Scholes for England

[Sir Nutmeg]

Would anyone agree that Capello, the English FA, Wayne Rooney and other concerned parties should make one more pitch to Scholes to come out of international retirement for the summer? Is there another English player who distributes the ball like Scholes, tackles like Scholes and can score big goals like Scholes? Much better than Gerrard and/or Lampard laboring to play the holding central midfield role and getting in each other's way. They should get to him quickly too before he organizes his summer vacation.

[Admin]

Would consider it, if he were playing for one of the bigger more important teams.

[Sam]

Nope Scholsey will make the right decision and rest this summer for one last massive season with Manchester United. On a side note though I think Scholes has to be the best English player of the 00s

[nolando]

well, certainly one of the most underrated

[masster]

I agree with most of what you said except for the tackle part.

[Sam]

I agree with most of what you said except for the tackle part.

Ironically enough Scholes actually had a few fantastic tackles against City yesterday. But on the whole he can't tackle to save his life.

[Rivaldo]

I agree that no one tackles like Scholes.

[Sir Nutmeg]

Ironically enough Scholes actually had a few fantastic tackles against City yesterday. But on the whole he can't tackle to save his life.

Yeah, you're right. I was talking about the crispness of his tackling, certainly not the timing.

[bettermirror]

Tackle like Scholes! ahahahah. Nice one. Ginger Prince is the best English Midfielder of our age, but the guy can't tackle! You can put him in the England holding role and they'd be semi-finalists, guaranteed.

For the love of MUFC and Scholes himself - keep him far away from the world cup! He just signed a 1 year deal with MUFC...Fergie would LOSE IT if he played. Giggs hinted at it for Wales and Fergie blew a gasket the next day in the papers.

[Cheeta]

He has a way about him, advanced years or no but alas, any manager looking to Scholes for international duty at this point in his career is probably not the manager you want for your NT.

Just my opinion. Some players sure seem to live a charmed life, but it can't go on forever.

[Sir Nutmeg]

I would suggest he just return for the WC. One month. Who are the alternatives in his position? Are they as good as Scholes at the moment? It's one month, not a full season. Remember Zidane, well past his prime, still managed to drag France to the final 4 years ago. Scholes isn't Zidane, but he's the kind of player who could pick Rooney out time after time. A year from now he may be too old, but on current form he's better than anyone else.

[SthMelbRed]

What qualifies as current form? Is it because he scored a goal on the weekend? This season the number of games where Scholes has looked like a tired, old man winding down his time as a pro far surpass the number of games where he's showed flashes of his past brilliance. I'd file this plea for his return to the England fold in the same place where all the 'Owen for England' pleas after the first derby of the season now reside. Remember, this is a player who, along with Darren Fletcher, the MU-loving UK media's vastly overrated darling, was comfortably tucked inside Lucas' back pocket at Anfield a few months back. How many lower-table midfields have had there way with Scholesy at different times this season? More than enough to show any reasonable person that he's not the saviour of the England team.

[Sir Nutmeg]

Scholes hasn't been at his best all season, and I don't think Ferguson expected him to be, since it was quite clear that Scholes was not going to be playing more than once a week despite his form. He has only featured in about half of their games, but he and now Gary Neville are getting more games as they are needed. What Ferguson, and I hope Capello, seems to realize is that Scholes can raise his game for a stretch run or for the small amount of games (7) it takes to win the WC.

Zidane was clearly not in the best of shape at the last WC, but he pushed himself and France to the limit and look at the results...er okay, maybe he pushed a bit too hard.

I still rate Scholes ahead of any other English central midfielder that comes to mind, and I haven't seen any alternatives posted.

[KiMichael]

Well, I think that Scholes is still good enough to help England getting very far in that tournament and I would really love to see him playing for the team again.

[Sir Nutmeg]

Okay, England needed Scholes. Rooney needed Scholes. Enough about that. It was never going to happen. Fab, forget Scholes now.

Play Bent up top for a run of games and see if he can score at international level. Play Rooney in the hole behind him. Get rid of Lampard. Play Gerrard in an attacking midfield role. Play Joe Cole wide with freedom to move around or maybe even switch sides (like C. Ronaldo) depending on the situation.

