

GROUP D: After some early troubles, France now top this group after a win over Luxembourg, they leapfrog Albania who are also overtaken by Belarus after they beat the Albanians 2-0

1. France ................ 4 : +5 : 9
----------------------------------------------
2. Belarus ................ 4 : +3 : 8
3. Albania ................ 4 : -1 : 5
4. Bosnia-Herzegovina ................ 3 : +1 : 4
5. Romania ................ 3 : -2 : 2
6. Luxembourg ................ 4 : -6 : 1

GROUP E: The big game in the group saw Holland take a big step against their main group rivals Sweden by beating them 4-1 in Amsterdam. Sweden have also been overtaken by Hungary who won in Finland.

1. Holland ................ 4 : +10 : 12
-----------------------------------------------
2. Hungary ................ 4 : +8 : 9
3. Sweden ................ 3 : +5 : 6
4. Moldova ................ 4 : +2 : 6
5. Finland ................ 3 : -4 : 0
6. San Marino ................ 4 : -21 : 0

GROUP F: In the weakest of the 9 groups, Greece now lead after a win over Israel

1. Greece ............... 4 : +2 : 8
----------------------------------------------
2. Croatia ................ 3 : +4 : 7
3. Georgia ................ 4 : +1 : 6
4. Israel ............... 4 : Equal : 4
5. Latvia ............... 4 : -2 : 4
6. Malta ............... 3 : -5 : 0

GROUP G: The groups big suprise package, Montenegro again sprung a suprise by holding a toothless England to 0-0, Switzerland got off the mark in the other game with a comfortable win over Wales

1. Montenegro ................ 4 : +3 : 10
-----------------------------------------------
2. ENGLAND ............... 3 : +6 : 7
3. Switzerland ................ 3 : Equal : 3
4. Bulgaria ................ 3 : -4 : 3
5. WALES ................ 3 : -5 : 0

GROUP H: A win in Iceland has helped resurrect Portugal's qualification hopes but they still lie behind Norway. Denmark are also in close company after their win over Cyprus

1. Norway ................ 3 : +3 : 9
----------------------------------------------
2. Portugal ................ 4 : +3 : 7
3. Denmark ................ 3 : +1 : 6
4. Cyprus ................ 3 : -3 : 1
5. Iceland ................ 3 : -4 : 0

GROUP I: Spain lead the way but had a huge scare against the Scots but eventually they won out 3-2.

1. Spain ................3 : +7 : 9
---------------------------------------------
2. Czech Republic ................ 3 : -2 : 6
3. SCOTLAND ................. 4 : -1 : 4
4. Lithuania ................ 3 : -1 : 4
5. Liechtenstein ................ 3 : -7 : 0

BBT

I must be clutching at straws because according to Wiki the Wembley pitch is smaller than St James. That is a suprise, must be the camera angle at Wembley making it look bigger.

Maybe its just the aimless long balls that make it look bigger Dorts!

Nope, but maybe he should have done.

Nah, he just played like he didn't care as usual. Should have been sent off as well.

If Bent isn't 'international class' then surely thousands of footballers who play for the country aren't 'international class'.

I don't see how there are many better players. Bent scores plenty of goals for a midtable club - goals are what you want from a striker, surely? Crouch, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Davies, Carroll etc have shocking strike rates compared to Bent.

Anyway England were shite. We dominated posession but didn't even look like scoring against flippin' Montenegro. And how is Capello still in charge? Awful manager.

I have no idea whatsoever what you mean by that statement.

England as a nation should surely have aspirations of being in the top 5 or 6 nations in world football - would Darren Bent get in any of the other top teams in the world's first 11?

I think the answer to that is certainly a no.

Even shite like France have far better players at their disposal than the likes of Bent.

I think he should get a chance because basically there isnt really much else but thats hardly a ringing endorsement is it?

Sorry BBT, I was just being pedantic. I was just trying to say that many footballers are inferior to Bent but still play for their country - surely they aren't good enough to be international class either.

I take your point though, but he's hardly a bad international player. He's consistently scored goals for his clubs and has scored plenty for a midtable side, whereas Rooney has been shocking for Man Utd this season.

Funny you say that, cos the few minutes I watched I was thinking that the pitch looked narrow It looked like Montenegro defended deep and kept things compact tonight which most international teams do these days (for further details, see World Cup 2010) so making the pitch smaller would not suit a team which supposedly likes to attack quickly and pass it around. The bigger the pitch the better in those circumstances.

That may be the case mate, many players maybe are not international class as a lot of countries have to play with what they have got due to small populations, poor national leagues etc. England should have no excuses really but sadly they are just shite.

Im not saying that Bent doesnt deserves a chance, he scores goals there is no doubting that im just not sure he will do the same given the opportunity for England but there is only one way to find out and as I say its not like there are that many alternatives.

Id actually like to see him and Carroll play together. I think Carroll is in the same bracket in that im not sure he is really good enough but again based on what other options there are and the "performances" others are putting in then I think we could do a lot worse.

The lack of quality from a football mad country which has one of the top domestic leagues is just criminal really.

Great point? 2 points dropped. Slovakia are fucking useless.

International football has gone to fuck.

On the subject of the England game - without wanting to make excuses for the team whatsoever as I dont think they deserved to win can anyone explain to me how England didnt get a penalty for the most stonewall handball ever?

Only seen it once but it looked like the ball was going away from goal and not much would have come of it had it not hit the defender's hand. It was clumsy but it didn't really give them an advantage and the pundits seemed to make far more of it than they needed to.

I think thats very generous mate. It doesnt matter where the ball is going or what would of come of it, if a player moves his arm towards the ball to purposefully control it (which he clearly did) then it has to be handball. Its not like it was fired at him from point blank.

Like I say I dont think England deserved it but yet again another quite unbelievable clanger from the officials.

Actually, yes. I think Bent would get into most international sides because he scores goals.

Part of the problem England have, which is why we are so poor is the player snobbery. Rooney must play, Gerrard must play, Lampard must play, Rio and JT must play.

These are all players that are bigged up as world class players because they play for the big clubs, bigged up by the press and the fans. Its a joke.

If Bent had banged in as many goals last season playing for Liverpool and not the Mackems, he would have been given his chance in the starting line up plenty of times.

I have done that since the Germany match. It would seem my decision has been vindicated having read the posts on this board.

Imagine how Big Sam must feel - he gets passed over in favour of some very wonderful foreign coach who ends up getting them to play the long ball to the big man!
If this is what was wanted then why not get The Master in to show them how to do it properly.

Because we don't want to end every game with ten men.

They may be bad and desperate but they will never be that bad and desperate

- So Mr Allardyce, what would be your tactics as England manager.
- Quite simple - I'd bring in Kevin Davies and get them hoof the ball to him
- Ok, thanks very much. We'll let you know.

- So Mr Capello, what would be your tactics as England manager...