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barclay_troy

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What a load of rubbish, we never played until Beckham came on, Heskey didn''t do nothing, why Defoe or Crouch wasn''t brought on sooner i don''t know. playing lamps on left didn''t work and they still cant play together. Cole made a bad blunder and didn''t have a good game. SWP was brought on without taking off either ''tweedle dumb or tweedle dee''. I love Theo i want him to play all day long but he was having problems with his crosses.

 He said it was 433 but it still looked like a dodgy 442  Theo was playing in midfield. it didn''t take shape until Beckham came on. That''s my opinion anyway an

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[quote user="barclay_troy"]

What a load of rubbish, we never played until Beckham came on, Heskey didn''t do nothing, why Defoe or Crouch wasn''t brought on sooner i don''t know. playing lamps on left didn''t work and they still cant play together. Cole made a bad blunder and didn''t have a good game. SWP was brought on without taking off either ''tweedle dumb or tweedle dee''. I love Theo i want him to play all day long but he was having problems with his crosses.

 He said it was 433 but it still looked like a dodgy 442  Theo was playing in midfield. it didn''t take shape until Beckham came on. That''s my opinion anyway an

[/quote]I think it says a lot you that you think Heskey did nothing. 

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[quote user="barclay_troy"]

What a load of rubbish, we never played until Beckham came on, Heskey didn''t do nothing, why Defoe or Crouch wasn''t brought on sooner i don''t know. playing lamps on left didn''t work and they still cant play together. Cole made a bad blunder and didn''t have a good game. SWP was brought on without taking off either ''tweedle dumb or tweedle dee''. I love Theo i want him to play all day long but he was having problems with his crosses.

 He said it was 433 but it still looked like a dodgy 442  Theo was playing in midfield. it didn''t take shape until Beckham came on. That''s my opinion anyway an

[/quote]

 

I thought Heskey was excellent.Hard working,good hold up and great ball for Defoe''s goal. Gerrard was shocking again,and I agree that they can''t play together because they both want to run the game.Cole was dodgy early on in Croatia and is living on borrowed time.5-1 flattered us big time!

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Heskey was great, was just hoping he would get a goal, but for me was our one of if not our best player. Gerrard was woeful, i know he''s a great player for his club but he just doesnt do the job for England and he is always dropping into the back four to collect the ball 2 yards from the 120k a week centre backs who he obviously doesnt feel can pass further than the 2 yards.

I actually felt the score flattered England and Kazikstan were of a much better standard than i think any of us expected. Still win is a win.

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I thought Heskey played well and deserved a goal, he''s the ideal type of target man in as much he has great movement as well as being able to hold up the ball.  Thought they Borat''s team tired toward the end, making the 5-1 scoreline a tad unfair on them.  A wins a win a the moment mind.  [:)]

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[quote user="Yellowbeagle"]

Heskey was great, was just hoping he would get a goal, but for me was our one of if not our best player. Gerrard was woeful, i know he''s a great player for his club but he just doesnt do the job for England and he is always dropping into the back four to collect the ball 2 yards from the 120k a week centre backs who he obviously doesnt feel can pass further than the 2 yards.

I actually felt the score flattered England and Kazikstan were of a much better standard than i think any of us expected. Still win is a win.

[/quote]Sorry, ok he wasnt as bad as i made out and i was hoping he would have put the ball away at the end but it seemed that his passes were weak and astray. He held it up until someone ran on but then missed his passes.

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Typical English, we win 5-1 and still people moan, people often complain about the lack of passion shown by the players on the pitch but the same can be said for us England fans too. Ashley Cole was harshly booed today and it was yet another example of how football fan''s clubs come way before their country.

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[quote user="West_London_Canary"]Typical English, we win 5-1 and still people moan, people often complain about the lack of passion shown by the players on the pitch but the same can be said for us England fans too. Ashley Cole was harshly booed today and it was yet another example of how football fan''s clubs come way before their country.[/quote]

I think the biggest argument is, we should have been 3 up before half time, If  they make the going hard against teams like these we have a lot to learn. about winning games of football, Ist lesson get rid of Lampard 

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[quote user="Arturo Whittoli"]I know ill get shot down for this, but i think England play better without Gerrard!!! Let the bullets commence![/quote]

Not from me Arthur. I agree.

