England Knee-jerks, home truths and facepalms
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 11:30AM I know it's one game, and we have a habit of being slow starters, but that was not exactly great against the USA. For several worrying reasons. Green, the risk (and failure) of starting Milner and King. Lack of imagination and guile. Far too many average, fragmented performances from our 'big' players.
My pre-World Cup prediction was that England would stumble all the way to the final, so I guess on performance, they're in the right gear to progress. I certainly think we will, considering the lack of quality possessed by Slovenia and Algeria.
Courtesy of the England v USA match thread over at Rumourwhores.com. Feel free to agree/disagree/discuss:
I'm watching another 'alternative' game here - England were 'in control' for max 10 mins on mine, with the US posing far more probs as the half wore on. The clever & direct interplay from Dempsey, Donovan & Altidore looked to be causing us far more probs than our blunt instrument of Heskey failing to free up the Roonster - Chopper
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England looked confident until that mistake (Green) as well. That one on one from Heskey though, you've got to seriously question his role after that haven't you? It's wonderful grafting for the team and bringing others in to play, but seriously, a one on one with the keeper is a striker's bread and butter. He never even made Howard work. It went straight at him. Dreadful. Shaun Wright-Phillips was completely clueless and Aaron Lennon regressed to his old no end product self. Glen Johnson was superb up that right flank for me though, some superb crosses in to the box, good support of Lennon and played well. USA well organised and both should qualify from here. - Kop
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Someone please find a retirement home for Jamie Carragher...what a useless old fart he is. Should have put Dawson in. England basically look the same lackluster side they did under Sven. - Spiderman
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"A fantastic save from Green" err, no it wasn't, again he didn't get his hands fully behind the ball and was lucky it came of the post. A good save would have been to have pushed it out for a corner to cut out the immediate danger. Thought on the whole we were the better team, and 3 points wouldn't have flattered us.
I'd like to see an England a little less prone to taking their foot of the pedal. After one of the better spells, the last 10 minutes seemed to me to be more concerned at not losing than trying to stretch. There had been some decent balls in from Johnson, Gerrard and Lennon - so with Crouch on the pitch I'd have liked to have seen more effort to get it out wide, quickly.
So I guess James will be in goal for Algeria - assuming his knee improves. Beginning to wonder whether there was any point to Hart going as - despite obviously having had the best season of the three - his lack of Internationals is just going to be held against him. - Skitters
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Right, that was a bit disappointing wasn't it? I'll start with the positives, I actually think we looked good for stretches of the game, perhaps not as much in control as ITV were making out as the US certainly threatened but we opened them up numerous times.
Gerrard took the captains role on well, he had a good game and looked menacing throughout. Johnson also played well, looking more of a threat than either winger and there was really no problems at the back until Carragher came on and got roasted a few times.
On the other side apart from Green f**king up (which is not in the least bit surprising, we've all seen him do it before) and Hart not being picked when he's been the best English keeper this year the most disappointing thing was how quickly we resorted to hoofing the ball. Everything good we did was along the floor, even Heskey main contribution was a clever round the corner pass and yet the closer it got to the end of the game the quicker we abandoned that and started smashing the ball up the field aimlessly, losing possession and looking more and more desperate.
The bit when we held onto the ball for like 30 seconds at the back and then just hoofed it up the pitch in the last minute was cringeworthy.
Get King back in a few days, put Hart and Joe Cole (for SWP or Milner) in the team and I'm still hopeful. - Zero
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I thought England were fair sh*t last night until the last 10-15 mins when it looked like they thought about the passing a bit more instead of rushing everything and struggling to put a couple of passes together. Still dont like the look of our defence down the middle either. With the players we have there a simple ball over the top and the two CB are in trouble .
How come Milner got taken off so soon? Yes i know he got booked, was he still ill or something. Overall the result wasn't that big a surprise to me we normally start off shit in the opening games and either scrape the win or draw. - Stacki
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Said at the time that King's inclusion was f**king insane and it's certainly looking that way now. Thought that Gerrard was very good, as was Johnson, and Heskey probably England's best player for me, which says a lot as I don't rate the guy at all and never have. Green's mistake was a total disgrace - under zero pressure, no-one even closing down, and he still manages to f**k it up. England will still qualify - I fancy them to tank one of Algeria or Slovenia - but it puts them under unnecessary pressure as they had more than enough out there to see of the USA handily. They need to play now with real intent though as if they are gunshy in any way they will come unstuck. I think Capello is too canny a manager to let that happen though.
I rate Capello as probably the most accomplished manager England have had since Robson in 1990. And remember everyone was calling for Robson's balls in 88 when England got dicked in every game. At the end of the day Capello's first job was to get England to the World Cup and he did that with absolute ease. We're at the business end of things now and ultimately he will be judged on how England fare in this tournament. I'm a hell of a lot more comfortable with him in charge than the likes of McClaren or Eriksson as I don't think he'll shy away from making tough decisions or shaking things up.
As for Joe Cole, I think he should defo feature in the next game. Milner looked like he was trying to force things and was wisely subbed so there's a spot for him on the left, where he's excelled for England before. - Chronic
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Call me knee jerk but is he (re: Fabio a canny manager)? People have been blowing smoke up Capello's arse largely because of that thrashing away to a depleted Croatia side, dismissing the ordinary performances and predictable defeats against any half decent team. It all echoes a bit of Eriksson's reign to me. Take last nights performance, it was exactly the same as we have always played - sh*te in possession, fast to adopt the long ball when things aint going our way, a lack of cohesion and a staggering lack of quality from players who have had the season of their lives for their clubs in Rooney, Lennon and Lampard. We played ok in little spells but that is simply not good enough on this stage.
Green has had his worst season for us but there is no way that stat is correct. It was an utterly embarrassing mistake which you will be hard pushed to find at the next 2 or 3 international tournaments. I totally agree with you about the 'wonder save' as well - he got lucky. I don't give a sh*t if he's dropped and it wrecks his confidence and his career. This is about England winning the World Cup (yeah, I know, don't laugh), not Rob Green's mental state. It's ok anyway, he prepares for making a mistake before a game.
Anybody else think we were crying out for Joey Cole last night? Oh, and Carragher. Somebody put this **** down. He was never that f**king good in the first place. - Chazza
For more discussion and verbals, check out Rumourwhores.com here. Fans of all clubs welcome. Back to England...
Do we drop Green for James or perhaps Hart? What's the answer to the CB conundrum with King out (how long for - depends on what report you believe)? Heskey does a job for England but if fails to impress does that have a detrimental effect on the performance of Rooney? And If Heskey is there to aid Ron and bring other players into the game when holding up the ball, does it really out-weigh the ability to hold his nerves (rather than the ball) and take a chance in front of goal when presented with one? Lennon was well marked and rarely had the ball played into space in front of him (it's International football, so it's not going to be easy) so if he's doubled-up on, surely there's more space down the middle to exploit? Was SWP the answer on the opposite side? Not on yesterdays performance. Gerrard and Lampard work? Seemed too. Gerrard played with heart, with Lampard doing well to fulfil his Barryesque duties. But was that enough? No deflected shots or runs from Frank, so was his role too contained?
It's tricky not to over-analyse, because that's what we do thanks to the traditional expecation that England will turn up and turn on. The reality is, we never do but that doesn't mean we should be dismissing our chances just yet. And considering this is the World Cup, we could have had a bit more assured swagger and intent. I'm happy to get this type of result/performance out of the way first game, and get it right in the next one. As long as we get it right, of course.
Roll on the next 90 minutes of torture.
Reader Comments (26)
My two cents: Lennon looked good, but the number of times he played a square ball to lampard and gerrard looking for the return pass that he almost certainly would've reached (being far faster than Bocanegra), but instead they faffed around trying to score a wondergoal, pause for 10 seconds then passed the ball when the moment was gone was absolutely infuriating. It's not even a clever tactical ploy that they didn't pull off, it's simple football. Also no late bursts into the box from Lennon's crosses from any of the other midfielders. Lennon normally plays low balls across the goalface rather than far post curling crosses and it works well if the rest of the team have the faintest idea what they are doing... Nevertheless, I expect more chest pumping performances from "our brave lions", what a shambles...
How many watch winners do we actually have? I'd say plenty but the main gripe is the lack of fluid football. Compare us to the Germans and you can see the difference in belief and confidence. Two very winnable games up next so hopefully we will find our stride.
When Lennon's in acres of space, the trick is to get it to him early, which nobody seemed to have the nous to to. The difference is, when he's playing for us he has Hudd ready to ping him a ball out to him at any given moment - the England boys seemed to telegraph every pass before they executed it, then when they eventually got it to Lennon it was at his feet rather than the space in front of him. This was when he actually got the ball of course. Frustrating as hell. Capello isn't silly, if we noticed it i'm sure as hell he has too, and I expect it to be remedied for the next game.
James,
Johnson, Terry, King/Dawson, A.Cole.
Lennon, Lampard, Barry, J.Cole.
Gerrard
Rooney
Thats the only way i can see us getting the benefit of having Gerrard and Lampard in the same side.
Gerrard we excellent, lead the line well. Wasn't so much impressed with Heskey. Yes I get the whole holding forward role and ram type qualities but he is next to useless in front of goal. Didn't think Rooney had a great game, seemed to be trying too hard and was selfish at times. Lampard was quiet, King going off was no great surprise, but Fabio has to be accountable for the Milner and Green selection. Doubt much will change for the next game other than the keeper and the CB position. Let's hope if Dawson comes in he excels.
Okay, we have our "hate" figure already .. Green's life will now be made a misery by the press and fans. Never mind the great Roonster was completely anonymous, never mind that Heskey simply cannot score goals, never mind that Lampard keeps looking safely sideways instead of feeding the fast wingers with the ball, never mind that Ledley King shouldn't even be there, never mind that the back four often had to resort to long balls as the midfield didn't make themselves available, never mind that it was blindingly obvious that Joe Cole would have been a far better option than Wright-Phillips in replacing Milner. Lets just slag off a fairly decent goalkeeper for ONE mistake.
Please Note: I am NOT a West Ham fan.
Biased view,,,, I think Lennon was good, didnt see enough of the ball but when he did made the most of it. Put Heskey through 1 on 1, which he duely missed and almost put fat frank through to score if it wasnt for a last ditch tackle / interception, also won numerous corners.
He was double teamed through out but still was not wasteful. Mostly.
Jep, there is no chance of Daws playing. It's going to be Carragher.
Think we just need to move on from the Green mistake and back the player if selected again. Let's not forget the troubles Gomes had. Sure there is no reason to spill the ball like that but then there is no reason to miss from a few yards out and hit the keeper rather than the back of the net.
Here's a thought: - the ball is crap. Anyone else notice how utterly wank any long pass has been (for any side) this tournament? Might be one reason we arent seeing the 40 yard passes out wide to lennon that we're used to (that and the fact that there is no-one in the side that can pass like Hudd..). I know some of the teams aren't the best but Mexico hit about 20 long passes to the wings straight out of play (for example), and I dont think anyone has looked convincing with a free kick yet (I haven't watched all the games so correct me on that..)
Ledley was sipposed to be back-up not the main man and in his condition was never going to allow him to play constantly and last the whole tournament.
The bravado that he and Harry put on by playing 4 games in a fortnight was possibly his undoing. Still it worked and he got there. He can retire a happy man.
Lennon had a good game but as has been said although he played well positionally and stretched the defence he wasn't given the chance to run. Beckham advised Walcott to put the ball into dangerous areas rather than try to pick out a player and that is what Lennon did. His first time ball to put Heskey through was the pass of the game.
Needed Joe Cole to give us a little more skill and creativity.
Capello: wizard or just the Wizard of Oz in a Marks and Spencers suit overhyped behind the curtain and now exposed?
