EURO 2012: Day 8 Matchday Thread

[Ruhr]

Huntelaar is a very lazy player he has said so himself in private a few times.

He most certainly does not like tracking back and this really irked Ajax fan's.
He can get lazy even in his primary task, especially if the chips are down.

Was that way in his first year at Schalke. But he completely changed his attitude last season, which made him Bundesliga top scorer

 

[Колобок]

ITV player ratings.........


Joe Hart: Maintained concentration well to ensure he was not caught out by a couple of deflected efforts and little chance with the goals. 7.

Glen Johnson: Some vital tackles but part of a defence that went AWOL at times. 7

Ashley Cole: Superb through ball for Young might have brought England a second goal. 7.

Steven Gerrard: Second assist, from virtually the same place as his first to set up Carroll's opener. Also created Walcott's. 7.

John Terry: Mental toughness has to be admired. Like Johnson, good tackles. Organisational problems though. 7.

Andy Carroll: Brute of a header to give England the lead. Gave away the free-kick that allowed Sweden to level. 7.

Ashley Young: Not his greatest night. Found it tough to impose himself on the game and poor distribution did not help. 6.

Joleon Lescott: Maybe his partnership with Terry is not quite as seamless as we thought. 6.

James Milner (off 61): Sticks to his strengths, which is no bad thing. But conceded free-kick for Sweden's second. 6.

Scott Parker: Early shot from Welbeck's lay-off. Busy night thereafter. 6.

Danny Welbeck (off 89): Brilliant winner to cap a fine performance. Given Hodgson a selection problem. 8

Substitutes:

Theo Walcott (on 61): Took just three minutes to make his mark, deceiving Isaksson completely from 25 yards. 9.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (on 89): Not enough time to make an impact.

Hmmmmm........

crap, all defence 7 Lescott 6? are you even serious? and blamed not on poor play but on having bad partnership with Terry who singlehandedly blew Mellberg for 2nd goal? i call shenanigans!

 

[squirtyflower]

ITV player ratings.........


Joe Hart: Maintained concentration well to ensure he was not caught out by a couple of deflected efforts and little chance with the goals. 7.

Glen Johnson: Some vital tackles but part of a defence that went AWOL at times. 7

Ashley Cole: Superb through ball for Young might have brought England a second goal. 7.

Steven Gerrard: Second assist, from virtually the same place as his first to set up Carroll's opener. Also created Walcott's. 7.

John Terry: Mental toughness has to be admired. Like Johnson, good tackles. Organisational problems though. 7.

Andy Carroll: Brute of a header to give England the lead. Gave away the free-kick that allowed Sweden to level. 7.

Ashley Young: Not his greatest night. Found it tough to impose himself on the game and poor distribution did not help. 6.

Joleon Lescott: Maybe his partnership with Terry is not quite as seamless as we thought. 6.

James Milner (off 61): Sticks to his strengths, which is no bad thing. But conceded free-kick for Sweden's second. 6.

Scott Parker: Early shot from Welbeck's lay-off. Busy night thereafter. 6.

Danny Welbeck (off 89): Brilliant winner to cap a fine performance. Given Hodgson a selection problem. 8

Substitutes:

Theo Walcott (on 61): Took just three minutes to make his mark, deceiving Isaksson completely from 25 yards. 9.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (on 89): Not enough time to make an impact.

Hmmmmm........

crap, all defence 7 Lescott 6? are you even serious? and blamed not on poor play but on having bad partnership with Terry who singlehandedly blew Mellberg for 2nd goal? i call shenanigans!

Jolean had a good game, he looks much more composed on the ball these days and looks to keep possession if possible, unlike most of the England team who are runners and hoofers

 

[Deleted member 14625]

Like I say, it's all about opinions.

But your theory that his inclusion is because of a United bias falls down somewhat on the exclusion of Ferdinand and Carrick. Surely they should have been there on merit, ahead of Kelly and Henderson. If anything there's a Liverpool bias in Hodgson's selection. Downing ahead of Adam Johnson is another example.

I agree on that much, I think it's a more Scouse bias, Carrick just is never fancied and Ferdinand is because of Terry.

Priceless.
You start off about a supposed bias towards United players because one of them had the audacity to score the winning goal,then Ric brings some logic to the party,and all of a sudden the bias is towards Liverpool.
Has it ever occurred to you that there is no great conspiracy here,and that Hodgson just picks the players he thinks will do the business on the day?
His substitutions worked,and got the result we needed.
Put it this way.
Would you rather Welbeck had not played,and England had drawn instead?
And would you still be saying that winning goal was a fluke if Silva had scored it for Spain?

