Must say after watching the past 3 friendlies my confidence of getting out of this group went from 33% to 0%! If we couldn't break down a 10 men Honduras what chance will we have against in my opinion the best defence in this competition. In my opinion we have to beat one of Uruguay or Italy to qualify and i don't see us beating either at the moment. Sturridge just is not prolific enough and before i get shot down about the number of goals he scored last season when i say that i mean for Liverpool he would get 5-7 chances per game for England he will be lucky to get 2 in a game! Johnson well lets just not go there shall we, a right back who can't defend, attack, cross and only good when cutting in on his left foot! Rooney absolutely anonymous and i don't blame him for this, my tweet during the Ecuador game read "And England wonder why STRIKER Wayne Rooney plays poorly LW, CM or AM....." For me Wayne has always and will always be a striker, his best numbers for Utd was when he was playing up top with 2 wingers feeding him! If you don't play him there then for me he needs to be dropped but we all know that won't happen.
My expectations and support of England have dropped massively in the past say 5 years for multiple reasons but mainly the supporters (a word i use lightly) and the FA so for the first time i actually just want a good standard football tournament (even though i will miss most games through work). A good friend of mine is going out to Brazil in a couple of days, got tickets and flights to all England games including the potential knockout game and he said to me the other day "do you think they will be home before me" and unfortunately i think they will.
Japan and Ivory Coast are pretty good teams as well tbh.. If we get through the group Greece would be our best hope of playing.
We'll have more of a chance breaking down a team that actually wants to attack. Honduras sat ten men behind the ball, deep in their own half and attacked with about three players at most. Italy won't do that. If we want to base competitive performance on friendlies, Italy just drew with ******* LUXEMBOURG.
Sturridge will come good. Give him a chance, for goodness sakes.
We'll have more of a chance breaking down a team that actually wants to attack. Honduras sat ten men behind the ball, deep in their own half and attacked with about three players at most. Italy won't do that. If we want to base competitive performance on friendlies, Italy just drew with ******* LUXEMBOURG.
Sturridge will come good. Give him a chance, for goodness sakes.
Tbh Colombia are not half as threatening without Falcao considering the team was more or less built around him
Must say after watching the past 3 friendlies my confidence of getting out of this group went from 33% to 0%! If we couldn't break down a 10 men Honduras what chance will we have against in my opinion the best defence in this competition. In my opinion we have to beat one of Uruguay or Italy to qualify and i don't see us beating either at the moment. Sturridge just is not prolific enough and before i get shot down about the number of goals he scored last season when i say that i mean for Liverpool he would get 5-7 chances per game for England he will be lucky to get 2 in a game! Johnson well lets just not go there shall we, a right back who can't defend, attack, cross and only good when cutting in on his left foot! Rooney absolutely anonymous and i don't blame him for this, my tweet during the Ecuador game read "And England wonder why STRIKER Wayne Rooney plays poorly LW, CM or AM....." For me Wayne has always and will always be a striker, his best numbers for Utd was when he was playing up top with 2 wingers feeding him! If you don't play him there then for me he needs to be dropped but we all know that won't happen.
My expectations and support of England have dropped massively in the past say 5 years for multiple reasons but mainly the supporters (a word i use lightly) and the FA so for the first time i actually just want a good standard football tournament (even though i will miss most games through work). A good friend of mine is going out to Brazil in a couple of days, got tickets and flights to all England games including the potential knockout game and he said to me the other day "do you think they will be home before me" and unfortunately i think they will.
Falcao is a big loss, but in Bacca, Adrian Ramos Jackson Martinez they still have some good firepower
Tbh Colombia are not half as threatening without Falcao considering the team was more or less built around him
Agreed although when you consider that their entire game plan was built around El Tigre, it's indee a devastating blow for Colombia. For me the dark horses are Chile, they have two genuine world-class players in Sanchez and Vidal. The latter particularly can dominate the midfield all by himself. They have some good supporting pieces around those two as well
Must say after watching the past 3 friendlies my confidence of getting out of this group went from 33% to 0%! If we couldn't break down a 10 men Honduras what chance will we have against in my opinion the best defence in this competition. In my opinion we have to beat one of Uruguay or Italy to qualify and i don't see us beating either at the moment. Sturridge just is not prolific enough and before i get shot down about the number of goals he scored last season when i say that i mean for Liverpool he would get 5-7 chances per game for England he will be lucky to get 2 in a game! Johnson well lets just not go there shall we, a right back who can't defend, attack, cross and only good when cutting in on his left foot! Rooney absolutely anonymous and i don't blame him for this, my tweet during the Ecuador game read "And England wonder why STRIKER Wayne Rooney plays poorly LW, CM or AM....." For me Wayne has always and will always be a striker, his best numbers for Utd was when he was playing up top with 2 wingers feeding him! If you don't play him there then for me he needs to be dropped but we all know that won't happen.
My expectations and support of England have dropped massively in the past say 5 years for multiple reasons but mainly the supporters (a word i use lightly) and the FA so for the first time i actually just want a good standard football tournament (even though i will miss most games through work). A good friend of mine is going out to Brazil in a couple of days, got tickets and flights to all England games including the potential knockout game and he said to me the other day "do you think they will be home before me" and unfortunately i think they will.
People also forget the Honduran players picked the thug life. They were intent on multiple occassions to just kick the **** out of players, and also did a nice acting role aswell. One of the reasons I'm wary about the quality of the officiating during the World Cup :/
Yeh... ohh well people just want to complain to complain sometimes....
What do you think about Barkley? Fearless, aggressive and Italians would hate playing against him. Start with him or bring him on last 20 mins? My worry is if we do the latter and bring him on as a sub, Italians may have grown into the game and have the advantage. I think it's best to get at them from the start.
I'm going to buck the trend and say don't start him yet. Too soon. Right now he'll be a lot more effective in the last half hour of a match when there's going to be tired legs and minds during a match. He's still learning at the moment, and prone to lapses in some areas which is not a bad thing due to his age. I'd say though in the next Euro tournament I'd start him though. Just not yet. Let the more experienced players like Lampard start against Italy.
Yeh... ohh well people just want to complain to complain sometimes....
What do you think about Barkley? Fearless, aggressive and Italians would hate playing against him. Start with him or bring him on last 20 mins? My worry is if we do the latter and bring him on as a sub, Italians may have grown into the game and have the advantage. I think it's best to get at them from the start.
Lampard? I don't think he's in contention to start either way to be honest. Well.. unless he partners Gerrard, which in my opinion would be pointless because they have had so many chances together and haven't done it for a while so it would be rather pointless in my eyes. Would rather Gerrard and Wilshere personally, I don't get the hype around Henderson.
Really like Barkley but he wont play. There is competition for places out wide but in the centre it seems Rooney behind Sturridge is what Roy is going for.
Yeh we should have a relatively strong bench with some good options to bring on later in games if need be... could be very useful against tired legs in latter parts of games.
But don't get me wrong, I'd start Sterling vs Italy 100% instead of Welbeck.
Please don't put Lampard and Gerrard in a same midfield. ******* no.
I agree. There's no denying both men's class, but they also have a tendency to play wasteful long balls. Not to mention the long shots. We need players who can keep possession.