Steven Gerrard eager to continue. But do we want him?

Do we want him?

Blogs are as pathetic as the writers who write them.

You should try and get a job at PA. I hear their wages reflect your level of talent…

RandomMan: someone didn't read the post, did they?

As always, the opinion expressed here was moderate, rational and came with an explanation – the antithesis of 'pathetic'. Your comment on the other hand lacked all of those qualities.

To summarise: stop being mean. Meany.

Dear Rob (aka Ethan)

I'm not mean, just sick and tired of half baked ideas, poorly thought out and posted on the web purely to fill the acquired wordage for the day.

Just as you have the right to comment, so do I…

Poorly thought out, eh? Hey pot! This is kettle! YOU'RE BLACK!

Me and Rob are differennt people.
We have no “acquired [sic] wordage”.
Comment is free, fact is sacred.

Booyah.

I'm going to ignore RandomMan's complaints and actually respond to the post. Which I have read, and actually think cuts to the core of the problem with England. My immediate post-WC reaction was that we get rid of this whole generation and start again. But after calming down a bit… it's not so easy. Would it really make sense to ditch Stevie G? I say no.

But I think players like Gerrard, Lampard and so on should be prepared to turn up for England without expecting to play, sort of like Beckham did before the ankle injury. Clearly a lot of these guys are still our best players and so deserve to be selected in the squad, but that doesn't mean they have to be guaranteed to start every game.

Also, I love the idea of playing Gerrard behind Rooney as (to quote Rob, because I read the post) “a very english version of the Trequartista”, and am hoping that's what we see vs Hungary at Wembley in August.

Gerrard I would keep. Lampard and Terry need to go. I would base continued participation on one question: could the player be an important part of a 2014 WC squad? (I would go ahead and write off 2012–try to qualify and all that, but England are nowhere near being able to win it. Think long term.) I think Gerrard if injury-free has 4 to 5 good, non-declining years left. But yes by all means it has to be as a support striker. England have plenty of other proper young wingers who should be getting a chance.

Lampard scored, England would have won, fuck the refs.

you will never build a team like that; capello will never be a great manager with england.
while you were laughing at not having any english club competing for the later stages of champions league ( english players would have more rest) you see now all the consequences; there is no english player with quality in this wc ; look at bayern and inter players and you will see all the difference. sorry but all i could say now is that you are miles miles behind the greatest nations in football and i will not be surprised if you do a wc or ec as poor as the french or italians did this year in the near future. sorry again but i cannot see england winning a wc before 20 or 30 years …

Rob wrote: “But, the big question is, if your Fabio Capello,”

Surely, that should be “if you're Fabio Capello”

If you're going to publish comments on-line, then please ensure that your grammar is correct. Simply so that we, the readers, can understand what the hell you are trying to say.

I apologise.

(Although clearly you understood it enough to correct it.)

One of the reasons we write blogs is because people read them, and you're one of them. If you think blogs are pathetic, then isn't it even more pathetic of you to be reading them?

And just so you know, I accidentally liked your comment when I was trying to hit reply and I can't undo nit, so you should subtract one of those likes.

when i hear the words “drop” and “Gerrard” in the same sentence, i'm prone to have a melt down .. not in this instance .. if your not going to utilize him to his potential, then leave him out .. we need a formation, we need a plan and we need to make it work .. like you said, cramming 11 players into a formation doesn't get the job done .. we've only gone and proved that right in South Africa ..

We had one of the best managers in the world, and players of proven quality in the best or second best league in the world. We tried 2 formations plus more in qualifying. When are people going to wake up and realise it is the players attitude and temperament that is the problem. Spoilt, prima donna english players with a false sense of entitlement, out of touch with reality, split into factions within the camp (hence the frequent references to “great team spirit whilst in Africa!) playing with no heart. Not sure what the answer is as English football is rotten to its FA core. Too much TV money, a multi-billion pound franchise run by old farts who couldn't run a norfolk parish council, and fans taken for mugs by the governing body, the clubs and TV companies. We should collectively drop our heads in shame, drop our sky tv subscriptions and our season tickets, because the only thing TV, clubs, players and the FA have in common is too much money!

Gotta love people that post on forums purely to to attack grammar. Isn't this a football blog, not English Grammer 101….

No I don't agree. Gerrard should go and my reasons are as follows.
As England Captain he should lead the team and get on to his players who are not pulling their weight, he did very little of that.
As the left sided midfielder, he should stay there instead of drifting into the middle, he is supposed to be a proffessional and should be able to play anywhere as they all should.
Gerrard is a glory seeker, he had umpteen attempts at goal when he should have passed to a better placed player. Twice he could have had a clear shot on goal but passed instead.
His best place is behind Rooney and that's the only place I would have him.
Terry is a good defender but I think he has had his time now along with A.Cole, Heskey and a few others.
Lampard still does the job and there is not many good players who would do the job as well as he has done, I would keep him for now.

You are spot on with your post. However I do not think Capello is a GREAT manager, not yet. My reasons are as follows.
1) Having sacked JT as Captain, he should not have selected him for the squad, his mental state and playing abilitlity adversely affected and was the case for all too see.
You either sack him from the squad and leave him at home or leave him as Captain.
2) Ash Cole was another player not in the right frame of mind and should not have been selected for the starting 11.
3) King who has had a poor season injury wise should not have been anywhere near S/A least of all in the starting 11.
4) Capello promised us on form and fit players. Barry questionable before he left for SA.
5) Milner played despite being Unwell against USA, he just about lasted 45 minutes as did King.
6) We only took four front men, Rooney Defoe Crouch Heskey. If Capello claimed on form, then that meant Crouch and Defoe STARTING.
7) It was clear Rooney was way off form and Heskey couldn't stay on-side or on his feet, also he is not a GOAL scorer.
We were 3-1 down and take off DEFOE and put on Heskey, what was all that about, Rooney should've come off with Crouch going on.
9) Only taking 3 strikers and Heskey, leads to a problem had one of the other three been injured and another suspended. Bent or Zamora should've been in the Squad or both and left Heskey at home.
10) Gerrard for me can not reproduce his club form at international level, he is too greedy and seeks glory to often. His best role is behind Rooney or keeping the bench warm. Could Capello NOT see clearly he was out of sorts on the left, Joe Cole could have done a better job.
These are just a few things that Capello got wrong, he is not a great manager, he did not have the bottle or the brain power to change things around when it was crying out for it, the players knew it and the result is a lack of confidence and a poor performance.
Players ego's and the rest of your statement is only part of the problem, it is not all down to the players, the Management teams have to be accountable as well, so far, Capello has failed to be a Great Manager, what he has done, like the managers before him fails to have Guts and Balls.

we want him