England v Malta & Slovenia v England

[rodders0223]

1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said:

There aren't many men in this team - most of them look like they'd cry if they lost their hair gel.

 

They give a mean death stare to linesmen though....Dele Alli.

[Upper north stander]

Shit

[Villanun]

Only saw the highlights, but... er... Joe Hart did well.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Villanun

[VillaChris]

3 hours ago, PaulC said:

Yes although Vardy hasn't been playing at the same level as last season I would get him on. Lingard is just pointless. 

Bringing on Rashford again for just 10 minutes is ridiculous...England have learnt nothing from the euros.

Sturridge is in some of the worst form of his career and is suddenly England's most not drop central striker, you really couldn't make it up.

England are full of players with pace...but really when you break it down the players really are just athletes and when opposition get smart and position themselves well these guys have no answer. I'm looking at the full backs here.

England are just an average international team. If you think England don't even make quarter finals in tournaments now there's at least 8 teams in those tournaments better than them, probably close to 15 when you think of some of the big hitters that went out in the 2nd stage who had tougher draws than Iceland.

Slovenia are hardly some minnow...they make a tournament from time to time and had some excellent players in major leagues.

One plus was Joe Hart. Pleased for him, I think he's shown a lot of character in the last few months. He could've just sat on the Man City bench and moaned to the press but fair play to him he's gone out and found somewhere to play football. I'd actually make him captain on a short term basis.

[villa4europe]

To be fair you can't use pace vs a team that sits 10 men back deep, what you need is movement, we have too many players who like to get involved and look busy in the area of the field that the opposition lets us be, Rooney, sturridge, lallana etc teams like Slovenia, Iceland actually want them to drop in to midfield and take as many touches as they like, we never seem to learn that, we instead have this misguided sense of controlling a game when in reality it's the opposite

teams did it with villa in the last couple of years too, let us have the ball knowing we have incredibly poor movement and will do nothing with it

we don't seem to have anyone buzzing in and around the box

[Dr_Pangloss]

On 10/11/2016 at 23:11, Villanun said:

Only saw the highlights, but... er... Joe Hart did well.

It's a shame he doesn't do well when it really matters.

[philwhitters]

It's easy to come short to have the ball, then pass it back to where it came.  It's because all that people want now is to 'keep the ball'.

But if the opposition stay in position and let you come short, you then have to turn with the ball and run at them.  If the marker follows you short, then by all means pass it back, but the next pass has to be into the space you vacated to a runner.

But England don't pass into space and don't have willing runners, just players happy to stay in their position and pass backwards and sideways.

[villa4europe]

36 minutes ago, philwhitters said:

But England don't pass into space and don't have willing runners, just players happy to stay in their position and pass backwards and sideways.

thats the difference, the modern demand to keep the ball goes hand in hand with players who can find space in a phone box, have instant control and are seemingly 2/3 moves ahead before they get the ball, really basic football principle nothing on the pitch moves quicker than the ball but we seem to have abandoned that, we dont have players with the movement to find the space required or the passing ability to move the ball quick enough, too many pointless touches

obvious space in the middle of the park tends to be space that the opposition is letting you have but english players seem to misunderstand that