Official World Cup Matchday Thread - Uruguay v England

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Fifa World Cup 2014

Uruguay v England


Venue- Arena de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo
Date- Thursday 19th June
Kick Off - 8pm BST
Coverage- BBC TV, BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Sport website

Head to Head

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Betting (from PP)

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If we lose this we are out, it's as simple as that.
I'd drop Rooney and bring him on as an impact sub.
Should be a cracking game.

 

Partly agree with Shearer on this one - play Rooney at number 10 or don't play him at all. Definitely no god out wide as he doesn't cover as well as others, and frankly we have others who would be more effective going forward out wide too.

It Rooney plays 10 it would mean moving Sterling out wide. This is where I don't agree with Shearer. Leave Sterling where he is. He was our best player. Leave Rooney as a sub - wind him up (in the right way) and let him go at them. I'm probably in a minority of one again on this but I would start Milner and Welbeck out wide. Milner is a better player out wide than Rooney and would work well with Baines. He wouldn't set the game alight like Sterling but he's a solid option and performs better in a white shirt than Rooney.

Won't happen though - Rooney will start.

 

Would it kill us to play 2 strikers? You know, like Liverpool all season, who most of our players play for ...

 

You still have the same issue. Playing two strikers would be Rooney/Sturridge, which pushes Sterling out wide, which still leaves that side weak. I find it amusing that the same problem has plagued us for around 25 years - no left winger.

 

Play Gerrard deep, Lallana and Ox wide and Sterling at the tip of the diamond. Makes perfect sense to me

 

Gerrard cannot protect in that role, he's not a De Rossi or even a Tiote! Ox isn't fit enough to start. Just seems a bit of a FM2014 tactic to me.

 

Howcome Liverpool nearly won the league doing it?

 

I never understand why we try to fix the problems which are not there. We had one issue, the left side. There are two solutions. You either drop Rooney and play Milner, Ox or Lallana there. Personally I'd go Lallana as he is most similar to the players Baines has in front of him at Everton and Ox isn't quite fully fit.

The other option is to drop Baines and play young Shaw who is a better defender. For me now is not the time to abandon Baines because of his defensive deficiency which is exposed when he has a player in front of him who doesn't quite understand the defensive role. You stick with Baines and make your left side work to exploit his main quality you picked him for, his attacking ability. He needs a Pienaar type to release him. Rooney should be played either 9 or 10. Given Sturridge and Sterling are better in those positions, just accept you have a really good sub in Rooney and move on. I'd even argue he is 3rd choice for the number 10 role in our set up because Barkley also gives you more drive there. The lone front man will have to do a lot of work so just get Sturridge going full tilt for 60 or 70 mins then bring Rooney on.

Don't start switching formations etc, trying to play two up top, its daft once you are here.

 

Totally this^^ Baines was left high and dry by Rooney's ..'wandering about' ..Lallana would complement him and vice versa.

Milner is also a good solid option as a left side pairing with Baines

 

Liverpool's system was completely different to the England sytem and a million miles from a straight forward 2 up front. Suarez regularly comes very deep and plays as part of the midfield. England don't have a player who can do that effectively. Rooney tries to but he isn't effective.

We have been playing two up front for years and years and it hasn't worked. I am really encouraged by this new system. For too long we have tried to build a system around our best players instead of picking players around our best system.

 

There's talk that Woy will play Rooney through the middle and Sterling on the wing.
Sterling seemed to confirm this in an interview this morning.

 

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4-4-2

allow full backs to overlap widemen at times

composed, fluent, passing football

Look to hit counter attacks

Sturridge Sterling

Barkley Gerrard Henderson Lallana

Baines Cahill Jagielka Johnson

Hart

Although it's just a shame the line up will be.. anything as long as wooney! is in it.

 

Only 25 minutes gone but I think England are poor. Passing is woeful and Uruguay look much sharper.

 

Can anyone, anywhere explain to me why Adrian Chiles is on my television? Everything in the universe, even politics, makes more sense than Adrian Chiles paid to "present" football.

 

...then as an encore can they then explain why Joe Hart is supposedly the best English goalkeeper.

He's permanently out of position and just pats or palms rather than catches.

 

There's no-one actually attacking here.

Perhaps I misunderstand this game entirely and mistakenly think one actually need a proper forward or two.

 

You're assuming there's competition? In terms of attacking, I think it was Sartre who said the only thing wrong with tactics is the opposition.

 

Any keeper, even in the three lower leagues, with a modicum of an idea of positioning would be far acceptable.