Let Lampard and Barry deal with central midfield. Or Barry and Hargreaves when he''s fit.

And leave Gerrard to compete with Walcott  and Wright-Phillips wide right.

Cashley should be dropped.

And Green given a run instead of James in the ''lesser'' matches such as todays;

Almost lastly [:)] , I can''t believe anyone looking on not seeing that Heskey did his job and had a pretty good game.

As usual these days however a pretty creaky performance overall from England against significantly lesser opposition.

OTBC

 

 

 

 

 

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The main problems were in the midfield and defence.Gerrard and Lampard. Lampard and Gerrard. Do what ever you want with it, it will never work.Lampard''s a goalscoring midfielder, and Gerrard is a box to box, but they are both very forward thinking, and often tonight i caught them both running and stopping in the same position with the ball and almost colliding into one another, they both seemed very confused and they both lacked confidence because of it. Gerrard was least confident tonight out of the two, and everyone may not of noticed, but he was truly awful tonight. He was caught out of position a number of times, his passing was bad, and when he did shoot it was just as bad as anything else he did tonight. Unlike Lampard he didn''t do his best to make something out of what was already a failiure from the first minute til last. Lampards passing was slick, and nice, his ball control at times was outstanding, his confidence was not as badly hit as Gerrard, and he did show class on more than one occasion, especially in his set pieces. But then again he did get stuck at the back along with Gerrard way too often, passing it round, never going forward, often resulting in pointlessly punting it up the pitch when the crowd got on their backs.Taking Barry off was the worst thing Capello could of done. Despite him not having the best of nights, he was the only reason Gerrard and Lampard felt they could go forward, because of the support he gave them. After Barry was off, we didn''t have a midfield simply.Defence were awful. When ever the ball was in the box, none of the defenders tried to get or clear the ball, they just let it slide across, and we were just lucky the opposition weren''t good enough to make the most out of our mistakes. If it had been Italy, or the Netherlands tonight, that scoreline could of well been in reverse.On a positive note, i actually thought Heskey was very good. In my eyes hardly did a thing wrong. Held the ball up extremely well, even when he had 3 or 4 men on him. His passing was ok, more often than not met his man, and without him tonight you would hardly of seen Rooney or Walcott in the game. His finishing could of been much better though, never the less without him tonight, i think it could of all been much worse. Perfect example of a target man.Overall tonight though i thought it was all poor. The defence and midfield were horrible, and completely lacked confidence. And because of that, memories of the 2006 World came screaming back to mind.Oh yeah and the fans were horrible to. The players should never play at Wembley again, as the fans always rip the confidence out of them. 90,000 Fans shouting you on works for you, but 90,000 fans booing and groaning, that works against you. I honestly think had they been playing at some small 800 seater stadium in the middle of nowhere tonight, they would have been twice as good, playing with 10 times more confidence.Theres a good reason why are poor at Wembley [looking at the England fans].

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[quote user="BlyBlyBabes"]

[quote user="Arturo Whittoli"]I know ill get shot down for this, but i think England play better without Gerrard!!! Let the bullets commence![/quote]

Not from me Arthur. I agree.

Let Lampard and Barry deal with central midfield. Or Barry and Hargreaves when he''s fit.

And leave Gerrard to compete with Walcott  and Wright-Phillips wide right.

Cashley should be dropped.

And Green given a run instead of James in the ''lesser'' matches such as todays;

Almost lastly [:)] , I can''t believe anyone looking on not seeing that Heskey did his job and had a pretty good game.

As usual these days however a pretty creaky performance overall from England against significantly lesser opposition.

OTBC

 [/quote]

Completely agree Bly. Cashley has had some pretty bad performances recently and was hardly steller against Croatia. What he was thinking when he played that ball tonight is anybodies guess.

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[quote user="Arturo Whittoli"]I know ill get shot down for this, but i think England play better without Gerrard!!! Let the bullets commence![/quote]

100% agree, great player just not in an England shirt, sometimes it just doesnt work and it''s hard to understand why  (the reason is not Lampard). John Barnes struggled in an England shirt apart from the odd game and Gerrard is the same. If he was left out of the 11 you never know it might actually help him by relieving the expectation on him, of course if we then lose the media will then jump up and down on the manager, so doubt this will happen.

