And England have none of the above and Wales has it in spades. Get Sterling off now at half time and give someone else with less bad karma out there because I'm fed up seeing him lose the ball most times. Wake up Hodgson and get your balls out of the bag.
Have to totally disagree Mike, they had plenty of both, but we had square pegs in round holes again with that starting line up. I keep hearing the Welsh say we were lucky, they must have watched a different game to me, they were the lucky ones in that Joe Hart doesn't fumble many in to his own net, other than that Wales offered NOTHING as an attacking force and would still be playing now without scoring, or even looking like scoring. Any side who sits 10 behind the ball will be difficult to break down (France v Albaina for example, are the French also lucky!!), and yes some poor final balls from England in the 2nd half, but introducing Sturridge was the key, more so than Vardy imo, as he drifted in and out and pulled Wales defence all over the place, not to mention his winning goal. I said at half time in the last game he should have come on then for Sterling when everyone else was clamouring for Vardy. Hopefully Roy will have woken up to the team he needs to select against Slovakia. For me when fit Sturridge is our best forward.
I think we were lucky, that first half performance was self inflicted by bad team selection. Sterling is diabolical and Hart was totally to blame for Bales goal. If we struggle against the likes of Wales and Russia what are the France and Italys going to do to us. Regards Sturridge and Vardy. Vardy pulls the back 2 around with his probing and pace and he sits right on their shoulders and even in behind them whilst Sturridge probes from in front of the back 4.. I think he should start both next time with Sterling and Kane missing out. Both have been poor. Hopefully the result has woken us up, but watching us there is still that lack of tempo and this keep the ball at any cost without getting anywhere philosophy. We're not ready for better teams.
[QUOTE If we struggle against the likes of Wales and Russia what are the France and Italys going to do to us.[/QUOTE] France may have won 2 games, but have struggled and also relied on very very late goals to beat Romania & Albania, who are weaker than the teams in our group. On the network down here one of the pundits is Ruud Guillit and he keeps saying time and again that sides don't win tournament in the group stages, and many teams find form and formations by accident some times, and you just need to get through the groups and improve game on game, so far that absolutely applies to England. I think we could surprise teams who don't play with 10 men behind the ball with the he attacking players we have, however I really fear our 2 CB against a decent pair of strikers.
We must find a way to play using Vardy. When running from deep he will cause all sorts of problems, plus he stops us from being penned in with the threat of pace that he carries. I still cannot believe Bodgeson didn't bring him on against Russia. He would have destroyed them. Talk about stubborn and stupid Not impressed with Sterling or Lalana, and I feel Kane will not hit his true form until the latter stages of the competition (if we are still in it). The jury is still out on Ali. Everyone says what a maestro he is, and isn't it marvellous how last year he was playing for some pub team, but for me that is not good enough reason to think he can fill Gascoigne's shoes. I am still hopeful he can cross my Ts, 'cos we sure do need another Gazza, but I think Wilshere is more in line to inherit THAT crown at the moment
I think you're spot on Supcon - from some of the talk you'd think that we didn't actually win yesterday! Both Russia and Wales were set up to stifle England and hit on the counter, which they're perfectly entitled to do and which probably gave them the best chance of getting results. People may be snobby about their 'quality', but well-organized, defensive teams are difficult to break down. As Supcon said, France had a similar experience with Albania (arguably a weaker side than Wales), Portugal only drew with Iceland, Spain needed a late goal against Czech Republic, Germany were only 1-0 up against Ukraine going into injury time and then failed to break through Poland (makes a change!)... plenty of similar examples. England clearly have areas where they need to improve, particularly in defence, but let's get some perspective. Frankly, I think anyone who thinks the problem is that the players don't care enough and need some more 'fackin' passion' are morons - if anything, they need to take some of the emotion OUT of their game (i.e. fear of failure), because expectations from fans are often unrealistically high.
I'm just pissed off this season with last minute goals going against both City and now Wales. Also you are all missing the point of the thread Mike says it's about attitude which Wales had and England did not in the first half so to Mike for picking that out. Don't care what you lot say about we didn't deserve anything against you, but at the end of the day all of you shat your pants and I for one that found that funny. What I don't find funny is men against boys etc. If you looked at the benches Wales don't have anyone that can come on and change games, we've got a by far smaller selection pool. But what we do have is heart and togetherness, and ours fans totally outsang your lot and why, because we probably won't get this chance in our lifetimes again. Over 90 minutes you did deserve to win but let's be honest how many chances did you really have when yet I feel the Welsh defence is the weakest players barring Williams maybe. Supercon you've said that you can't see Wales scoring any goals this tournement but we've scored the same amount as you have. And now you're saying we could still be playing now and Wales won't score. Do you not think that's a bit disrespectful when at the end of the day, we do have players to score out of nothing. To say Bales goal was lucky as Joe Hart should of saved had nothing to do with Bale wrong footing him, watch Hart's position thinking Bales going left like Saturday's but goes right. If Beckham, Dier or Rooney scored that you would be saying it was a fantastic free kick. Do you really underestimate us that much or are you slightly worried about the underdogs this season? Because out the two of us we've got on form the easier next game.
Yesterday was papering over cracks! I hope we win the group and go on to win the next round.. (I have a ticket for QF in Lille) but unless we lose this negative lumbering, slow play we will get dicked by a half decent side. Watching Sterling against Russia was like when one of your mates brought his 7 year kid brother up the park with the 17 year olds for a 11 v 11 kick about.. and Hodgson picked him again yesterday. (clueless) Any side that gets at our defence will have a field day, they look very shaky and haven't really been tested yet, the only way We will be able to progress is to outscore the other side. Sorry I have no faith in Hodgson .. yesterday was re-active not pro-active, he got lucky!
I just can't get excited about anything the national squad does these days. We appear to trot out the usual drivel and when we get a new manager nothing, except the names to protect the innocent, changes and we're expected to cheer from the rooftops. Yesterday I saw a team that although dominating for the vast majority of the first half seem to say to most of the opposition - please you go first. I enjoyed the win but yet again what I saw didn't exactly show the stuff that it will take to win any tournament. Certain players did not do enough to get any accolades and yet they still get chosen over others consistently, just like under previous managers and I don't think RH is up to the task. Sterling is probably moaning as we speak telling the world that he is being picked out for criticism for some inexplicable reason and asking for more money at the same time. If we really want to strut our stuff before going home then the next match is the one in which we have a chance to shine, but I would suspect the same old England to trot out.
