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Player Ratings for the Tournament

July 2nd, 2006 | By: Shawn | 17 Comments »

My deeply subjective ratings of individual players throughout the tournament (1-10 scale, with 10 being tops):

DAVID BECKHAM — Absent for long stretches and absolutely vital for key moments of 3 of the 5 matches; 5.5 overall, 7.5 for set pieces

WAYNE ROONEY — Never found his pace, never figured out a way around in the 4-5-1 system that Sven designed, then had his inner Gazza emerge at the worst possible moment; 5.5

PETER CROUCH — His specific skills were never properly used save for one moment against Trinidad; looked awful when asked to work outside the box; 5.5

STEVEN GERRARD — Smart, tireless and self-effacing, yet too often hobbled by tactics which required him to share space and duties with a player whose game mirrors, rather than echoes, his own; 7

FRANK LAMPARD — Much of what I say about Gerrard applies here, with the additional and painful note that he was in absolutely dreadful shooting form from Day One; could turn out that he is broken as a player; 5

JOE COLE — Early on, a note of promise, but he seemed to wear out as the tournament progressed; a non-factor on Saturday; 6.5

OWEN HARGREAVES — Despite negative response to his being selected, he emerged as a key player and the most potent midfielder; fought hard, never griped, made his penalty, raised himself in everyone’s esteem; 8

JOHN TERRY/RIO FERDINAND — I give them a joint grade because they played so well together at the back; for all the talk about England’s failure to score, let’s not forget that the side only allowed 2 goals in five-plus matches; 8

ASHLEY COLE — Fine defense (saved the day against Ecuador) but not enough service as a winger; again, I blame Sven in part for clogging the middle and taking away his route up the touchline; 7.5

PAUL ROBINSON — Never really tested much until the penalties, and he seemed to wither with each miss by his teammates; 7.5 for matches; 5.5 for penalties

AARON LENNON — for his brief moments of play, lively and determined; 7.5

MICHAEL OWEN — never truly fit; 5.5

Insufficient impressions to earn a grade: Michael Carrick, Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Stewart Downing, Sol Campbell

Didn’t play: David James, Scott Carson, Jermaine Jenas, and, of course, Theo Walcott

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Comments

By alan | July 2nd, 2006 at 7:22 pm

owen hargreaves best english player by far

Posted from Germany

By PENALTY HUN | July 2nd, 2006 at 8:27 pm

Wayne Rooney deserves a 9.

What a man!

The English fans, that I met at Berlin Fan-Mile, deserve a 10.

English Football-Songs: a 100, definitely.

Posted from United States

By Bobbio | July 2nd, 2006 at 8:28 pm

England need to import more Canadians from Germany!

Posted from Netherlands

By nicko | July 2nd, 2006 at 8:47 pm

good call on beckham, I would say england played as if:

* they had 10 men in general play
* they had 12 men for free kicks

perversely enough, if england dived more, beckham would have had a bigger impact

Posted from Australia

By Big Banana | July 3rd, 2006 at 2:20 am

England’s three best players were Owen Hargraves, Lennon and Crouch. The rest just didn’t look up to scratch, including Sven.

England played like the proverbial “boring English Upperclass”. They played dull, unimaginative football. The system they played was partly to blame, and you can blame Sven for that. Why didn’t Lennon have more game time in the WC? He made a great impact when he came on. Also, why pick two injured strikers and a 17 year old who hasn’t even played first team football? You basically played with a lone striker the entire tourney.

Beckham is one of the best deadball guys going around, but he is only average in open field play and looks like he has lost his hunger.

Lampard, well what can I say here? He was simply very dissapointing. It looks like he reads the papers way too much and his past success has all gone to his head. He also needs to regain his hunger.

