England V Italy

[wakeyfox01]

We've got the makings of a good, exciting side but I think this tournament has come slightly too soon for some of them.

By the Euro's I can see us being competitive.

[Guest ttfn]

Gerrard should be getting more criticism but just because Rooney had one moment of 'magic', doesn't mean the rest of his game was good enough.

Didn't say it was.

Rooney wasn't great, but at least offered something,

You could have stuck Matty James in midfield for us today - do you think the output from that position would have been any different?

[Larry_LCFC]

All the Rooney bashing is embarrassing. Played in the right position and with the right support around him, he is superb. The cross for sturridge was sublime. There were players on that pitch who performed alot worse, Gerrard and Baines to name two. Rooney is just a scapegoat for an average team performance.

[Stadt]

Again, Baines wasn't the problem - it was the lack of cover from Rooney which left him with two men to mark which obviously lead to a goal.

[Manwell Pablo]

Well Woy got what he deserved for wasting a substitution. Starting Welbeck was just stupid and it meant that at least two of Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Wilshere and Lambert would have to miss out. You could argue we should have had 4 of those 5 starting.

 

It was a fairly even game overall but we needed that bit of quality in the final 3rd and we didn't get it - perhaps we would have done if we'd have had our best players on the pitch.

 

Credit where credit's due, Rooney's set up for the goal was superb but other than that he proved why he's not a world class player. We needed him to make the difference and once again he showed he wasn't good enough to do it.

 

Baines was isolated against 2 players too many times, not sure who's fault that was but it cost us the 2nd goal.

 

Positive performance in general, but we lost out because Woy is too thick to make the right decisions which turn the game.

 

What you meant to say there, Jean Claude, is that Baines is nowhere near as good as Ashley Cole.

 

Piss taking aside getting caught on the overlap is a the one major pitfall of the 4-3-3 formation. I can understand why we played that formation as the Italians generally try and play through the middle, if you watched the game back they very rarely tried to aim for the channels, but unfortunately one of those ended in a goal.  

 

Can't fault the England performance, we had a go and came up short against a side that was on paper probably marginally better than ours and we could of got something out of it with a little bit more luck in certain situations. If we play like that we should see off Costa RIca with ease and the Uruguay game depends on Suarez's fitness and how their camp reacts to their defeat today.

 

As I've had a few I'll say a big fuk you very much to all of those who thought Italy weren't much to worry about. And Lofty, that's why Pirlo is better than Gerrard at sitting deep.

[wakeyfox01]

Again, Baines wasn't the problem - it was the lack of cover from Rooney which left him with two men to mark which obviously lead to a goal.

He made a laughably bad attempt to block a cross for their second goal and took himself out of the game though.

[Stadt]

None of them would get into our side

[Donut]

Welbeck was a good solid 7 7.5 out of 10 today. People doing player ratings of 6 for him are using scapegoats.

[Guest ttfn]

Again, Baines wasn't the problem - it was the lack of cover from Rooney which left him with two men to mark which obviously lead to a goal.

No, what led to the goal was Baines allowing a cross with virtually no pressure on the ball,

If our game plan was to have 2 men on their right back then we may as well not have bothered.

If Baines wants to be taken seriously at this level then he needs to be dealing with that.

[Manwell Pablo]

Again, Baines wasn't the problem - it was the lack of cover from Rooney which left him with two men to mark which obviously lead to a goal.

 

Baines got sold for that goal, and you can probably blame Rooney if we were playing 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, it's 4-3-3, three forwards, your full backs are going to get limited cover. If you want to blame anyone for the lack of cover blame Hodgson.

[Donut]

Surely if the plan was to double up down our left hand side then Roy would be picking a defensive minded midfielder in the three rather than a striker?

 

Baines made a feeble attempt at stopping Candreva's delivery

[Guest ttfn]

Hart 6

Johnson 6

Cahill 6

Jagielka 6

Baines 5

Gerrard 4

Henderson 6

Welbeck 7

Sterling 8

Rooney 6

Sturridge 7

[Guest Kopfkino]

Shouldn't have lost and far more positive than any England performence at a tournament of late.