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[quote user="Arturo Whittoli"]I know ill get shot down for this, but i think England play better without Gerrard!!! Let the bullets commence![/quote]I agree.

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Christ people are agreeing with me that England play better without Gerrard??? I better say something reckless so we can get back to normal....er.....Rooneys a carthorse! LOL![;)][;)][;)]

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[quote user="West_London_Canary"]Typical English, we win 5-1 and still people moan, people often complain about the lack of passion shown by the players on the pitch but the same can be said for us England fans too. Ashley Cole was harshly booed today and it was yet another example of how football fan''s clubs come way before their country.[/quote]

I personally thought it was quite refreshing to see Ashley Cole getting booed. For me it just highlighted how sick and tired we are of these multi millionaires strutting around with no passion or pride. The back pass error just gave the fans a golden oppurtunity to vent their frustrations at one of these players.Thats my opinion anyway!!  

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[quote user="barclay_troy"]

Heskey didn''t do nothing

[/quote]So that''s a double negative then...so...I agree with you! He did a lot. Good observation :)

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 barclay_troy wrote:

Heskey didn''t do nothing

Other than being caught offside a few times, and some of those were questionable calls, he played very well.

The defense was quite lame considering the opposition and could have been burned badly playing that way against a high ranked team.

I disagree with the guy who thinks subbing that midfielder was a mistake.  It was after that when we scored all our goals.

Tonight, it''s USA vs Cuba.  Cuba will be short 2 players who have gone missing (read: defected) but it matters not.  We will hammer them either way.   See ya in South Africa!

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[quote user="Arturo Whittoli"]Christ people are agreeing with me that England play better without Gerrard??? I better say something reckless so we can get back to normal....er.....Rooneys a carthorse! LOL![;)][;)][;)][/quote]

I agree twice err that''s a bit unusual.

I thought Gerrard,Rooney and Cole as senior players were woefull. Passing poor, Cole has only one foot and always turns to use it.

I have always been a fan of Gerrard but for some reason his performances for England are not to his usual standard.

The golden age seems to have tarnished a bit. Bring on the yougsters.

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[quote user="mickey phelans tash"]

[quote user="West_London_Canary"]Typical English, we win 5-1 and still people moan, people often complain about the lack of passion shown by the players on the pitch but the same can be said for us England fans too. Ashley Cole was harshly booed today and it was yet another example of how football fan''s clubs come way before their country.[/quote]

I personally thought it was quite refreshing to see Ashley Cole getting booed. For me it just highlighted how sick and tired we are of these multi millionaires strutting around with no passion or pride. The back pass error just gave the fans a golden oppurtunity to vent their frustrations at one of these players.Thats my opinion anyway!!  

[/quote]

God i get sick of this ''over paid pre maddonas'' bull. Sure they get paid alot but if your that pissed off with them why buy a ticket to watch them play? No point turning up and booing your team while they are winning. And how was it refreshing? Lampard has been booed in almost all of the recent matches. All this ''passion and pride'' stuff is a load of crap. you want a player with passion? Joey Barton. Want a manager with passion? Peter Grant. These are not what make great players. Rooney is a player who has alot of passion but has had to have it curbed by Capello to stop him going all over the place.

