mattsaunders

Barnes angered by Lampard booing


Former England winger John Barnes has criticised the supporters who booed Frank Lampard at Wembley on Saturday.

Chelsea midfielder Lampard, 29, came off the bench during England's 3-0 Euro 2008 qualifying win over Estonia and was targeted by some England fans.

Barnes, who was booed during his career with the national side, told BBC Radio 5live's Sportsweek: "It is just wrong.

"This is not a healthy situation either for Frank or for the team. It doesn't help him or the other players."

Barnes was subjected to plenty of criticism during his England career, which spanned 12 years and won him 79 caps.

He believes the boos directed at Lampard will have a negative effect on some of the other England players as well as the former West Ham star.

Barnes added: "Frank is an England player and we all want England to do well, the problem is this sort of thing does transmit to the rest of the side.

"As much as the other players will be happy they are not the ones being booed, it is not a positive situation for any of them.

"Having been someone who has been through that situation where you have been singled out by England fans, it's not a good situation to be in."

Saturday's game was the first time for four years that a fully-fit Lampard has not been picked for the England starting XI in a competitive international.

But Barnes believes he still has an important part to play for England and could line-up alongside his replacement, Gareth Barry, in the future.

"Barry has probably been England's most consistent player for the last three games and he deserves to play against Russia," said Barnes.

"But long-term, you cannot write off any combination, including Lampard playing with Steven Gerrard and all three of them playing together."

Lampard's Chelsea team-mate Joe Cole has also slammed the supporters who booed Lampard when he came on in the 70th minute.

Cole said: "Frank has been one of England's most consistent players over the years and he has never let England down.

"It is not nice to hear that, it is not nice to hear one of your mates getting that.

"He is a top player, for me he is one of the top players in the world and for me, he doesn't deserve it.

"The only thing I would say he is one of the best players I've played with. Not so long ago he was England's Player of the Year, and rightly so."

retired_tripaige

swp was utter rubbish

ashely

runronnirun

Barnes just confirming how little he knows about football, in case anyone was still in any doubt

retired_laticia3

Motty said on about 7 seperate occasions
"I'm sure that's the first misplaced pass Barry has played today"

mattsaunders

Right then, permutations time...

Here’s the group after yesterday’s games. Other result was Croatia 1-0 Israel, although this game originally was scheduled for Wednesday so I’m not sure what happened with that.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> P W D L PtsCroatia 10 8 2 0 26England 10 7 2 1 23----------------------------------Russia 9 5 3 1 18Israel 10 5 2 3 17Macedonia 9 2 2 5 8Estonia 11 1 1 9 3Andorra 9 0 0 9 0</pre>

Israel are definitely out of it now, regardless of all other results. And there are just two games on Wednesday, Russia v England and Macedonia v Andorra.



And just to spell out what might happen at the business end:

England beat Russia

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> P W D L PtsCroatia 10 8 2 0 26England 11 8 2 1 26----------------------------------Russia 10 5 3 2 18Israel 10 5 2 3 17</pre>

Outcome: Croatia and England both qualify, a full month before the final round of games. Group winners would be decided at Wembley on Nov 21st when England and Croatia meet. Assuming Croatia win their game in hand in Macedonia, England would need to win at Wembley to top the group, and better the 2-0 scoreline that Croatia achieved over England in Zagreb.



England and Russia draw

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> P W D L PtsCroatia 10 8 2 0 26England 11 7 3 1 24----------------------------------Russia 10 5 4 1 19Israel 10 5 2 3 17</pre>

Outcome: Croatia qualify. England may go into their final game against Croatia needing a point to be sure of qualification, but if Russia fail to beat Israel in Tel Aviv on Nov 17th, England would already have qualified by the time their last match kicks off.



Russia win

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> P W D L PtsCroatia 10 8 2 0 26England 11 7 2 2 23----------------------------------Russia 10 6 3 1 21Israel 10 5 2 3 17</pre>

Outcome: Leaves the group wide open, although England would be in the most precarious position having played one extra game. Even victory over Croatia at Wembley might not be enough as England would still finish third if Croatia avoid defeat in Macedonia and Russia win their last two games. Most likely we’d be sweating on the Israel v Russia result on Nov 17th, and hoping the Russians drop points.

mattsaunders

hope that's clear for y'all.

basically defeat = disaster.

mattsaunders

anybody heard any more about Cashley's leg?

i thought he was having a scan today?

retired_calyle

Joe Cole set up Rooneys goals and has been involved in many of the England goals of late.

It baffles me why some people are still on his case when, imo he has been the most consistant English player in the last couple of years.

as for putting Young in for him on wednesday

clueless

mattsaunders

Joe Cole has been fb for England these last couple of years.

to be honest I wouldn't bother trying to over-analyse anybody's performance yesterday. game won inside half an hour, then everyone's easing off and thinking about Russia.

retired_amadhani

he was poor in the first 20 minutes and then after we scored he seemed to settle down.