James Milner

I have done my fair share of criticism towards James Milner and always have preferred Ashley Young but hat's off to Milner tonight. He worked hard, whipped in some decent balls, chased the player in possession and improved a hell of a lot today.
Ashley Young was truly abysmal tonight. Constantly lost possession, made stupid runs into a wall of 3 players and had a footballing lesson from Abate. Just to top it off, he missed his Penalty.
At the end of the day, Quarter Finals exceeded my expectations and we look to have a good squad to try and contest the World Cup in 2 years time.

 

Agreed. Young's four performances during this tournament have been as bad as I can ever recall from an England player.

Adam Johnson offers far more, he couldn't offer any less in all fairness.

Utter cack.

 

Young was awful tonight, I defended him before but he was truly appaling in this match. He isn't going to be Mr Popular with most fans given his cheating and the penalty miss too. One disappointment of tonights match is that Oxlaide Chamberlain didnt get a run out, would have like to see him on even in centre mid but Roy didn't trust him which was a shame

 

Ashley Young had a poor tournament, but we were lucky to take the match to penalties.

Spain v Germany in the final.....could go either way.

 

Tough decision for the substitutions tonight I think. Roy was caught between whether to bring on both The Ox and Walcott to try and supply England with a bit more attacking flare, or try and give more energy at the back at a time where England really were back-pedalling and probably wouldn't attack anyways.
He chose wise IMO, safety option.
But still, there is that "what if" factor, had we have brought on little Ox-Man.
Oh well. At the end of the day. We played well in the Tournament (up until the 2nd half of Italy) and I am proud of the lads.

 

Young did have a pretty dire tournament, but he was the most in form England player before it. Milner was having one his better games of the tournament tonight and then he was taken off, he's dependable and to be fair has got a few decent crosses in throughout the euros, but he's never going to scare a full back and be at them all game. I'm not at all devastated by the result and I think the future is brighter than some will make out. Wilshere is going to be a big player for England and Oxlade Chamberlain and Welbeck have got some vital tournament experience. Phil Jones, Walker, Richards, Adam Jonhson should all get chances in friendly and the qualifiers. The problem at the minute is we seem to put all our hopes on Rooney and because of this he isn't the player you see at Man U, also his lack of games in the last month didn't help.

 

Well said.

It's easy to forget some of the other lads in contention in the immediate aftermath of a penalty shoot-out defeat.

 

The lads didnt do bad all things considering. The next WC will be interesting though, we have Powell and Chamberlain coming through. Add them to Rodwell, Wilshere, Walker, Welbeck, Rooney, Carroll, Smalling, Jones, Hart, Walcott and we have the basis of a decent squad.

 

Agree with this. As for the suggestion we have a squad to contend for the next world cup - no chance IMO. The competition is in Brazil and the probable winners will either be Brazil or Argentina. Altitude will play a part for the European teams with Germany and Spain probably coming the closest of the teams on this continent. England will do well to make the quarter finals again.

 

I don't think Milner or Young offered anything throughout the tournament, Woy defo should have took Adam Johnson and played him and Walcott on the wings

 

Good for the world cup? You are having a laugh? We're a generation of coaching away from ever achieving anything at a tournament. The fact that players who represent England can't retain possession or find a team mate with a pass for large periods of the game highlight how **** we really are.

We were completely outclassed by a very very poor Italian side, who had one ageing genuine world class player in Pirlo - the rest of the Italian team were average - but they made us look shocking.

 

I think Buffon would be rather disappointed to not be called World Class, given he is still probably in the top 2 or 3 goalies in the world.

 

Milner's performance was summed up in the second half when he did a quality piece of skill to do the left back got to the by line and then put in a terrible cross which went behind everyone and lost us possession again.

I like Milner, he puts in a lot of effort but I don't think that he is International class, not as a right winger in a midfield 4 anyway. When he plays on the wing for Man City, it is part of a 5 man midfield with much more capable players inside and around him, for England though with the ball he simply looked out of his depth. He should have been the 3rd choice CM player - a position he excelled in in his last season at Villa, bringing him on for Parker to 'do the donkey work' would have been much more affective a use of his abilities.

Oh yeah, Young was crap from start to finish of this tournament

 

So if all your attacking players attack the goal in a line and not one of them holds their position, it's a bad cross?

Everything else you said... I agree with

 

Maybe Buffon then. But he's not much better than Hart whom I rate very highly. There's also Casillas, Neuer, Lloris, Reina, Cech who are all great keepers.

I was thinking more outfield players that effect the way a team plays on the pitch, Buffon et al are merely there to try and prevent the opposition scoring.

Pirlo really influenced everything that was good about Italy, we had no one capable of doing that.

 

But he was still training the whole time and he played in the last game of the season so the injury he apparently had can't have been for very long. If he was really that unfit that he couldn't chase anyone when we were defending he shouldn't have been on the pitch.

But Spain players missed loads of simple passes the other night against France, it doesn't mean they're ****.

 

Agreed. Adam Johnson is light years ahead of Ashley Young in ability. As a side issue on Young last night Burnsy tweeted a good un. He tweets "Ashley Young is giving as much for England as Jimmy Carr is to the taxman" Classic.

As for James Milner he did well with Johnson on the right when they combined, but on his own is nowhere near good enough. Does add good defensive cover from the bench though, imo.

Have said from day one that would be the final and so far have seen nothing to change my mind.