To be fair to Clyne, Slovakia changed their shape (a bit late) to cope with him. Some players did seem to take a lot of touches (I was contrasting to Italy v Belgium), but they were also facing a wall of defenders, in general the movement seemed good to me. Final ball let us down, and it all got a bit desperate last 15 minutes. Not taking Drinkwater could be a disaster, this team is entirely dependent on Dier, who is clearly a very good player, and we have no one else who can do that job. It was scary went he seemed injured in the second half. It all may well click next game, the ingredients are there. Mind you, I've said that about QPR too many times to remember, and rarely been right.
It's difficult to assess as we've played well in all three games but've still come up short. ( I think I've just invented a new word, albeit a crap one. ) We've played three sides who have all parked the bus and have only broken down the Welsh. I think we need to to move the ball from back to front a bit quicker like Leicester does sometimes when the opposition does this. Hodgson is being paid £3.5m a year, you'd expect him to have a Plan B or have the capacity to win the group. Wales have overachieved with an arguably lesser manager and squad. Hopefully we still get to cheer on the Lions if they progress beyond the second stage as they go out in the quarters as per usual.
Slovakia reminded me of QPR in the premiership, without them conceding in the last minute. England should have converted one of the chances against them or Russia to have 7 points.
Have to say that the biggest crime of the tournament so far was not beating the worst Russian side I can ever remember. Cappello certainly mugged the Russian FA even more than ours and we saw his legacy come to fruition last night. Well done Wales, they've proved that if you have a team that knows it's job and play as a team plus a truly World-class striker you can go a long way. We seem to be lacking that one thing we thought we had in abundance with just three goals in such a winnable group but I think Hodgson's decision to make so many changes and leave out our one World-class player has backfired and leaves us with a tougher run-in should we actually progress. We'll all have to hope we avoid Portugal, they have had our number in recent tournaments...
Yes. But then again you might as well say that without a centre half/DCM to score from a free kick against Russia and Sturridge's 'fluky' last minute winner against Wales and we'd be going home now. There's no point in deluding ourselves that 'we murdered them in every game' when we seem to be unable to break down mediocre sides with limited ambition.
Can't understand why he took Vardy and not Drinkwater as well. Dier and Alli feed Kane at club level, but Vardy has no one out there who he is used to playing with. I think Roy got it wrong last night and now we have the prospect of Portugal in the first knock out match.
Big mistake by Hodgson making so many changes - we'll just have to hope we don't find ourselves up against the mighty Iceland.
Pretty damning press all round for Roy today. Let's remember, however, that there may be a whole bunch of reasons why he had to change the selection yesterday that we will never be privy to. I'm probably clutching at straws and left wondering why I have the misfortune to be a QPR fan and an England fan! Onward and upwards. Thinks may yet 'click' (aka 'gel') for this team. At least we're not going home and the small crumb of comfort is that we go into the knock out stage unbeaten!
had Hodgson made no changes with the same result, he would have got pelters for that too. Wilshire was disappointing and Henderson not good enough. We can only hope all 11 players turn up when we are against the big boys. Repeat of last nights performance and we are coming home
Far too many changes. That's the problem here. The side that finished against Wales would have mullered the Slovakia team. Anyway - onwards we go. Next game is against the runners up in Group F (Hungary, Iceland, Portugal, Austria). Clearly there's one team we'd want to avoid there. The matches (tomorrow early evening) are Iceland v Austria and Portugal v Hungary. I reckon that Iceland may snatch a win against Austria, who have been disappointing, and without Ronaldo's utterly hilarious penalty miss, would have lost both their opening games. So that leaves Hungary (currently on 4 points) against Portugal (2 points). Hungary have been very well organised, and organisation is what you need against Portugal, because you know what they are going to do - feed Ronaldo and hope he clicks. They have the ability to shut them down, in which case a draw is likely. That would put the top two as Hungary and Iceland (never thought that might happen) and it'll come down to who scored the most goals (currently Hungary are one ahead, 3 to 2). I'm still not sure whether England could beat any of these sides, certainly not on last night's form. However, surely Hodgson will sort out the team selection whoever we are playing? Surely?
I'm sure England could beat any of the four possible opponents in the last 16. I don't agree with people that say we haven't played well or couldn't break down massed defences. In my opinion we have played well in long periods of all three games. We have broken down these defences, but ironically, it's been our poor finishing that has let us down. At international level 4 good chances like we had against Slovakia are often as much as you get. Against the top teams you might only get 1 or 2. If we start taking our chances we can do well in this tournament. The biggest worry for me is Hodgson's muddled thinking at times.
Also, what's with the management basically telling the media 24 hours before the game what the line-up is going to be? Why cant anyone keep schtum and keep it a secret until just before kick-off?
Chaz - 'Far too many changes. That's the problem here. The side that finished against Wales would have mullered the Slovakia team.' That's exactly the team it should have been.
We have seen a lot of well organised, determined and very committed teams in this tournament, but the only teams that have really impressed me are Italy, Spain and Croatia. England need to be tested against a team that will play football against us. That's not Portugal from what I have seen, Hungary are much more dangerous.
The problem with Portugal is that we can't expect Ronaldo to carry on being crap for ever - at some point he'll click and it'd be likely against us. Finishing second has definitely made the route through harder for us, with France, Italy, Spain, Germany and potentially Portugal in our half of the draw.
We are set to meet France in the QF I believe in Paris. Way to p**s on the fans Hodgson, because they'll have little hope of getting a ticket.
Looking for positives, at least one of Italy or Spain will lose in R16, and the winner of that then (presumably) plays Germany, so another big hitter will go out in the QF. If we can get through the next match, we're looking at France, then one of Germany/Spain/Italy. So it's tough, but it looks tough for all the teams in that half of the draw. Question is - as it stands, the winners of Group F go into the easier half of the draw and probably play Belgium. The runners up face England in the tough half, and the third place team (if they get through) will play either Croatia or Germany. There seems to be a heck of a lot riding on the 5pm games today...