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I was at the game, thought Heskey looked average against a poor team, he''s just too ''nice'' for me.I don''t want my strikers to get praise for good hold up play, good workrate, I like them to get judged on goals tally, the rest is bread and butter stuff (eg Shearer)I had rio to score first and a 3-1 win so for a while I was 500quid up, but was really pleased that Defoe scored.Only difference on the night was the fitness levels IMHOJames, still looks shakyBrown - keeping shirt warm for neville or richardsCole - apart from mistake, played ok with no-one wide left to assist him (booing was a disgrace)Rio - couple of lapses in concentration but was continually gee-ing up the team, goal well takenUpson - solid, job doneTheo- v v v quick, some good runs but wasn''t given the service some of his runs deservedGerrard - not a right sided midfield player, too deep in 2nd half but you could see Fabio telling him what to do from sidelines, he was following orders playing out of position.  Sprayed some lovely cross field passes and on another day a couple of his 1-2''s around the box would''ve come offlampard - steady, playing slightly to the left, still a quality player, never stopped tryingBarry - did nothing wrong, perhaps unlucky to be taken offRooney - NOT a left sided striker, looked so much better in 2nd half thro'' the middleHeskey - not for me, did ok on the night tho (see above)SWP - looked ultra-keen to impress, injected some pace, unlucky not to start on that showDefoe - hungry as ever, goal well taken as he had time to think about it.  Good foil for RooneyBeckham - quality crosses, came on, had a word with Gerr and Lamps and then put his foot on the ball and took some authority. Shame he''s getting on as he looks class stillwell that''s my opinion from up in the stands

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[quote user="Gingembre"]I was at the game, thought Heskey looked average against a poor team, he''s just too ''nice'' for me.
I don''t want my strikers to get praise for good hold up play, good workrate, I like them to get judged on goals tally, the rest is bread and butter stuff (eg Shearer)
I had rio to score first and a 3-1 win so for a while I was 500quid up, but was really pleased that Defoe scored.
Only difference on the night was the fitness levels IMHO
James, still looks shaky
Brown - keeping shirt warm for neville or richards
Cole - apart from mistake, played ok with no-one wide left to assist him (booing was a disgrace)
Rio - couple of lapses in concentration but was continually gee-ing up the team, goal well taken
Upson - solid, job done
Theo- v v v quick, some good runs but wasn''t given the service some of his runs deserved
Gerrard - not a right sided midfield player, too deep in 2nd half but you could see Fabio telling him what to do from sidelines, he was following orders playing out of position.  Sprayed some lovely cross field passes and on another day a couple of his 1-2''s around the box would''ve come off
lampard - steady, playing slightly to the left, still a quality player, never stopped trying
Barry - did nothing wrong, perhaps unlucky to be taken off
Rooney - NOT a left sided striker, looked so much better in 2nd half thro'' the middle
Heskey - not for me, did ok on the night tho (see above)
SWP - looked ultra-keen to impress, injected some pace, unlucky not to start on that show
Defoe - hungry as ever, goal well taken as he had time to think about it.  Good foil for Rooney
Beckham - quality crosses, came on, had a word with Gerr and Lamps and then put his foot on the ball and took some authority. Shame he''s getting on as he looks class still

well that''s my opinion from up in the stands


[/quote]

Agree with alot of your assesments of the players, apart from the heskey bit and Gerrard, it''s not a coincidence that Rooney is playing better with Heskey upfront. Rooney and Defoe just isnt a combination that i see working as they both like to play off the target man. You very rarely get two goal scoring strikers upfront and if Heskey or Crouch would allow Rooney to play better and score goals then I''m happy to make the goal scoring sacrifice. There is no way that i can see Rooney leading the line he just wants to drop back and be involved all of the time and we can hardly ask Defoe to lead the line.

If goal scoring for the strikers was everything for you (i''m not saying it isnt very important, here) should Rooney have been out of the team last year when he hadnt scored for god knows how many years in a competitive game?

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Agree with a lot of points raised here.

Heskey isn''t in the team to score goals-but by God, the role and responsibility he does have, he does it well. He causes a nuisance, is hard to dispossess, good in the air, holds the ball up, takes his marker out of the game frequently and pops up everywhere, most opposing teams don''t quite know how to cope with him. I know there is this argument, also raised on this thread, that forwards should be judged on the goals they score, but, in all honesty, I can''t think of too many forwards, certainly English ones, who do the job he does AND score lots of goals. Going back a while, Malcolm McDonald comes to mind, but, in general, forward players either score lots of goals-but do little else for the team -Earnshaw at Norwich, and, going back, remember Ted McDougall, lazy bugger but great goalscorer-examples for us. Peter Crouch seems to be quite good at doing both-the work rate, the creative play and the goalscoring-but he strikes me as being a jack of both trades, rather than a master of one. And don''t get me wrong, I rate and like Crouch, but I''d pick Heskey ahead of him at the moment.

