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Dear oh dear.  I know he's supposed to be the best holding player out of himself, Carrick and Jenas, but still.  He makes me nervous.  If he wasn't in an England shirt he would make me laugh.  I'm going to need an extra couple of pints before kick off now.

CUNT!

plays at the top level with bayern munich,people only critisise him as they know little about him.what has he done wrong when playing for england?

he's german!

The question should be what has he done right for England? However, I think he'll perform today, because he's starting which rarely happens and we are playing the standard 4-4-2 from the look of things. Hopefully he proves me right!

I'd pick Carrick over him every time in international football.

Carricks passing is far superior, the ability to go flying into tackles is nullified in this world cup as you'll get a definate yellow, maybe red for it.

Your all forgetting that he's a german!

Canadian actually  :-))(

hes more german than hitler.

He must be the only English player never to play in the English leagues but for a Kraut team?

glad he's in, it's decisions like this - creating balance over including big names - that can be the difference between usual performance and winning it. just hope that in the next round stevie g comes in for lampard

I think the best possible England line up is..

1) Robinson
2) Carragher
3) A. Cole
4) Gerrard
5) Ferdinand
6) Terry
7) Beckham
8) Lampard
9) Rooney
10) Owen
11) J. Cole

I don't like OH's dodgy Canadian/German accent and do not consider him to be English in the slightest, but he isn't really German.

Hitler wasn't really German either

And then if he fucks up - give him a shafting

what like owen, lampard, and robinson have been doing this world cup.all well underacheiving so far.add ashley cole to them names too

Problem is with Robinson and Cole - Who do you replace them with?

I'd prefer it if Carrick started, but seeing as Hargreaves has played more important matches than Carrick (excluding his time at Swindon of course) I can see why he's been picked.

was just using them as examples of players who have been poor

I am giving Hargreaves a fresh start tonight. Probably 90 minutes in his ideal position - If he's bad tonight, the criticism will be slightly more justified.

 :nod:

I agree - tbf I haven't seen him play in this role before

I hope he's as good as Sven thinks. Could be an unexpected bonus for our Semi-final challenge...

Hitler was Austrian.

Bayern rave about him in that role - he could be our secret weapon.  He may have to be as Ericsson aint gonna play Walcott who has been brought along as team mascot, evidently

i fucking love hargreaves

all he has ever done for england is hit the crossbar in stockholm in a friendly  :beers:

go on owen you're my hero  :king:  what an utter legend, he should become the new cult hero

I'd sooner have Carrick playing tonight but i'll give Hargreaves a chance.

lets see how he does

im writing this at half time, and if hargreaves had played like he has so far in the rest of his england caps, he wouldn't be getting booed. just hope this stays true for the rest of the match.

Gotta agree, Hargreaves has gone a long way to changing my opinion of him.

best england player on the pitch tonight.gotta cut out the silly fouls but i suppose when you put in that many challenges your likely to give away more fouls..

im writing this at full time, and the same still applies. man of the match by far.

I think he was very good tonight and played an important role. Every time Sweden came forward down the middle he was making a challenge or holding up the play to allow others to get back. This makes the game so much easier for the rest of the team and I think he did a good enough job to make the position his if Sven wants to play 4-5-1 next game. Although I wouldn't include him with a 4-4-2

Have to agree that Hargreaves was the England MotM for me. Think I would start with him next game ang plan to give Lampard and Gerrard 45 minutes of blood and thunder each !

NMH

Thats's it. Hargreaves and Gerrard to be our central pairing. Will allow Stevie G to get forward like Lamps did last night, but with better results (don't know why Lampard isn't firing...)

he was OK but not great. Joe Cole man of the match for me

Totally agree.With some people there's no in between-they either over criticise or over eulogise.Hargreaves was average,Cole was above average.

bang on. you can tell JC is using this competition to finally realise his potential and become the great player everyone knows he is.

Hargreaves was good, better than Gerrard/Lampard in the holding midfield position, because he still got forward when the occasion allowed.

I'm not sure I'd have a MOTM though, seeing as nobody played for the full entirety.

that was Hargreaves first England start in 2 years....and probably his first full 90 minutes!! in his actual position and he did alright.

According the paper this morning, pass completion 94% that was the best by a long shot

Hargreaves did well but as others have said there's no way he was man of the match. Joe Cole was easily.

Compared to Beckham's 74% thats damn good