England Team Discussion

[MUFC1987]

I don't think he said anything too controversial. We're essentially at the stage where we need to win almost all of our games, with us potentially being ok if we lose to Sri Lanka, but only if other results go our way. So I don't think Collingwood is out of place saying that we might struggle. It's just unfortunate that the fixtures have worked out with our two hardest games first, so the pressure is huge now.

Regarding tactics and team selections, I'd just like to see Woakes opening the bowling. That worked well, not sure why it changed. Oh, and Finn only looked worse than Broad in the last game because Morgan gave him two overs straight away, whereas he took Broad off after one, so harsh to judge him on that for me.

 

[bigred]

Broad plays above Finn just because he's a senior player and we need him to step up. Finn has been a fragile character for 18 months now. Ever since Agar took him apart at Trent Bridge.

 

[Biggs]

Moragn saying : we wont panic....FFS lads, panic fecking panic......do something, do something, anything.........they just have no plan whatsoever

I think it's less about panic and more about make a change. Do SOMETHING. It's not about dropping players and wholeheartedly changing the team but to fold like a cheap ironing board with absolutely no fight, then your lead bowler walks out and throws down a wide first ball of the innings is pretty shitty. They just didn't care out there and looked dismal in the field. Zero passion to play. It's a hiding to nothing when you can't force an attitude change and fight, regardless of the pitiful effort.

That starts right at the top, it's about Morgan running out there on the field and setting attacking fields and defending 123 like it's 323

 

[MUFC1987]

Lost the toss and batting.

Anyone else got a bad feeling about this? Oh, all the England fans? Right then.

 

[Dutch]

Yeah...I really wouldnt mind them losing.....they will win, talk about moving forward and limp towards not making the quater finals but of course seeing enough positives to go forward and show character.....any body feel I might be bitter....?

 

[Dutch]

England are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring to watch........................we should be hammering every single ball against this attack...it is tepid, boring, slow, crap, boring and miserable cricket....really really fed up....

 

[bigred]

Can't believe we've sent Ballance in at one down in the 31st over. That's surely where the coach has got to intervene. I'm going to bed.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Moeen Ali is good. But England picking Bell, Ballance and Root in a one day game is a little ridiculous - Root's the only guy who's justified selection in a kinda Trott-esque role.

 

[Dutch]

Moeen Ali is good. But England picking Bell, Ballance and Root in a one day game is a little ridiculous - Root's the only guy who's justified selection in a kinda Trott-esque role.

We should be attacking, smashing things around getting up to 380....but no we just nurdle it around killing the game as a spectator sport....we are sooooo many light years behind the rest of the world....

 

[Dutch]

Ballance gone.....pathetic...what is he doing there.......

 

[Dutch]

Well another power play we have no idea what to do with.........I know I need to shut up but I really cannot see how anyone can say anything else than that England are going utterly backwards.....we play a brand of cricket that is grinding the game into the ground.....

 

[SpitfiresKent]

England are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring to watch........................we should be hammering every single ball against this attack...it is tepid, boring, slow, crap, boring and miserable cricket....really really fed up....

Yeah they showed it the other day on SkySports. Anything wide early on and Bell just lets it go past, McCullum on the other day smashes it for 4/6!

 

[cricket_icon]

decent performance, Ali and Bell might be finding some form, still a bit of a let down, we should have got more runs in all honesty against such a weak bowling side.

 

[bigred]

Scotland have, without doubt, the weakest bowling attack in the WC. Cannot believe the way Bell played. It was like he was facing Walsh and Ambrose.

As for Majid Haq- I'm not sure he'd get into the first XI at my club.

 

[blockerdave]

feel a bit sorry for Ballance, played no cricket then suddenly told to go in at 3 in the world cup - even if they decided to drop Bopara (and they shouldn't have), why on earth move Taylor from 3 where he was doing a good job. the whole thinking around this england team is just muddled.

all the talk on sky sports before was about England having spent the week having "meetings, meetings, meetings... meetings about meetings". just shows why Moores should be nowhere near that set up. just doesn't have a clue.

only England could make a 110+ run win seem like a defeat. how do you go from 172-0 with almost 20 overs left to 303-8 against a sub-county attack. absolutely shocking. Had Ian Bell been given out early when he should have been LBW, this could have been worse. As it was only Moeen Ali gave anything like an adequate performance.

i'm an England fan but I genuinely hope we get knocked out before the quarters - we cannot keep claiming positives where there are none and papering over the cracks. the whole set up needs rethinking - moores: out; saker: out; every f-ing analyst in the backroom team: out; whittaker: out; downton: out.

this is a quote from Stuart Broad after the Australia game: "Here’s a stat for you. South Africa are the best in the world at death bowling and they go at an average of 5.8 runs as compared with our 8.0 in the last 10 overs. So what’s making them better? The world average is 30 to 40 per cent yorkers in those last overs in the modern game and what’s South Africa’s percentage? 12 per cent. They bowl length outside off-stump."

just think about that for a second... no intelligent analysis of the different skills/attributes of the bowlers, the opponents, the match situation, no ability to think in the match of whether something is working here today or maybe needs to change, no adaptability... just a bunch of numbers spewed out. that is where nearly 10 years of peter moores, andy flower, and backroom statisticians get you - a senior england player (t20 captain, no less) who can give you a load of stats about South Africa's death bowling but can't take a wicket against scotland.