Paul Scholes Urges England To ‘Play Like Liverpool’ At World Cup – There’s Just One Snag…

Chris Wright

29th, May 2014

6 Comments

By Chris Wright

Soccer - Barclays Premier League - Liverpool v Sunderland - Anfield

In his new guise as Paddy Power’s in-house blogger, Paul Scholes has urged England boss Roy Hodgson to mimic Liverpool’s strain of attacking football at this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

Scholes reckons that England need to play with Liverpool’s “swagger” and try to emulate Brendan Rodgers’ side’s penchant for coming flying out of the traps and blitzing their opponents early on.

The former Manchester United midfielder wrote:

“It would be refreshing for England to adopt Liverpool’s attacking mentality, that means four – and possibly five – Liverpool players in the starting XI.”

“The thing I admired most was the swagger of their play and how they terrorised opponents, which reminded me of United at their best.

“At the heart of Liverpool’s rise were captain Steven Gerrard, Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Glen Johnson, who are all in Hodgson’s 23-man squad.

“I’d definitely start with Gerrard, Sturridge, Henderson and Sterling. The question mark is Johnson at right-back.”

Now, there is nothing Pies would love to see more than England actually try to score a goal from open play for once, but we think we’ve identified one small snag with Scholes’ solution: England don’t have a 30-a-season Uruguayan striker who is capable of winning games on his lonesome and makes almost everything happen for them.

Apart from that, it’s rock solid.

Posted in Liverpool, Newsnow, Opinion, World Cup

Share this article: Email

6 Comments

  1. Ross says:

    Henderson has to be one of the best improved players in the league and credit goes to Rogers for his management style as well as background in bringing through English players. Dare I say that Hendersons dismissal against Citeh may of cost Lpool the league?! Lucas who came in didn’t have the legs!
    As for the 31 goal a season man…Sturridge managed 21 goals in the league, not a bad return at all!
    Lets hope that Sturridge can continue his run of form as well as hope that Rooney manages to find the net at all!

  2. ubergill says:

    Being Suarez-less isn’t the main snag – its the lack of a manager that can play with swagger. See the Liverpool team of 2010 for details…

  3. dc says:

    ^now that’s a burn

  4. Jarren says:

    Come on Chris, I’m a United supporter as you know but even I respect the full Liverpool squad.

    Suarez was iconic last season but Liverpool didn’t rely upon him.

    If Roy can accommodate Stevie G, Henderson, little Sterling & Sturridge in his starting 11 then there would be an instant gel there.

    I’m sure the Owl is currently working out a plan featuring these players. England could do no better than base their attacking play around the Liverpool system.

    Full respect to Scholesey for acknowledging that.

  5. Chris says:

    LFC have a higher win percentage without Suarez. They do. To say they’re shackled to Suarez’s mothership is a little over de top.

  6. Chris Again says:

    OK – in years gone by LFC definitely relied on a marquee player but I wouldn’t say thats the case now.

Leave a Reply