Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 1:35 am  

Stand-Offish wrote:

How can you be more confident after the loss of three points?
Who exactly are we going to beat and how??
Because we now have to do just that.

Because I thought we'd get hammered, and I thought Uruguay would be better than they are.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 3:18 am  

England car flags anyone ... ten a penny?
It's all very sad, very predictable.
I feel sorry for England fans.
I suppose it's the same for most footballing nations bar the usual suspects.
We will never again win the world cup.
Why bother getting your hopes up?

Where did I put those razor blades Mabel?

I'm only saying this of course in the hope that I am wrong and can be ridiculed.
But I think that death will come first.

What kind of coach lets Pirlo go unfettered?
Answer ... a useless losing England coach with a smiley face.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 4:58 am  

I didn't see the game as I was up for work at 5, but watching the highlights it looked like we did alright. We scored though so It's an improvement on Euro 2012 we were never going to win this world cup, most fans were hoping for adventurous performances and nothing more. Congrats to Costa Rica too

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 7:34 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Not his fault at all. Roy should have changed it after five minutes when it was clear Baines had two men to cope with on his own. Why he left it for an hour before he made the change is beyond me.

Everton fan defending Everton player....no surprise there then!

What about his corners as well?...thought he was poor and had he played for another side you'd be ripping into him.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:33 am  

It wasn't a bad performance. Just not good enough at this level. When an Italian defender had the ball 2 or 3 of their midfielders would run towards him. When an England defender had the ball our midfielders all ran away from him. We just cant build from the back. Clearly there were times when our more direct approach worked, but too many extended periods when Italy controlled the game.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:56 am  

Everything went exactly as expected.

England put a few young fast players in the team and push more people forward and suddenly everyone thinks England are better. The reality is they are still tactically naive and lack quality in the final 3rd to break down defences at this level.

Prandelli must have been pissing himself over his spaghetti last night, the ease with which Italy cruised past England. Their midfield played the game in their dinner jackets and all it took to dismantle hodgsons master plan was clever manipulation of the midfield.

England will finish bottom of the group .

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 9:16 am  

FlexWheeler wrote:

Everything went exactly as expected.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:24 am  

The only thing slower than englands defensive awareness and more dull than the predictability of the result was phil neville's commentary.

I think it's pretty safe to say he won't be following in his brothers footsteps.

My personal favourite: ‘If the entire stadium burns down, Phil Neville will mumble "Well, that's what flames can do. If they're not marked."

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:43 am  

Woy's final message to his lads.........

Danger ... Italian footballers at large!
Do NOT in any circumstances approach them!

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:54 am  

Stand-Offish wrote:

Danger ... Italian footballers at large!
Do NOT in any circumstances approach them!

I thought it was woy's tactics to stand off and try and keep a strict shape, but then pick moments to pounce on them, win the ball and attacks fast when they are out of shape.

The problem was as soon as italy went 2-1 they could just sit back and england simply didn't have the technical ability to pick the lock. In the first half they were able to reply almost instantly without italy having a chance to settle on the lead, otherwise the result would have probably been 1-0 to italy.

Barkley lallana and wilshire all came on for a reasonable amount of time and couldn't make any impact and pick that lock, despite being some of the more technically gifted players in the team.

The thing is that Italy are a really difficult team to beat in tournament football. They are never talked about much or hugely rated but they are always defensively solid and tactically aware, with technically gifted players and a top striker or 2, so more often than not they do well, by hook or crook.

Expect goals against uruguay. Both teams have to win. Both teams are defensively vulnerable. For me uruguay have the bigger weapons up top. Cavani and suarez are world class strikers. England don't have one. Uruguay will win, 3-2 or something like that.

England will go out of this tournament bottom of the group, yet the reaction will be the opposite of previous tournaments.

It'll be :

''at least we had a go''
''inexperience cost us, great positives for the future''
''just wait until the next tournment, our young stars will have matured and be ready to win!!''