Good Morning All

Good Morning Everyone,

England go out 4-2 on pens (AGAIN) Must admit, when we were a penalty up after Italy missed from their second spot kick, I honestly thought it may be Englands night, but when Young missed, I knew it was over for us. For Gods sake, how difficult is it to hit the target???

Harry Kewell is back in England and looking for a club, would anyone forgive him for the way he treeated Leeds and want to see him back at Leeds

Its still relatively quiet on the takeover gossip, isn't this game of football cruel?

Out of McCormack, White, Clayton and Snodgrass, who do we honestly expect will be playing for us again next season?

I'll be amazed if Kenny does not join us this week, at least we'll be finally able to put that one to sleep.

Did anyone else (English) have mixed emotions about the game last night. At one point I found myself Cheering Rooney on

 

Morning - On reflection you have to question why some of those England players were picked, you have to wonder why Young stayed on and Milner came off and deep down we all know the penalty shoot out has saved us from a thrashing by the Germans. At the end of the day, just like I felt last season Leeds were a mid table team, England are a 5-10 European team and probably nearer 10th if you throw in the Brazils and Argentina's. Lots of people feel Hodgson is a great tactician, well I didn't see any proof of that yesterday - Awful.

Now on to the important footballing stuff - Who are Leeds going to sign this week and will we get a takeover/cash injection answer this week? I would love someone to join who maybe costs a bit of cash and who we can get excited about, not Norris and Varney but maybe Peltier, Sone Aluko and Kenny. I can see a back four of Kenny, Peltier, Lees, Pearce and Drury looking very decent and I could start to get excited with Saluko and Snoddy playing out wide although as the other thread suggests, Saluko is bound to attract attention from some Premier league teams probably Norwich.

So it looks like we might have to try and find some excitement and positives out of Varney and Norris, my optimism from last week has deserted me....

 

Ristac, I was thinking Drury would be a squad player, optomistic thinking on my behalf... Sounds like baadif are after Bellamy and Blackburn are signing Leon Best and apparantly Kewell. We need a big signing (and Im not talking Boab!!!)

 

Leon Best is a very good signing I think, can't understand why he is taking the drop down. Kewell is one of the worst players around these days, was terrible in Australia so isn't going to cope in the champ, can't see him playing much really

If we were to sign Aluko that would really get fans excited but they'll be a lot of competition for that signing and doubt colin will want to spend that much of the wages on a luxury player like that. I still see him going to the prem

 

Morning Elland, morning those joining. Heyho end of the line for us after pens again. C'est La Vie. Not sure we would have been tonked by the Germans. In a very short space of time Woy has made us much harder to beat than we've been for sometime. Some will come back for the first couple of games in the World Cup, others may have played their last games for England. Terry will have to work hard to show he will still be fit enough for Brazil in 2014. But Lampard may have played his last game, as there is now the makings of a new generation of midfield payers for England. On Milner, I almost lost it with some prat in the pub last night, as he spent the entire first half whining about Milner. He clearly has some work to do to show why he plays RM. But with Johnson at RB, we need someone to give him some protection, something clearly beond Walcott's abilities. But as an impact sub, Walcott is a bit useful. Whether he'll still keep his place when Lennon & one or two others are fully fit is another matter.

Backto reality. Any news on incomings, outgoings, or takeovers?

 

Morning all

I was proud of our performance last night. It was gutsy. Ok, we didnt look like winning the match but defending is an art as well & Terry/Lescott Gerrard/Parker had excellent games again. We are never going to win on pennos!

Think Hodgson done a good job in a short time & theres hope for the future. Oh and I'm sure Wellbeck & Youngs value has nose dived

 

Morning Boggers - TBH I don't think we were that hard to beat, had the Italians had their scoring boots on it really could have been embarrassing, on another night that could easily have been 5-0 even more. They hit the post twice, marginal offside although I agree it was and how many chances did Ballotelli have? At the end of the day the reason the premiership teams do well in Europe is because of the large influx of foreign players, we just don't have the quality.

 

Spot on. England are a top eight team in Europe, nothing more and nothing less. Performance in these championships like many before reinforce that. Strange, considering the media continually bleat on about the premiership being the best in the world, the national team is so average

 

Morning all, I will never forgive Kewell for going to Turkey !!!!!, as for other signings Kenny seems to be a bang on, Whittaker and Naismith would be great additions to the team.

 

Kewell always had to go where the money was, & sorry to say, but there's serious money in Turkish footy. That said, he was never the same player as when he played for us. Definitely yesterday's man & no need for him to come back to us.

Regarding England, I actually think there's potential there. Chamberline will be part of the team for years to come. Jakyielka is possibly another. There are others coming through who will help build us into a decent team. We can't all play like Spain or Barcelona, pretty though it is to watch. This tournament was more or less set up for a Spain v Germany final. Can't see the Italians troubling the Germans, but Spain v Portgual should be a very interesting game. Can't see the Portuguese just sitting back & defending for 80 odd minutes in the hope that Renaldo provides one flash of brilliance. Me thinks there might be a few goals in that game.

