Joe Hart; Competent only. John Terry;Star player - imperious throughout every game. Joleon Lescott; Most improved â grew into the role and deserved credit at the end. Ashley Cole; Disappointingly below par Glen Johnson; Jekyll and Hide â (but 75% Hide) Steve Gerrard; Outstanding â finally lived up to his billing in a major competition Scott Parker; All heart but little technical ability Ashley Young; Frustratingly useless James Milner; Donkey Wayne Rooney; Proved yet again that he is not the player many credit him to be. Danny Welbeck; Light weight â the juryâs out. Subs: Andy Carrol; Not international class. Theo Walcott; Light weight and probably always will be. Jordan Henderson; Shows how poor the squad is that he left the bench. Jermain Defoe; Deserved more of a chance. Oxlade-Chamberlain; Too raw to judge fairly from this competition. Manager; Hodgson surpassed expectations with the players he had available, but his biggest task will be finding quality from somewhere to replace 70% of a poor squad.
Agreed. I am no longer looking forward to a brilliant Rooney at a major tournament. He fails to turn up all the time. I also thought Lescott looked to be most improved by the end of the tournament. (Man City will be relishing the new and improved Lescott) I reckon Hodgson will pull some tricks out the bag for the World Cup.
I think 'post-mortem' is not really the right terminology required. We lack technical ability, but that is more to do with the steady dilution of our own game by the influx of overseas players into our top sides. So few of the younger players seem to get a look in these days as the clubs take on foreign managers and more foreign talent in the pusuit of premier league success, or in most cases, survival. The debate has gone on for years about Lilleshall and Burton and centres of excellence, but it has constantly been ****ed up by the FA who can't stand up to the big clubs when it comes to nurturing talent for the future. We are light years behind really. It took Spain about 12 years to become what they are now. The Germans won the U21's tournament with players who are now starring in the full side, even Italy don't play like Italy anymore. There is hope with Wiltshire, Oxlade-Chaimberlain, Hart. Welbeck, Rodwell and a few others, but the actual talent pool seems to get smaller and smaller each year. I don't think I'll ever see England win a World Cup or Euros in my life-time unless there is a radical change in how young kids are brought through the system and given opportunities. At the moment a lot of the young players at the top clubs seem to end out on loan at other clubs on the premise that they need to get experience before making the step up from youth level, when in fact the vast majority end up in the lower divisions or championship - as we can verify ourselves. Not sure how it will ever change though.
I thought Joe Hart's antics in the shootout were embarrassing! Did he really think going bog-eyed and wagging his tongue in what looked like some kind of gay haka, would put anybody off? Pirlo soon put him in his place. Grow up son!
We simply do not have the quality of players that Spain, Germany, Italy etc have - and we don't look like producing them either. England are a Quarter final / semi final team at best and we got as far as I expected us to get in this competition. Hodgson got as much as he could out of the squad available to him.
I don't think Italy had a great side. I don't think they would have been as much of a threat if they didn't have Pirlo. I mean, how many attacks went through him? Italy's finishing showed that they aren't a great side. I also think just because Pirlo was playing, the players had a certain mental state thinking Pirlo's going to be a massive threat and it made them sit deeper.
He was World Class... In 2004. Never been the same since his sending off unfortunately. He's just a Club Player.
I agree. What's more he didn't look like saving any of the penalties. We all remember who missed in the penalty shoots out that we have lost but the keepers also have a role to play. I can't remember one shoot out where our keeper looked as good as the oppositions but maybe that is just down to the quality of the penalties taken.
overall summary: The Premiership has ripped the guts out of English and Scottish football as more 'average' cucumber picking foreign immigrants steal a living at the expense of good up-and-coming native young players. And all so Murdoch can line his pockets with the phrase: "The Best League in the World", when it clearly isnt!
pretty much agree 100% Craig , in the minutes i saw OX he was a bit of a headless chicken , Carroll - in the current England set up was a far better option than Welbeck tho i'd like to think we wont have to resort to these clichés in the next tourney. Milner had his best game against Italy but AJ was a massive omission on the wing. Phil Jones for me was the option not Henderson. Our players would all too often pass and move , rather than pass and become available too much movement OFF the ball , looking for the wonder run. There is little between England and Italy on paper but England never got on the ball .
Harsh on Hart and Parker. Hart did little wrong all tournament and I thought Parker was our second best player last night, we wouldn't have made extra time without him.
I don't understand why England where so knackered in the second half, they played at walking pace and kept in their own half. Was it down to chasing shadows or don't we have a fitness coach
Can not agree that Gerrard finally delivered at a tournament, he had his moments, that's for sure, but these were few and far between. He was rightly mom against Ukraine, who are ranked about 50th in the world for a reason, but I personally felt that his style of play was one of the reasons we kept losing the ball, too often when he gets the ball he's looking for the hollywood ball, rather than looking to maintain possession. Against the 2 good teams we played, Italy and France, other than his dead ball delivery for Lescott's goal I thought he was largely anonymous.
Gerrard put in two good balls and had a ****ty cross somehow find its way to Rooney. Hodgson did pretty well but the squad for the next Euros is intriguing. Hopefully along the lines of this: Hart Walker Cahill Smalling/Jones Baines Chamberlain Wilshere Rodwell Walcott Welbeck/Carroll Rooney Then we still have Butland Kelly Bertrand Clyne Rose Caulker Henderson A Johnson Zaha Powell Barkley McEachran Sturridge W Keane
I think the decision making of our players was shocking. Young was always running down blind alleys, Gerrard and Rooney kept getting caught in two minds and were forever losing the ball. In fact we just didn't appear to have any sort of game plan. For me Roy has made a couple of blunders as well. How Young wasn't hauled off is beyond me. I'd have also liked to have seen Milner go in the middle once Parker was knackered then there'd be no need for Henderson to come on. Ox looks raw but the way Young was playing he really should have been given a chance.
