By Myles Palmer
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Austria 2 England 2
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Lampard 24 Gerrard 64 Kollman 71 Ivanschitz 73
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SVEN CAN’T balance a midfield.
Sven refuses to use a holding player.
Sven can’t drop his icons, Becks, Michael and Stevie G.
Sven can’t change a game with subs.
Sven can’t even share our team with us, although last week he allowed Sky Sports News to show Englands training sessions.
Sven has the most dynamic left back in Europe playing for him, but he can’t make good use of Ashley Cole.
If you made a complete list of all the things Sven can’t do, it would be even longer than the combined list of all the things Owen can’t do and all the things Beckham can’t do.
Selectionwise, Sven goes round in circles.
Without Rooney, England are rubbish.
They lack ideas.
You can forgive a lack of fluency in a team that only plays once a month, but England had no balance, no ideas, nobody who could hold the ball while others ran into position.
Alan Smith was average.
Owen and Beckham were pitiful.
As a sub, Joe Cole was atrocious. Hopeless.
Wayne Bridge contributed nothing significant.
SVEN’S authority has been undermined by failure in Portugal and by Fariagate.
His selections and demeanour now reflect a bunker mentality.
Sven’s been slagged, he’s been abused, he’s been sickened by media intrusion into his “private life”.
He thinks we have a culture of envy where hacks hate him because he earns £4 million a year and has too many girlfriends and gets free tickets to all the best games.
VIENNA ?
VIENNA was a shambles, even when England were winning !
I AM AMAZED THAT ENGLAND are rated 7th in the world by FIFA.
Never mind that Austria, rated 90th, came back from 2-0 down to draw with us.
I’m just ASTOUNDED that England are rated 7th in the world.
GLOBALLY, football must be in a terrible state if England are 7th.
Over the last 30 years, most foreign coaches say the same thing about England.
They always, always, always say that England are too predictable.
Well, Sven’s England are more predictable than England have ever been in my lifetime.
IN THE FIRST HALF, our midfield was three guys who do the same thing, plus a full back !
Lampard,Beckham and Gerrard all like to hit it 30 yards across the field, or make a run forward.
Beckham has two passes : a 5-yarder to Gary Neville, and a grandstand killer ball forward.
That’s all he can do now.
That and let people kick him, so he gets a free-kick.
First goal was lucky.
A whistle in the crowd, a sloppy pass which Manninger dived on, and the ref gave a free kick, Becks cutely found Frank, who scored.
OWEN WAS one-on-one and should have lobbed the keeper just before half-time, but he shot weakly and straight at him.
Manninger parried the shot just outside the box and got away with it.
Owen teed up Gerrard for a Hoddle goal, a ferocious swerving chip that gave Manninger no chance.
At 2-0 up against a poor side, it should have been over.
But Lampard conceded a free-kick and Roland Kollmann hit a thunderous shot through the space neatly vacated by an Austrian in the wall.
So after 70 minutes it was 1-2.
Then the whole defence backed off Ivanschitz, who hit a 25 yarder and David James made the goalkeeping howler of the season.
Nobody tackled.
They made it easy for him.
They backed off and said : Go on my son, have a pop !
The shot was deflected but James managed to get himself in a bizarre body position, so that he let the ball come between his forearms and go under his body for 2-2.
The 90th best team in the world had scored twice in three minutes against the seventh best.
PAUL SCHOLES, you were right.
You retired and missed the shambles of Vienna.
Where do we go from here?
Who cares?
What’s the point?
What’s the point when Gerrard says, “I was substituted by mistake.”
Gerrard was signalling to the bench that Bridge had pulled a hamstring and wanted to come off, so Sven took Gerrard off, thinking HE had done his hamstring.
HE TOOK OFF THE WRONG PLAYER !!!!
And Gerrard accepted it !!
If Soho Square is a shambles, England will be a shambles.
Thank you Adam Crozier !
Thank you, Mark Palios !
I can’t even get angry about it any more.
If you want to read angry, check out BECKHAM WILL MARRY SVEN IN TUSCANY on the ANR home page at www.anr.uk.com
September 4th 2004.