If Sturridge's toe poke at the end had been anywhere near as bad as all of his other efforts, the Press would be screaming to drop most of the team (including Walker, Rose and Dier). I've already seen someone calling for Alli to be dropped to let Wilshire play alongside Rooney (who is the 'New Pirlo' by the way). If Wilshire was fit, playing him would be a good idea. Unfortunately, he isn't and a half is probably all he can give at this point. At which point, he remains on the bench, which should be good news for the 'New Pirlo',as it is allowing him to stay in the team.
I actually think Wayne Pirlo hasn't done too badly. Far better than I had bargained for when it became clear that Hodgson had changed his surname by deed poll. The dilemma will be if and when we come up against a team with real quality in the midfield who won't give Scouse Pirlo the time of day to pick out a pass, as well as anticipating the runs that he tries to pick out well in advance. John Hartson is usually a colossal bellend but he was 100% right when he remarks that England should be playing like they did in the second half throughout the tournament. There's no way Russia would've coped with that kind of onslaught and our raw pace and brute strength will unsettle a lot of the more refined teams in the tournament. Add to this the fact that having 5-6 players playing completely out of position means that we're also highly unpredictable on the ball - literally anyone can pop up anywhere at any time.
Our opponents have yet to turn up in any meaningful sense. 'Pirlooney' hasn't been pressed yet and he gave away the free kick for Wales' goal because he wasn't used to receiving the ball in that position and moving it quickly. When we play someone a bit more progressive we shall see what he's got. We have a habit of keeping 'Captain Marvels' beyond their sell-by dates. If Wilshere was fit (is he ever?), I'd drop 'The Great One' to the bench.
Beautiful goal there from Eder - is this the year of the late winner? Italy through with that win - never, ever write them off. They may be lacking the stellar names of their golden era, but the Italians - contrary to what a study of their economy would suggest - are exceptionally well organised and well drilled to play to each others strengths.
After watching the Italyu/Sweden game, I have an obvious question to ask: were Italy really good at executing their tactical plan, or is Marc Wilmots a blithering idiot who has no place coaching in international football?
A lot is made of analysis based on goals. Maybe that's right, but it seems to me that conclusions are drawn on the scoreline as much as how the game went. For example in the Belgium Italy game, Belgium had more than enough chances to win and the fact they didn't is as much to do with their bad finishing as excellent Italian defending. However, since Italy did win the reports are skewed toward praising the Italian defending (not to say they are not good defenders, just that Belgium could easily have won even playing as badly as they did). Having said all that, Wilmots seems to be another one of those managers intent on fitting all his stars into the team whether they fit in or not.
Analyzers (Monday morning quarterbacks, in the US idiom) are indeed results merchants, and the results are based on low probability events. On the other hand, I would say at this point both that Wilmots is an awful manager and that Hodgson, after a bad start, has stumbled on to a promising system to use for a tricky team. If he would put Hart on the bench, England's chances of beating any but a top team are decent.
True, but with Vardy, Sturridge and Rashford on in the second half, the Welsh defenders were dragged around a lot and eventually the pressure told. They were the right players for that situation and those opponents - and as we don't really have a viable alternative way of playing, I'd like to see attacking full backs and mobile, pacy forwards as the blueprint for England's possible progression in this tournament.
Quite surprised you say that CK to be honest when half the starting eleven is made up from you Spuds ! As far as England are concerned it's refreshing to know that we're strong at both full back positions and a vast improvement in midfield with Alli and especially Dier. I just think/hope we are an improving work in progress getting stronger round by round ?
Not really Mick, I'd say Rose, Walker and Dier have been three of the best players of the tournament so far. Alli has struggled to find his rhythm in the game, although a lot should be said of the facts that he is playing his first international tournament completely out of position because obviously Sterling is a far better in the supporting role for the striker All in all, of the five only Kane has been disappointing but in his defense he looks absolutely knackered and simply hasn't had the kind of service that Eriksen, Alli and Lamela provide him at club level. There's no question that Tottenham's starting XI would beat England's XI so no surprises really. Tune into the Croatia game if you'd like to see what an international standard midfield plays like - England's doesn't come close, even with our lord and saviour Wayne Pirlo pulling the strings. This, plus defensive frailty, will be the reason why we'll struggle against the stronger sides.
And, as if to prove your point, he comes off with a knock and suddenly the Czechs start to find their way back into the game...
What the hell were the Croatian fans doing just before the end? When your team is 2-1 up with five minutes to go, that's not the time to lob a bunch of flares onto the pitch before getting into a mass punchup in the stands. As the England fans will tell you, you do so a couple of days before your game before blaming it all on Russian fans who weren't even there.
Vida and Clattenburg involved in another controversial match? Seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it? Both took part in the Lyon 7-1 Zagreb game a few years ago, with Vida winking at a Lyon player after they scored one of their goals.
Utter insanity, isn't it? According to a Beeb reporter who was in the section, there were tougher checks than normal with passports required to be shown before getting in and the police had assembled before the trouble kicked off. Perhaps the latter was just because of the game approaching the end but it does seem like they were expecting trouble, either from Croatian hooligans or rival fans getting tickets in the Croatian section.
My initial thought was that some of the Croatian fans were giving a shoeing to whoever it was that lobbed the flares onto the pitch.
Could well be. I'm worried about howso many fans seem to be able to get flares and bangers in the stadium so easily.