Welbeck didn't do his defensive duty to help out Baines, Gerrard was nowhere and Rooney showed he isn't the world class player that some people think he is. I'm still positive, at least we had a go but Italy really aren't that special, which annoys me a bit

[Stadt]

Baines got sold for that goal, and you can probably blame Rooney if we were playing 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, it's 4-3-3, three forwards, your full backs are going to get limited cover. If you want to blame anyone for the lack of cover blame Hodgson.

Hodgson was at fault for not reacting quickly enough and I must have missed Baines not blocking the cross

[johnny the fox]

Baines Why oh why we've left our best ever left back at home is beyond me.

Impressed with Sturridge and Sterling. Rooney did well for the goal and should've scored when he dragged it wide of the post, otherwise another lacklustre performance. Gerrard was largely anonymous. Have no idea why we say so far off Pirlo.

Don't think we've deserved to lose that game either tonight. None of the subs had any impact when they came on but it's always hard to break teams like Italy down when they're ahead.

Onwards and upwards.

you only realise how good cole is ,when you see the feeble alternatives.

[Manwell Pablo]

Hodgson was at fault for not reacting quickly enough and I must have missed Baines not blocking the cross

 

you must have missed him not blocking the cross?

 

Really?

[MooseBreath]

On a side note, fvck all the local jungle bunnies supporting italy tonight. Cheering passes every two minutes, the classless monkeys. Can't wait for brazil to get knocked out and send them packing back to their favelas.

[Stadt]

you must have missed him not blocking the cross?

Really?

Yeah

[StanSP]

Hart 5

Johnson 5

Baines 3

Cahill 6

Jagielka 6

Henderson 6

Gerrard 5

Rooney 6

Sterling 8

Welbeck 6

Sturridge 7

 

Baines 3 is incredibly harsh. Most of the game had 2 attackers on him and even the best left-backs in the world would struggle with that. Not sure what more he could have done or as so many like to point out, not sure if Ashley Cole would have done much better without support from midfielders in front of him. 

 

Italy sussed out how we'd play Baines without a ball being kicked. Right from the start they stuck an extra midfielder out there to stay on that right win so that if Baines does venture up the field, another England player is brought back out to cover. Then in an attacking sense, there's always 2 players on that side for Baines to handle and it was clear from the start he would need more support. 

 

When it came to the 2nd goal, it was a poor move from Roy to get Welbeck there to try and help him out. And for the guy who crossed it yeah Baines should have done better to hold the player up or block the cross, but it wasn't all his fault (to give him a 3 suggests you think it was/could be?) that he had a poor game. 

[Leicesterpool]

I think to mention is when we 1-2 down and when Henderson went off my thought straight away was... oh he's going to go two upfront either bring Lallana on and move Rooney up front with Sturridge or bring Lambert to go up front with Sturridge. But instead he brings on wiltshire (who offered nothing to the game) a midfielder playing in a defensive midfield role? Of course Sturridge went injured later but that was before then.

[Guest ttfn]

If Baines (or Shaw for that matter) is going to play he has to get forward more.

Waste of time having him as a defensive left back - his best attribute is his crossing.

[Kitchandro]

The game where Welbeck worked tirelessly in the first half, ran at pace, caused problems, hunted down the Italian centrebacks, as noted by Thierry Henry.

 

That game.

 

Henry was a great footballer but he's not a pundit.

 

Aside from one great bit of play down the right when he exchanged a one-two in the first half, he did bugger all.

 

2nd half I never saw him.

[johnny the fox]

All the Rooney bashing is embarrassing. Played in the right position and with the right support around him, he is superb. The cross for sturridge was sublime. There were players on that pitch who performed alot worse, Gerrard and Baines to name two. Rooney is just a scapegoat for an average team performance.

there are none so blind .. superb ?..your having a laugh.

[Kitchandro]

Surely if the plan was to double up down our left hand side then Roy would be picking a defensive minded midfielder in the three rather than a striker?

 

Baines made a feeble attempt at stopping Candreva's delivery

 

Oh stfu, he has no chance against two people, end of story. You think the savoiour Cashley would have done any better like that idiot Rio?

[GingerrrFox]

The only time we look dangerous is when we attack with pace and play high tempo football, we need legs in the side ESPECIALLY IN MIDFIELD and we need to play players in their best positions.

 

Hart

Johnson

Cahill

Jagielka

Baines

 

Henderson

Milner

 

Oxlade-Chamberlain

Barkley

Sterling

 

Sturridge