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well, the second half was fairly boring, but I felt we did quite well in the first half despite a few missed opportunities and the goal was very nicely done. So yeah, not a bad start overall!

Edited by C.W

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Very happy with that, the only criticism I have is that Walcott should have been brought on earlier imo.

I thought we did ok and it was a good point in the end, but we need to stop sitting so deep. Trying to stay compact and yet that Nasri goal could have been avoided if Gerrard and Parker weren't sitting on top of the defence

 

Unfortunately based on the Norway and Belgium games you wouldn't expect that to change too much vs. Ukraine or Sweden either

 

and fans call for Walker and Richards, but I thought Johnson was very good. MOTM for me

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One of the biggest myths is Johnson is a bad defender. People just listen to pundits and the media. Johnson's absolute class, any mistakes he makes are normally his own doing by trying to play football proper. Best technical footballer England have. And a million times better than Kyle Walker and Micah Richards.

Johnson still looks like he might lose us a game even though he is a good attacking outlet, it worked out okay today because Milner is solid defensively, Gerrard was very aware and Terry did the running out and covering trick he usually pulls on the other side.

 

I'm not a big fan of him but Carroll was needed in the last half an hour - Welbeck, Young and Defoe were no threat at all and Oxlade-Chamberlain was anonymous in the second half until he was taken off.

 

 

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Johnson still looks like he might lose us a game even though he is a good attacking outlet, it worked out okay today because Milner is solid defensively, Gerrard was very aware and Terry did the running out and covering trick he usually pulls on the other side.

 

I'm not a big fan of him but Carroll was needed in the last half an hour - Welbeck, Young and Defoe were no threat at all and Oxlade-Chamberlain was anonymous in the second half until he was taken off.

 

I thought Carroll was needed too BUT the problem was our midfield dropped too deep and were getting overun I thought. Another central midfielder would have added a bit more protection to Gerrard and Parker, who both put in big shifts (and looked visibly shattered). The Ox was anonymous all game I thought, but that's the issue with being a winger. Roy Hodgson got it spot on with his interview - our attacking play wasn't good enough. Players were impatient, played the wrong ball, rushed things. It's a hard job, and the inexperience really showed. We could probably had nicked the win if Rooney was playing.

 

I thought Carroll was needed too BUT the problem was our midfield dropped too deep and were getting overun I thought. Another central midfielder would have added a bit more protection to Gerrard and Parker, who both put in big shifts (and looked visibly shattered). The Ox was anonymous all game I thought, but that's the issue with being a winger. Roy Hodgson got it spot on with his interview - our attacking play wasn't good enough. Players were impatient, played the wrong ball, rushed things. It's a hard job, and the inexperience really showed. We could probably had nicked the win if Rooney was playing.

 

It's the first time in ages I thought we were playing a formation Rooney would have been comfortable with, ironically.

Player influence/Average position (bigger the name = more influence):

http://i47.tinypic.com/29ogzl1.png

 

Passes:

http://i49.tinypic.com/2j5l65c.png

 

Shots:

http://i46.tinypic.com/34hyi2t.png

 

Shows how little we did test Lloris

Pretty much exactly as I expected but better at times, there were times where we did dominate and keep possession really well which was slightly surprising, but we never created anything much during those periods, the best chances still came from set pieces or whilst breaking. For all the delight by fans beforehand AOC did nothing at all that Downing wouldn't have done, he was the only player I'd say I was disappointed with, Terry and Lescott solid at the back, Cole and (moreso) Johnson fantastic at full back, Hart made good saves, Welbeck was lively, Gerrard's passing was great at times which it isn't always for England, and I couldn't fault Parker, Milner and Young.
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Pretty much exactly as I expected but better at times, there were times where we did dominate and keep possession really well which was slightly surprising, but we never created anything much during those periods, the best chances still came from set pieces or whilst breaking. For all the delight by fans beforehand AOC did nothing at all that Downing wouldn't have done, he was the only player I'd say I was disappointed with, Terry and Lescott solid at the back, Cole and (moreso) Johnson fantastic at full back, Hart made good saves, Welbeck was lively, Gerrard's passing was great at times which it isn't always for England, and I couldn't fault Parker, Milner and Young.

 

My main two gripes with the performance:

 

1) The Ox was "amazing" without doing anything. Downing would have been slated if he did what The Ox did.

2) If Capello's England put in a performance liked today we'd have been slated.

 

To be fair, Capello had two years to perfect the team to play the way he wanted for this tournament. Hodgson had only a few weeks and we look better defensively than we've done in years.

