Euro 2012: Quarter Final 4: England v Italy match thread

[Gbspurs]

Be good to see some youngsters come through qualifying. Kyle Walker will be a good addition. Looking forward to see how Cahill/Lescott play together. Wilshere/Parker should form a decent partnership in midfield. Biggest problem is up front. Apart from rooney we have no one decent and Rooney never turns up.

I would like to add that I felt Joe Hart was fantastic all Tournament and it's great to have a proper keeper again.

 

[StockSpur]

Agreed, dont know why wide men from britain cant be arsed to find space so they are easier to pass too. and milner wide? no.

 

[doom]

England tried to park the bus but they couldn't even use the handbrake properly. 4 compact defenders, 2 spending most of the time marking Balotelli but letting him pass between them all too often the full backs were not full enough giving Italy constant access down the wings. And then the midfield not pressing at all, they didn't even bother. The purpose of parking the bus is to frustrate the opposing attack but the bus just welcomed them on board!

 

[nidge]

Good article on Pirlo on ESPN.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/ne...mportant-player-generation-michael-cox-soccer

 

[Shanks]

Terrible squad choice from the beginning really.

We have a player in the Pirlo mould, in Scholes. Similiar age, similiar style. Shame he retired though.

We can't hold the ball, we can't press the ball. Simple as that, which is truely shocking given that some of these players play for some of the best teams in the world. It has to come down to coaching. Far too negative in my opinion.

Milner, Johnson, Young, Welbeck (didn't do too badly in previous games), Rooney & Parker.

There are better players around (apart from Rooney when fit).

Lennon > Milner
Adam Johnson > Ashley Young
Sturridge > Welbeck
Richards (normally Kyle Walker) > Johnson

Moving forward, I'd still like us to go with youngsters throughout to be honest.

Walker
Cahill/Caulker (for the future)
Lescott
Cole/Baines/Gibbs
Lennon/Ox/Walcott
Wilsher/Rodwell
Gerrard
Sturridge
Rooney
Carroll

bank of 4 defenders, 2 defensive minded midfielders for protection, attacking four in front.

QUick, fast counter attacking football, which we see week in, week out in the prem.

 

[StockSpur]

Actually on reflection, this could be good for hudd monster, he has basic to intermediate passing skills!

 

[ethanedwards]

Good read Nidge

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

There's a few coming through that given time could improve the England team.........Wilshere, Walker, Sturridge, Johnson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Smalling, Gibbs, Jones, Rodwell and Welbeck Add those to Hart and a few others who will still be playing come the next World Cup and one would hope we might see some improvement. That's the time to judge Hodgson, at the next World Cup.

 

[nidge]

Terrible squad choice from the beginning really.

We have a player in the Pirlo mould, in Scholes. Similiar age, similiar style. Shame he retired though.

It's sad that outside of England a player like Scholes would have had the side built around him, much like the Italy side is built around Pirlo.

Such a waste to push a player like Scholes out wide left to accommodate Lampard and Gerrard (which never worked I might add) that was part of the reason for his early retirement from international football.

 

[Col_M]

Don't know if already mentioned, but the contrast in Hart and Buffon's distribution is what set the pattern for Italy's dominance.

Each time Buffon had the ball, it was a pass/roll out/throw to one of his back 4.
Each time Hart had it, he belted up for the 50-50 battles that we consistently lost, until Carroll came on and fought for it.

 

[nidge]

There's a few coming through that given time could improve the England team.........Wilshere, Walker, Sturridge, Johnson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Smalling, Gibbs, Jones, Rodwell and Welbeck Add those to Hart and a few others who will still be playing come the next World Cup and one would hope we might see some improvement. That's the time to judge Hodgson, at the next World Cup.

That might be true but will they be technically any better than what's in the squad at the moment? When a premier league club wants a technically astute player they don't buy English they tend to buy foreign. Look at us for example will our replacement for Modric (if he leaves) be English?

 

[nidge]

Don't know if already mentioned, but the contrast in Hart and Buffon's distribution is what set the pattern for Italy's dominance.

Each time Buffon had the ball, it was a pass/roll out/throw to one of his back 4.
Each time Hart had it, he belted up for the 50-50 battles that we consistently lost, until Carroll came on and fought for it.

But even then when Carroll did win the ball the knock ons went to an Italy player more often than not because he had no support.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

That might be true but will they be technically any better than what's in the squad at the moment? When a premier league club wants a technically astute player they don't buy English they tend to buy foreign. Look at us for example will our replacement for Modric (if he leaves) be English?

Wilshere is already techinically better than anyone in England's midfield but as a group, who knows? I just think that the team we put out by the time the next World Cup comes along ought to be a better one, if not, Hodgson will have failed

 

[talkshowhost86]

That might be true but will they be technically any better than what's in the squad at the moment? When a premier league club wants a technically astute player they don't buy English they tend to buy foreign. Look at us for example will our replacement for Modric (if he leaves) be English?

There do appear to be some better technical players coming through (the likes if Wilshere, Cleverley and the young lad at Everton) but compared to the number of top players coming out of Spain and Germany we are still massively behind.

I do think though that we could do a lot worse than just picking a relatively young team and sticking with that for the next two years. It worked very well for Germany and they are seeing the benefits of that now. We could go with something like:

Hart​

​

Walker Lescott Cahill Gibbs​

​

Jones​

​

Wilshere Cleverley​

​

Ox Sturridge​

​

Rooney​

​

It's not particularly inspiring but I just think we aren't going to get anything more out of the likes of Gerrard, Parker, Cole and Terry at international level. They've had their time and we need to buold for the future. At least the team above would keep posession of the ball more than the current shower.​

​

Sadly we won't see anything that exciting from Hodgson. I fully expet the team to be exactly the same when the World Cup qualifiers start.​

 

[DJS]

Lennon > Milner
Adam Johnson > Ashley Young
Sturridge > Welbeck
Richards (normally Kyle Walker) > Johnson

Agree with all of them aside from Wellbeck.

Not sure how you can place Sturridge over him and think Wellbeck had a pretty decent tournament - his goal against Sweden was particularly nice.

 

[DJS]

I'd like to see the Wellbeck / Rooney combo continue and will be exciting to see Walker come in as well as (spit spit) Wilshere.

Much as he's maligned, Barry will also be a good option - he could also play wide left like Davids did for Spurs giving us a more solid midfield. Or when we want to be more attacking go for a speedy winger.

I like Cahill but Lescott had a cracking tournament and combined nicely with Terry so Cahill will have to push his way past those two, Terry's legs are going though.

Hart

Walker Terry Lescott Cole

Lennon Wilshere Gerrard Young

Rooney

Wellbeck


Young position very precatious, was good during qualifiers and will have point to prove.

Needs to stop being a cheating scum-bag though.

He showed very small glimpses of class against Ukraine in the second half.

(adam) Johnson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to push him hard for that left-sided slot though.

Lennon should never have been left out, aside from his cameo against Sweden Walcott wasn't very inspiring.

 

[Kingellesar]

no matter how shit Rooney played tonight, he is still England's best player and no way can he be dropped.

You're right, he does alright in qualifiers, it's just major tournaments where he disappears.

 

[nidge]

Although Welbeck's finish against Sweden was very deft. Am I the only one who thinks that at times the ball has bounced of Welbeck like the ball has hit a brick wall?

 

[ethanedwards]

Opta Joe. England made only 15 passes in the last 15 mins.

 

[KingKay]

Well that was predictable. I wasn't even dismayed at losing on penalties, i think eventually you build up a tolerance to these kind of let downs.