Peru had like 9 players getting their debuts today. Struggled this mightily against Peru reserves Terrible match to watch.

remember when i said england will take out italy in the group stage? still going to happen, i believe in england

Meh, didn't watch, friendlies are boring and carry no meaning to competitive games.

just remembered Heskey was in the South Africa 2010 squad

let's all be thankful for what we have now

B-Mac wrote:just remembered Heskey was in the South Africa 2010 squad

let's all be thankful for what we have now

He was a starter too.

M99 wrote:

B-Mac wrote:just remembered Heskey was in the South Africa 2010 squad

let's all be thankful for what we have now

He was a starter too.

set up Gerrard's opening goal vs the USA

Thoughts regarding our last friendly and the potential failure in the WC14.


Like many others have already said. I was not happy with the performance and the score was really flattering and deceiving. There are a lot of problems in the team and I don't know if Roy realises those problems nevermind whether if he can fix them. The same problems arose in the Denmark game and against Peru, nothing indicated that there is progress being made to negate those flaws and turn us into a team that can at least reach the R16.

Many journalists and well respected tweeters have said we should follow the Liverpool blueprint with England. I disagree with that. No National team can follow that blue print in international level. It's impossible, even for Chile. The intense pressing can't be done with 6 odd players while others just watch. If they all somehow do play as a cohesive unit, the team itself will break after the 3rd match due to the schedule and conditions.

But there is not much to worry about that(sarcasm) since Roy has never used tactics to press with any team he has managed. I don't even know what tactics he even uses since I couldn't figure out what the hell England were actually doing half the game

We played a 4-2-3-1 with front 4 interchanging. The problem was, that every player did better in their secondary role rather than their primary. This means that Lallana did much better coming into the 10 position than Rooney who was just playing for banter. Welbeck obviously did better when he got to play upfront whereas he looked clueless at LW, naturally. Sturridge as expected was our most threatening forward. But I expect Sterling/Oxlade to start at LW so at least there will be pace and trickery from the wings.

I didn't like the midfield at all. Rooney has no place in there with his current form and attitude. I said before that the WC depends on Rooney's mood and atm it's atrocious and he needs to be benched. But Roy probably doesn't have the balls for that. Gerrard-Henderson was too passive at times. Partially because their roles were not defined properly and our build up play was affected due to that. If we had trouble breaking Peru then how are we going to break down better sides? Not with this static side!

Less said of the defence the better. Would be surprised to keep a single clean sheet at the WC. Roy should have begged Terry to come out of retirement. Should have taken Cole AND Shaw because Baines is a poor LB(Sorry Robes).Johnson lol.

We are going to face 2 different sides at the WC. 1) Italy who will use the ball efficiently 2) Uruguay who will use the space efficiently

1) Against Italy, we won't have much of the ball and our technical side is extremely inferior to Italy so the only way to win is by playing smartly like Madrid did against Bayern or how Chelsea played against Liverpool. We have the pace upfront for decent counter attacks but we have to be smart about it. Wilshere HAS to play against Italy. If we can set up the team with Gerrard-Henderson/Lallana-Wilshere and Sterling-Sturridge-Oxlade, then we might do better than we did in Euro12.

2) Against Uruguay, we will most likely have a lot of the ball but breaking them down while preventing counters from Cavani-Suarez will be difficult. I think they have a poor defence so we can definitely score. But our defence is not great either so this could potentially end in a draw.

Costa Rica. They can spring a surprise, specially with Joel Campbell's pace and trickery who can lead a one man war against our defence but we really should be beating them.

rg, really enjoyed reading your post and the line that stood out for me was "playing smartly like Madrid did against Bayern or how Chelsea played against Liverpool".

Hodgson will make 10 changes tonight, apparently. Rooney will start on the left in a 4-2-3-1, with Lambert leading the line, Barkley as the 10, Chamberlain on the right and Wilshere and Lampard in the pivot.

Milner will apparently play at right back, so I'm assuming the rest of the backline will be Jones, Smalling and Shaw. Foster or Forster in goal.


That midfield looks quite exciting.

England will practice penalties, promises Gerrard

By Jay Jaffa13

Jun 4, 2014 8:12:00 AM
The Three Lions skipper is determined to avoid another spot-kick nightmare following losses from 12 yards in six previous international tournaments and says the squad will be ready

England captain Steven Gerrard says that the squad will be practicing penalties ahead of the World Cup in the hope of avoiding another shoot-out heartbreak.

Roy Hodgson's side take on Ecuador in their second warm-up fixture on Wednesday evening in Miami and Gerrard offered a glimpse into the preparation that the Three Lions are undertaking.