Rooney……..a potentially great player, maybe? but in reality he also has been reading his own headlines. Simply doesn’t have the right temprement for this level of football. Materity MAY change his ways, but he is a very long way behind players like Messi and Co. Someone in this blog tried to compare him to the great Maradona, what a joke! Maradona won the 86′ WC on his own, no player will ever acheive that feat again in our lifetime.
England had the potential to do better than they did, but due to ego’s and coaching they fell short. Everyone could see it, and the group stage highlighted their deficiencies, it was only you poms who couldn’t.

Posted from Australia

By Shane | July 3rd, 2006 at 3:09 am

Walcott must have one of those prizes where you get to hang out with the squad and sit on the bench and be part of the team etc …. as long as you promise not to get in the way.
What a ridiculous selection. Sven admitted to never seeing him play …. and then proceeded never to give him a match.
Sven … you’re a class A fool.
Good riddance.

Posted from Australia

By Andrés | July 3rd, 2006 at 3:48 am

Wayne Beast Boy Rooney!!! He needs smacking, what an idiot. I hope he gets plenty of games off for his brutality. Oh and Beckham, by Spice Boy, we are fed up of you. So delightful to see England out.

Posted from United States

By Chung Chung | July 3rd, 2006 at 9:36 am

I think most of the England players did great especially John Terry. He is a food defender

Posted from Hong Kong

By eantautjk | July 3rd, 2006 at 10:12 am

Again J Cole fails to cut down on his showmanship. Too much stepovers. Wish The Special One was there to drill that into his head.

Posted from Malaysia

By LiverpoolFC | July 3rd, 2006 at 11:32 am

Steven Gerrard was great, I thought Lampard got in his way quite abit owse he might have had a few more goals, England should give the captaincy to him since Beckham has quit, he is an A grade leader for Liverpool and an A grade leader off the pitch as well, a fantastic player who is always a delight to watch. Go Gerrard, i know that penalty miss will haunt him for a while but it’ll only make him stronger.

Posted from Australia

By LiverpoolFC | July 3rd, 2006 at 12:50 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=layq78uxuig&search=lampardfan

how could anyone lose with such a great team f*cking ericsson, stupid FA, idiots

Posted from Australia

By NAT | July 3rd, 2006 at 12:54 pm

CROUCH….BEST PLAYER????
WHOM YOU KIDDING?

THAT CLOWN…..DON’t know how to play football.

Posted from Bangladesh

By Ramesh | July 3rd, 2006 at 7:46 pm

Most of the guys played the match quite well…considering the fact that 10 men held on to draw the match……except the GREAT CULPRIT….LAMPARD……WHO SHOULD BE NEVER SEEN IN THE ENGLISH COLORS…..FOR HE IS THE MOST OVERATED PLAYER IN THE ENGLISH TEAM….YET GAVE A MINUS INFINITY PERFORMANCE…MY VERDICT…ENGLAND PLAYED WELL TO LOSE ON THE RUSSIAN ROULETTE AND THE BULLET WAS A LAMPARD.

Posted from Nepal

By England GO BACK HOME | July 4th, 2006 at 1:50 am

Oh no. No more MR SPICE GIRL. I ilked him. He was the only talented guy in your team. and he always brings Victoria. which is a plus cause shes HOTTTTTTTTT

Oh and Rooney. you smart guy.
I think this guy is totally smart. I mean he managed to push Ronaldo about a couple of times knowing that the Referee was right infront of them.
Kinda Funny how Ronaldo didn’t even push him back and completely just ignored him.
He just kept telling the referee that it was not RIGHT for someone to STEP on his TEAMMATES CROTCH. He must know that it would hurt a lot..

Does Rooney even have a crotch? Cause I don’t think he quite understood why Ronaldo cared so much about his teammate there…

Posted from Canada

By L.A. | July 4th, 2006 at 2:44 am

If England really wants to win, its players should control their temper first.

Posted from United States

By toby | July 4th, 2006 at 3:57 pm

Are we rating Beckham according to his football skills,or his looks?
Indeed he used to have brilliant football skills,but that was long before he was introduced to the world of money and fame..
Fat little rooney caught the same disease real fast..

Posted from Lebanon