Duquesne Whistle

Sugar Ray?

It's probably because his skin is so thick. Either that, or he has been treated with creosote.

I didn't see the interviews, but that doesn't surprise me. I have to say, I think the Aussies in general seem a pretty decent bunch. Obviously Warner, Lyon and Smith have previous (I don't mean the sandpaper thing) and like to rub it in, but those three have been reasonably quiet, despite handing out 3 good hidings. These England players won't be feeling great, but they're lucky they're touring in this era, they would have received non stop opprobrium night and day in previous eras. Some of the others in the squad seem decent blokes. Labuschagne, Cummins, Hazlewood, good cricketers, decent blokes, seemingly. I'm sure many of the others are too. There's no doubt the Australians have toned things down and a huge amount of praise for that goes to Tim Paine. I can't help but feel a little sorry for him. I imagine it's every Aussie cricketers dream to pummel England and he's been denied that for non cricketing reasons (on the surface). I still think his phone messages were used because they thought he weakened the team, but didn't want to drop their captain. If that is the case, it's a shame he's been used as collateral damage. If not, then it's still a shame for the bloke to miss out regardless. It's a little different at home because we're usually competitive (these days at least). It's nearly 20 years since they won an Ashes series here. That said, people flocked in when the great Aussie side were hammering at home us too. Cricket does strike me as strange in this regard. Whilst everyone likes their team to win, it seems less important in cricket somehow. Enjoying a quiet drink in the summer sunshine whilst watching a competitive match has very few equals, even when the result doesn't go your way. Anyway, if winning was that important to English cricket fans, they would have had no fans left by the end of the nineties.

Going by some of Brendan's muddled tactics, I think he already does. The cross section of opinions on here would cause anyone confusion to be fair to the man.

I was suggesting you'd been on the bottle as you managed to spell 3 players names incorrectly in one post. Only meant as gentle ribbing, no offence intended

They can't find an opposition player in the 18 yard box I suspect they'd just sail round and round the Isle of Wight until everyone got dizzy.

Eggnog or something stronger?

It's ok, we still have Test cricket too. Regardless of how bad you get, the test circuit rolls on to the next series. I mean, it's not like the football World cup where teams will have a definite date of dispatch from the tournament (like the qualifying play offs etc)...

Didn't bother staying up last night. Woke up this morning to find out the lead singer of 1970's glamour band T Rex took 6 for 7 in about 3 overs. I'd normally watch every test in OZ, regardless of the series score, but I don't think I'll bother renewing BT on the 4th Jan.

Zak Crawley earned a recall with a 2021 average of 11 runs per innings. He then proceeded to lower it in this test You've gotta laugh.

Nice try Ryan, but you might have to occasionally earn those wages mate.

If they are club 18-30 reps, I believe the record is 11 in any 24 hour period.

However much you try and disassociate Rodgers with David Brent, you just can't when he makes statements like that. What do players really think listening to shite like that? I'm sure some buy into it, but it must sound awful when you're conceding from a free kick or corner every match. If he advertises himself as 'a developer and that's his life', develop a decent strategy for defending with the players we have available please. That shouldn't be beyond him. I dunno, there's times I feel I'm being incredibly harsh on Rodgers, but there's many more times when some of the drivel he spouts gets right up my nose.

That doesn't make great reading does it? In summary. 1. Rodgers team was free scoring but couldn't defend. Something he simply couldn't sort out in his time there. 2. Rodgers attempted to replace Luiz Suarez with Alexis Sanchez/Xherden Shaqiri.....but failed. 3. Mario Balotelli was who he plumped for. 4. He wanted to replace Jordan Henderson with Clint Dempsey 5. Christian Benteke. Couldn't sort out the defence. More than one disastrous transfer window and a number of expensive duds. Sound familiar? It isn't easy being a footballer manager and Rodgers has his good points. His weak points overtake them though and he's displayed no ability to arrest slides when they begin. His weaknesses are glaringly familiar nearly 10 years down the line.

Somehow, I really don't care how, just put a pin in that Klopp balloon, please. I don't like going in to games where I can't see anything but a defeat, it's shit. Fight and fight hard, I'm not asking for any more than that. If we go down fighting, I don't think I'll have any complaints in this one and we can then concentrate on the more winnable games coming up.

Pretty much the point I made.

I know. I've sat through it all since the 70's. Personally think the bowlers have actually been unlucky in the last two tests. They've bowled well and there's been so many deliveries which have beaten the outside edge without grazing it. Batsmen, well, I didn't have high hopes, but I thought Malan might perform reasonably well, it looks like it was misplaced though. The main problem is not putting any of the Australian disciplines under pressure. Much easier to bat when you're ahead, much easier to bowl/take wickets if you don't have to worry about economy. Australia have proven they're better than England, I still think their batting is extremely vulnerable, just nowhere near as vulnerable as ours.

England simply aren't going to find out how this Australian team would fare when they bat under pressure. Cricket is an easy game when you're always ahead on the scoreboard. Clearly it's difficult times, but the planning has to be highlighted again. That said, England simply don't have good enough test batsmen and no amount of planning can change that.

No guarantees, but limit Australia to a 50 lead and we may be in with a shout. Any more than that, I don't hold out any hope.

Did you mean saboteur or abbatoir, I'm genuinely confused? Neither is child friendly I suppose, so both work right enough.

He wouldn't play for an English club anyway, he's sick of getting hammered with tacks... Sorry, couldn't resist.

He's not got a great record with crosses either. Should slip right into our defence.