Stevo985 Posted June 15, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 15, 2014 I don't think Henderson warrants dropping. Thought he had a decent game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted June 15, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 15, 2014 As expected tbh, we played with to many attacking options and surrendered the midfield as a result. Rooney should be either in the middle or dropped, the same for Welbeck. Italy are a very average team, who's form has been poor. Player for player on ability and fitness we had the edge, tactics and our players lack of football intelligence was the difference. We have another 2 games to watch, I just hope we don't lose to Uruguay so it keeps our hopes alive for another game, I do however fear the worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 I don't think Henderson warrants dropping. Thought he had a decent game. If Henderson played for Villa or WBA for example he would be no where near that squad.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Stevo985 Posted June 15, 2014 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted June 15, 2014 Have people watched Henderson this season? He's been excellent. He's had a better season than Barkley, wilshere, Barry, cleverly and lampard. If Henderson shouldn't be in the squad... Then who? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 (edited) Worst player by a country mile was Gerrard. Did nothing whatsoever, failed in his positional role, his tactical role and his role as captain Definitely. The analysis they did after the game where they were criticising Baines and Rooney, every clip they showed was actually Gerrards fault. He was allowing so many balls to be played past him and into a pocket of space in front of the back 4. And I'm with Stevo, Henderson is in the squad on merit and was probably picked alongside Gerrard due to them playing together all year, it's not like the players Stevo mentioned would've really done a whole lot better. Edited June 15, 2014 by kurtsimonw 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Now that England and Uruguay both need a win very badly, you know what that means ? Suarez will spend most of the game on his back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rovers13 Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 A draw favors England Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GENTLEMAN Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Have people watched Henderson this season? He's been excellent. He's had a better season than Barkley, wilshere, Barry, cleverly and lampard. If Henderson shouldn't be in the squad... Then who? I like Henderson, he has an abundance of energy, is a good presser and is a tidy passer of the ball. Maybe most importantly he is improving. Would rather have seen him next to Carrick, Barry or even Huddlestone (gulp) but the relative success of liverpool this season gone and his pairing with Gerrard in that diamond quartet prevailed. My tuppence worth is that England lacked balance and Gerrard was most definitely exposed (surely his last tournament now). However, as widely publicised at Liverpool he sits as a regista type at the base of a narrow midfield diamond, beside him Lucas/Coutinho and Henderson, with Sterling at point. Although at first glance appearing narrow, the two energetic players either side of Gerrard are able to press the ball both in the flanks and the middle relatively effectively. England on the other hand were tactically naive and essentially played with 4 out and out attackers. Both Gerard and Henderson were left to cover too much ground, freeing up pockets of space for Candreva & Marchisio, whom, with supply from Pirlo, allowed for the overload with the full-backs. The Darmian/Candreva combo was particularly effective, I think it could have been worst for England if De Sciligio was fit at left back rather than Chellini. In the final 30, italy reverted to type and held that defensive testudo and looked relatively comfortable, which was perhaps wise considering the conditions and the directness/pace of England's attack. I think we just ran out of steam. Overall it just felt like an italian tatical masterclass. As I understand it Prandelli has been developing this 4-1-2-2-1 formation and it is still viewed as work in progress. It was particularly effective against England, will be interesting to see how it pans out against different opposition. I think England (and so did I) believed they could offensively overwhelm italy and indeed they certainly created chances. My prior rambling is of course academic if Rooney scores and somebody gambles when the ball was flashed across the goal by Sterling to name two. But by the same token, I think back to Candreva striking the post, Ballotelli's lob and immobile's lack of 'cuteness' with his late runs. Perhaps England should have attempted total emulation of Liverpool; a midfield diamond of Gerrard-Henderson-Lallana-Sterling with a front two of Rooney and Sturridge - thereby allowing Lallana and Henderson to press the space which Candreva & Marchisio occupied. I thought England dealt with the Pirlo lobbed ball over the top to Ballotelli rather well. Without doubt it was a refreshing performance and Uruguay will not be as tactically cunning or defensively resolute as italy was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Baines was poor going forward but couldn't do anything with having two men to mark constantly. De Rossi dropping deeper for Italy allowed both full back for them to push on. It was just at LB they had Chiellini who is never going to bomb forward like Darmian was down their right, he was MOTM for me. We never dealt with it as a team at all, poor vision from Hodgson. If De Sciglio had been fit, we'd have been ripped to pieces down both sides. Having said all that, I enjoyed the game. We looked dangerous and with a tad more composure around their box, we could have scored enough to win us that; and that's with Gerrard, Baines, Johnson, Barkley, Rooney all being below par offensively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 If De Sciglio had been fit, we'd have been ripped to pieces down both sides. We'd have also had more chances. Our goal came from Darmian going walkies and being miles out of position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 I thought England were much better than expected but they were beaten by a better team. Should go through in second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Hodgson taking criticism in some quarters for being too attacking! Never thought i'd hear that about an England manager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 (edited) Sorry for being a bit late on this but- -Rooney apart from the assist was awful and left Baines exposed on the left time and time again. -Sterling, Sturridge and Welbeck were all very good, Sterling especially. -Gerrard and Johnson were utter garbage. -Wilshere when he came on was sh-te as usual. Have got to win against Uruguay now on Thursday. Edited June 15, 2014 by Avfc96 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 15, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 15, 2014 England's job now is to recreate that level of performance in the other 2 group games. If we play like that we'll still go through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 England's job now is to recreate that level of performance in the other 2 group games. If we play like that we'll still go through Yep, it wasn't a bad performance by any means. Yes some players had shit games but as a team we played well and should we play like that in the remaining games then we will go through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rovers13 Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Roberto Martinez, a pretty good pundit, was understandably doing everything he could to absolve Baines of blame. Made some good points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 15, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 15, 2014 England's job now is to recreate that level of performance in the other 2 group games. If we play like that we'll still go through Yep, it wasn't a bad performance by any means. Yes some players had shit games but as a team we played well and should we play like that in the remaining games then we will go through.the danger is when the pressure was on in the last 15-20 mins, ie Italy had shut up shop and we had to break down a team of defenders, we went to pot. The old England came through a little there. What we need to avoid is resorting to that. If we're an hour into the Uruguay or Costa Rica game needing to win and it's 0-0, don't panic and start lumping the ball to Rooney and having players try to do everything themselves. Amongst his frankly terrible commentary, Phil Neville actually made a good point. He said playing for united they played until the end. Didn't panic and stuck to their game even if it was the 89th minute and a goal down. England need to do that, IMO. We're at our worst when we lose discipline and shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Why was Phil Neville terrible? Sounded like his brother to me although not as good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 15, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted June 15, 2014 Why was Phil Neville terrible? Sounded like his brother to me although not as good!he didn't say anything. He spouted a few clichés every now and then. But the worst thing was he had absolutely no emotion. He sounded like a child commentating in his room after his parents have gone to bed. He should stick to punditry, which jes pretty good at. Still prefer him over Lawro though 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 He was just slighty monotonous. I was saying a couple of times at 85 minutes "no need to rush or shoot from silly angles, there will be a chance before the whistle blows." But when in situations where we should have passed back out wide or even back to the half way line, we took shots whilst unbalanced and skyed a couple which let italy slow down play even more and waste a precious 30+ seconds. Sterling in particular did it, but with his youth, we can forgive him. Hopefully the team has watched it back as a group and someone has told them not to panic. On the whole, we played well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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