 

Aside from that Hodgson seems to be going about it the right way so far. Consolidate the defence and then work on the midfield and front line. Time will tell but for now I'm reasonably happy. England have at absolute best 5 world class players (Rooney, Hart, Cole, Terry and Gerrard and 2 of those are passed their best) and a fair number of inexperienced youngsters so to think we should be dominating a team like France is unrealistic. I still say learn in this tournament and develop for the next one

My main two gripes with the performance:

 

1) The Ox was "amazing" without doing anything. Downing would have been slated if he did what The Ox did.

2) If Capello's England put in a performance liked today we'd have been slated.

This

 

Even as a Liverpool fan I can say that Downing has been poor this season, but he has been consistently good for England everytime he's played in the last year or so

 

With Chamberlain it was "Start Chamberlain. He's young and Downing's had his chance". What about Kelly and Henderson then ? "Oh they're crap. Carrick and Ferdinand should be playing"

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I don't know. It depends what approach you want to take for the tournament. I think Carrick should have been included over Henderson. He's had the better season, and right now at this moment in time is the better player. However Henderson has the potential to be so much better than Carrick. He's got a lot of unfair flack from the media and supporters. Generally when he's been played in central midfield he's been really good. He's only been so poor when he was played on the right of midfield, and even then he gave 100%. His energy levels are immense. If we're going to continue to play really deep then we need players with very high energy levels as you're constantly been attacked for a good 70 minutes, especially against a good team like France.

Right. You need to understand. Tactically and technically, this nation is dumb. Fan and player wise. Half of the players on that starting XI have no intelligence, no tactical intelligence and go out there for the 'rough and tumble' game. Hodgson is playing to our strengths. 4-4-2. Strong defence. Strong midfield. Fast wingers. Playmaker. Target man. For those 'oh it's too boring', oh please do one... do you think we can outplay France, Germany, Spain and Italy for 90mins? Tiki-taka? Get off it. We play to our strengths and they happen to be direct football with little passing involved, just a strong defensive shift and counter-attacks.

 

FTR, 1-1 against France is a very good result. I personally think Sweden's defence isn't strong enough and we should at least bag a goal against them- Ukraine will be the big challenge, basically playing away from home against them- and they should be in a position to secure/gain qualification. Hopefully they will go all out for victory and we can counter them.

 

C'mon England!

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Right. You need to understand. Tactically and technically, this nation is dumb. Fan and player wise. Half of the players on that starting XI have no intelligence, no tactical intelligence and go out there for the 'rough and tumble' game. Hodgson is playing to our strengths. 4-4-2. Strong defence. Strong midfield. Fast wingers. Playmaker. Target man. For those 'oh it's too boring', oh please do one... do you think we can outplay France, Germany, Spain and Italy for 90mins? Tiki-taka? Get off it. We play to our strengths and they happen to be direct football with little passing involved, just a strong defensive shift and counter-attacks.

 

FTR, 1-1 against France is a very good result. I personally think Sweden's defence isn't strong enough and we should at least bag a goal against them- Ukraine will be the big challenge, basically playing away from home against them- and they should be in a position to secure/gain qualification. Hopefully they will go all out for victory and we can counter them.

 

C'mon England!

 

But the bigger problem for England is we DO have technically gifted players now, and there are certainly some coming through the ranks that are. We can't play possession football right now, but in 1/2 years we will have the players who can play it. Right now we basically play a more attacking version of what Chelsea played under di Matteo. It works for the time being, but in 2014 the likes of Johnson, Hart, Cole, Welbeck, The Ox etc. play for England right now and they're all very comfortable on the ball. Once Wilshere gets back then we have McErchan (sp?), Henderson, Sterling, Robinson etc. coming through. The only thing we will probably ever lack if a proper ball playing center half.

But the bigger problem for England is we DO have technically gifted players now, and there are certainly some coming through the ranks that are. We can't play possession football right now, but in 1/2 years we will have the players who can play it. Right now we basically play a more attacking version of what Chelsea played under di Matteo. It works for the time being, but in 2014 the likes of Johnson, Hart, Cole, Welbeck, The Ox etc. play for England right now and they're all very comfortable on the ball. Once Wilshere gets back then we have McErchan (sp?), Henderson, Sterling, Robinson etc. coming through. The only thing we will probably ever lack if a proper ball playing center half.

Ferdinand was pretty close to that in days gone by, with so many of them in the Premier League I don't think it's a stretch to say that we'll have one in years to come.

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