The clueless Townsend give MOTM to Wilshere again.......for the 3rd game in a row? WTF.
I thought Lallana had a pretty good game tonight. About the only England player that gets the ball, controls it and plays it on early.
Gary Neville summed up Rooney's problem in the pre-match build up when he said that Rooney tries to do too much. He needs to be up front and not coming back to pick the ball up from the defence. I thought he had a pretty good game.
One of England's main problems is that in the forward line there are too many players that are glory hunters and where you often hear the commentators saying 'took one touch too many there' they are missing the fact that the reason they took that extra touch is because they are trying to make themselves an opportunity and passing to someone in a better position is only secondary in their thinking. Sterling and Welbeck were guilty of this tonight. Townsend & Sturridge are also both guilty of this.
That was what made Clyne and Lallana contributions better for me. The fact they play the ball early and not hold onto to it to see if they can grab the headlines is what the rest should be doing.
I am a little surprised that Sterling has been suggested as 'best of the rest' on here. In fact I am surprised he hasn't had a verbal 'bashing'!!! He was garbage for most of the game tonight. He has gone from a 'prospect' to seemingly thinking he is the star of the team. At one point he came back into England's half to get the ball off the CBs and I remember thinking WTF are you doing there? Might have been because Henderson had gone AWOL......again but for me he needs to be with the U21s for a while until he matures. Ox is more useful to England than he is ATM because he is more consistent and can mix it up much better as well as being able to hold on to the ball.
Then we are at the DM again. Henderson can play this role reasonably well BUT he can't do what he does for Liverpool. He is either the DM or a box to box player but can't be both. Every time England are on the attack he sprints to the centre forward role. What is going on there.
Cahill is undoubtedly the best English centre back available at the moment but how many fouls does he give away for climbing? Got to sort that out.
I'll not go on about Wilshere as I've done that to death and my posts from the past years are searchable
I'm not so sure Roy is at fault for the performance either. You could see from his expression during that first half that he was so frustrated with the team. Seems to me that half the team (or more) just put on the England shirt and do what they think is what they should do and are scared to give the ball away unless it is a shot. It's all so slow and you could see Clyne thinking what is going on. He was way ahead of the rest of the England defence at times (or they were too deep) and the ball moves so slowly. That could well be because Henderson is not holding his position or because they daren't pass to Wilshere in their own half but it was slow slow slow.
I said to my son when we went behind 'Maybe that will wake them up a bit now and get them to attack'. and straight away the ball was played quickly good movement, good passing, Rooney driving at the defence.....penalty.
And the last goal was a beauty. Only thing Sterling did in the game.