Quote
salvasirignano
I mean, when have the likes of Gerrard or Rooney ever beaten a handful of players with a skillful run? Never is the answer.
That's never been the English way. England has never been a dribbling country - we are organised, use speed and are determined and incisive.
None of that was there at this world cup. Defensively we were awful and completely pulled apart (I feel sorry for Johnson today, as for the first 2 goals he was trying to cover not one but
both centre backs). Klose (who must be around 65 now) was quicker than both our centre backs. There was drive in the team for about 20 minutes in total in the entire tournament.
It's not the lack of dribbling players that's the problem, it's the lack of any technique. Our first touch has been appalling. No control of the ball. Simple passes going to waste. No speed in our play (in a passing sense). Every thing was too rigid too.
Capello was supposed to pick in form players. So why the hell was Rooney still playing? Upson? Terry? Lampard? Heskey? HESKEY? Not that I'm covering any players (who were absolutely @#$%&) but why did Fabio
never change the system? I screamed at the TV when he took off Milner rather than play Milner on one side and Cole on the other. Why wasn't Upson or Terry hauled off and Dawson or Carragher put on? We're 3-1 and 4-1 down and Lennon and Wright-Phillips are sat on the bench.
I wasn't too concerned after the group stages. I was willing to see how we fared against stronger opposition before I condemned them, thinking that we might perform better against a team which didn't just sit back and absorb, but I might as well have passed judgement after the Algeria team.
We'll probably look back and moan about the goal that never was, but that fact was that we were destroyed by Germany, were outplayed by Algeria and at best were equal to the USA and Slovenia.
We scored 3 goals in 4 games. 3 goals. FFS.
Congratulations to the Germans. You didn't have to play brilliantly (and there's plenty of problems in your back line to demonstrate that), but going forward you tore us apart. We were lucky it was only 4. You're a hell of a lot better than I was giving credit for before the tournament. The quarter final, presumably against Argentina, should be brilliant.