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Sam Slater wrote:

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Bit of a contradictory position that, Sam, if you reckon he plays badly for England - a statement with which I'd disagree strongly by the way, if for no reason other than that he was England's top scorer in the World Cup qualifiers.

As an addendum, given Sam's seeming love of statistics (albeit made up in his head), he may wish to have a look at today's Guardian.

In the game against Sweden Lampard made 58 passes with an accuracy rate of 89.7%. Compare that with Beckham (28 passes at 85.7%... and so much easier to be accurate when passing backwards, too!)

Given Beckham is supposed to be the best crosser of a ball, why did Joe Cole contribute 11 of England's 19 crosses from open play? (The answer is simple; Beckham's colleagues know him to be a spent force so give the ball to the one trully creative player in the team!)

From the graphic it also shows that in the first half only a third of Beckham's passes were hit forwards, while in the second half he attempted only 8 passes in total!

The combination of Lampard, A. Cole and J.Cole on the left is shown to be the most productive.

Like I said, with Beckham in the team we start off 10 v 11!

Some good points, although giving Gerrard or Lampard the corners & free kicks takes them out of the box, and they're better at making runs onto crosses than what Beckam or Lennon would be.

I've no problem in taking Beckham off if he's having a stinker, or if an injection of pace would expose the other teams full back more.

Yeah he's scored but never had an outstanding game. I'm not saying he's had really bad games, he's just never taken the form from Chelsea onto England. In other words, he's played about as good as Beckham in the qualifiers, and slightly worse than Beckham during the World Cup so far.

[quote]How many England corners have been wasted this World Cup? Answer: 100%[/quote]

Wasted? How do you work that out? So every Beckham corner hasn't got past the 1st man, gone long for a throw in, or landed right into the arms of the opposing keeper? I can remember the 1st man clearing 1 or 2 but the rest of Beckams corners have landed in the penalty area, away from the keeper. If a defender clears a Beckham corner then thats through 'good defending', it's not a 'waste' of a corner. Now thats a statistic made up in your head! !laugh!

I'll humour you: Lets say 100% of Beckhams corners were wasted. Whats that stat tell you about Lampard being the guy with the most shots in the tournement, yet hasn't scored? Yep........100% of Lampards shots were wasted.

[quote]In the game against Sweden Lampard made 58 passes with an accuracy rate of 89.7%. Compare that with Beckham (28 passes at 85.7%... and so much easier to be accurate when passing backwards, too!)[/quote]

A few reasons.......... Lampards passes are usually between 10-15 yds at the most. Beckhams passes are usually picking out runners 40-60 yds away. So Beckham didn't pass forward too often eh? Hmmmm...... IDEA! How about, Sweden viewed tapes of England before the match and saw that 70% of England goals came from a Beckham assist, so their first priority was to 'push up' and 'press' Beckham when he's in possession. I'm guessing their manager and coach's told the players to 'not let Beckham turn', 'keep him with his back to goal'. The Swedish players did their job well. Joe & Ashley Cole on the other side of the pitch reeped the benefit. Another point is that Carragher rarely supported Beckham in attacking that right wing (something Neville does better).

Beckham has been 'found out' and teams do their homework on him. It's the same with Owen. He was a star in the 98 World cup, but now teams drop deeper and don't give him space to run into, they force him wide. After a while Lennon will have the same problem. Fullbacks will drop deeper so he can't beat them for pace, they'll drop deep -sucking him further upfield- and then he'll have to adapt his game and people will say "Lennons lost his pace or, Lennons not playing as good as he did 2 seasons ago."

Like I said......"start with Beckham and use Lennon for another alternative when we need it."

P.s my stats were from 'opta analysis' on Sky Sports, I wouldn't make a fool of myself making stats up in my head. !doh!

P.p.s My 4-1-4-1 formation in a previous post stands firm. Don't blame me if Erriksson won't listen to me! !pleased!