Heskey For England

[John_Rambo]

Heskey is faster, stronger, runs the channels better, is better in the air, holds the ball up better, and brings people into the game better than Alan Smith. If they are picked for England they are both expected to fill a similar role. To cap it all off, Heskey has a significantly better goals per game ratio in both club and international football than Smith. On his day, which admittedly doesn't happen often enough, Heskey can be unplayable. That is something that you can never say about Alan Smith.

I'm not Heskey's biggest fan. As i said in an above post, he's not really the standard that you would want, it's just that i don't see anyone available who will come in and play that role in this particular game better than him for sure. It's important to consider the partnership that he already has with Owen. Between them they have scored 14 goals in 12 starts together for England. They know each others game, and Owen enjoys playing with him. He does not have the same rapport with any of the other options being mentioned, and this isn't a game to look to the future in, it's purely and simply about making sure three points are obtained to keep the chances of qualification alive. You want to see England players who are in tune with each other playing out there, not ones who look like they're still getting to know each other and still finding their feet at this level. It's too important a game for that.

[mrtoad]

Heskey is faster, stronger, runs the channels better, is better in the air, holds the ball up better, and brings people into the game better than Alan Smith. If they are picked for England they are both expected to fill a similar role. To cap it all off, Heskey has a significantly better goals per game ratio in both club and international football than Smith. On his day, which admittedly doesn't happen often enough, Heskey can be unplayable. That is something that you can never say about Alan Smith.

I'm not Heskey's biggest fan. As i said in an above post, he's not really the standard that you would want, it's just that i don't see anyone available who will come in and play that role in this particular game better than him for sure. It's important to consider the partnership that he already has with Owen. Between them they have scored 14 goals in 12 starts together for England. They know each others game, and Owen enjoys playing with him. He does not have the same rapport with any of the other options being mentioned, and this isn't a game to look to the future in, it's purely and simply about making sure three points are obtained to keep the chances of qualification alive. You want to see England players who are in tune with each other playing out there, not ones who look like they're still getting to know each other and still finding their feet at this level. It's too important a game for that.

JR, thanks for that, and please don't take offence for what I have said, on reflection I shouldn't have taken the piss out of your post, but I did , I do say some things with tounge in cheek often and sometimes guilty of PUI. I think one thiNg we agree on, is that we bloody hope that England get a result. I'm going to have a beer and watch the game and hope we get the result that we certainly need.

Hopefully, in the morning we will all be signing the praises of Heskey and all of the other guys. If you're in BKK, don't forget the next footie and beer night, it is good fun, even though we all have different clubs and opinions , just don't bring your Rambo knife

[mrtoad]

OK, I'm going to eat a little humble here . Thought he did pretty ok, held the ball up and looked reasonable in the air. One thing that was certainly noticeable, was the fact that he looked a lot less bulky and with it much more mobile.

I'm still not convinced about him, but at least we got a decent result ableit, against a very poor Israel team performance.

Lets hope, he can do something against Russia on Wednesday.

[EastSaxCol]

OK, I'm going to eat a little humble here . Thought he did pretty ok, held the ball up and looked reasonable in the air. One thing that was certainly noticeable, was the fact that he looked a lot less bulky and with it much more mobile.

I'm still not convinced about him, but at least we got a decent result ableit, against a very poor Israel team performance.

Lets hope, he can do something against Russia on Wednesday.

I actually feel sorry for Heskey. He didn't do badly against Israel. But it was only a very pootr Israel side - did they actually have one shot on goal ?

The reason that I feel sorry is that I, and many others, have used him as the most recent whipping-post with which to get at McClown.

But this result is only to postpone and not cancel the inevitable. McClaren is a disaster and too thick to realise that he's out of his depth.

[mrbojangles]

McClaren is a disaster and too thick to realise that he's out of his depth.

I concur.

The team played well in spite of McClaren, not because of him. I want to call him a Muppet but what have the Muppets ever done to upset me

[mrtoad]

McClaren is a disaster and too thick to realise that he's out of his depth.

I concur.

The team played well in spite of McClaren, not because of him. I want to call him a Muppet but what have the Muppets ever done to upset me

I wouldn't say that he is thick, but he can certainly be accused of being stubborn. I'm not impressed by his management of the team so far, and it will now be interesting to see how we perform on Wednesday against a supposedly better side managed by a very astute coach. In the end he doesn't and won't get cut much slack, because he is tainted by his association of the last management team.

[Fast Eddie]

I agree with everyones thoughts about Mclaren. He's the first England manager that has pushed me to the brink of almost wanting England not to qualify, so that he'll be sacked and not mess up the next world cup as well. I genuinely fear that if England manage to scrape into the European Championship, Mclaren will keep his job, and it will be four years wasted.

One of the biggest problems with giving a no mark like Mclaren the job, is that the England manager needs to be someone that the media, fans, and the players all respect. In football, you only get that respect if you have a history of success. Mclaren has acheived next to nothing in his managerial career, and everyone knows that he hasn't proved that he deserves the job, consequently as soon as England started to struggle the response from the media and fans was inevitable, and this puts pressure on the players who are probably looking at the manager and wondering if he's really got what it takes as well, regardless of what they say in public.

It all results in shaky, unconfident performances on the pitch. Mclaren isn't strong enough to quell the doubts and get the team to rise above them, and he's not strong enough because he's a no mark in managerial terms and has insufficient experience and respect.

He was unable to produce a Middlesbrough team that played good football, despite having money to spend, so it's not a surprise to anyone that he's struggling to do it with England.