Gerrard and Lampard doesn''t work. It should-but it would need one of them to stay back, Gerrard is willing but weak with that role, Lampard doesn''t have that in his game. Both are great players, but, for me, Gerrard has, presently, got to sit behind Lampard as far as an England place is concerned. Lampard with either Barry or Hargreaves for me, Joe Cole is a must, and, certainly for the Belarus game, I''d have Beckham starting, with SWP primed and ready to come on after an hour or so if needed.

Walcott, I feel, is wasted in a wide position. I''d play him in attack, it therefore brings about a dilemma in that he and Rooney could work together-but then, where does Heskey go? I do wonder if England couldn''t play a 3-4-1-2 formation, focussing on pace and attack, with Ferdinand and Richards bordering Terry at the back-Terry is the traditional "stopper", Ferdinand the man to play the ball out, Richards with the pace, a midfield quartet of Barry (left sided and has played left back)-Cole-Lampard and Beckham, with Rooney, who gets everywhere anyway, sitting behind Heskey and Walcott. Barry has a lot of responsibility with such a formation, as he would be expected to push back and inside to the left hand side of the defence as well, but he''s capable of doing that.

Ashley Cole is an athlete who plays football, I prefer the footballer Wayne Bridge on the left in a "traditional" back four.

But, on the whole, England play in patches but still win 5-1, quite how some people aren''t happy with that, I don''t know-Belarus is a big game, win that and its 12 from 12, and, with Croatia only getting 1 point from the last 6, we''ll be sitting pretty going into the New Year and the next fixtures. The Ukraine-Croatia draw last night was a good result for England.

 

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I''d love to have Heskey here at Carra, either on loan or a permanent contract......He''s the kind of player that we require.

In reality, a player that has the attributes of Heskey (including being tee-total and a non-smoker) snapped up from the lower leagues would be an asset......I''m sure our scouting system should be able to identify one such player?.....Then again......He might cost 15,000 or so, and it''s far out of reach of our finances......

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[quote user="Mello Yello"]

I''d love to have Heskey here at Carra, either on loan or a permanent contract......He''s the kind of player that we require.

In reality, a player that has the attributes of Heskey (including being tee-total and a non-smoker) snapped up from the lower leagues would be an asset......I''m sure our scouting system should be able to identify one such player?.....Then again......He might cost 15,000 or so, and it''s far out of reach of our finances......

[/quote]

Agree. He certainly seems to be the sort of signing we lack the imagination or capability of making now.

Young lad at Leyton Orient currently getting good reviews there and will go on to bigger and better things-Jason Demetriou. The sort of player and signing we should always be looking at and looking to make-but I bet the club isn''t even aware of him.

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I was there too as my first new wembley game and first competetive international. England were disjointed in the first half,  with the midfield 3 (and it was a clear 4-3-3 first half) changing place so often it was not a suprise it was incoherent.  Defence was OK overall, apart from Coles back pass (booing over the top and ignored the fact he won the set pieces our opening goals),  surprised at the criticism of Upson in todays papers;  midfield was shocking with the best player taken off, while the front three simply did not work,  all playing far apart with Heskey adding nothing, rooney not having a left foot and walcott being the only player in the first half to offer any threat.  Right tactical change by the manager at half time and we looked better,  but still not good.  

The Khazaks played committed football and would have deserved to go ahead had they taken their chance instead of blazing over - James, Browm culpable there but the real culprit was Gerrard who again lost his discipline and allowed a yawning gap on their left flank.    As our goals showed they simply could not deal with aerial balls - which is why I was disappointed with heskeys performance - he won relatively little bearing in mind the first 4 goals were all from set peices and aerial problems, yes is lay off was sublime for defoe and he should have scored at the end but like the rest of the team felt he should have done far better - which player cant look good one the opponent are exhausted and beaten at 3-1 down.   They could not organise themselves for set pieces and their defencive line was all over the place - seat was on 6 yard line 12 rows from the touchline on englands right flank in the second half gave me an excellent view of that.

The lack of pace was a real worry - like watching norwich in so many ways;  safe secure un pentrating football lacking passion or flair.  we looked better for swp has we had width and options then.

