After all the nonsense about United players being 'better' cos of their league form etc etc...England crash out of the Euro's cos a United player bottled it! Ashley Young stunk out the Ukraine with his insipid performances and it was no surprise to me to see him fail when it mattered most, blame Hodgson for allowing him to be anywhere near the pitch but he failed big time when it mattered most! Can anyone say that Downing would actually have put in 3 worse performances? As it stands, the only evidence we have is that Young failed miserably, Hodgdson picked Young, so they both failed! So, there we have it...Hodgson is rank and Young should be nowhere near an England squad, despite his 'great season'!
Didn't see the whole game then? Shouldn't have even made it to pens. As expected a united player is being blamed for a ****e team effort.
Young's penalty was well hit with purpose. He went for it and was desperately unlucky to hit the bar. Cole's piss poor effort was embarrassing
But if Cole didn't take his PK like a prepubescent school girl England still would have been tied on PKs.
Cole contributed more in one game than young has the whole competition! What does that tell you about young?
Agree that even Downing would have offered more of a threat than that useless **** Young, what an overated, diving cheat
Idiot? In the game there is one attacking Fullback (Johnson) and one more conservative (Cole). The reason hodgson picked Milner was because of his defensive duties! What do you think would of happened if England had Ashley cole and Young bombing up the sidelines? It would of left a huge gap for the Italians to exploit. Not to mention Young's tackling ability!
I don't think anyone is to blame this time, there usually a villan for England but this time it is just a lack of quality in the squad.
BillyBobTaunton you're obsessed with Man Utd. So it was all the Man Utd players fault then nothing to do with Parker and Gerrard giving the ball away all the time. Both had less then 50% pass percentage. Hart ****ing usless in the shootout, talked a good game but dived the wrong way everytime.
I think any player stepping up to take a penalty kick for an international shootout has enormous guts, given how they are likely to be crucified if they are the one to miss the decisive penalty. I'm no fan of Ashley Cole but for a defender to step up says a lot about his character, especially given the fact that plenty of England fans have booed him mercilessly over the years. He's not exactly a technically brilliant goalscoring defender like the Brazilian-type ones either (0 goals in 98 matches says it all really). Yet he has to step up, and it's likely that Joe Hart was going to take the fifth one... What about our other players that score goals on a regular basis? Surely they should be the ones that technically are the most capable to consistently slot away penalties? Yes, I know there is a massive mental aspect to penalty shootouts and that is why Cole and Hart take them... But if you are an attacking player then scoring from 12 yards should almost be second nature, you just need to work on the mental side of it. I would like to see players like Walcott and Carroll be prepared to take pens if they are still on the field after 120 minutes... For the record, I don't blame Young for his penalty miss, but I'm not impressed with his overall performance at all and I think that's why he's getting so much criticism. EDIT: Apparently Walcott was going to take the fifth penalty, not Joe Hart, so it makes my argument pretty pointless now.
I'm not trying to say Young wasn't terrible in all four games, I just don't agree with the sentiment that it's all Young's fault England lost on PKs. Personally I think Young should have been subbed off in the second half.
You got to be kidding me... If Young who is three times or more the player Downing will ever be,if Young didn't do well in Euro's, what makes you think Downing will? Downing is sooooooo ****, i mean he's not even alright, he is ****
Alot pf people are blaming on Young, what about cole's effort? the way he hit it it looked like he didn't really care , normally he would ad power in it, that game, he added no power, he just tapped it in like it was a open goal or something, piss poor
