Same old same old England

Rooney-shit
Johnson-shit
Hodgson-shit for not sorting out the left
Baines-poor
Welbeck-poor as an attacker

The star was Sterling. Barkley and Lallana had some decent touches and at least one of them needs to be starting the next game

Bit unfair - they weren't that bad.  Rooney assisted for the only goal.  Sterling was excellent as was Sturridge.  Welbeck should never have been picked.  Jagielka did a good job too. Roy needs to switch it up a bit and use some of the youngsters.

I agree with you, Wensdi, I thought there was a lot of promise. There are some young and untested lads on that pitch and they had a good go at it. In the end, we lost thanks to some dire finishing.

Rooney should pay in a rag shirt, he plays better in that...

Roy should not be there, plain and simple, tv seems to be saying they were unlucky, bollocks, they lost. Rooney missed a sitter and yet again failed on the big stage.

Oh, come on... How can you blame Roy for Rooney missing a sitter? And what were his options, play the same team as normal? You know, the one that would've lost without scoring?

Rooney was the elephant in the room in the post match interviews, everybody knew he was useless but nobody was brave enough to say it.
He's not as good as Sturridge as a front man, and he's not good enough in midfield. Therefore he should have come off, plain and simple.
The fact that Roy said afterwards that he thought he had a good game just made me think "fuck it, he's going to start him against Uruguay next week". So much for players being picked on form rather than reputation.
The last 30 minutes was the same old clueless, headless England. They completely run out of ideas.
The World Cup is over for England, thank god. Bring on the new Premiership season.

Roy just should not be the England manage, period! That is 1/2 the reason they lost tonight.

Anyway I might have lived in England for 45 years, but m Scottish tonight! Chokers the lot of them.

Roy never sorted the left out at all. Baines was tag teamed all night long and we suffered as a result. Italy were always trying to protect their full backs and double teamed whenever we had the ball out wide.

Rooney set up the goal, but that was all he did. He missed what was a sitter, so maybe that cancelled out his assist. Where was he for the cross that led to Mario's goal??? If he couldn't play the wide left role effectively, he should have played somewhere else or not at all. Jimmy would have looked after Baines. The Ox would have done a better job at protecting Baines and getting forward too.

We weren't rubbish, but we still cannot control the ball quickly enough and pass it about too slowly when we really need to put a bit of zip in the game.

I really want Rooney dropped for Ox and maybe Henderson makes way for Barkley.

In the cold light of sobriety, The United players need to be dropped, and I'm with you Daug, Barkley for Henderson with just Stevie G holding. