England Team Thread

[Adrock]

The fascination with wingers cutting in perplexes me. If you have a player suited to that then obviously It's an option, but if your wingers are English they have generally been taught from a young age to whip the ball in for the big man. Which is exactly what Hodgson gonna he doing.

All these tournaments do for me nowadays is highlight the gulf between the style generally employed by top teams and the way youth is trained in this country. It's no surprise to me that Rooney looks technically inferior to most top European strikers, which brings me to the final point. Will Rooney Hodgson's system? Will he suit playing behind Andy Carroll or does Carroll get dropped when Rooney is fit. Without doubt the English system has struggled to accommodate the best individuals who have been available and I don't think Hodgson has the ideas to make it work.

[EJG1980]

Lovely finish by Welbeck against Belgium. Hadn't been that great a match until that moment.

[nakamura]

We are still miles too rigid. Not enough movement.

[Stoppy2000]

We are still miles too rigid. Not enough movement.

Maybe we will be like Greece and bore our way to the title. Unlikely.

[nakamura]

I'm not going to slate or defend the manager, it is miles too early for that. Movement has been a problem though for the last ten years, we just always look so rigid. Either the players simply aren't smart enough to keep moving and making space or they are setup tactically to avoid leaving gaps.

We need to take more risks.

[PaTaito]

Big lack of movement, lack of flair, passing too slow, over reliant on easy long balls into the striker...

The managers change, but the way we play really doesnt.

And glenn johnson better not be first choice RB come the france game...NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

[nakamura]

To be fair it could be more ambitious come the tournament. I hope they push themselves a lot more than now. These are only friendlies after all.

[Stoppy2000]

Glenn Johnson made some laughable attempts at beating players. He doesn't look fit.

[bwi]

i just wonder how we can have three liverpool players in the squad (carol, downing and henderson)who for 99.9% of the season have been crap.

Unless the pool of talent is that bad, that within ten years we will be picking mostly from the championship

[ShadowDancer]

Steve Bull FTW.

[rmoxon]

I can't actually rember the last time I watched england and felt entertained so it's not the manager that is the problem really, but he hasn't helped either.

Players like Milner and Glenn Johnson don't have enough about them and shouldnt be there. There's no creativity in the midfield, Parker just runs around like loon all day long. Ashley young is not a central midfielder for me. they gave Gerrard the man of the match but I can't remember him making one good pass in the game.

For the entire length of the match the only inspired thing an England player did was Welbecks finish for his goal... That was it, in the entire game.

[glazza]

Cahill is out now with a broken jaw Martin Kelly drafted in over Ferdinand who is out simply beacause of John Terry racial abuseing his brother but thats another discussion all together, players dropping like flies in an already very poor England squad couldnt see us getting out of the group before the Euros even with a full squad but certainly cant see that happening now looks like another miserable failed embarassing tournament for us English to bare once again me thinks.

Sighhhhhhhhhh!!!.

[BaronSqwelch]

I have never even heard of Martin Kelly, had to google him

[glazza]

I have never even heard of Martin Kelly, had to google him

In the odd Lpool game i watched last season he played pretty well but he certainly isnt International ready but he is deffo one for the future.

[bwi]

So how come another defender we've never heard of, but comes from liverpool gets drafted in. Ryan Shawcross at Stoke has played well all season, why not give him a chance or probably others that i've missed out on. Hodgson is pissing me off already