With Roy kicking off his England career with a "win" but in circumstances where pundits have been less than impressed, I was wondering if we would hail Roy as a legend if he managed to win the Euros with his unspectacular brand of bland football? Obviously, I'm not directing this thread at the Chavs, because we already know that they have absolutely no shame about taking pride in their own particular brand of "park the bus" football. Nor am I aiming this thread at Mousers, whose club actually has Downing, Carroll, and Gerrard, so they are already used to paying good money to go and watch a winger who can't beat players or cross the ball, a striker who can't score goals, and a captain whose legs went a couple of seasons ago. No, I'm aiming this thread at us normal fans, who are used to watching a more creative brand of football. Do we want glory, at any cost?
I think the media and a lot of fans are being harsh to Roy - it was his first game, a place where we haven't won for ages and we went and won the game. It was a tester for Roy, see some player combinations etc. etc. But to your original question, you make 'park the bus' sound like a tactic that should never be used because its boring when, more often than not it seems, it yields a positive result for the team that uses it (e.g. Chelsea against Barcelona). If Chelsea tried to play fluid football against Barca (something of which they are capable) - they would've lost the game because Barcelona simply do it better than them. So there's playing pretty football but losing or playing more dull football but winning. If we were in the situation of CL semi-final I know what end result I'd want. Football is a results driven business - if we win the Euros it'd be a great result even if we don't pass teams off the park like Spain. The discussion is moot though - cos we won't the Euros
At least this time the team is not being hyped up by the Red Tops. Nobody expects anything much. So, maybe with the pressure off, we may do better than expected.
But given that Roy cannot win or lose pretty, he's either going to win or lose ugly. The poor bastard cannot even begin to imagine the misery his life is going to be made by the gutter-press. His time spent "walking alone" at Klanfield will seem like a holiday to what the "Harry-loving/FA-hating" hack journos are going to do to him.
win is a win is a win but you have to be concerned in the continual selection of Walcott and Downing who between them managed a single cross with quality and that is no surprise as they are both (very) occassional providers of quality Truth is neither is an every week pick in the premior league
I think we looked so limited against Belgian. Against better opposition we would have been slaughtered. We still seem to rely almost exclusively on the same old tactic: use our big CBs to break up opposition play then (depending on which is available) either (a) pass it to a fast wing-man to run up the wing before lumping in a cross in the desperate hope that it'll find the head of Crouch or Carroll for a tap-in by Rooney, or (b) cut out the wing-man and simply lump it forward in the desperate hope that it will find the head of Crouch or Carroll for a tap-in by Rooney. Young's goal was down to an uncharacteristic mistake by Hangerland. We cannot rely on that happening every game. I have my serious doubts that we'll make it out of our group, and with some humiliating score-lines, too.
I know that he's a Gooner, but the only player we have who looks like he could do a similar job, is Wilshere - and he's always injured!
I'd say winning ugly could get you very far in the tournament. Me myself as a Dutchman, i was pretty angry and frustrated with the way my national team played during the WC2010. It was ugly, it was boring, and at times i even stopped watching. We made it to the finals though and almost won it. And now i'm going to stop talking about this, 'cause this national trauma of ours(never winning anything in the end) is getting my bloodpressure up.
Frankly I was staggered by the Dutch tactics in the final. They are so much better than they showed in that game and it would have been a travesty if they had won that game. Parking the bus rarely works, Chelsea had some sort of Indian sign over them this year and being second best was never going to be a problem to them. As I think it still says in my sig I agree with Bill Nic - better to fail aiming high than succeed aiming low. Doesn't mean you can't be strong and determined in defence, but to rely on scoring one against the run of play to nab a win or a penalty shoot-out will not succeed very often.
Agreed. It was just written somewhere that no matter what, The Chavs were going to win. As for the Dutch in that final! I've never seen a Dutch team play like that. How did De Jong stay on the pitch?? If you did that on the street, you'd be arrested. I wouldn't recommend that Howard Webb spends his holidays in Spain anytime soon, they still haven't forgotten!
What a load of tosh. We are not Spanish, French, Italian etc, we are English. We have to play to OUR strengths not try to be a poor imitation of the Spanish. The rules have changed which makes our game harder to play and the Spanish/French easier. If you are so entranced with Barca and their pretty football, good luck. Variety is the spice of life so long live the English 'style' and if for once we use that Englishness we might have slightly more chance than the recent efforts of Italianess. Norwich showed us this season how the strong brand of English football can work against clever ball players. That is the example England need to follow and Hodgson is well aware of that.
Well, england have won precisely nothing, and not even got to a final, in my entire lifetime let alone my football following lifetime. If they got to the final by playing like the old Wimbledon then i'd be happy. But i agree with deedub93, its ok for England but if Spurs did it i'd be outraged
Hodgson hasn't really got the time to do much else, unfortunately. He was never going to be able to get a fluid attacking game going in such a short space of time. He'll try to get us defensively sound, more organised and solid before we start really going for it and fortunately he doesn't have much to improve on from the World Cup where we dragged our way through the groups scoring just 2 goals. Personally, I don't like it at all but I can understand why Hodgson's gone for it this way and I think a lot of other managers would've done the same. There definitely could be scope for criticism in his squad and team selections though. The backup options were laughable and could get him found out if Butland or Henderson are ever needed at the Euros, I mean did the rest of the country turn him down for him to resort to those two? From the initial squad we're going to be well and truly ****ed if AOC, Walcott, Downing and Carroll don't improve.
Yes, we have our own style. However, I don't think that a general inability to control the ball, pass accurately, and retain possession for more than a few seconds, is exactly anything to be proud of!
Barry is too slow now. I dunno whether he has lost pace but he is too slow for the prem and too slow for internationals. He got caught in possession early after coming on because of it. I'd rather have Henderson than Barry, and i'm certainly no Henderson fan.
