Euro 2012: Qualified but Mentally Defeated

After securing qualification in a heated Montenegro last week, you’d think us England fans would be delighted. Wayne Rooney again took the headlines from a spirited first-half performance. His petulance and quite frankly immaturity were all to be seen, but the signs were they’re beforehand Fabio, weren’t they?

The sudden reality of losing our star player as well as seeing the opponents in front of us have given England a reality check. The days of expecting to win every game and whitewash the opposition is no more. I think the best club comparison is Newcastle. The fans are fantastic; the players have ability but can’t produce on the big stage. The expectation is huge but with no chemistry, they can’t deliever.

Moving on from a dreary introduction, how can we line-up without the talisman that is Wayne Rooney? Is a quarter-final penalty shootout heartbreak a success story this time? Time will tell. Building for Rio 2014 should also be prominent in Fabio’s mind. What better time to introduce the likes of Cleverley, Jones, Wilshere and Smalling into tournament football.

Starting off with the goalkeeper, is there anyone else than Joe Hart? I wouldn’t say Joe is a great keeper, I’d say he is very over-rated but in terms of England goalkeepers, he has the potential to be one of the best ever. I’m sure David Stockdale will get his annual England call-up for a holiday abroad and hopefully Ben Foster will renter the England fray.

Moving onto right-back where competition is stiff. A Manchester United legend in Gary Neville used to patrol the right-back slot and safe to say another United player will take over. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are both firm favourites to take over. Personally. I’d love to see Micah Richards get the place and move both Smalling and Jones into the central defence. (This is mainly due to my personal grudge over John Terry. Sorry John, but I think you and Rio have now past it on the international scene.)

Two positions done, 9 to go. Like the goalkeeper, the left-back role is dominated by one player. With over 90 caps with England, Ashley is one of the few “experienced” players that could last another tournament or two. If injured, the next best bet will be fellow international Leighton Baines. Interestingly enough, I’d like to see how Kyle Walker would get on at left-back as I don’t think he’ll make the cut at his preferred right-back.

 Now the centre-backs. Previously I’ve already stated my desire for Smalling and Jones to dictate them roles. Fabio may stay with Cahill and Terry but Montenegro did expose the vulnerability of the defence. In times like this, we need a leader. Can anyone still respect John Terry after his past? Saying that, can a 19 year old lad from Blackburn gain the respect? In my opinion, I’d give the captaincy to one of the two defensive midfielders in this 4-2-3-1 formation.

My captain would be the unsung hero in Scott Parker. Playing on the right of the two defensive midfielders, Scott has the ability and the attitude to lead the team to Poland/Ukraine. I’d play him alongside Wilshere (if fit.) If Wilshere is still having injury problems, Gareth Barry can always fill in after some consistent performances this year. Another name that could make it is Owen Hargreaves; depending on appearances and like Jack, can he keep fit?


On the right of the three would for me be Adam Johnson. AJ doesn’t seem to fit with the Fabio regime. Capello prefers Downing as his left-footed winger. Theo Walcott also starts games on the right but we’ll get to him later. A problem with AJ is that he won’t play week in week out for Manchester City. An England international really wants to be playing most weeks if not, every week of the season.

The central role is for the forgotten man; Steven Gerrard. Returning to action against Brighton, the road to full recovery for Steve is nearly complete. We will get a better understanding on where Steve is against Man United this weekend. As well as Steve, we also have another experienced pro in Frank Lampard and the up and coming Tom Cleverley who is yet to play for England.

Another impressive performance against Montenegro has surely set Ashley Young a certain start on the left-hand side of the three. Cutting in on his favoured right is an additional threat. Another reason on why I would like AJ on the right.

So, who replaces Wayne? Darren Bent will be the man to probably fit the bill but I’d like to see Theo Walcott play down the middle. Theo has openly admitted to wanting to play in a more central role and there’s no better chance to test this out in the friendly’s v Spain and Portugal. Other contenders could be Daniel Sturridge, Jermaine Defoe and even Michael Owen. For extra height, Andy Carroll and Peter Crouch are also options.

If you’re too lazy to read that, here is my line-up.

