Welbeck seems a player who blows hot and cold to me- he got a goal last night, and the boost to his confidence was very clear, and he got a good second with good control, then he had a whole load of chances to complete his hat trick and though he got in good positions he lost his coolmess finishing again - perhaps he felt some pressure on him to complete the three.
I think you are missing the point, that Roy was looking to see if Milner could play that position from the start on Tuesday. If he has no Rooney, Sturridge or Welbeck. He might be tempted (like us) to go 4 5 1 with Lambert at the front...then Milner would be played from the start...with Townsend or Sterling coming on if we go a goal down
Best goal I can remember Norway scoring in a long time, particularly well made by Eikrem (sp?), he did very well to beat his man hold the ball and see King was free almost instantly, and then a very good finish from Joshua.
I think the overall message is that we are short of class full stop at the moment. Can't imagine Real Madrid pondering an £80m swoop for any of the current England squad, or even half that. Gerrard perhaps a few years back, he's still our best player by a mile. Rooney should be up there, and I saw how good he is with my own eyes at LR in 2011-12, but there's something wrong with him at the moment. Wilshire? This kid is hyper hyped, never seems to finish a game - he could be the real deal, but seems fragile as crystal. Notice Townsend didn't get on, would have thought yesterday was the perfect opportunity to blood someone.
We are short at centre back, but apart from that I believe we have a good side when they are all fit.
Don't think we really got out of cruise control, never really under any pressure against a poor side. Having said that you need to make sure you put these game away and we did so no complaints. I didn't think we looked the same when Lambert came off, my MOM but watching Stevie's positioning and covering no real compliants about him getting it either.
A side good enough to achieve what? Man for man how do they stack up against Spain, France, Germany even Italy, Holland, Portugal just of the European teams? I think the level of expectation we had going into the last Euro Champs, and that which Greg Dyke has set for the next WC is just about right - QF at best. It's not the players' fault, they can't be any better than they are, and Hodgson is obviously going for a 'hard to beat' model, but this generation is limited and with the dearth of Englishmen playing top flight football its not going to get any better. Think back ten plus years when we had Gerrard, Scholes, Beckham, Ferdinand, Owen, the end of Shearer etc. And we wasted the chance arguing about how Lampard and Gerrard could play together.
Its probably about adjusting expectations. The media whip up a storm prior to every tournament and the fans get into a frenzy thinking they're Brazil. As a result the players are put under huge pressure and they freeze. A quarter final has got to be considered a very good outcome to a World Cup/Euros for England.
In regards to Welbeck, I think he's suffered from continually being played out of position. He's out on the left to do a job, one which he's not really suited to. Welbeck might not be the most natural of finishers (although he's goals against Swansea and last night were pretty good) but given the chance to play through the middle on a regular basis might see some improvement in his goal ratio. Must be difficult for a player, especially a young one, to develop fully when misused on a regular basis. And it also makes us overly critical, after all it's not actually clear how and where he likes to play - on the shoulder, coming deep etc.
I admit that my natural patriotism leads me to view the England team through rose-tinted specs. but I truly believe that our failure since the Bobby Robson team to achieve much is more under-achievement than not being good enough, apart from Tel's in '96. Although we could easily have won both the World cup and the Euros in those two instances. There'd be no debate then would there? I agree that the imbalance between English and foreign players in the Premier League has made it harder and harder for English talent to shine through, resulting in less making it to the top. This should be addressed with a limit to foreign players in each team, but that will never happen while the Premier League is deemed more important (because of money!!) than the success of the National side. IMO players like Rooney, Gerrard, Wilshire, Lampard, Cole to name just a few are every bit as good technically as most other players around the world. The biggest single problem for England over the years hasn't been the players but the coaches, from the bottom up, who preached 4-4-2 and direct up-and-at-'em football from age 9 up to the National side.. Howard Wilkinson has an awful lot to answer for!!
Oh.............and the Gerrard/Lampard debate was also down to the way we played. One attacking midfielder and one defending. In their prime, both were attacking so they weren't really suited to playing together. Now, we tend to play with 3 central midfielders and they play together very well. The Scholes, Beckham et al generation were disgracefully wasted with inept tactics. That generation should have won something with so much talent imo!!
Good post, Col. The late 90s was a good time for English football. Venables and Hoddle had us on the right path, I think. Technically and tactically, those teams were (just about) equal to their opposition. Penalties excepted, of course!
Good points Col. Sir Bobby was tactically savvy (read something by Lineker that the switch of tactics in '90 was entirely down to the manager, not player power as thought at the time) as were Venables and Hoddle. Since then its been dire. I knew Capello would be rigid, he's always played 4-4-2, but usually with outstanding players at club level. But you need flexible and intelligent players to be smart with tactics, and rightly or wrongly, our managers haven't trusted the squad to do this for years. Your points about the coaching structure are of course spot on. Everyone knows it, has done for years, people moan about it, nothing is done.
Exactly. If the Management had put another player in the middle Gerrard could have played the a slightly different role quite easily. Would have taken something from his game but Lampard was top-class in those days. He was injured alot, but Hargreaves would have been immense in that role. Or towards the end of his career Beckham could have been moved inside alongside Gerrard and Lampard.
Slowly bet surely there is a change going on.........but it will take a long time yet to make a difference. We are now seeing smaller sided games at a young level etc.
Absolutely............and the idiots wasted the talent of Paul Scholes by playing him on the left ffs!! So much so that he retired from International football thoroughly pissed off with it. If they'd played a more fluid formation he would have ruled the world........he was that good!!
Forgot about Scholes! Alongside Gerrard and Lampard - phenomenal. Scholes probably got panned out in the media back then for being s**t. Very frustrating to look back and see the fook-ups which set us back. I think Gerrard has been misused alot too: he's been played out of position numerous times, especially under Capello.
We should be going for it from the start and only use milner if we are one goal up with 15 to go. Roy knows what miner can and can't do, he learnt nothing from that bit of game time apart from his finishing is even worse than he thought.
