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O/T The England Thread

BrainOfLevy said:
Don't really see the reason for the negativity on last night's performance. We had a good goal from Defoe disallowed, we had Cleverley and Welbeck missing absolute sitters and had another stonewall penalty turned down. We also tried to play good, fluid football and Ukraine scored from a screamer. Yes they had their moments but it's international football and they have some decent players, no match is going to be entirely without scares.

I think we played some players in the wrong positions. Can't see why we aren't playing Carrick if we are intending to play with fluidity as he is perfect for it. I don't think Cleverley has the goal threat needed to play as a number 10 and we found it hard to find Defoe by himself. But maybe if we could have found Cleverley easier, then we would have been able to reach Defoe too.

All in all, we could have won that game by a 2 or 3 goal margin last night and there would have been no complaints. We were just a bit unlucky, but it was a decent performance.
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Welbeck dived mate. If that was a Ukrainian player, the commentators would have coated him. But English players don't dive as well know :-"

We created lots of chances, but to be fair, they missed chances in the first half too.

The only thing I will criticise Hodgson for is his squad selection. Raheem Sterling? Better than Lennon? He's played 2 games in the league for Liverpool! Johnson ahead of Walker. Lampard and Gerrard playing together doesn't work, the arguement has been done to death! I actually thought Roy might have the gonads to drop some of the old guard, but I suppose it won't ever change, once your in the England team, for the most part, your in until YOU choose not to be and retire.

I will say for Hodgson that he has his hands tied as there is a serious dearth of talent in the English game. I think we should be thrilled with a quarter final appearance at the next World Cup, if we get there of course.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Welbeck dived mate. If that was a Ukrainian player, the commentators would have coated him. But English players don't dive as well know :-"

We created lots of chances, but to be fair, they missed chances in the first half too.

The only thing I will criticise Hodgson for is his squad selection. Raheem Sterling? Better than Lennon? He's played 2 games in the league for Liverpool! Johnson ahead of Walker. Lampard and Gerrard playing together doesn't work, the arguement has been done to death! I actually thought Roy might have the gonads to drop some of the old guard, but I suppose it won't ever change, once your in the England team, for the most part, your in until YOU choose not to be and retire.

I will say for Hodgson that he has his hands tied as there is a serious dearth of talent in the English game. I think we should be thrilled with a quarter final appearance at the next World Cup, if we get there of course.
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Johnson is a better right back than Walker for sure.....
 
I wouldn't exactly say its the same old guard either, he's slowly integrating some of the younger players which is the best way to do it. There's no point just throwing a whole team of youngsters in, one bad performance and they would be slated and their confidence drained - you still need some experienced heads. There is much more vibrancy under Hodgson, from what I've seen its been quite a good balance.....
 
harr1984 said:
I wouldn't exactly say its the same old guard either, he's slowly integrating some of the younger players which is the best way to do it. There's no point just throwing a whole team of youngsters in, one bad performance and they would be slated and their confidence drained - you still need some experienced heads. There is much more vibrancy under Hodgson, from what I've seen its been quite a good balance.....
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It's always been a problem though. Players are picked on reputation for the most part. I would like to see players like Leon Britton being given a chance. He was the best passer in the best passing team in the premier league last season. It's an easy way out to keep picking Lampard and Gerrard. I would keep Rooney, Cole and possibly Gerrard, and discard Terry, Lampard, Rio Ferdinand. They've had their chance for England.
 
harr1984 said:
I wouldn't exactly say its the same old guard either, he's slowly integrating some of the younger players which is the best way to do it. There's no point just throwing a whole team of youngsters in, one bad performance and they would be slated and their confidence drained - you still need some experienced heads. There is much more vibrancy under Hodgson, from what I've seen its been quite a good balance.....
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With what he has to work with i agree he is doing a good job,he has to build a team with not a lot of real talent and so far so good.
 
parklane1 said:
With what he has to work with i agree he is doing a good job,he has to build a team with not a lot of real talent and so far so good.
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Agreed. People should be happy with what he's done so far. He won the group at the Euros. And our games are a bit more entertaining, but then again, that's mainly due to us being poor at the back.
 
harr1984 said:
I don't think either of them cover themselves in glory defensively and Walker has about zero end product going forward, Johnson is very dangerous.....
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Johnson is more dangerous himself but negates the wingers. At the last world cup (including the warm-up games) I was amazed how often he got in the way of Lennon and Walcott, rather than work with them. In one instance, after causing the lost possession, he was just jogging back as someone scored.

