England National football team thread

[War]

The way ENG played is how many teams have tried to beat Spain and Barcelona in the past. Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn't.

Without Rooney, Young, Gerrard, Wilshire, ENG didn't have the quality to break on the counter-attack with precision. So I have no complaints.

All this result means is that if ENG go to the EUROs and have to play Spain, they know they have the defensive acumen to potentially upset them. All they need is the aforementioned quality attacking players back to make the tactic work properly.

Parker further highlighted his importance to the midfield, while i think Lescott showed the fruits of his improvements at City of late. He should be the first choice back-up to Terry/Ferdinand.

Hopefully a more attacking formation is played against Sweden.

Since the world cup, Spain have lost some high profile friendlies to Argentina 4-1, Portugal 4-0 and Italy 2-1, before this. I personally have only taken the Italy 2-1 win seriously because:

- That win didn't spur Argentina unto any special in the Copa America
- Portugal are still struggling to quality for EURO 2012

I know J Alba got a lot of hype in his debut vs Scotland. But having a look of him, I still think Liverpool's Enrique is a better LB option for the EURO and world champs.

 

[BKB1991]

Lescott and Parker were absolute rocks. Superb defending, you could just sense Spain were not going a goal

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Well, that was a turn up for the books, I was expecting highlights like 'S-pain' in tomorrow's papers, instead they're all going to be bouncing off the walls.

While we mustn't get ahead of ourselves, it's a cracking result. Now let's see if we can maintain this level of performance against Sweden - there have been many occasions where England have played well one game and then looked distinctly ordinary the next - the game after the 5-1 in Germany, anyone?

 

[barmyarmy]

Lescott and Parker were absolute rocks. Superb defending, you could just sense Spain were not going a goal

Until Fabregas missed from 10 yards...
Ultimately we got lucky, creating one chance from a set piece isn't really good enough especially if you only have 20% possession.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

The way ENG played is how many teams have tried to beat Spain and Barcelona in the past. Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn't.

Without Rooney, Young, Gerrard, Wilshire, ENG didn't have the quality to break on the counter-attack with precision. So I have no complaints.

All this result means is that if ENG go to the EUROs and have to play Spain, they know they have the defensive acumen to potentially upset them. All they need is the aforementioned quality attacking players back to make the tactic work properly.

But then you have to ask - could England defend like that with Rooney, Young, Gerrard and Wilshere in the side? Young and Rooney replacing Bent and Walcott yeah, but then I'm not sure about the other two.

 

[War]

But then you have to ask - could England defend like that with Rooney, Young, Gerrard and Wilshere in the side? Young and Rooney replacing Bent and Walcott yeah, but then I'm not sure about the other two.

Yea man, the full-strength line-up I would play in such as game is:

Bent/Welbeck

Rooney Young


Milner Parker Gerrard


Gerrard has solid defensive skills. We know what Parker will bring and Milner is warrior and good man to have to aid in assisting Parker in distrupting Spain's mid-field play.

Plus you gonan need a good target man striker, since in such a game ENG will be forced into play long-ball football.

 

[JBlues08]

Boring, cynical, defensive and lucky: How Spain's papers rated England | Sid Lowe | Football | guardian.co.uk

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Boring, cynical, defensive and lucky: How Spain's papers rated England | Sid Lowe | Football | guardian.co.uk

Who cares? Everyone knows if we'd played them at their own game, they would've slaughtered us. So like Mourinho did with Inter vs Barca, we parked the bus. Throughout history, a weaker force has to be defensive, cagey and use hit and run tactics to succeed - right now unfortunately we're a weaker force than them. Spain, you didn't get the thing in the net, we did. Deal with it.

Edit: As for 'lucky' - so Spain weren't just a tiny bit lucky to beat Holland for the World Cup? Anyone who saw the game knows Holland should've won with the chances they had.

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I know J Alba got a lot of hype in his debut vs Scotland. But having a look of him, I still think Liverpool's Enrique is a better LB option for the EURO and world champs.

Ha ha!!!! The only 'J Alba' I can think of is:

 

[Auwais]

Apart from the Robben chance, what else did Holland create? They seemed more concerned with kicking the Spaniards off the pitch.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

So, 43 years without a win over Sweden comes to an end tonight - I was beginning to think I'd never see the day! I thought we looked very composed especially in defence, with some nice attacking play.

Two good games for England and the young players look like they're going to be very important in the Euros. As Gareth Southgate just said - no 'superstars' in the team in the past two games and they have played as a team.

 

[barmyarmy]

Sweden were pretty dreadful weren't they?
I don't see BoZam as a long-term option and thought he was pretty ordinary tonight. Good to see Sturridge making his debut. Had there not been all the second half changes I reckon it might have been 2 or 3 more than it was. Obviously should have been 3-0 at halftime anyway!

 

[Themer]

I don't see BoZam as a long-term option

I though he might be able to do a job as a poor man's cultured target man but his touch was very poor tonguing, seemed very nervous.

Rodwell and Jones had decent games, didn't look at all overawed.

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Haha, Firefox dictionary corrected that for me then. I like its interpretation.

 

[harrisb]

I was lucky enough to go to both games, and I must say that I agree with the pundits saying that England were boring and lucky on Saturday. Spain were allowed to pass the ball around at ease without any worries, if anything though, it was their lack of a final ball through the defence that meant they didn't score, I'm not saying England didnt play well, but Spain didn't play at their best.

Tonight was much better, the game was more open and made it a much more interesting match to watch. Again, England were probably lucky, Sweden would have scored at least once in the second half had Ibrahimovic stayed on, the defence was shaky at times, and i don't see Terry being any use to the team, after Saturday I think that Lescott is much better, along with somebody, maybe Cahill, would be a better pairing. After saying that though, we dominated early on, and Rodwell and Jones really should have scored

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I was lucky enough to go to both games, and I must say that I agree with the pundits saying that England were boring and lucky on Saturday. Spain were allowed to pass the ball around at ease without any worries, if anything though, it was their lack of a final ball through the defence that meant they didn't score, I'm not saying England didnt play well, but Spain didn't play at their best.

Fair enough, but the fact is England cannot keep the ball as well as Spain, so to play that way would be to play right into Spain's hands. The objective, especially in a tournament is to win the damn game. I'm sure I'm not alone here if England were the most boring team in the world, but actually won something occasionally.

And remember, a lot of our first team players were out against Spain - not least Rooney and Young.

 

[barmyarmy]

The trouble is that England suck at keeping the ball against most teams. Way too many passes to no-one and speculative hoofs up-field.