Hart
Richards/Johnson – Smalling/Terry – Jones – Cole/Walker/Baines
Parker – Wilshere/Barry
A Johnson/Downing – Gerrard/Lampard/Cleverley – Young
Walcott/Bent

Fifa 12 Review or Fifa 13 Preview? – VP and Clubs Part 1

With Fifa 12 having such a broad nature about it, I’ve decided not to necessarily review the whole game in one solid piece. The title also indicates that this isn’t just me reviewing the game; I also want to put across what I’d like to see in future FIFA’s. I’ve had the game for a few weeks now and I feel it’s time to talk about some major and minor issues the game has. Hopefully I can send this to a other well known ‘reviewers’ as well as some EA guys as I know Romily Broad loves to read some community articles etc.

I thought I’d start with someone that hasn’t been mentioned at all. I’ve looked around and seen nothing about the whole VP system. Virtual Pro is a massive feature for me but it also seems quite an untapped market for FIFA players. I’m a big fan of the clubs mode which really ties into the VP system; I’m only 50% through this year but the tedious, repetitive nature has now got to me.

I wasn’t expecting anything drastically different but only a few extra accomplishments and oh... pants for my goalkeeper. That it? As stated before, I know they haven’t gone down this particular route this year so I’m going to chuck a few ideas out there that can revolutionise FIFA 13.  

Lets start with the traits. As you are fully aware, they’re no new traits this year which has really got to me. A major disappointment is only three goalkeeping traits. I generally feel this can be massively updated. If you’re an acrobatic keeper, I’d love some type of special punch trait or something that would really identify you as an acrobatic keeper. The traits should really blend with the play style of your pro. I’d like to see the ability to push the ball around the post (I know you can do this but with an acrobatic keeper; the trait could give that extra incentive for the pro to dive that little further.)

If you’re defensive midfielder I’d like to see a crunching tackle trait or even take engine and move them to the traits section. This could completely eradicate pointless ones like long throw and fancy passes. Flair can easily be both fancy passes/flicks rolled into one. The long throw is useless in the game. In real life the long throw for Stoke is massively effective. So why not in Fifa can I have custom throw-ins? I’d like one of my guys in front of the keeper; so he can’t just run out and collect the ball. Rory Delap has a mixture of flat and floating deliveries... why can’t that be implemented?

I’ve not really gone into major detail about what specific traits I’d like to see, if you want me to carry on with that then I’ll put in another article. Staying with VP, I’ll move onto clubs. I know that it was all about the servers this year and connection improvements (still hasn’t been totally fixed, seem to get lag in certain games, not my connection, may be an issue with the frame rate?) but there always seems to be something missing.

Firstly, fantastic job with the new AI. Brilliant. The only shame is hardly anyone uses an ANY in clubs, something that IMO needs to be addressed. Leaving the defensive work to the computer and bashing A for the ball is pointless and rather annoying to play against. So, I’d like to see either any be a position that HAS to be used. Or, it doesn’t have to be used if 1. Both CB roles are filled and 2. If it is 11 v 11 (obviously.)

I’d like the progressive nature of my club to be noticed. If I’m a 2k point club and I have an away game at the O Dromo, I want to know I’m in for a hard game. For this to happen, I’d like to see real players being able to be bought at set levels. I know they’re 1000’s of players and Fifa and this could be a tedious programme of what players to pick but I’ll give you an example.

Lets use the UT coins system. You’ve hit level 10 as a club. As a reward, you can select one or 2 players but obviously in return for your coins. This would also fix people constantly re-starting new clubs (something people that play it ‘competitively’ can get ratty about.) Lets make this clear, I’m not saying you can get Messi for your club straight away.

If you’re a team who has played a massive amount of games, have a terrific stadium, won a massive amount of games and have won cups along the way, that is something that would appeal to the likes of Lionel Messi. Being part of a club is all about managing it but with clubs, it is just playing games and after a while, becomes very repetitive. If you don’t want to go down the real players’ route, the AI could upgrade (like they’ve hit their potential in career mode.)

 

Another thing I’d like to see introduced is custom kits and badges. The whole point of clubs is to start a new club right with your mates? Why am I restricted to choosing kits that other clubs use? I know this has been on a wish list for a while now and hopefully it can be added. As well as custom kits, do I dare say custom stadiums? (maybe I’m dreaming now.)

 

Before I go, what about Ultimate Team clubs? That is a discussion for another time.

Thanks for reading!