Do you think Sven will take a back seat during the world cup and handover to McClaren?
494800
no this is svens cup tilt. Everyone thinks of the manager as the winner of the cup thats why I believe its important that an englishman is manager of the english team. In 5years time no one will remember all the team they will remember the manager, and remember him as Swedish. Do you think he will let McClaren take his glory NO.
1176500
we've lost owen, but rooney seems to be back (and could well be fully match fit after an outing against ecuador).\n\ni doubt if any world-cup squad can lose one of its best players and still be a favourite for the tournament - but teams have been lucky in the past (uruguay in particular).\n\nif england can get through to the semis anything might happen.
443756
i full agree with the first post. it seems like the likely team. until we go a goal down and sven substitutes joe cole for hargreaves and rooney for crouch, just to make sure we have absolutely no chance of winning.
1010777
YES!!!\n\nJohn Terry and Jamie Carragher have been the 2 best English centre backs this season, and perhaps even last season aswell.\n\nThe problem is that Sven has his favourites, one of which is Rio (overated) Ferdinand who makes too many mistakes in my opinion
474074
Can only be Owen & Rooney if they're fit. Although Sven, being quite the out of touch Manager that he is, may choose to bring back the Vassell then let him mount Crouch the donkey and the two of them can ride off into the German sunset together. Beyond Rooney and Owen, I really hope he takes Defoe and Bent. Although, Ashton & Harewood might have a chance - whatever, I'm just a one-eyed, out of touch, dreaming Hammers fan who hopes to win a ticket to the World Cup by answering this!
305944
I don't believe there is a beeter midfield quartet in the tournament, however I am still unsure as to whether Sven is getting the best out of this group. Certainly in the case of Gerrard, he plays too deep for England covering Lampard, and very rarely makes the kind of storming runs from deep that have been his trademark at Liverpool. I rate Lampard highly, and make no apolgied for being a Liverpool fan, but I do think the national team could get much more from Gerrard.\n\nI happen to think that he has been exceptional in a wider position when used there for Liverpool, and if Beckham does misfire out wide, I'd like to see a genuine holding player alongside Lampard (even Beckham himself has been playing centrally for Madrid), with Gerrard able to exploit his pace out wide.
577766
Owen will be ready though maybe not 100%..he and Crouch will start. I either of them underperform, Walcott wil go in (and then we'll see if Sven's selection of him over Shaun Wright Phillips is justified..I think its NOT)
562701
Man U could do a lot worse than getting Svennis on board.\n\nEngland's loss could be United's gain.
602876
i do not think that he has the name power of some of the other english stars.  though maybe with the rooney injury he might get a reserve spot, but i do not expect that he would get much playing time.
344601
I hope we can win it, i think Sven will be everybodys hero though, I just wish the public could remember back to the time when we hired him, what a state we were in! I think we will win it, we have the right team this year and the right attitude, hopefully owen will be fit and hopefully bent gets to go...and hopefully that canadien born player wont be there
662635
Rooney is a fabulous young player but has still time to mature. He will be a great loss to England if not fit in time. I do not think England will get near the final. I think we are going to see Argentina and Brazil if they do not meet earlier. You will also see Gerrmany go very close
783961
NO WAY!!\nbecks will bounce back, im sure of it. :)\nyeah, i think he should change his club, cause they dont even play him in real madrid! :(\ni love beckham, and dont want to see his career, which hes been working a lifetime to get to the status hes at, to go downhill.. :(
1085469
Crouch is not the answer, his positional play is dire.  How the hell is he is classed as an International quality player is beyond me.\n\nI'd play the Portugese with the same line up as we used against Ecuador.  Rooney looks like he's about to do something pretty special to me, and certainly doesn't look to be suffering from his injury.  Give him chance and he will shine.\n\nOne thing is for sure, it's about time the whole team started playing as such and showed more commitment than they have done of late (how much of that is Sven's lack of enthusiasm though?)
426383
Yes, I do.\n\nThis is the reason why: the loss of our best player is obviously bad news, but I now think we have the opportunity to add a balance to our team that has been missing.\n\nWith Rooney in the team we would play 4-4-2, with Lampard and Gerrard in the central midfield berths. This is a remarkably flawed system because both are attacking players with poor tackling skills (Gerrard famously so).\n\nSven is never going to drop Gerrard or Lampard (and who can blame him) but the loss of Rooney allows us to play a five man midfield - Cole (on the left), Beckham (on the right), Lampard (in the centre), Gerrard (in the centre) AND Carrick  (who is a tackling'holding midfielder, in the centre).\n\n(It's worth noting that no team has never won the World Cup without a holding midfielder - even Brazil have always needed a work-horse midfielder to allow their more flamboyant midfielders to shine.)\n\nEngland having a holding midfielder allows Lampard and Gerrard (two of the best attacking midfielders in the world) to head towards goal without having to worry too much about defensive duties.\n\nThis formation will require one striker up front on his own, and I think Peter Crouch would be perfect for this. He can hold up the ball and supply the knock-downs for Gerrard, Cole, Lampard and Beckham to run onto. (And if we need to be more attack minded, we can take off a central midfielder and bring on Owen to parter Crouch.)\n\nThis formation I'm suggesting has been well used by Mourinho and Benitez in England over the last two seasons, and it hasn't done their teams any harm.\n\n(Also worth thinking about: Enlgand got to the World Cup 90 semis without the sublime skills of the injured John Barnes. And France won the World Cup with Zidane missing three games along the way - he'd been sent off early in the tournament.)\n\nSven can make this situation work for him if he chooses to.
686189
I would not say no straight away , you lot are putting all of England's chances on one man which is a mistake. You must consider that England have a forty year history of failure concerning the world cup and now it is in Germany 40 years after 1966 , so you'll see that this is a massive motivation and we have to perform well. This will push England and make stronger and more dangerous. Besides , have you seen the squad Sven has come up with? I think our chances are real good , even without Wayne but Wayne#s a strong kid and he might make  it back and just close your eyes and imagine what would happen if england won the world cup , (imagine that whether you like England or not) considering 1966
1015677
Sven has a masterplan?, he must have because managerially speaking it is a brave(possibly stupid) move, and seeing as he is going after this WC he is more comfortable making those decisions. There are more experienced "youth" players around like Dafoe who went home due to Rooney`s recovery or Wright-Phillips (just to see Ian Wrights face).Walcott has the potential to shine but throwing him in like this could be ugly,he already has a minor injury from training
484489
yes, I don't know what Erickson was thinking when he invited a 17 year old kid to play on world cup, you have Be atty or Vassel as a better substitute for Rooney!  I hope he gets better for next round of World Cup.