Mark8691 Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 For me, both Ashley Young and James Milner had poor tournaments and were the weakest links in the English team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villadude Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Rooney is shit for England, always has been and always will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 If England had won it on penalties, they'd have gotten slaughtered by Germany. Just not enough quality. Spain and Germany are on an entirely different level. Italy bossed the game and deserved to win, really. But what was Ashley Cole thinking. That was a comedy penalty kick. Diana Ross style. What was Roy doing having Cole go before Carroll, Parker or Walcott? Ridiculous. When Young hit the bar, I knew it was over for England anyway... All in all, a decent showing...time to bleed the youth and phase out players like Terry, Barry, Ferdinand, Cole, Gerrard, Parker... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Pirlos performance tonight was one of the most impressive individual performances I have ever seen. He has now overtaken Ronaldo as my player of the tournament. As for Ashley Young, he is definitely not world class. Same old story with England. Young is very predictable- a run down the side, stop, take two touches back to his right, and put in a cross or sky a shot over the bar. He doesn't offer a whole lot, really. He'll destroy the Faroe Islands and Malta, but any strong side have him easily contained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I noticed at points during the Italy game, even in the 1st half, England looked tired. Minimal movement off the ball, players just not hustling into space. They were playing a counterattacking game, but too many times when the break was on, nobody was running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolteEndRob Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I like Hodgson but playing 442 at international level is never going to work in this day and age. It was obvious that Pirlo would try to control the game. We needed an extra man in midfield. Gerrard and Parker were outnumbered. 442 at international level is suicide. Sure, you can get away with it against the lesser teams but not against the bigger boys. How many of the big teams play 442? NONE! The majority of the big boys play 4231 or similar. Germany use this system perfectly. Hart Johnson Terry Lescott Cole Milner Parker Walcott Gerrard Young Rooney That would have been much better! Pirlo wouldn't have been able to boss the game as Gerrard would have been more advanced. I guarantee that he wont be able to dictate play anywhere near as much against Germany. Simply because, they won't let him! Spain Vs Germany would be a great final and I'd back Germany to beat them. I'll win nearly 200 quid altogether if Germany win the tournament too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 oh well, we're out on penalties... not surprised in the least. For me, our downfall was obvious with the 1st 2 substitutions. Right players on, wrong players off. Milner deserved to stay on the pitch IMO, he added more both going forward and defensively than Young - who continued to do very little for the remainder of the game and his penalty summed up his performance.... And I wouldn't have subbed Wellbeck - again, good workrate and held the ball up. I would've brought on Carroll for Rooney! Rooney, yet again, did absolutely nothing in an England top - poor first touch, dwelt on the ball too long and lost possession, time and time again. (at least he scored his penalty, unlike Ashley!) It must be difficult for Roy to make those harsh calls re subs and I know Rooney has the ability to do something out of nothing but even so, he was shocking. The only other criticism of Roy is squad rotation - yes, we only had a small pool of players to select in certain positions due to injuries but when you're reliant on Gerrard and Parker to run your midfield through a tournament you have to rest them at some point. Last night, both looked dead on their feet but still gave their all. I hate to admit it though, I though Terry was our MOTM last night - probably his best England performance. Surprisingly though, I'm not depressed or gutted by our recent exit - I think we overachieved by winning the group and qualifying to the knockout stages. Hopefully, Roy will have more players to choose from for the impending WC Qualifyers and we can see more zip and energy on the pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valhalla Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 having spagetti for breakfast this morning to celebrate. Those england thickos played anti football, god bless italia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blunther Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 having spagetti for breakfast this morning to celebrate. Those england thickos played anti football, god bless italia! Oh **** off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 25, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 25, 2012 ^^^ mug My verdict. Pretty abject performance. As people have said, it was a bit like watching a "good" McLeish side. As in, actually defensive (as opposed to trying to be defensive but still shipping goals) pretty much bypassing the midfield. Our most common pass was Hart to Carrol. Says a lot. Anyway, our biggest problem was Ashley Young's lack of confidence at this level. he has been pretty crap all tournament. And last night Rooney was awful. When the game started and we were doing well it was because Wellbeck and Rooney stuck to Pirlo like glue. Every time the Italy defence had the ball, Rooney and Wellbeck were cutting off the pass to Pirlo. Every time. But once half an hour had passed, Rooney was **** already. And that stopped. Wellbeck still at least tried to cut off the pass to Pirlo, but Rooney was already walking around, knackered. Once that happened, Pirlo got the ball at will. Parker and Gerrard were sitting off him, like they should have been, but there was no Rooney to close down Pirlo so he wreaked havoc. Rooney was a passenger for 90 minutes last night and it hurt us badly. He should have been brought off instead of Wellbeck, imo. Or as well as Wellbeck. What makes it more annoying is that I had £10 on England by Penalties so would have won £100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic_bouma Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 i'm still a big admirer of Roy and i think his performance as manager was excellent in this tournament.... in a short space of time he has united a team and implanted a fantastic team spirit... our defence was the best in the tournament IMO and will be a superb building block for the World Cup (albeit some concerns over Terry and Coles age maybe)... i though his substitutions were pro active and made at the right time and the right players were chosen..... if the media get the knives out for Roy i'd be really disappointed.... the people i would like to see criticised are the players.... I would praise our whole back 4, parker, gerrard, milner and get a big **** axe out for the rest of the "my headphones are bigger than yours crew"... Rooney was utter shite, Welbeck offered nothing but Ashley Young?.... this