England were eliminated by Italy on penalties at Euro 2012 and have suffered spot-kick defeats in three World Cups (1990, 1998 and 2006) and another two European Championships (1996 and 2004).

The Liverpool star told the BBC: "It's difficult to describe what it is like. Unfortunately for me I failed in that situation when I took a penalty in a World Cup environment and it was a difficult atmosphere to be in.

"I learned my lessons from that and, a couple of years ago, I scored the penalty I was asked to take. We are going to practice penalties a lot but it is a difficult situation to put into words and describe it. There is a lot of pressure.

"You have an awful lot more time to think about your penalty and what is at stake is a lot bigger and it is a pressure situation. A penalty shootout is a more pressurised situation than any one penalty in a league game.

"I can understand the fixation because we have failed in quite a few shootouts but I would say don't get carried away with it because it might never come about.

"As players, hopefully we perform well enough in 90 minutes or 120 minutes to prevent it going to a shootout but we will be ready for a shootout if it comes around."

Gerrard is unlikely to start Tuesday's friendly at the Sun Life Stadium as Hodgson gives chances to the rest of the squad, though Wayne Rooney is expected to feature from the left wing.

source:http://www.goal.com/en/news/3790/world-cup-2014/2014/06/04/4859460/england-will-practice-penalties-promises-gerrard?ICID=HP_BN_7

another bunker football vs elite team in the making?

GoonerJay29 wrote:Hodgson will make 10 changes tonight, apparently. Rooney will start on the left in a 4-2-3-1, with Lambert leading the line, Barkley as the 10, Chamberlain on the right and Wilshere and Lampard in the pivot.

Milner will apparently play at right back, so I'm assuming the rest of the backline will be Jones, Smalling and Shaw. Foster or Forster in goal.

Foster/Forster

Milner - Jones - Smalling - Shaw

Lampard (c) - Wilshere

Chamberlain - Barkley - Rooney

Lambert

That midfield looks quite exciting.

Why does that fat potato Rooney has to be shoe-horned in EVERY SINGLE line-up

Can't believe Sterling isn't starting again....

In fairness to Hodgson, Rooney has only played 60 minutes of football in about five weeks, so could do with the minutes to get him back up to speed.

Rooney isn't a number 10, simple as that, and never will be. Nor is he a winger. He should be played as striker or maybe as a CM if you want to experiment.

You want your number 10 to be able to make a bit of space for himself with the ball and be very good at keeping the ball even under pressure. Rooney doesn't offer that, not well enough, anyway.

England have got a handful of better AMs than Rooney and it's awful if Hodgson is going to play Rooney as number 10. If Rooney is behind Sturridge in the strikers' pecking order and England are going to play with a single striker, then Rooney should be benched, simple. It's football management 101 that you pick your best team and not the 11 best individuals (unless they're the same thing).


Milner at RB might not be a bad idea, although it feels very late to be putting him in there only now.

Also, I probably wouldn't use a pressing tactic since fatigue may be an issue in Brasil anyway. This England team should have the players to keep the ball a bit.

What Rooney want is what Rooney gets   

GoonerJay29 wrote:Hodgson will make 10 changes tonight, apparently. Rooney will start on the left in a 4-2-3-1, with Lambert leading the line, Barkley as the 10, Chamberlain on the right and Wilshere and Lampard in the pivot.

Milner will apparently play at right back, so I'm assuming the rest of the backline will be Jones, Smalling and Shaw. Foster or Forster in goal.

Foster/Forster

Milner - Jones - Smalling - Shaw

Lampard (c) - Wilshere

Chamberlain - Barkley - Rooney

Lambert

That midfield looks quite exciting.

Would have preferred the team against Peru with changes. But meh, let's hope this team is better.

Rooney at the left hopefully is how Walcott plays for us.

Starting 11 vs Ecuador:

Foster, Milner, Shaw, Jones, Smalling, Lampard, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Barkley, Rooney, Lambert

Oxlade-Chamberlain  

RICKIEEEEEEE

Get ready guy's wilshere going to be star of the show tonight

442 this formation will score alot of goals 4231 this formation is still going strong

Rooney is specifically playing to get match fitness, Hodgson has said that, I don't get the big deal. Saying that, I don't think he will play well on the left wing (he'll probably try to tuck in as much as he can anyway), but he's only playing to get match fitness so it doesn't really matter.

Thumping header by Valencia

bad defending by Smalling and Shaw

Our defense is REALLY bad.

This is the best we've played in years