Wally with the brolly game

The Cottagers play a very expansive 4—3—3. Both full-backs are expected to push up and hug the line as Sessegnon and Piazon alternate between traditional wing play and making runs inside to support Mitrovic. Whilst McDonald patrols in a limited area and always offers an option, Cairney and Johansen offer differing roles. Cairney, meanwhile, is the metronome of the side, picking the ball from deep, looking for one-twos and patiently building up numbers before switching the ball to the other side of the pitch, where the wing-backs often find themselves in acres of space as both wingers take their defenders inside.

Up top, Mitrovic is tasked with bullying opposition centre-backs and linking up with Johansen and his wingers. Fulham have been the best football-playing side in the division from an aesthetic standpoint. This has been mostly down to an established system and a very low turnover of players, but also thanks to the skill and activity of its three central midfielders in particular.

With three players in the EFL Championship Team of the Season — more than any other side — Fulham have been well recognised for the quality of their individual players.

But where does their collective brilliance stem from? As mentioned above, the symbiotic nature of their midfield three is what makes Fulham tick. Had it not been for injuries that derailed the start of his season, Tom Cairney would have been an automatic contender for Player of the Season. The ex-Hull and Blackburn midfielder controls the tempo in midfield. With 8 goals and 8 assists in 46 games, the Norwegian often takes on the mantle of pushing up as a de facto number Known more for his energy that his creativity, Johansen is often unleashed whilst Cairney and McDonald direct operations from deeper.

Ivica Olic rounds Carson to double Croatia's lead just 14 minutes into the Wembley showdown. Euro Qualifier, Wembley, November 21 Scorers: Lampard pen 56, Crouch Scorers: Kranjcar 8, Olic 14, Petric As Slaven Bilic, Croatia's manager, leapt around in the rain wearing a woolly hat, McClaren remained under his shelter. It was here the inspiration for the headline came from the most unlikely source, as Andy Townsend, the former Chelsea and Aston Villa midfielder, explains. I called out to her: "Jackie, come and look at this.

Peter Crouch right celebrates with David Beckham after drawing England level. The Wally with the Brolly game is how that match became known. Even to this day. The thing is, it could have ended in salvation. For all the farce of the umbrella, for the fact that Wembley had a crack in its roof that led some fans to getting soaked and the pitch resembled a paddy field, having hosted an NFL game three weeks earlier, England fought back.

Beckham was introduced at half-time and he helped change the game, as Frank Lampard thundered in a penalty and Peter Crouch put England on the brink of qualification. In keeping with the theme of the night, though, they threw it away with Mladen Petric scoring Croatia's killer third. It had been a fluent move, Becks put a cross in from the right and I took it on my chest then volleyed it in. The elation of believing you have taken the nation to a major tournament is like nothing you will ever experience.

McClaren is mocked by a Manchester City fan in during his spell as Newcastle boss. Joe Cole and Frank Lampard are chasing after me but I'm running away, screaming. So you go from that elation to devastation. When Croatia got their third, it's not far off the worst I've felt on a pitch. You knew six months of hell were coming. Wally with the Brolly December 24, by patrickfc 9 Comments.

Wolfsburg taunt McLaren, the Wally with the Brolly. Star striker Edin Dzeko. Like this: Like Loading December 26, at am.

Newcastleman says:. January 8, at am. January 9, at pm. Ryan Bestwick says:. On the article itself McLaren should be sacked by Wolfsburg he wont change things around. James Spacey says:. December 27, at pm. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Email Subscription Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

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Top Rated. The Champions League last 16 upper90magazine www. Would have been great to see him at a Prem club tinyurl. Seriously funny stuff tinyurl. Things started off positively for the Three Lions with Rooney scoring a quite stunning goal after a half hour, controlling a flicked-on ball on his chest and volleying it past Vladimir Gabulov in the Russian nets. Rooney turned from hero to villain on the 69 th minute when he tracked back and pulled down Konstantin Zyryanov, who had burst into the box.

Roman Pavlyuchenko, then of Spartak Moscow, was on hand to tuck the penalty away and put the doubt back in English hearts. Just four minutes later and Russian had taken the lead.

A combination of fast-paced keepball by the Russians, limp English defending and another calamitous blunder by Robinson put the hosts ahead, a lead that remained through to the final whistle. England were in 2 nd place in their Group E, but they had a bye whilst Croatia, who had already qualified, Russia and Israel all had matches to play. Macedonia had beaten Croatia while Israel had defeated Russia late on. This meant that going into the final game, the table looked like this:. England were 2 nd in the table going into this match and knew that a point should be enough to see them over the finish line, unless a freak goal difference swing was achieved.

While Croatia were a tough opponent, McClaren should have been confident going into this match with nearly 90, cheering English fans packing out Wembley Stadium. This was an international side who had crumbled under the pressure on several points during the campaign — whatever McClaren had been saying to motivate them was obviously not working. The decision to drop regular goalkeeper Robinson was due to a string of errors for club and country. McClaren had publically backed his goalkeeper for the duration of the campaign, however, a string of blunders in training in the build up to the do-or-die Croatia match forced a change to Carson, the young Aston Villa shot-stopper.

This was only his second ever game for England, and quite frankly a disastrous start. England rallied well after conceding so early and began peppering the Croatian goal with chances of their own, Crouch being a thorn in the side of the defence time and time again.

On minute 14, disaster struck for England. At the halftime break, England were down and Russia were a goal up. If things remained the same, the Three Lions would be spending their summer on their sofas. Ten minutes after the interval and England were gifted a lifeline. Defoe was fouled, and Frank Lampard did what Frank Lampard does best — he stroked his penalty past the goalkeeper.

Shortly after the hour mark and it was Beckham, on his 99 th England appearance, set up Crouch. His cross was inch perfect as Crouch managed to chest the ball down into his stride and volley it home. English hearts were pounding. A draw was enough, and with such an experienced spine of a team and Croatia already guaranteed top spot, surely they would be able to see it out from here. With just shy of 15 minutes left to play, disaster struck.

England had been in a similar position six years previously. On that day, Beckham stood over a free kick in the dying minutes, curling the ball over the wall and beyond the Greek goalkeeper to confirm himself a national hero.

Regrettably for England, Beckham could not repeat this feat. Nor could Crouch, Defoe, Lampard, Gerrard or any of the talented players representing their country that night.