Been listening to a few football podcasts tonight and they all are trying to understand why England's defence was so bad, how hard is it! 6 of the back 7 (Hart, Johnson, Jagielka, Baines, Gerrard and Henderson) contributed in their three sides Man City (37), Liverpool (50) and Everton (39) concede a combined 126 goals just in the Premier League last season That averages around conceding 3.3 goals per game (38 game season)!!!
2014 World Cup thread
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Not entirely sure it can be calculated like that. What I will say is that Gerrard and Henderson in midfield doesn't work unless you've got the league's best attack ahead of it, and even then it's still far too weak. Gerrard's done very well to reinvent himself - better than Lampard ever did, for example - but he's never going to be cerebral enough to handle the lone holding role. That's the issue here, that and Johnson's incompetence.
For the next Euros I'd be good with Cahill and Davies as our CB partnership, with an actual holder in midfield (Thudd, Cork, maybe Delph) and a right back who knows how to defend (Clyne, Ward). We weren't TOO far off a solid defence, it's just that the flaws were magnified so much by the level of opposition.
Another problem is that Gerrard and Henderson are excellent together, but more in a 3 - not so much in a 2.
Add another midfielder in there (even Rooney as a deeper forward) and it will work much better.
Totally agree mate, i don't rate Wilshere as he is always injured and i believe he bottles a lot of tackles but in a midfield 3 i would have no problem with that. In hindsight (which is the best footballer ever) we should have played 4-3-3 and actually bit the bullet and dropped Rooney.
Just seen tonights highlights and must say Neymar is an exceptional footballer, at this rate he will smash every Brazil record! And very happy for Mexico, in my eyes they are the biggest under achievers at international level.
True. Put Henderson and Gerrard in front of Cork or Thudd and it'd be a decent midfield. Of course, in the Euros Gerrard will likely not be there, but a Cork/Thudd - Henderson - Wilshere midfield could be very good, or if we want to play a 4-2-3-1 replace Wilshere with Barkley. We've got options.
Wilshere generally doesn't play well in a two without a proper defensive midfielder. He's not usually looked particularly assured next to Arteta, but he's looked excellent next to Flamini and good next to Ramsey, who's been in such good form he's turned into Welsh Yaya Toure anyway. Put him in a two next to Cork and I think Wilshere would do well. As for bottling tackles... not sure I agree with that. Perhaps his disciplinary record might be a little better if he did instead of just Scholesing everyone.
Dropping Rooney's the hot button topic, but the Uruguay game proved he can perform for England in his usual role. I don't disagree with the principle though; I think England would play better with a pure three man mid, but I can't see it happening because of our personnel.
It's not exactly hindsight is it though? Hodgson was the only ****** guy who couldn't see that we needed an extra man in midfield against Italy. He seems so tactically inept for someone so experienced, it really baffles me.
Not really, he's just trying players for the last meaningless game.... he's literally ****-licked Rooney the whole tournament and I hate to say it... despite him being one of our better players (1 assist and 1 goal in 2 games) of this World-Cup, reality of the situation is if he had scored 1 of the 2 GLARINGLY OPEN chances against both Italy and Uruguay, it would be a different situation right now.
But then again the thing that I'm still rather annoyed at is the referee who bottled it.... I don't care what minute we're in or whether it would ruin the game... Diego Godin elbowed Sturridge and it should 100% of been a second yellow card.
So all in all, whilst we've not been that great, we've had some pretty **** hard luck as usual.
No, hot button topic means a kind of politicised issue, something brings about rather overly strong arguments on both sides of the debate. Hodgson's going to pick him regardless - it's whether he should or not that is the hot button topic.
Heh, not sure about the 'as usual'. Last time out we didn't even deserve to get past the group stages.
Maybe this is ridiculous thing to suggest but why was Britton never considered for the England set up when you know he is arguably the only English CM who won't give up possession even in tight spaces?
Ohhhhhhh.... I seeee. Lol.
Well whether we did or didn't deserve to get out of the group stages, fact of the matter is we did! Also last World Cup we got the Fat Frank goal disallowed which would of made it 2-2 vs Germany... obviously whether it would of made any difference is debatable but considering we would of come from 2-0 down... quite a big change on the game prevented again.
I do think English have some bad luck at tournaments... regardless. Unfortunately you need some to get some in this kind of things and we just didn't have it... if Diego Godin got sent off as he should of done... it's a completely different game.
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Hodgson has massively disappointed me mate i must say. When Capello left i picked Hodgson to get the job, one because i hate Redknapp with a passion and think he is massively overrated and two because we had never had a manager who had international experience before. The qualifiers i was pleased he was his typical pragmatic Roy winning before style but then he surrendered to the medias demands that we have to play "the Liverpool way". A massive flaw of the Liverpool way was that they were absolutely woeful at the back and England's backline is no much better on paper so this was always going to happen. People waxed lyrical about Gerrard's deep role this season but he was meant to be the protection for a back 5 who conceded 50 goals in the Premier League last season, a reality check was needed! I think he took players who were out of form and played square pegs in round holes and that a long with using the wrong formation cost us. And for me he HAS to go now, especially if England want to learn to playing a more attacking brand it just won't work with pragmatic Roy.
Yeh and another thing is he needs to learn to play players on form not on reputation... it's only going to set us back if Gerrard and Lampard doesn't retire now, I really hope they do. It's time for young players to come in, even if it makes us worse.
Is anyone even going to watch the England game later? Lol. Uruguay vs Italy much more interesting.
England look better and more comfortable with this 451/433 shape. It highlights the point that if you're not playing Rooney as the main striker you don't play him at all. We need to stop accommodating players and pick the best team. Not the best individuals.
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Agree would like to see Chamberlain for Milner at HT and see how Rooney would play up top.
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You're not going to see AOC. He aggravated his injury in training and is completely out.