England squad announced for friendlies against Spain and Sweden.
- Thread starter Joel`
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ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!
We actually defended like a team, pressing and picked tackles. And without our most creative players. If we can now attack as well as we defended it will take us far. Capello made me eat my words, and im very happy about that
We actually defended like a team, pressing and picked tackles. And without our most creative players. If we can now attack as well as we defended it will take us far. Capello made me eat my words, and im very happy about that
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Watch the media wave of confidence, before we go to next euro cup all psyched up before being let down, yet again. The same old **** with England. I'm bored of watching them, they seem to love going backwards for some wierd reason :S
InValide jr
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Milner and Parker played excellent shame walcott downing and johnson didnt try and take it past any spain players when they got the chance in the spanish half but they did have to do a lot of defending
Then dont watch them, and then come on here and whinge about it.
We pressed as a team, something we have never been good at, and we did so without our best creative players. That isn't going backwards. Now against sweden we need to the same, but since we wont come under such relentless pressure, we must combine it with real attacking prowess. People have every right to be happy with todays performance, we actually defended well. Now we must build on it
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I know I'm in 0.1% minority who think England are a better team without Rooney, my minds unchanged on that front, and I had my doubts about Bent playing lone striker vs Ramos but I give him his due he had one opportunity in the Spanish box and capitalized on it. I'd be happier seeing England lineup 4-3-3 rather than 4-2-3-1 personally, I think playing with a CAM versus a lot of International teams does crowd up the space between the opposition 18 yard line and the midfield line. Essentially I prefer to have central midfield runners running into that space rather than a Rooney type nipping around and taking the ball in tight spaces.
But personal thoughts aside, Capello got it pretty much 80% right tactically tonight. The horseshoe pressure system he used first half worked brilliantly, the co-ordination and communication across the def-mid line was perfect. Second half he knew he needed more going forward so flattened the pressure system to a scissor line and made it flat (The midfield line would enclose towards Hart at the same time as the defenders pressured) that is a more risky ploy especially with the Spanish passers having the ability to pass in behind a full back. To beat Spain/Barcelona you do need luck, as Jose's Inter has shown, and England got their share of it but the effort of Jagielka/Lescott/Parker defensively encapsulates what every England fan wants to see.. Desire; determination; resolve and concentration.
Thoughts summary - Johnson was good without being excellent, better than I expected, Cole had a tough game but overall was fairly good bar the odd lapse of concentration second half. Walcott was just getting tripled up on so you can understand that the substitution, Downing didn't do much but was fairly reliable defensively. Rodwell/Barry came on at the right time and added some energy for 15-20 minutes to peg the Spanish midfielders back, Lescott seemed to think he was Luiz tonight at times but he can get away with that because defensively he covered extraordinary well. Jagielka's 'if in doubt kick it out' mentality did actually help take the pressure off England and let them re organize at least and Parker was just tireless and unrelenting on the Spanish. Bent did try but clearly was not the right man to lead the line for 90 minutes, Welbeck added a target to release the pressure (normally his chest) and pace in behind. Walker came into a 5 man back line and helped contain the left sided Spanish threat adequately, he did his job well. Lampard proved his critics wrong but what's new there and Milner ran for the cause.
We did learn more about Capello than England tonight, he apparently does have a tactical brain... Perhaps he could be so kind as to pull it out at the next major tournament we are at?
I think we learned the secret to stopping Barcelona tonight as well - Scott Parker. Constantly on Iniesta/Xavi's heels, something no one at Real Madrid has managed or at Manchester United.
Staying pessimistic, I still think Capello is a fraudulent man... But, tonight he got it pretty much spot on.
But personal thoughts aside, Capello got it pretty much 80% right tactically tonight. The horseshoe pressure system he used first half worked brilliantly, the co-ordination and communication across the def-mid line was perfect. Second half he knew he needed more going forward so flattened the pressure system to a scissor line and made it flat (The midfield line would enclose towards Hart at the same time as the defenders pressured) that is a more risky ploy especially with the Spanish passers having the ability to pass in behind a full back. To beat Spain/Barcelona you do need luck, as Jose's Inter has shown, and England got their share of it but the effort of Jagielka/Lescott/Parker defensively encapsulates what every England fan wants to see.. Desire; determination; resolve and concentration.
