Le God has it spot on. There is a definate need for some squad rotation and risk taking to weed out the old guard and bring in some new blood that's better on the ball. Nothing against winning ugly, but these days we won't win at all if we can't show composure on the ball. If by some miracle we'd won tonight, we'd have been taken apart by Germany.
I refuse to believe that we don't produce just as many talented players as the other major Football nations, to my mind it is the coaching that is at fault. Football is a very simple game, possession of the ball is king and pass and move is the fabric of the game. Watching the game tonight it was evident how comfortable the Italians were in possession and always having several options for the passer, England always looked rushed and quite often took the wrong passing option. Most teams have a playmaker who pulls the strings, much like a Quarterback, a bit like our own Morgan Schneiderlin, to be honest Scott Parker and Steve Gerrard are just not up to that role as they lose possession way too much.
Now the heat of the moment has worn off, I think Roy has done a good job and I think he'll do well, provided the press - and fans - keep off his case. I think the fans will be ok, though, it's the press who are more than capable of destroying England managers.
Don't worry lads, by the world cup Lallana, Rodriguez and Cork will be there to actually keep possession of a football
Completely agree, he was thrown in at the deep end and got about 1000 withdrawals through injury too.
The amount of foreign players doesn't help, even at youth level clubs have far to many foreign players.
Don't apologise, I thought he was poor too. Defensively, he was OK, allowing Cole to go forward, but he was the recognised striker, and I didn't see anything in that department. However, if I have any criticism at all, it's that before Rooney came into the side, the team looked balanced and dangerous going forward. Since the waves were parted for his return, he has been his usual poor international self. He isn't World Class, because those sorts of players have the odd bad game, even in a poor side. But Rooney doesn't. He is always poor at International level. So my criticism is that Roy might have stuck with his good looking side, and kept Rooney on the bench. That isn't hindsight either. I thought it as soon as Rooney became eligible to play again.
Rooney; the international enigma. I don't understand why he is so painfully average on the international stage. Really didn't do anything against Ukraine and shouldn't have started against Italia, in my opinion
I'm happy Chamberlain did jack **** at the tournament, otherwise there'd be loads of hype and pressure on him. Let him develop normally rather than thrusting him into the spotlight.
Rooney did score that tap in the papers went over board about, anyone could have scored that . But because it was Rooney the over hype began.
We shouldn't forget that he did score a goal, but then who's to say that another player in his position wouldn't have done better overall. Right from when he came on, for example, Carroll was much more of a presence. I know why Rooney is poor at international level. He simply isn't as good as the hype would have people believe. For a start, he isn't a proper striker. I don't know how many times I have to say it, but when he played for Everton he was an attacking midfielder. For ManU, he's a feeder striker, who plays deep. So really he's still an attacking midfielder. For England he plays as the 2nd striker, and he simply doesn't know how to do it and gets himself isolated. To me it's as plain as day. So, either build a team around him or leave him out.
My first dog could've scored that, and she's been dead for 3 years Agree with the rest of your post - he plays as a Deep Lying Forward for United...
But we won. Sweden had no pressure against a lazy French side (if you saw their full match) Cabaye publically criticised the team. In all honesty the philisosophy cannot really be faulted. We won our group, remaining undefeated. We then took it 120 minutes before Italy could beat us on spot-kicks. I don't think it worked out too bad considering. We do need to improve upon ball retention, but we do not need to go back to the old - "let's try and outplay everyone" approach.
I don't know how much the tactics can really be praised... "sit back and hope they don't score against us" seemed to be it most of the time...
