Overlapping Full Backs ( Ref: Richards/Wright-Phillips)

[Ferg]

I'm a great fan of decent overlapping wing backs.
The one game (I can remember) when Sven played Cole and Bridge down the left England looked good and yesterday our right hand side looked the best it has for a while.

But....

Sven gave up on that idea to accomodate Joe Cole, will McLaren sacrifice this system for Beckham.... or was the threat of those two yesterday the final, final, final, FINAL nail in Becks coffin?

After all, we have right wingers (SWP, Lennon, Bentley) and (although I haven't seen him play for a while) Luke Young can do a job along with Neville, obviously.

Opinions?

[mickk]

Do you think Neville will come straight back in when his fit, or will he have to fight for his place?

The team looked good yesterday and i thought confident, i hope Mac doesnt change to much just because players are fit.

[Ferg]

To be honest I don't think Neville is as good as Richards as a player.
Don't get me wrong, though, I think he's been great for England especially when he was behind Becks. The two of them worked well together.

The question is whether his experience is worth having or if Richards has that mental strength required for crunch games.

The other factor is if we have a centre-back missing and McLaren drops him in there instead of using someone else, because for me Richards is FAR more valuable as a wing back.

[ferrisbueller]

Ferg said:

Richards is FAR more valuable as a wing back.

Notice the difference between first and second halves vs Germany.

[icb]

MacClaren is a total p***k - he'll bring back Beckham and that c***t Neville despite SWP and Richards playing really well together. Anybody who brings Heskey back wants shooting. Managers are supposed to be forward looking not going from game to game. Why have James as a sub, what's wrong with Carlson or Kirkland. No wonder they get disheartened. Trouble is England will qualify then MacClaren will keep his job, and all them tossers in the FA.