Played exactly as I expected when the squad was announced. Way too safe for my liking. I said it before this is a squad to get to the 1/4 finals at best. Joe Cole is our more creative player and he didnt get a look in. Rooney was shocking, lost the ball more often than not and didnt track back very much. With Heskey in the side who to be fair did what was asked by winning all the numerous and never ending headers from the hoofed ball to him that type of football is never going to be fluid. Why play like that if you have the likes of lennon on the wings? Id rather drop heskey and use gerrard off rooney and make them play it on the ground with fast passing played at pace. We played like that during qualifications so where has it gone? Now its back to route one crap. Then you can always brink on defoe for pace or if chasing the crouch or heskey if you decide to go the direct route in last 10-15mins chasing a game. But I cant see it with this team. Milner was found out that was why he was subbed, hes too slow and too rash and would have been sent off, SWP was brought on purely for his pace to try to contain the left side. But Cole would be a better option for me.
I am not liking this reliance that we seemed to have placed on Rooney's shoulders. I understand that he is a great player and all but if he has an off day then we suffer. Especially the way we line up at the moment with Heskey alongside him. You can't play someone specifically because Wayne likes to play with him, that's a ridiculous concept. You need to have 2 goal threats upfront not 1 and some random guys who never scores. I really want to see crouch start the next game as its against the Algerias and Slovenias of this world which is his speciality. Its not like he doesn't link-up play between Rooney and the midfield anyway, in fact I'd say he does a better job than heskey and can score.
I think everyone (other than Liverpool fans) would agree that Dawson should replace carragher in the next game, so I'll leave that rant well alone for the moment. Along with that argument is the keeper situation, which everyone I have spoken to believes that Hart is the best keeper in our squad at the moment. I don't understand the "he has no international experience" bollox because he doesn't need any to do his job, after all isn't that what the couching staff are there for? I thought their job was to prepare the players as much as they can before a game, which means passing on such experience. Having said that, I still expect Green to start the next game, if not then it will be James.
However when the final whistle blew on Saturday, one of my mates flipped and decided that it was all over because how are we going to win if we can't beat USA. My response to that was "shut up you tart", quite simply because of the following reasons:
the USA team is the same team that beat Spain not so long ago
they didn't actually score, it was a goalkeeping error (of which don't happen consistently)
many teams that have won the world cup have started off slow
we weren't outplayed
we didn't loose
So I say chin up, learn from our mistakes and bring on Algeria....
Capello falls into the same trap that Harry does at WHL and that's playing the 'big' man up front formation. It doesn't work!!. The midfiled just watch the ball fly over their heads most of the time and Rooney wasn't getting the ball on the ground around the box where he's best. In the last 10 games of the season when we were playing the passing game rather than the long ball to Crouchie's head routine, we were winning games with style. England must drop Heasky, bring Gerrard up to play behind Rooney and get the midfield playing a passing game with Cole and Lennon using speed and skill on the wings.
As for Carragher, nah!!
I must admit that i found it to be a pretty boring game with almost no creativity from the English and Onyewu ruling over his part of the pitch. Lampard was lousy, carragher same , lennon (apart from one nice move ) pretty much non present ... Gerrard ok and Rooney worked a lot but the support towards him was minimal
The Yankees , well that boy Altidore lacks a bit of composure and their second tier strikers aren't strong enough but they looked quite strong , not WC half final strong but still i am under the impression that they are growing all the time ...
Q-F penalty shoot out, here we come.
Sheffspur makes a point. There are no easy games.
Apart from Algeria and Slovenia.
This is how i said we would play before the world cup and sadly for our great fans and me we did. My worrys have already come true is spectacular fashion my first concern was a lack of a midfield creator and Tm Huddlestone would of come good in the world cup i no 100 percent yes he played to safty first in his games before the world cup and also the old guard where picking there own club favourites . Three players that would have given us the x faxto have bean left at home Agbonlahore Wallcott and Hudds look at Germany a young team with no chance have set the world cup alight by hammering Australia. Podolski and Closer have not scored a dozen goals between them in the German league yet they have both scored from there exciting youngsters driving runs .My second statment on this blog was Capelo was taking to many injured players who where not match fit or still carrying injury risks Lennon frightened of hurting is hernia and groin Rooney is Ankle Both Coles not match fit King Ferdinand and even Terry Barry have all kept quite about there fitness to make the plane . Onece again we have gone for the papaer Team good on paper but not on the field .These players should have gone Agbonlahore Young Richards Shawcross Huddlestone Wallcott we have let a generation down and the best teams so far have played exciting youngsters Holland Germany we have Lennon half fit lets hope he stays fit.
