The last time Luiz Felipe Scolari coached Brazil against England, both teams were in very different circumstances. In their 2002 World Cup quarter-final, they lined up against each other as two of the best teams in the world. Scolari had rescued a trainwreck of a qualifying campaign and was on his way to guiding Brazil…
As Steven Gerrard approached his 100th England cap, a flood of articles appeared eulogising his career. Journalists across the country took it upon themselves to praise his all-round ability yet there was a twinge of disappointment that he hadn’t quite fulfilled his potential, particularly in regard to his time with England. Even Gerrard himself only…
All statistics are from InStat Football. 1) Andrea Pirlo ran the game Post-match the focus was on the Juventus man, just as it had been before the game. Pirlo had been singled out as the one England needed to stop and yet they did an appalling job of doing so. Early on, Danny Welbeck and…
With Euro 2012 starting in roughly three weeks time, Roy Hodgson only has training sessions and two friendlies to assess who he thinks can fit into his system for the first fixture against France on the 11th of June. It is well known Hodgson favours a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 system. Jonatan Johansson said himself on Sky Sports,…
Welcome to England. The land where, in the words of the Paedofinder General from Monkey Dust, “every man is innocent until speculated guilty.” John Terry, although a pretty horrible man on all accounts, has not been proven guilty of racism towards Anton Ferdinand, but was punished by the FA as if he had been. With…
Kurt Cobain; Ernest Hemingway; Lord Byron; Sylvia Plath; Vincent van Gogh; Virginia Woolf. History is full of creative people plagued by forms of self-destruction, and football is no exception: George Best, Antonio Cassano, Diego Maradona and Ariel Ortega have all mixed incredible ability on the pitch with destructive behaviour off it. Although, because of his…
Ok, I went a bit mad with this idea, so I'm dividing the article about dividing midfields into two pieces, how continental of me, no? Consider this Episode One: The English Way.
