England's back four

[Bingo Lewis]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

[Slim]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

You need a Wayne Bridge signature.

[Bingo Lewis]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

You need a Wayne Bridge signature.

fantastic idea.
wayne bridge sig in tribute to hayes' valuev tshirt.

[AlanBallsHat]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

Considering he took over from Michael 'Where is the' Ball and Javier 'speedy' Garrido I wouldnt complain too hard.

[carl_feedthegoat]

There is a tendancy to expect high quality ,almost perfect performances all the time and indeed anything less does seem to attract the " player bashing" which seems second nature to so many people nowadays. Over at the "other" site it is absolutely rife and is almost the main hobby for many posters.

I thought our 2 defenders did OK last night without being special but the others were pretty dire and making the key mistakes which made Brazil look better than they actually were. Even for the goal, whilst it was a great ball and header the only way it would have been a goal was if the keeper came off his line just enough to let a fairly loopy header go over him.

For us this year Bridge has been playing pretty well and getting mostly good reviews on here. Again nothing special but good and then as soon as he has a poor game he gets slaughtered. Lescott is a good defender but definitely hasn't played very well yet. He deserves some criticism but not the bashing he has got which suggests he is an awful player. I have seen some better signs of late and if he settles into a partnership with the same centre back i think he will go from strength to strength.

WHEN YOU PLAY FOR ENGLAND THATS EXACTLY HOW THEY SHOULD PERFORM.

END OF.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

END OF what? Your vocabulary? sorry couldnt resist.
It's interesting re Barry as I have heard many people say that he is a guarantee of a 7 or 8 out of ten performance every game. Mr Consistent but 7 out of 10 I would not say is high quality or perfection.It's just a pretty good game from a good player. 7 is what I would have given both our 2 defenders last night which suggests they were decent.If every City player in the prem games got 7 or 8 out of ten every match I would be very happy and the results would have been better than we have seen so far.

Of course you want better performances getting 8 or better but last night I wonder how many of the Brazil team would have got 8 or better. Very few from what I saw.But somehow I guess the way football is seen in black and white so often I suppose all the England players got about a 4 maximum and the Brazil players 9 or more?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

How is Lescott in training Doug? I thought he was a very good defender at Everton, but we haven't really seen that at City yet. My thought was that we have signed two ball playing defenders and we perhaps need a "everything for the cause" tackler as their partner. Maybe that the two we have are too similar in style that they fail to compliment each other.

Sorry I nearly missed this question. Reflecting with hindsight on what I have seen I think he is in training what we have seen in matches. He seems to me to be a real gentleman , a gentle giant. I think he showed this in his interviews after he was slagged off by Moyes. He doesnt come across to me as the most self confident person in the world and is happy to be in the background just doing his job. A bit like Gareth Barry in many ways.

I do think that all the transfer saga had some effect on his confidence and it has taken some time for him to settle.He looks like a good defender in training but he doesnt have the blood and guts style of a JT and never will.

[AlanBallsHat]

Hope you dont mind me asking. Do you hold some sort of position at city Mr Higginbottom?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Hope you dont mind me asking. Do you hold some sort of position at city Mr Higginbottom?

Just a fan like everybody else but fortunate to be able to watch training regularly. Unfortunately from behind a fence but working on it.

[Bingo Lewis]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

Considering he took over from Michael 'Where is the' Ball and Javier 'speedy' Garrido I wouldnt complain too hard.

Garrido was in top form before Bridge took his position.

[john@staustell]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

Considering he took over from Michael 'Where is the' Ball and Javier 'speedy' Garrido I wouldnt complain too hard.

Garrido was in top form before Bridge took his position.

Haha you mean top form for him, or top form for the rest of us? Garrido is utter shite except he can take a free kick.

However picking up your theme Bingo I have been very disappointed with Bridgey boy's defending against Fulham and Burnley to name but 2. All goes to show why he was replaced by Cashley at Chelski. He may look classy at times especially going forward but if basic defending eludes him it's no good to us.

I'm convinced we will be heavily targeting at least a left back in January if not a right back as well.

Still it could be worse, we could have Wes Brown - fuck me he's completely lost it, if he ever had it!!

[Bingo Lewis]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

Considering he took over from Michael 'Where is the' Ball and Javier 'speedy' Garrido I wouldnt complain too hard.

Garrido was in top form before Bridge took his position.

Haha you mean top form for him, or top form for the rest of us? Garrido is utter shite except he can take a free kick.

However picking up your theme Bingo I have been very disappointed with Bridgey boy's defending against Fulham and Burnley to name but 2. All goes to show why he was replaced by Cashley at Chelski. He may look classy at times especially going forward but if basic defending eludes him it's no good to us.

I'm convinced we will be heavily targeting at least a left back in January if not a right back as well.

Still it could be worse, we could have Wes Brown - fuck me he's completely lost it, if he ever had it!!

Hows about "Better form than Wayne Fucking Bridge"?

[sky_blue_stew]

England's defence played more like a unit at least than ours does at the moment, which says a lot for Capello's management, if he can get four players who haven't partnered one another before to pull out a pretty good performance against one of the world's best teams. As this World Cup blog on England betting notes, the problem is individual mistakes, which are particularly hard to address in defence. Laying into a player isn't likely to make him less error prone, but working on the mental side of the game and getting players to maintain their concentration 100% must be one of the toughest aspects of management. One thing is for sure, when Capello said he was only going to select internationals on domestic form he was talking nonsense.

[AlanBallsHat]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

Considering he took over from Michael 'Where is the' Ball and Javier 'speedy' Garrido I wouldnt complain too hard.

Garrido was in top form before Bridge took his position.

He is too slow to play in the prem. I have seen him beaten for pace with a 10-15 yard headstart on occasions. He can play to be fair to the lad but you need at least some pace to be a defender in this league.

[Bingo Lewis]

Bridge is havin a good season for City

no mate, he's fucking gash.

Considering he took over from Michael 'Where is the' Ball and Javier 'speedy' Garrido I wouldnt complain too hard.

Garrido was in top form before Bridge took his position.

He is too slow to play in the prem. I have seen him beaten for pace with a 10-15 yard headstart on occasions. He can play to be fair to the lad but you need at least some pace to be a defender in this league.

I'm not saying Spanish Gaz is the answer to all problems, I'm just saying he was playing better than Wayne Bridge when he got took out of the side.