Who else thinks that Shearer was having a shocking game on Saturday before he came off? What makes me cross is that the media blame him when all about him are having poo games too. However, I thought he was appalling. Thoughts?

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Answers

I thought everyone was dire on Saturday....even the clear man of the match Barmby....

No pace, no creativity and no passion......that's England in a nutshell....

I do think Shearer was poor and more than once spotted him standing next to his marker when a midfielder was looking for movement to pass into.....mind you Munchkin was worse (no not mackem bashing!)...his positional play was appalling and his holding up of the ball was worse...

I don't even wanna get into this really.....the whole game was crap but at least it might've convinced some of the mugs that thought we were in with a chance of winning after the hype of last week that it's the same old England...

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Agreed, he looked really tired. Thought keegan would have rested him for the malta game to try out a different pairing in case Al got injured during euro 2000. In a way I cant wait till shearer retires from the international scene. Wonder who the pundits will turn on and also to prove how much shearer does for england. I think he will be surely missed as the other forwards (heskey excluded) are really light wait and arent very good at holding up the ball AM

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

No worse than those games in North africa before France'98, and we played alright in those games (except for Romania with Le Saux's gift).

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Never saw the game. Listened to a few minutes on the radio, and concluded the whole thing was a waste of time. I would completely disregard any indifferent performances, as they can't have any bearing whatsoever on players' actual abilities and how they'll perform next week. The papers obviously think otherwise, and think the game merited yards of newsprint.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

There's also this stuff about Jack Hixon being at death's door which might have affected him. I agree that I can't wait for him and Big Dunc to be about the only PL strikeforce that can stay at home for internationals and I was almost sick when I saw him being prodded by that physio after coming off. Just hope he doesn't bust a gut for England. We need him more.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Yer right Douggie...he was cak as usual. :-)

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

LR, mind yer own beeswax, there's a honey. We might just have to start on how shameful Beckham and Scholes were.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

I'm sure you put out a general question regarding WGB's standard England performance....anyway, I don't care if ya slate Beckham and Scholes (what's new)....it means you must have thought the Brothers Grim plated ok.

:-)

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

LR,

Even you must be worried about the form of the Brothers Grim. Phil makes Silvestre look an accomplished defender.

I read in a broadsheet on Sunday (No guarantee of quality I know) that the only contribution Gary Neville makes to the attack are his long throw ins. Still he's one facet better off than Phil, then :-)

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Are the Nevilles only in it for superstitious reasons? 1966 two brothers in the squad etc....or is there some other reason that you only get told on becoming England manager? (or coach or whatever they call themselves?)

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Nice comment on Man U v Zagreb game in yesterday's Independent. They reckoned Ardiles had decided the brother P was so bad, and so wrong footed at lewft back that they would always play down that wing, and not be concerned if they lost the ball. He was viewed as being so poor that as long as they marked everyone else, and left him to get on with it then Man U would fail. Result 0-0.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Hands on heart - he was no worse than any of the rest of them, and better than some.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Well, what do you expect when he's playing alongside a Mackem for Gawd's sake? Let's see what he's like with a real centre forward alongside him.

And what about that tosser who broke his nose? "My little boy cried when he saw me". Fer chrissakes man. If ye can't stand the heat, get oot the bliddy kitchen. It might make yer make-up run. Tart.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

The funniest thing about this 'nose' incident is that despite the fact that every channel is running it, nobody has been able to identify the offending section of footage. Hmmmm. How surprising. Usual cack; some nobody has his chance-in-a-lifetime to play against a giant of the game and wants to keep his name in the papers...obviously with no encouragement whatsoever from our staggeringly loyal and supportive media machine.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

I'm sure I read somewhere that it was a deliberate attack from the fallen-from-grace England skipper. I seem to recall it was in an article by someone called U Rennie. Shame it wasn't Le Poof instead of some non-descript Maltese (I bet he was very cross). Tooser. Shouldn't be allowed to step on the same pitch as Wor Al. Nurse - more beer please. And make sure its in a bottle. I want to hit that b@st@rd with something to make him really know what a broken nose is like. Bah. Now, who's taken me passport away??

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Ah'b still sufferid frob the last time by dose got broke.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2000