Find three other decent midfielders who can destroy the opposition's build up, maintain possession and pass the ball to Bent, Rooney and Cole. Defoe coming off the bench for Rooney (if the latter remains in his funk -- I still think he's not fit after his spring injuries) or J. Cole. Crouch coming on for Bent (or vice-versa). Bent can't stop scoring goals in the Premier + Crouch can't stop scoring goals for England MUST SURELY = a few more goals for England at the least (which is what England needs most).

Lennon, Walcott and Wright-Phillips are good premier league wingers (not great). Leave them all out or only pick the one who is playing regularly, injury-free and performing well. Which probably means you should leave them all out. At international level, there are some other wide guys coming through that have a few caps. Give them a go.

Watch the form of Terry and Ferdinand closely and if they seem to be slipping, bring in some younger blood there if necessary, one at a time. Johnson, A. Cole and the keepers are okay. They're not the issue.

Hey Fab, are you listening this time?

[beachesl]

Okay, England needed Scholes. Rooney needed Scholes. Enough about that. It was never going to happen. Fab, forget Scholes now.

Play Bent up top for a run of games and see if he can score at international level. Play Rooney in the hole behind him. Get rid of Lampard. Play Gerrard in an attacking midfield role. Play Joe Cole wide with freedom to move around or maybe even switch sides (like C. Ronaldo) depending on the situation.

Find three other decent midfielders who can destroy the opposition's build up, maintain possession and pass the ball to Bent, Rooney and Cole. Defoe coming off the bench for Rooney (if the latter remains in his funk -- I still think he's not fit after his spring injuries) or J. Cole. Crouch coming on for Bent (or vice-versa). Bent can't stop scoring goals in the Premier + Crouch can't stop scoring goals for England MUST SURELY = a few more goals for England at the least (which is what England needs most).

Lennon, Walcott and Wright-Phillips are good premier league wingers (not great). Leave them all out or only pick the one who is playing regularly, injury-free and performing well. Which probably means you should leave them all out. At international level, there are some other wide guys coming through that have a few caps. Give them a go.

Watch the form of Terry and Ferdinand closely and if they seem to be slipping, bring in some younger blood there if necessary, one at a time. Johnson, A. Cole and the keepers are okay. They're not the issue.

Hey Fab, are you listening this time?

Yeah, right, all England needed was another old geezer. Give the ginger-haired one credit for knowing he was not the answer.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Okay, England needed Scholes. Rooney needed Scholes. Enough about that. It was never going to happen. Fab, forget Scholes now.

Play Bent up top for a run of games and see if he can score at international level. Play Rooney in the hole behind him. Get rid of Lampard. Play Gerrard in an attacking midfield role. Play Joe Cole wide with freedom to move around or maybe even switch sides (like C. Ronaldo) depending on the situation.

Find three other decent midfielders who can destroy the opposition's build up, maintain possession and pass the ball to Bent, Rooney and Cole. Defoe coming off the bench for Rooney (if the latter remains in his funk -- I still think he's not fit after his spring injuries) or J. Cole. Crouch coming on for Bent (or vice-versa). Bent can't stop scoring goals in the Premier + Crouch can't stop scoring goals for England MUST SURELY = a few more goals for England at the least (which is what England needs most).

Lennon, Walcott and Wright-Phillips are good premier league wingers (not great). Leave them all out or only pick the one who is playing regularly, injury-free and performing well. Which probably means you should leave them all out. At international level, there are some other wide guys coming through that have a few caps. Give them a go.

Watch the form of Terry and Ferdinand closely and if they seem to be slipping, bring in some younger blood there if necessary, one at a time. Johnson, A. Cole and the keepers are okay. They're not the issue.

Hey Fab, are you listening this time?

Meaning, however much you tweek it, it is still not going to get past quarter finals. The keepers are okay you say? Crouch as a sub? Bent?

Any way you look at England there is not the depth to get past being a top 10 team.

England needs: two keepers way better than anything they currently have. And two strikers better than Bent and Heskey. And a playmaking midfielder, like Scholes was. I like him too, think he has been fantastic, but no one has come along to replace that sort of talent.

France has way more depth as far as I can see. So does Italy.

