England v Italy

[the god Gerry Gow]

Thing about Costa Rica is they're comfortable in the climate and the atmosphere. They're not the best team, but they're tough and generally don't quit.

Thought you guys played some decent stuff last night, by the way.

England were positive but the Italians knew how to close the game and were more comfortable with the conditions despite being older players. The question is can England maintain that level of performance? Uruguay are not going to play as badly as they did against the Costa Ricans.

Good question really. And yeah you guys faded badly the last twenty minutes. I think several of those really bad corners/crosses/passes can be partly attributed to having nothing left in the tank. Not sure what you can do about that, though, as it's not like you can acclimate in two weeks of training after league play ends. Perhaps play a more conservative counterattacking game to conserve energy?

Problem is that to a certain extent we already did. Certainly we only played at a higher tempo in short bursts, yet we still looked deadbeat in the last 15 mins. As you say there isn't a quick fix for that and if we have to play more intensive for longer we cannot cope

 

[MeatnSpudsMCFC]

Lol at these pair of tits on ITV handing everyone 6 out of 10. Who are they trying to kid?

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

Lol at these pair of tits on ITV handing everyone 6 out of 10. Who are they trying to kid?

Lee Dixon telling it how it is though and giving Rooney a 4! God love him

 

[Ray78]

England were positive but the Italians knew how to close the game and were more comfortable with the conditions despite being older players. The question is can England maintain that level of performance? Uruguay are not going to play as badly as they did against the Costa Ricans.

Good question really. And yeah you guys faded badly the last twenty minutes. I think several of those really bad corners/crosses/passes can be partly attributed to having nothing left in the tank. Not sure what you can do about that, though, as it's not like you can acclimate in two weeks of training after league play ends. Perhaps play a more conservative counterattacking game to conserve energy?

Problem is that to a certain extent we already did. Certainly we only played at a higher tempo in short bursts, yet we still looked deadbeat in the last 15 mins. As you say there isn't a quick fix for that and if we have to play more intensive for longer we cannot cope

If England had the ability to string more passes together and controlled the tempo that would of helped.

 

[RandomJ]

I'm going to say England won't win a single group game. I thought the Costa Rica match was a certainty but having seen them play against Uruguay even they are technically superior to England. It's all well and good looking exciting going forward with Sterling running at players but it matters not one bit if we can't string 5 passes together and stick the ball in the net while looking so woeful in defence. Uruguay will have Suarez back for our game and he will abuse the fuck out of us and Costa Rica will dick us too. First plane home as predicted.

 

[Bodicoteblue]

We are too easy to defend against . Simply getting the head down and running at 100 mph against a well organised defence will not work. Italy simply defended deep and denied any space to run into - not rocket science, and we seem not to have a plan B .
Btw somebody said Wilshere came on last night , but I didn't see him !

 

[Lavinda Past]

We are too easy to defend against . Simply getting the head down and running at 100 mph against a well organised defence will not work. Italy simply defended deep and denied any space to run into - not rocket science, and we seem not to have a plan B .
Btw somebody said Wilshere came on last night , but I didn't see him !

Wilshere... The most overrated English player EVER. Even cleverly had some talent.

 

[taconinja]

We are too easy to defend against . Simply getting the head down and running at 100 mph against a well organised defence will not work. Italy simply defended deep and denied any space to run into - not rocket science, and we seem not to have a plan B .
Btw somebody said Wilshere came on last night , but I didn't see him !

He was the guy spraying souvenir balls to the crowd.

Oh those were supposed to be passes? ;)

 

[the god Gerry Gow]

Good question really. And yeah you guys faded badly the last twenty minutes. I think several of those really bad corners/crosses/passes can be partly attributed to having nothing left in the tank. Not sure what you can do about that, though, as it's not like you can acclimate in two weeks of training after league play ends. Perhaps play a more conservative counterattacking game to conserve energy?

Problem is that to a certain extent we already did. Certainly we only played at a higher tempo in short bursts, yet we still looked deadbeat in the last 15 mins. As you say there isn't a quick fix for that and if we have to play more intensive for longer we cannot cope

If England had the ability to string more passes together and controlled the tempo that would of helped.

True enough. Was that not an issue at the last 2 tournaments as well. Not too much improvement on show. No one is comfortable in possession

 

[sam-caddick]

If we can sort ourselves out defensively we can become one of the best counter attacking teams in the competition in my opinion, our pace in abudance is frightening.