Indeed!

 

[Marvin]

England were poor again. very poor.

Hart, Lescott and Milner played well but generally England can not control possession. They never have been able to. This is not the fault of the manager. It's a trait of the English game

Thought Walcott's goal was a touchy lucky. Keeper was unsighted. The England goals weren't in keeping with their game

Wouldn't play Carroll again. Awesome header, but his presence makes England hoof it, and I think a mobile skilful forward like Defoe or Young moved up alongside Welbeck would be better.

 

[samharris]

Re: Glen Johnson - You are terrible.

Both goals v Sweden his fault, shocking player. I hope your enjoying yourself on a beach Micah.

TBH both goals were from set pices given away needlessly.

 

[hertsblue]

Re: Glen Johnson - You are terrible.

Shocking at playing everyone onside for the 1st goal but he wasnt the worse player last night.
Thought that was Young.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

England were poor again. very poor.

Hart, Lescott and Milner played well but generally England can not control possession. They never have been able to. This is not the fault of the manager. It's a trait of the English game

Thought Walcott's goal was a touchy lucky. Keeper was unsighted. The England goals weren't in keeping with their game

Wouldn't play Carroll again. Awesome header, but his presence makes England hoof it, and I think a mobile skilful forward like Defoe or Young moved up alongside Welbeck would be better.

England have been able to control possession. When it was 11v11 against Portugal in the WC2006 we were the better team and more possession and had the better chances (with ten men we did well to keep it to 0-0 as they did take over the game).

With the team of:
--------------------James---------------
Neville----Ferdinand----Terry----ACole
------------------Hargreaves------------
----------Gerrard--------Lampard-------
Beckham--------------------------JCole
---------------------Rooney--------------
...hardly any team we played had more control of a game than we did. In 2004 and 2006 we were very good in the tournaments and went out to a very decent Portugal side on the lottery of penalties.

This "England don't have techincal players" and "England can't control possession" that I see and hear all the time is a complete myth. We have many players who those comments apply to but we also have always produced very talented players who are as technically gifted as you can get.

Remember that game in Geneva against Argentina? We were fucking awesome! We won 3-2 it was around 2005 I think. We passed it just as well as they did, we created chances we showed great skill.

Between 2003-2006 there weren't many teams in the world better than us. Had David James saved a few penalties and it was us that went through I think we would have had a great chance of winning both the 2004 Euros and the 2006 World Cup. Christ, Greece and Italy were far from being the best sides in the respective tournaments they won.

Right now the quality of our players is not at the level of the team I have listed above. But add the ommisions to the current squad and especially look at Jack Wilshire who is as technically gifted as anyone you can name in this whole tournament (when Arsenal beat Barca in 2011 at the Emirates Wilshire was the best player on the pitch and that pitch had Messi on it!), we'd have a decent squad. We have anyway.

I know we weren't good last night. But we won, and we weren't terrible. It was just one of them games where there are loads of chances in a fast paced game. It was but one game. That could be our bad performance out of the way. Welbeck took the winner very well, had that been a Spain or Germany player it would have been "a world class finish". Welbeck is a decent player, he's no world beater but he certainly doesn't deserve the label some of us Blues give him ("Wellshit"). Young was crap last night but I always think he is against bigger more physical players. Parker is limited and I really don't actually rate him at this level, but would he be there if Wilshire and Barry were fit? Glen Johnson played well, he's not as good as our Micah, he did score an own goal, but he had a good game.

We should be positive instead of constantly negative about England.

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

Re: Glen Johnson - You are terrible.

I agree he was poor,but in fairness few of them covered themselves in glory.
Both Young and Milner were dire,and looked tired.
Parker is overrated yet constantly hyped by the London-centric media,and couldn't get rid of the ball quick enough.
Much as I can't abide the man,I thought Terry had a half decent game,but to concede two soft goals to a pretty workmanlike Sweden side does not bode well,and I doubt the Spanish and Germans will be losing any sleep.

 

[ali benarbia's studs]

Re: Glen Johnson - You are terrible.

make glen a scapegoat if you lose.... now get behind your team FFS!

a lot of the english team were poor, including some of our own at times. the three goalscorers would be the first i would slate, but they came trumps and scored- you gotta give them that.

i believe phil jagielka and lescott are the pair, you guys do need a new right back. but as long as the squad digs deep in training to make sure it does not happen again.

i was also going to slate mellburg, in the end he was the best player on the park- `coz everyone else turned into muck!