And its those 2 things that worry me;  we never looked like scoring from open play and had the khazaks not tired a draw was a distinct possibility.  And that tells you how poor ourt attcking force was.

 James - 6 very little to do - look a little fortunate with his flying save to the left which seemed to go through his hands. 

Brown 6 Just ok - good cross for the 4th goal but no confidence defensively

Cole  5 Shocking cross field ball to give the khazaks their desereved goal - was englands most attacking pass of the game at that stage!   Did get forward and linked better with SWP.  Did not deserve the boos for that pass;  for him as a person maybe,  but not that pass.

Ferdinand 6 towering header for the opener,  and looked calm but he and upson both failed to stay fully alert despite an easy game. Will play better at bigger fixtures.

Upson 6 Though he was OK - like ferdinand did drift off at times but felt its was an ok performance.

Lampard 6  Does this guy ever tackle?    like ian wright a star for his club but simply not good enough for england.   Good set piece delivery though and he was more dangerous than gerrard.

Gerrard 5  positionally lost his way and far too often in the wrong place - usually with Lampard.  Woeful in the first half and only marginally better in the second;  He and lampard cannot play together;  and at the mo it shocks me to say that Lamps is the better option for england.

Barry 7  Was the star midfielder;  positionally sound and his one touch link up play was excellent - and showed the star barbies he partnered what should be going one - Kept it simple stupid.  Was sent to the left flank for 5 mins and his influence wained.   Tactical subs worked so hard to criticise but would have been nice to see a prima donna subbed instead of the easy victim.

Walcott 7 Our only threat on the first half.   Pacy and did what defenders hate most - ran at players and took them on (see what happened to our defence when they were ran at during the second half)  Only person to inject pace in the side - but after 20 mins we stopped giving him the ball and so the threat went.

Heskey 5  lead the line well but as I mentioned above disappointing against a poorly organised defence. SOme excellent touches but too few during 90 mins.

Rooney 6  4 for the first half 7 for the second.  First half he was probably the worst player on the pitch;  yes out of position on the left but so often he had the chance to whip in an early ball for heskey to attack only to stop and pull the ball back onto his right foot,  allowing the defence to reform;  never took on a player and his link up play was awful.   Far better in the second half but again did not look to beat a man once. Took his goals well but their keeper was poor on both of them and should have stopped them both.  MOTM?  prob just because he scored 2.

Subs

SWP 7 added width and pace and no coincidence that the set pieces came from his flank and link up play with cole.     Cuased them problems

Defoe 6 jog in the park against a team that was spent - took goal like a player with confidence

Beckham 6 OMG what are the wembley crowd on????every time he warmed up there was mass hysteria;  women screaming his name;  and he got a standing ovation to come on. This grumpy old cummudgeon cant comprehend - brain says no;  but I guess celeb culture has passed me by.  Like defoe played against a broken side and put in decent crosses but talk about over the top.

We got a comfortable and very flattering win in the end;   Once again england won with showing any passion committment or flair.  Give me a team full of barrys and walcotts ahead of beckahms coles gerrards and lampards any day... 

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[quote user="Old Shuck"]

Ashley Cole is an athlete who plays football, I prefer the footballer Wayne Bridge on the left in a "traditional" back four.

[/quote]

Other way round.

Ashley Cole''s performances have been pretty dire over recent times but he''s the footballer out of the pair of them. Wayne Bridge is more of an athlete.

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[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]

I was there too as my first new wembley game and first competetive international. England were disjointed in the first half,  with the midfield 3 (and it was a clear 4-3-3 first half) changing place so often it was not a suprise it was incoherent.  Defence was OK overall, apart from Coles back pass (booing over the top and ignored the fact he won the set pieces our opening goals),  surprised at the criticism of Upson in todays papers;  midfield was shocking with the best player taken off, while the front three simply did not work,  all playing far apart with Heskey adding nothing, rooney not having a left foot and walcott being the only player in the first half to offer any threat.  Right tactical change by the manager at half time and we looked better,  but still not good.  