Heskey is great at bringing others in to play...did you see how he brought Howard into the game when he had a chance to score...
hahaha
The problem I have with England and have had since the end of Euro 96 is that we we inherently play a very boring style of football. We have next to no flair players and those that we do (lennon, rooney, cole) are completely stifled by the way we play football. Watching England would be incredibly boring were it not for all the 'hopes of the nation' stuff we all get sucked into. This isn't a knee-jerk from Saturday because this is what I have always felt. I never watch friendlies unless I happen to be in front of the tv with nothing else to do and even the qualifiers aren't exactly interesting.
I watched the germans last night, supposedly a dull methodical team good at grinding out results. Well last night and throughout the last world cup they play a superb passing game and move the ball around brilliantly in dangerous areas and they have two blokes up front who know how to score goals in international tournaments.
I think the problem is the coaching of youngsters in general in britain. It's like kids have all the skill and tricks deliberately coached out of them because it's far 'safer' to play a pass than try to beat 3 or 4 players. We will NEVER produce a player like ronaldo or messi or ronaldinho until this sort of thing is stopped
I really hope we go all the way because I'm English but unless we improve our game drastically then we certainly don't deserve to.
Have to agree with davspurs, why are there so many injured players here?
Didn't Capello say he would only take fit players?
IMO the 'old firm' of Lampard etc should have it mentioned to them that Lennon was playing. He had in my opinion a non-descript game because he was passed to way to infrequently. SWP - what a waste, smiles when losing the ball, I noticed he smiled alot.
A very poor performance all round.....
As a dual supporter (US and Germany), gotta say that was a pretty good weekend.
Just one gloating comment on the US/England game--what preceded the keeping error/goal? Clint Dempsey turning Stevie Me, not once, not twice but three freaking times. Sweet.
Several posters have mentioned the German performance and the really pleasing style versus the turgid crap we keep seeing from England. That's down to the KIinsmann revolution. After Germany came second at Korea Japan with what everyone said was an utterly crap team (and, in truth, they really did just grind out the results in that tournament), the German FA hired Klinsmann and gave him carte blanche to revitalize German football. The first thing he did was scrap most of the old guard of established players, many of whom were still pretty much in their prime. He went with younger players and lesser known (not Bayern) players and focused on fitness in all respects (remember the mocking photos of players with the stretchy bands,doing balance exercises and yoga?) He was crucified in the press, not least for the final team selection ( e.g. Odonkar too young, Neuville too old but who set up and scored that crucial last freaking minute winning goal against Poland? Odonkar and Neuville.)
But it worked. And with Jochim Loew, it's working even better. Three players from the under 21 side played on Sunday, and we saw some truly sparkling football. I posted this on an earlier blog--WC 2006 3rd, Euro 2008 2nd, and after Sunday, what are the odds of Germany completing that sequence by winning it all in 2010?
My point is England really need to do the same sort of thing. You're not going to win anything with the old guard of Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Heskey. They are a failed "golden generation" that's never delivered, with a sense of entitlement that has never been backed up by results, a team where the whole has consistently, for whatever reason, been less than the sum of its parts . Cut your losses and start over with a fresh squad for the qualifiers for Euro 2012.
I predicted this exact outcome. Couldn't see how England could possibly win that match.
From a yids perspective: It was strangely comforting to see crouchy be as useless for england as he is for us.
Are we all prepared for Benny's new hair?
With his hairstyles, Benny has gone from looking like Snoop from The Wire.....
http://nymag.com/images/2/daily/entertainment/08/03/03_snoop_lgl.jpg
.....to looking like Namond Brice from the same show!!
http://www.hobotrashcan.com/hangingaround/photos/flugtag/julitomccullum.jpg
We looked like England under Sven.
So funny that if any English coach played that crude and style less he would be hammered but Cappello gets away with it like Sven did for ages.
Harry wold sort England out but he will never get the job.
If we play Germany in the first knockout game it will be humiliating.