England of 1998 would have won this World Cup

Discuss

Don't mind if I do Jez.

Excellent defence of Neville, le Saux, Adams and Campbell

Beckham, Scholes, Ince etc in midfield.

Shearer, Sheringham and Owen up front.

Seriously - that team would have had a good shot here. There is no world class team here - despite the tournament being ace.

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

Don't mind if I do Jez.

Excellent defence of Neville, le Saux, Adams and Campbell

Beckham, Scholes, Ince etc in midfield.

Shearer, Sheringham and Owen up front.

Seriously - that team would have had a good shot here. There is no world class team here - despite the tournament being ace.

Last England team to play a formation other than some variation of 442 at a major tournament

Not sure how many more tournament failures it will take for the England national team to realise they need to play a formation that has 3 in centre midfield

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

Don't mind if I do Jez.

Excellent defence of Neville, le Saux, Adams and Campbell

Beckham, Scholes, Ince etc in midfield.

Shearer, Sheringham and Owen up front.

Seriously - that team would have had a good shot here. There is no world class team here - despite the tournament being ace.

Agree Jez, much better teams in 94 and 98 than around today. No one seems to be able to defend these days.

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

Don't mind if I do Jez.

Excellent defence of Neville, le Saux, Adams and Campbell

Beckham, Scholes, Ince etc in midfield.

Shearer, Sheringham and Owen up front.

Seriously - that team would have had a good shot here. There is no world class team here - despite the tournament being ace.

If Scholes could play in a hat, maybe

It's hard to know without testing it. Ask Fifa if they can restart the tournament and persuade the 98 squad out of retirement.

If nothing else it'd be amusing.

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

Last England team to play a formation other than some variation of 442 at a major tournament

Not sure how many more tournament failures it will take for the England national team to realise they need to play a formation that has 3 in centre midfield

Yup - that 3-5-2 was great. It is the safest way for England to play in tournaments - same for Italia 90.

Anderson, mcmanaman, rio and les Ferdinand there - we had some players too.

Les Ferdinand would be guaranteed #1 striker today.

Originally Posted by ralph

Agree Jez, much better teams in 94 and 98 than around today. No one seems to be able to defend these days.

Watching this game hammered it home. Germany used to have brilliant defenders - there is nobody to hold the Leberwurst of jurgen Kohler for example in this team -

Originally Posted by HotChip

If Scholes could play in a hat, maybe

great power and ability in that squad, but england get nosebleeds as early as the quarter finals. you can do a like-for-like and all that but you can't account for the stupid bastards invariably bottling it.

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

Yup - that 3-5-2 was great. It is the safest way for England to play in tournaments - same for Italia 90.

Anderson, mcmanaman, rio and les Ferdinand there - we had some players too.

Les Ferdinand would be guaranteed #1 striker today.

The bulk of that team made Euro 2000 in a playoff and then went out at the group stage. Guess they peaked in '98.

Originally Posted by Grimson

The bulk of that team made Euro 2000 in a playoff and then went out at the group stage. Guess they peaked in '98.

In fairness they were managed by Kevin Keegan

The euro 96 team was better

Originally Posted by taff

great power and ability in that squad, but england get nosebleeds as early as the quarter finals. you can do a like-for-like and all that but you can't account for the stupid bastards invariably bottling it.

Ultimately, this explains it all

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

In fairness they were managed by Kevin Keegan

The fairest of fair points.

Originally Posted by Ginners

The euro 96 team was better

Good point.

Gazza and Stuart Pearce were rocks.

Scholes, Beckham, Ferdinand vs those 2. Close call.

Bloody hell - P Neville was in that squad but Butt, Beckham and Scholes were not.

Originally Posted by ZiggyStardust

Last England team to play a formation other than some variation of 442 at a major tournament

Not sure how many more tournament failures it will take for the England national team to realise they need to play a formation that has 3 in centre midfield

Genuine Q because I want to understand the tactics...

Are you saying that the '94 Utd side that played 442 (as I understand it) with RK and PI in cm would get pummelled in the modern game?

And what players are making up the 5 in mf? 2 fb's, wb's or traditional wingers?

Originally Posted by Jez Quigley

Don't mind if I do Jez.

Excellent defence of Neville, le Saux, Adams and Campbell

Beckham, Scholes, Ince etc in midfield.

Shearer, Sheringham and Owen up front.

Seriously - that team would have had a good shot here. There is no world class team here - despite the tournament being ace.

Too slow imo, would get absolutely murdered on the counter here.

There is no world class team so far at all

Latter stages of cl is much higher standard of football