The Khazaks played committed football and would have deserved to go ahead had they taken their chance instead of blazing over - James, Browm culpable there but the real culprit was Gerrard who again lost his discipline and allowed a yawning gap on their left flank.    As our goals showed they simply could not deal with aerial balls - which is why I was disappointed with heskeys performance - he won relatively little bearing in mind the first 4 goals were all from set peices and aerial problems, yes is lay off was sublime for defoe and he should have scored at the end but like the rest of the team felt he should have done far better - which player cant look good one the opponent are exhausted and beaten at 3-1 down.   They could not organise themselves for set pieces and their defencive line was all over the place - seat was on 6 yard line 12 rows from the touchline on englands right flank in the second half gave me an excellent view of that.

The lack of pace was a real worry - like watching norwich in so many ways;  safe secure un pentrating football lacking passion or flair.  we looked better for swp has we had width and options then.

And its those 2 things that worry me;  we never looked like scoring from open play and had the khazaks not tired a draw was a distinct possibility.  And that tells you how poor ourt attcking force was.

 James - 6 very little to do - look a little fortunate with his flying save to the left which seemed to go through his hands. 

Brown 6 Just ok - good cross for the 4th goal but no confidence defensively

Cole  5 Shocking cross field ball to give the khazaks their desereved goal - was englands most attacking pass of the game at that stage!   Did get forward and linked better with SWP.  Did not deserve the boos for that pass;  for him as a person maybe,  but not that pass.

Ferdinand 6 towering header for the opener,  and looked calm but he and upson both failed to stay fully alert despite an easy game. Will play better at bigger fixtures.

Upson 6 Though he was OK - like ferdinand did drift off at times but felt its was an ok performance.

Lampard 6  Does this guy ever tackle?    like ian wright a star for his club but simply not good enough for england.   Good set piece delivery though and he was more dangerous than gerrard.

Gerrard 5  positionally lost his way and far too often in the wrong place - usually with Lampard.  Woeful in the first half and only marginally better in the second;  He and lampard cannot play together;  and at the mo it shocks me to say that Lamps is the better option for england.

Barry 7  Was the star midfielder;  positionally sound and his one touch link up play was excellent - and showed the star barbies he partnered what should be going one - Kept it simple stupid.  Was sent to the left flank for 5 mins and his influence wained.   Tactical subs worked so hard to criticise but would have been nice to see a prima donna subbed instead of the easy victim.

Walcott 7 Our only threat on the first half.   Pacy and did what defenders hate most - ran at players and took them on (see what happened to our defence when they were ran at during the second half)  Only person to inject pace in the side - but after 20 mins we stopped giving him the ball and so the threat went.

Heskey 5  lead the line well but as I mentioned above disappointing against a poorly organised defence. SOme excellent touches but too few during 90 mins.

Rooney 6  4 for the first half 7 for the second.  First half he was probably the worst player on the pitch;  yes out of position on the left but so often he had the chance to whip in an early ball for heskey to attack only to stop and pull the ball back onto his right foot,  allowing the defence to reform;  never took on a player and his link up play was awful.   Far better in the second half but again did not look to beat a man once. Took his goals well but their keeper was poor on both of them and should have stopped them both.  MOTM?  prob just because he scored 2.

Subs

SWP 7 added width and pace and no coincidence that the set pieces came from his flank and link up play with cole.     Cuased them problems

Defoe 6 jog in the park against a team that was spent - took goal like a player with confidence

Beckham 6 OMG what are the wembley crowd on????every time he warmed up there was mass hysteria;  women screaming his name;  and he got a standing ovation to come on. This grumpy old cummudgeon cant comprehend - brain says no;  but I guess celeb culture has passed me by.  Like defoe played against a broken side and put in decent crosses but talk about over the top.

We got a comfortable and very flattering win in the end;   Once again england won with showing any passion committment or flair.  Give me a team full of barrys and walcotts ahead of beckahms coles gerrards and lampards any day... 

[/quote]

I think you''ll find zipper that apart from everything else most people realise that at bottom he''s just a genuinely nice guy, proud to play for his country and are anxious to give him a good sendoff.

And that''s coming from another ''grumpy old curmudgeon'' - as some would have it!

OTBC

 

 

 

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