Because of that, it does make more sense playing Milner in front of him, but I'd rather see Lennon or Walcott. It rather defeats the purpose of playing an atatcking fullback when it means you can't play an attacking winger.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Agreed. People should be happy with what he's done so far. He won the group at the Euros. And our games are a bit more entertaining, but then again, that's mainly due to us being poor at the back.
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Indeed, and he is still unbeaten as well.( i know we got knocked out by Italy but that was on Pens). We had toget rid of the so called golden generation and try youngsters which he is doing.
 
parklane1 said:
Indeed, and he is still unbeaten as well.( i know we got knocked out by Italy but that was on Pens). We had to get rid of the so called golden generation and try youngsters which he is doing.
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And still he churns out Lampard and Gerrard in midfield and Terry att he back. They were the Big 3 of the Golden generation. He won't drop them because he knows if we don't qualify he's out of a job, the fear factor is keeping him picking them game after game rather than having the balls to say "We'll do it my way win or lose"

As for being unbeaten that's more by luck than judgement.
 
we were lucky to get a draw against France, didn't see the Sweden game so can't comment, Ukraine was GHod awful, so lucky to get a win, absolutely well and truly battered by Italy, good win in Moldova and I only saw the first 70 mins against Ukraine last night, maybe it got better once Wellbeck came on, but Ukraine were every bit as good from what I saw.

So unbeaten yes, fair play, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

We could be better, even with the poor squad he has to choose from, our possession game is awful, truly awful. Anyone saying we passed it round well last night must be joking, it was Lescott to Jagielka and back again, that's not possession football it's playing out time. The one player he has in the squad whose able to keep possession and things ticking over further up the pitch is Carrick and he just doesn't rate him for some reason.
 
camspur said:
And still he churns out Lampard and Gerrard in midfield and Terry att he back. They were the Big 3 of the Golden generation. He won't drop them because he knows if we don't qualify he's out of a job, the fear factor is keeping him picking them game after game rather than having the balls to say "We'll do it my way win or lose"

As for being unbeaten that's more by luck than judgement.
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Well anyone who thought he would/should have dropped all the so called golden generation in one go is having a laugh, it was never going to happen that way.
 
parklane1 said:
Well anyone who thought he would/should have dropped all the so called golden generation in one go is having a laugh, it was never going to happen that way.
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You are probably right, but dropping one of them would be start. I know he dropped Rio, but that was more circumstances i.e. him and Terry can't play together, so he had to pick one or the other.
 
Jurgen the German said:
You are probably right, but dropping one of them would be start. I know he dropped Rio, but that was more circumstances i.e. him and Terry can't play together, so he had to pick one or the other.
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But he is trying out a lot of younger players and will continue to do so, by the time the next finals come round we will/should have a totally different team.

The biggest problem for him and previous managers is the lack of really talented players, so many in the press rate our players as world class which in all honesty is just not true.
 
jts1882 said:
Johnson is more dangerous himself but negates the wingers. At the last world cup (including the warm-up games) I was amazed how often he got in the way of Lennon and Walcott, rather than work with them. In one instance, after causing the lost possession, he was just jogging back as someone scored.

Because of that, it does make more sense playing Milner in front of him, but I'd rather see Lennon or Walcott. It rather defeats the purpose of playing an atatcking fullback when it means you can't play an attacking winger.
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Walker does exactly the same thing though, like the majority of attacking full backs do. Walker and Lennon don't work well together, Corluka was good with Lennon not just because of their understanding and Corluka's intelligence but it hepled that he wasn't an attacking full back because he didn't vacate Lennon's space.

As for Milner he's impressed me lately, I used to think he was just a 'try hard' with no real skill but he's definitely upped his game....
 
Agree that it happens with Walker to some extent, but not as much as with Johnson. Also agree on Corluka. we've lost a useful option there, one we might regret.

The player who might work well with either is Adam Johnson. He likes to play on the right and cut in onto his left foot
 
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