Of all those involved in the four games England played, I would say only Welbeck shone. I thought Joe Hart was pretty poor overall, less than commanding, poor when forced to punch, and kept clearing the ball directly into touch when he was supposed to find the wide men. Walcott played well when he came on against Sweden, but got no service in the other games; against Italy he was starved of any ball and consequently restricted to one incisive run. Johnson got a lot of praise, but for all the good things he did, he was also a liability, bombing forward only to give the ball away and be caught out of position, and failing to maintain the defensive line, thus several times playing attackers on side. Rooney seemed to be somewhere else altogether in his two games; I couldn't believe it when he missed that first header against Ukraine. Ashley Cole, "the best left back in the world", was anonymous most of the time, and Ashley Young a shadow of the player he was for Man U at the tail end of the season. Three general points: (1) pre-tournament, lots of people were in favour of dropping the old guard and selecting promising youngsters. IMO, had we gone for youth, we would have been slaughtered in every game and wouldn't have got past the group stage. (2) my overall impression was one of players who simply lack nous. Other teams manage to be disciplined and play with system while still exhibiting imagination and flair. The only bit of imagination and flair I saw from England was Welbeck's goal against the Swedes. It's as though English players find it as much as they can do to concentrate on maintaining basic defensive shape. (2) I think Hodgson is right to set his sights initially on having England hard to beat. We won't win anything if that's the whole strategy, but without it we won't win anything anyway.
I know he's not flavour of the month, but I thought Terry had a very good tournament, good solid defensive work, then, when he did get caught, tracked back and threw himself in to block any threat!
I agree Dave, I thought Terry and Lescott were actually pretty immense at the back, and I thought Glenn Johnson had a far better tournament than the OP suggests - same with Joe Hart. I disagree with quote a lot of what the OP suggests actually, I thought Wellbeck was no more than average and if he really was our best performer then other countries must be looking at us and pissing themselves (ok, they're probably doing that anyway, but you know what I mean....)
I agree for the most part. Are players do seem poor positionally and tactically, lacking the "nous" you speak of. Every team requires a good balance of players and their is no point in having all old/young although it basically comes down to who are the best players. Hart is a very good keeper but no where near as good as people make him out to be (not yet anyway) his distribution in particular requires a lot of work. They stick to their formation but have no fluidity or ability to change when required, which makes it very easy to execute a game plan against them and mark players who are perceived a danger. Basically our players are not as good as some seem to believe but the qualities they do have could be utilised more e.g. the pace of our wingers. Plenty needs to change for England to be successful from top to bottom.
If they were playing to orders as some pundits suggest then its difficult to moan at anyone apart from Rooney. If they were playing like that because that was the best they could do then OK we don't have the talent. If they were playing like that out of choice then I think only the back 5 really come out of it with any credit. Personally, I thought we played parasite football and it was under orders from Hodgson. So in reply, I though Wellbeck was 5/10. Control not bad but looked unsure of what he was supposed to do when he had controlled it.
did you really think welbeck 'shone'? he was far from a disaster but he was anonymous for enormous spells of all the matches and his goal apart, i thought he was totally ineffective. granted, he needed more support and i do think he has the potential to be a very good player but i really doubt he'll lead the line for man utd and england for the next decade - not good enough. the only players who i thought did well in every match were lescott and terry. it was annoying hearing people suggesting johnson had a good tournament. no - he kept giving the ball away in dangerous positions but thankfully had the pace to get back and correct them. if people think that's 'having a good tournament' then that's a worry... i'm looking at you lawro!!
Lescott and Terry were the only players who performed in every game. Gerrard was half tidy. The rest IMO sh*te
I think you're being extremely harsh on Glen Johnson, Ashley Cole and Andy Carroll. Cole wasn't his usual self and certainly wasn't as good as usual going forward, but a lot of that was down to us constantly losing the ball thus making it almost impossible for him to join in when we attacked. However, he defended solidly. Johnson was as good as I've ever seen him. Did well when he got forward and defended very well, although he made the odd error. Carroll was far, far more effective than I thought he was going to be. Made a real nuisance of himself when he played and got a terrific goal. Granted they weren't world-beaters, but its harsh to say they were ****e.
Yes, in the sense that he stood out from the general dross and did demonstrate a bit of flair. I don't understand carra's praise of Carroll (unless it's irony). Apart from his goal he was worse than ordinary IMO, couldn't hold the ball up and kept giving away free kicks.
I agree Carra, and I'm surprised people are critical of Glenn Johnson as I thought he was excellent in pretty much every game - particularly as he had Milner in front of him who was fairly anonymous all tournament - and he certainly didn't give the ball away as often as our midfield did. As good as Parker looks in the Permiership he was well off the pace at international level and didn't really offer anything. When you look at the CMs in the countries left in the semi - Xavi, Iniesta, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Pirlo, Moutinho - it's clear why we haven't been competitive, they are all far, far better and much more creative than anything we have available.
Hart - Ordinary, made some decent saves but poor distribution and worryingly flappy at crosses Cole - OK defensively but offered nothing going forward Johnson - OK going forward but repeatedly out of position and losing possession in our half. Goods in parts but lacking concentration Terry - Utter c*ck but played well and gave 100% Commander Worf - Had a decent tournament Gerrard - OK, some excellent distribution and tackling back but failed to take hold of any part of any game. Looked permanently knackered. Parker - Solid defensivly but looked one paced and dog tired all of the time. Offered very little going forward. Young - May as well have played Will Young for all that Ashley mansged. Utterly anonymous. Milner - Ran himself into the ground but I could have done that to similar effect. Just not good enough to play international football. Wallcott - A brilliant half hour and then he was starved of possession. Why play him if you don't pass it to him? Wellbeck - Curates egg - some excellence and a lot of anonymity. Rooney - Played like someone had swapped his boots for diving shoes. Carroll - Have to say I was impressed with his work rate and scored a brilliant goal. It is difficult to be too critical of the forwards as they had practically no service. For me the moment that summed up England was Henderson coming on. You know you are not going far in a tournament when he forms part of your central midfield. Overall we lost the 1/4 final without really having a go to a pretty ordinary Italian side with a good keeper and two decent midfielders (one of whom had a stinker against us). The loss was a disappointment but the manner of the loss was the sickener. Let's hope that Hodgson is in a position to pick some fresher faces and build for Brazil. I sduppose at least things can only get better.
I thought Cole had a good tournament. His problem was Young was sh*te and he was forever clearing up Young's mistakes.
I guess if we hadn't lost both Barry and Lampard pre-tournament, things might have been slightly better. Hopefully Wilshere will be back and injury-free when internationals restart. But who else is there for midfield?
Technically inept and the laughing stock of Europe. We are more concerned about conceding a goal than scoring one, I'd rather watch Stoke!