The future if anything is with the kids, playing the u-19 Euro championship semi final, current european u.17 champ. Must be something there, including, have to say, some better elite coaching at the youth level.

[Captains Armband]

don't see how Scholes was going to prevent 4 German goals.

[amacpher]

don't see how Scholes was going to prevent 4 German goals.

Maybe by getting Rooney more involved in the group-stage and playing Ghana in the second-round instead?

The OP was right. England likely would've done better with Scholes. It's been proven again and again that Lampard-Gerrard pairing simply doesn't work. And considering how close they were to winning that group and getting an easy draw to the semfinals, you can't claim that one player couldn't have made a huge difference.

[Captains Armband]

Until England understand that football is more than "getting stuck in" they aren't winning squat. Doesn't really me other than Canada seems to follow the English lead in football matters.

Back to England. They didn't win in 2002 or 2006 with Scholes so I fail to see how they would have did anything in 2010. Wasn't he also on the team that failed to qualify for EC 08 ?

Again. He would have made no difference.

Easy route to the semi's ? Perhaps. Ghana supporters felt the same way though so you never know.

[Sir Nutmeg]

Until England understand that football is more than "getting stuck in" they aren't winning squat. Doesn't really me other than Canada seems to follow the English lead in football matters.

Back to England. They didn't win in 2002 or 2006 with Scholes so I fail to see how they would have did anything in 2010. Wasn't he also on the team that failed to qualify for EC 08 ?

Again. He would have made no difference.

Easy route to the semi's ? Perhaps. Ghana supporters felt the same way though so you never know.

Um, wrong. Scholes hasn't played for England in six years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/3531982.stm

He retired after the 2004 Euros. Ever since, it's been Lampard and Gerrard. The England team that lost to Brazil in 2002 was very unfortunate. Since then, they have looked ordinary or dreadful in all the big tournaments and didn't even qualify for '08. Spain showed that if you have a few key individuals on the same page (Xavi, Inestia, etc. it can make the difference. Scholes perhaps would have helped Rooney settle in better. I can't recall a player of Rooney's skill looking so abandoned on any other team in the competition. Were there any other Man U players on England. Just Carrick I think, since Ferdinand was injured. But now we're heading into the discussion about the number of foreign players on England's top club teams.

Remembering how Scholes scored that huge goal against City a few months back makes me think he could have been scoring big goals for England over the last six years, but for whatever reason, he felt he needed to retire. Maybe it was because of the pressure of Lampard and Gerrad taking his midfield role, but if that was the case, it's tragic, because he had nothing to worry about.

[Sir Nutmeg]

I missed the charity shield game today, but the ESPN report is interesting:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=296926&cc=5901

Seems like Rooney and Scholes were having a field day together, against Chelsea no less. The report also says how Capello could have used Scholes this summer.

Here's a clip

"Fabio Capello will not be the only England manager to lament the midfielder's retirement. Steve McClaren felt exactly the same way. But the Italian will continue to wonder what might have been if Scholes had been given longer than a couple of hours to decide on a last-minute offer to head for South Africa.

His calmness in possession and the accuracy of his passing mean, even at 35, he is very hard to subdue.

One cleverly disguised pass set Rooney up for a shot that just evaded the far post and Scholes was also the inspiration behind a Michael Owen cross that forced Ivanovic into a hurried clearance.

But it was the brilliant cross-field ball for Rooney, delivered from inside his own half that did the real damage."

Looks like Rooney's back to normal, playing in front of Scholes.

Okay, I'm done.

[Sam]

Well I watched the game and Scholes was incredible. Brilliant passer of the ball, and playing in a deep lying midfield role like he does today he is just as effective as when he was an attacking midfielder/forward. As for Rooney, still not 100% match fit...

[amacpher]

Yeah, Rooney was not "having a field day".

[bettermirror]

Rooney did well, ya. But only slightly above average. Kid still looks exhausted.

Scholes dominated. Period. Watch this interview, especially the last question, for a good laugh.

Maybe don't send your underline, Fabio, 2 hours before the deadline over the phone! The guy would have allowed England to at least compete v. Germany, because he'd have kept the ball away from John Terry and Germany alike, thus no need for Terry to defend as much!