Thoughts summary - Johnson was good without being excellent, better than I expected, Cole had a tough game but overall was fairly good bar the odd lapse of concentration second half. Walcott was just getting tripled up on so you can understand that the substitution, Downing didn't do much but was fairly reliable defensively. Rodwell/Barry came on at the right time and added some energy for 15-20 minutes to peg the Spanish midfielders back, Lescott seemed to think he was Luiz tonight at times but he can get away with that because defensively he covered extraordinary well. Jagielka's 'if in doubt kick it out' mentality did actually help take the pressure off England and let them re organize at least and Parker was just tireless and unrelenting on the Spanish. Bent did try but clearly was not the right man to lead the line for 90 minutes, Welbeck added a target to release the pressure (normally his chest) and pace in behind. Walker came into a 5 man back line and helped contain the left sided Spanish threat adequately, he did his job well. Lampard proved his critics wrong but what's new there and Milner ran for the cause.
We did learn more about Capello than England tonight, he apparently does have a tactical brain... Perhaps he could be so kind as to pull it out at the next major tournament we are at?
I think we learned the secret to stopping Barcelona tonight as well - Scott Parker. Constantly on Iniesta/Xavi's heels, something no one at Real Madrid has managed or at Manchester United.
Staying pessimistic, I still think Capello is a fraudulent man... But, tonight he got it pretty much spot on.
Even then Rooney is the better option, much better at dragging his markers out ande creating space for said runners. only problem with rooney is that the players shirk responsibility, fling it up to him, and basically go "make some magic"
It's a friendly, mate. Don't get overexcited.
That's what I don't like about it, bless Rooney for wanting the ball to make an impact but he runs left/right/everywhere making it a bit tight and he constantly has to switch a 40 yard pass to the space he creates. I understand he's a good played but he can't really play a 4-3-3 unless he plays a false 9 and unless that's the England direction going forward I just can't fit it in.
The reason I prefer 4-3-3 is it does allow England to retain the ball better in the midfield and I'd prefer Parker DM with Lampard or Gerrard and Wilshere CM's rather than Wilshere DM with Parker DM in 4-2-3-1.
But going forward with Rooney and Carroll I suppose 4-2-3-1 is the only real viable option other than a 4-2-2-2 which is as out of fashion as fur.
I do prefer England 4-3-3 though, Euro's should be a great opportunity for Wilshere to shine at CM rather than DM and I'm happy with him/Parker/Lampard or Gerrard as a 3 man midfield with Rodwell waiting in the wings.
Problem for the Euro's is striker wise, ideally I'd go with an in form Carroll with Walcott and Young wide.
But it is a purely personal thing, I feel the same thing when I saw RVDV calling for it all the time at Spurs last season I think it's a little too selfish and most of the time RVDV made a bad call and a man in space got overlooked.
Shay Given
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Probably going to sound like a bitter person but if England only had 3 subs Spain would have won imo. There is no way every man could have pressed for 90 minutes flat.
Well, I'm normally pessimestic about matches going on past performances, and not normally bothered by friendlies, but the 2nd half felt anything but one. The back four coped admirably (yes even Lescott *cough*), and that goalpost gave the best save of the game lol. But Jags, Lamps, Lescott....everyone worked their absolute arses off. Especially Milner and Parker. Parker MoM was fully deserved-how he was still walking I've got no idea. As for the Spanish...some of their antics really ****** me off. Attitude stank when they thought it would be ok to flatten Jagielka. They do that, they'll find they can't win sod all with 9 men on the field. I'm hoping this performance will not be a one off.
Decent performance without getting too ahead of ourselfs because it was only a friendly but we should be more optomistic. Thought Parker was amazing today and Lampard showed what he can do defensivly too which was good to see and still popping up in the right areas when needed. Lescott was a tank at the back today and more pleasing was how well Welback and Rodwell done when they were bought on. I'll finish on a quote from the special one to again knock back all the Lampard bashers "Lamps is Lamps. When he plays well he is best in the game, when he plays bad, he is the second or the third best".
But Spain also bought on new players with new ideas and fully fresh including Torres, Mata, Carzola and Fabregas. Although im not getting ahead of myself this is Mr Negative at its best.
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