 

Germany and Spain are a class above and then there's a big clump of teams with us, France, Holland, Portugal and Italy, and I'd say we're better than France and team Ronaldo. I must say Italy have surprised me this tournament, but they seem to thrive under controversy. One thing this tournament has done has made me optimistic about our chances in the World Cup.

 

Morning All,

This might seem strange from a Jock, but I was quite impressed by most of the england team last night - i.e. the defensive performance, especially when it's been so inconsistent of late. Had you got through on penalties, I honestly believe that you would not have been humiliated by Germany. I think the match would have been very similar to last night. Defensively, Hodders made the best of what he had. Where I disagree with him was up top. Rooney should never have played, end of. Completely out of touch. Young? Probably even worse - and you've got to get into the box to dive for a penalty, Gash! Cannot believe that Defoe didn't start. When you're playing defensively, you need pacy breakaways, and that's what he provides. Same goes for Walcott. I also have to remark that Carroll really put a shift in when he was on. Surprised me, but I can see why Hodders picked him now.

Overall, most of you would have taken going out in the quarters before the tournament. The future may not be that bright, but it's not as dark as you feared. Could be worse, you could support Scotland!

 

Someone's reminded me elsewhere that in addition to others mentioned, Wilshire coming back for the world cup will help greatly. At the moment, we're not good enough to win a tournament. Possible semi finalis with a tad more luck maybe. But with 2 years to work on things & one or two players reurning from injury, maybe. Who knows? Remember, Greece won the Euros a couple of years ago. We're already better than they ever were. Turkey got to the world cup quarters or was it semis, & we're certainly better than them. Last night was disappointing. But it's not all doom & gloom.

 

England's limitations were exposed last night. Maybe the only way forward is a UK team? I know a lot of people would find that hard to accept (and I'd miss the (very) occasional Norn Iron stunning victory against a top team) but British national teams are rapidly falling behind the rest of the World.

As for Kewell I was never that keen on him anyway - too many games when he didn't show up and he can't have got any better.

 

It has made me less optimistic, honestly, we are so far behind Germany and Spain - Portugal, Italy and France are better than us, play 10 games against each and we would lose more than win. We are on par with the likes of Holland and Russia. Throw in rest of the world teams like Argentina and Brazil and we don't have a chance.

It was made for Defoe, the Italians never wanted to touch any player running at them, the problem was it was Young most the time who thought he could run through rather than around.

 

i live in Italy and watched the footy in the square full of italians and i was cheering and jeering Englands every move, But i was so pleased that they won the shootout had we won i would have hidden under the table wrapped in embarrassment we were awful and never really competed..

I hope the Italians stuff the Germans now

 

Roy has started something good and with Hart in goal and that back 4 he has sound platform to build upon. Gerrard spent too much time chasing shadows as he had no support because we were losing the ball too easily. Gerrard was brilliant but he's more effective rampaging forward, so we needed a Scholes, or Hargreaves in there to put their foot on the ball. Milner was a mile better than Young, and Young was probably Englands worst player as he does damage going forward not defending. Carrol scared everyone to death and when he came on last night he won every ball. Rooney was flat and not match fit and looked like a donkey at times. Welbeck flattered to decieve and wasn't good enough at this level yet. We could have done with Wilshire to help out in midfield but who else is there to bulk up the midfield at England level. Great defence needs a great midfield that allows us to attack and not defend all the time. Italy were really average, but we gave Pirlo so much time that he kept the Italians on the front foot and had us defending. We couldn't keep hold of the ball in midfield so wingers were defending leaving holes all over.

I'm sure Roy knows what he needs, but it may be time up for Lampard, Gerrard, Terry etc, but we do need a Scholes or 2 in that madfield area...... Roy take Brown he's yours if you want him.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with what we did over there, even though we were outplayed in every game. This only happened because we were lacking another playmaker in Gerrards class. The team showed passion and put everything into it, but we're not better than 8th in the world until we can find a couple of quality midfielders

 

Spain and Germany are ahead of every team in the world, and we are certainly not worse than France and Portugal, France are old England and Portugal are the very definition of a one man team.

The reason I'm optimistic is that by the World Cup we should have Wilshere and Cleverley in the squad, and maybe Howson if he keeps improving at the same rate, all young exciting players prepared to pass the ball. Also players like Walcott and Chamberlain will only be better and we'll hopefully have had 2 more years under the same manager instilling the same sense of pride and team spirit in the side. We're not there yet but there's potential for great things.

 

Kewells a **** n I think hed get his head kicked in back at elland road! Sums the guy up when he signed for melbourne not only did he want double their highest wage he also demanded 25% of gate receipts I hope the prick chokes on steak

 

Hart,wilshere,cleverley,walker all look good for the future we missed wilshere massively! The midfield was chasing the ball all over when we got the ball we gave it away it was a real schooling our forwards let the defenders down!!

Young ****ing horrendous wish Rooney got a 6 game ban. Also why make Defoe come back out with the squad if your not gonna play him he could have spent some important time mourning his dad with his family