What do the best third place finishers look like right now?
I think that was possibly Roy Hodgson’s best game yet as manager, the only false step perhaps being to take off Lallana when the crowd I was with thought Alli the better candidate. I was dreading him giving the same XI another 10-15 minutes after half-time, credit to him for not doing so. I also liked his bold move of bringing on another attacking player with 20 minutes to go, which seemed to leave England playing a sort of 2-1-4-3 formation (Cahill and Smalling at the back, Dier sitting, Rooney and Alli in centre midfield with Walker and Rose patrolling the wings, and Sturridge, Vardy, and Rashford up front). Strategically, 3 points to England is so much more valuable than 1 that it was worth risking that point (though Wales really offered very little threat, especially in the second half). It was also nice, if a little frustrating at times, to see England sticking to their game plan of keeping the ball and building up slowly (except for five minutes or so after they equalised), even in the 90th minute. Eventually, after a few false starts, it paid off. Of course, had Sturridge not somehow squeezed that goal in, we’d all be calling for the manager’s head :).
Four groups have only played one match, so too early to tell.
:dubious:
The changes he made were forced on him, considering how lousy Sterling was (and uninspired Kane), it was one better then him having brought them on because of injury.
Del Bosque bringing on Jesus Navas in the World Cup Final 2010 was an inspired substitution. Its no stroke of genius to bring on your inform strikers for an overrated underachiever like Sterling and an out of form Kane.
You have to give him credit for making the changes - no doubt about that. Roy’s limitations are writ large, but he probably saved his world cup there.
It’s desperate stuff, though - Wales are about as good as Sunderland and England laboured to break them down. Midfield is lacking guile - Alli has been immense all season but has chipped in with two poor games IMO. Once under the aegis of Roy, no player is the same…
As you imply, changes are only truly forced due to injury. I’m not claiming the changes were ‘inspired’, just that I was pleased Mr Conservative made them. As an England fan, you have to take your pleasures where you find them!
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but here’s an alternative way to look at it: after a long domestic season, in (relatively) hot and humid conditions, England decided their game plan would be to keep the ball, pass it around at a leisurely pace, make Wales chase it, then strike a killer blow once they got tired. Aside from a goalkeeping error, their plan came off perfectly. You could also argue that Roy doesn’t have a world-leading squad to work with (especially with some of the more talented players being out of form) and is making the best of it. Can you imagine the mess if (say) Kevin Keegan or Steve McLaren were in charge of this group of players?
Now, I have to agree with you that sometimes the pace was too slow - the group I watched the match with spent a lot of time shouting at the screen to move the ball more quickly. But I think that’s just because the players had been told what to do and went slightly too far in that direction - it’s possible they will get used to this style and begin to be more incisive. Let’s face it, a lot of the time Barcelona are not exciting to watch, but they have a higher level of technical skill than this England side and as a result can play the same style of the game further up the pitch than England were doing, creating more pressure on the opposition.
I also agree Alli has been poor, as I said I think he should have come off instead of Lallana, who played well.
If we can beat Slovakia we will have had a decent group stage, with only a spot of bad luck against Russia denying us maximum points. If we can then really get into our stride in the last 16, the potential to go deep is there, albeit largely because the other major powers (Holland, Portugal, Germany - and to some extent, Italy and Spain) are also struggling.
Result of the day yesterday has to be Northern Ireland beating Ukraine - an amazing win, all credit to them.
That’s certainly an optimistic assessment, Dead Cat. England were like a crafty cat, toying with a frightened mouse until the time came to strike. Didn’t quite see it like that myself, thought their play was more like alehouse desperation, but maybe one shouldn’t quibble with a win.
I think the squad is potentially very good as it goes, which makes Roy’s presence regrettable. He was absolutely the right person to transition the team out of the complete nadir of the Capello regime, as all anyone could do was stand around and slowly try and pick up the pieces. But giving him three tournaments? The raw material is there now and needs a proper manager.
It must be a Holland team from an parallel dimension because they didn’t qualify in this one.
Wales, due to the win in their opening game, would have been happy with a draw - which almost certainly would have qualified them for the next round. Consequently, they go compact, squeeze the space and try to get anything they can by feeding Bale as much as possible.
England, as has been noted up thread, are not Barcelona and don’t have the technically skilled players to pass the ball around to break teams down easily - but I would argue they were forced into doing this because of how Wales, probably correctly, set up. If I were to point the finger at the outstanding attribute of the English side in general, it would be pace. England want to play on the counter-attack but need teams to attack them to allow them to do so. Wales weren’t going to give them that luxury.
It will be interesting to see what happens when England play a team that has more possession and attacks them. I think England will still lose because of their defensive deficiencies but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also the game in which England look the most threatening in attack at the same time, because they’ll be able to use their best attribute to spring into open spaces when attacks by the opposition break down.
So I come down closer to desperation than tactics in this game - but the mildly encouraging thing was the desperation was , perhaps oxymoronically, patient. In the past, England would have just lumped things forward to a big man - at least they tried to pass it a bit, even if they weren’t that effective. I think, ultimately, they had to react to what Wales did and play a game that they’re not best suited to. For preference, I don’t think England want to play at that style or pace if at all possible. Hodgson’s changes were important, as they were an attempt to inject more pace into the side - and it’s not a surprise that by moving closer to how they want to play, they created more pressure - but now I think the team that finished the Wales game needs to be the side that starts the other games.
I would play both Kane and Vardy, with Rooney in the AM position.
Incodentally, rumour has it that Pep wants Victor Valdes for the GK role. After yesterday, I can see why.
As for Roy, well who can he be replaced with? Pardew? Bruce?
I think Kane has looked pretty laboured, to be honest, though, in fairness to him, he’s also been given pretty poor service - he hasn’t been getting a lot of passes in threatening areas at least and he looks knackered, so isn’t creating much on his own either. I’d start Sturridge - the one good thing about him being injured for much of the season, and only playing the last 2 months of it, is that he’s relatively fresh.
I know, that’s why I listed them - they’re not a threat to England in this tournament when normally you would expect them to be.
Whenever I see the Swedish team singing their national anthem and Zlatan is standing there mouth firmly closed, I wonder to myself “Am I the only one assuming that Zlatan’s not singing because the anthem is not about Zlatan?”
I agree. They might not qualify for the next WC either based on the difficulty of their qualifying group.
Flares were thrown onto the field during the Croatia-Czechia game.
What the hell is wrong with people? Why in the world would someone do that? Hopefully, whoever did it is identified and their return home is delayed by a lengthy stay in a French jail.
A French toilet would be better.
Interesting article explaining the thinking behind the fans doing it:
Say what you want about CR7, but he leaves it all out on the pitch. Ill greatly miss him when exits the international stage.
May I please suggest thyat the Euros return to a 16 team format. There are just too many unexciting matchups this time round. Or maybe keep the 24 team format but invite 4 teams from Asia?
Another three teams from Asia, perhaps. Kazakhstan is a Uefa member for fairly borderline reasons
Hah. Ronaldo misses a penalty and Portugal has another draw. A win against Hungary puts them through though.
Has Ronaldo had any good international tournaments?