June 24, 201213 yr Rooney's been listening to too much of the Hodge :D What was it he said again ? "AOC played well against Pirlo and Ambrosini". Ambrosini wasn't playing either if I remember correctly Yes I think he was suspended for that game.
June 24, 201213 yr Who would you all pick as your five penalty takers ? (obviously hoping it doesn't come to that..) I'd go with: Rooney Gerrard Young Cole Milner Cole will always be my only definite for a tournament penalty, Gerrard and Rooney would be in my 5 too. After that it would depend who's on, I imagine Johnson can take a penalty.
June 24, 201213 yr That team's not massively blessed with penalty takers is it? At least Hart can hopefully be relied upon to save a couple.
June 24, 201213 yr Author Rooney, Gerrard, Johnson, Cole, Walcott would be our four spot kick takers I'd imagine. Downing is good at penalties, surprisingly too. DEFINITELY NOT Terry :D
June 24, 201213 yr Italy: Buffon Abate Bonucci Barzagli Balzaretti Montolivo Pirlo Marchisio De Rossi Cassano Balotelli
June 24, 201213 yr Author Hmm. Pretty tight and even, but lots of worries. Our midfield is looking far too light, I really do think we should drop a striker and put another body in midfield. We're not picking Pirlo up (between Welbeck/Rooney) and he's causing us problems by pinging the ball about. Welbeck playing ok, could hold the ball up a bit better though. Our attack is not relieving the pressure on the defence and midfield. Ashley Young completely anonymous. And Rooney absolute dogshit. Terrible at everything, brining others in to ball, holding the ball up, making choices. He's clearly not fit, but he's costing us. That counter attack we had was just so wasteful, such a bad decision made.
June 24, 201213 yr http://i49.tinypic.com/15oaxds.png http://i45.tinypic.com/rjgjm1.png http://i45.tinypic.com/xqmcqq.png
June 24, 201213 yr It was too painful to watch at times, they had a few chances at the start of the game
June 24, 201213 yr A lot more even than I expected it to be. Italy evidently aren't great at dealing with players with pace, but we'll have to do better to stop Pirlo.. Another ball to Balotelli and we could be punished
June 24, 201213 yr Author This is why Roy has no idea about football tactics. Doesn't take a genius to work out we're losing the midfield battle, so what does he do, bring on Walcott and Carroll. The Harry Redknapp school of management. We NEED another central midfielder to stop Pirlo.
June 24, 201213 yr Who is Italy's most influential player ? Pirlo. So what do England do ? Give him all the time in the world. No pressing whatsoever Only a matter of time before Italy score
June 24, 201213 yr That was a quite painful 45 minutes. It comes to something when England's best hope is penalties.
June 24, 201213 yr Author Playing for penalties at the moment lol... Need to take Rooney off and put Henderson on. We're losing the ball because we just punt it forward and they win it back off us. Need to change formation.
June 24, 201213 yr This is just... painful to watch. I'm really worried now. :( England are just too defensive/lucky. We really need a lot more strength going forward or we'll never score.
June 24, 201213 yr It does worry me when bringing Henderson on for Rooney would actually be seen as a fairly tactically astute change.
June 24, 201213 yr It does worry me when bringing Henderson on for Rooney would actually be seen as a fairly tactically astute change. Except it's not about having the best players on the pitch It's about stopping England from being outnumbered in midfield
June 24, 201213 yr Oh dear, this isn't going great, Italy are taking more and more chances and we keep missing ours, needs to improve :(
June 24, 201213 yr England and Italy have each taken part in seven penalty shoot-outs. England have won one, Italy two.
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