was his tournament to shine, his moment to step up on the international stage after showing glimpses in friendlies.... and he **** BOTTLED IT.... he's one of the most cocky arrogant pricks off the pitch, swaggering around with massive headphones on acting the **** big man.... yet it was comes to real balls, real courage and real strength of character...well my 4 year old niece has more.... he was a nervous wreck throughout the whole tournament, refusing to take players on misplacing every pass.... before the penalties last night i turned to my mate and said "if there is one player who will miss a penalty it will be Young"... and he didn't let me down....Cole i can forgive because he had a fanatstic tourno and wheres his heart on his sleeve.... Young should sit the whole England squad down (minus Rooney and Welbeck) and apologise for his lack of effort, lack of courage, lack of mental strength and lack of character..... if you want a scapegoat media then look no further than the biggest con artist in the world Ashley **** Young. Rant Over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa_shere Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Lets face it a class player like pirlo only comes around once a generation the bloke is a class player He's in the same generation as Xavi so there are two in a generation I kind of meant per nation i guess spain are the exception to the rule and have a team full of them Snidjer too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morkery Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 England will come away from the Euros tagged as unlucky. The truth is, France and Sweden deserved to beat us and Ukraine were unlucky to lose. Why are we so scared when we have the ball? ten yard passes were constantly misplaced, Why oh why is the jug earred moron so hyped up? Heskey could score in the Utd team. His touch was woeful and he never looked a threat. As well as our defence played, we will always have 40% possesion if they feel threatened or unable to pass forward. The keeper was left with no choice but to hoof it countless times. Italy are not even a great team. Probably best that we didn't face Spain or the big booted brigade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 25, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted June 25, 2012 England will come away from the Euros tagged as unlucky. Will they? I don't think they will at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 My verdict: I think Roy did very well to take us as far as he did to be fair to him. We don't play good football, and we don't have particularly good players, so given the amount of time he had, I think he can be fairly pleased to get us as far as he did. The whole nation doesn't despise the team, which is a step up from the last tournament, and we went out narrowly to a far better side. Would be nice if England stopped playing with headless chicken wingers, although it's difficult to see where the next generaion of players is coming from. I shudder to think how that team would have performed without Cole, Terry and Gerrard. Unfortunately, the players coming through are fairly pish in comparison to what we've had over the last 10 years... Neville, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Beckham, Gerrard, Owen, Lampard... I couldn't name one English player coming through that I think will go on to rival the quality of ANY of these players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Being Irish & the fact there are no current Villa players in the squad, in my opinion makes me a reasonable neutral on this, but for me personally several players in that squad are not good enough. Firstly, Danny Wellbeck, dont care what all my glory hunting United fan mates say, he's not an International standard striker. The man scored 9 goals in 30 games at United last year, I think a few on VT could even muster up that tally had we been playing with them. Carroll has been no where near deadly for Liverpool, Defoe only played 25 times for Spurs in the league last year, allbeit scoring 11 times but none of these 3 are International standard strikers. Milner as we all know isnt the same player on the wing as he is in the middle, another man who hasnt had as much game time as he would like, I feel Adam Johnson was a loss but he should have known moving to City might cost him his place in the national team, but I dont think he'll be too upset today when he looks at his bank balance or premier league winners medal. Young has been poor for United since September, the only thing of note he did recently was dive and get pens versus ourselves and QPR. Downing had another nightmare this season. The Ox is only a kid, how many games has he played in the Premiership? Gerrard is no longer the world class player he was a few years back either and England have no player who can do what Pirlo or Xavi does, nor do they have a David Silva, Mata, Modric type player. In my opinion a lot of the players need to be overhauled, Lampard & Gerrard I'd say bye to, no one could question how talented they are but SG will be 34 in two years time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Neville, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Beckham, Gerrard, Owen, Lampard... I couldn't name one English player coming through that I think will go on to rival the quality of ANY of these players. Agreed, one thing they all have in common is that they came through the academys of big clubs. I know West Ham are not considered huge, put that academy has produced a lot of quality. 10/23 players in the Euro 12 squad had at one stage or another been at a team who were in the championship or lower and that is not including loan spells. I'd imagine there is a large gulf in class in the standard of coaching that Baines got at Wigan in Division 2 to what Ashley Cole got in the Premiership at Arsenal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Very poor 2nd half It was as if the players collectively choked on the occasion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Pirlo 134 passes attempted, England midfield 131. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa_shere Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Being Irish & the fact there are no current Villa players in the squad, in my opinion makes me a reasonable neutral on this, but for me personally several players in that squad are not good enough. Firstly, Danny Wellbeck, ...... Very much my opinion but i support England). We did miss players like Kyle Walker and Wilshere too. The defence was OK, can see Cahil/Smalling/Jones replacing Terry next torno. Problem was attacking, we were woeful down the wings, AY did it in qualifiers and friendlies but flopped on the big stage. No guile or gusto upfront either, missed Bent and maybe Sturridge, but again dont think they would have made much of a difference as the supply wasnt there. We were too static in possession, very sideways used long balls. The players were definately there to beat Italy IMO we just didnt have the cohesivness that they did and could not string 5 passes together. Next torno i would expect a more attacking team but same expectation (last 16/ qtrs) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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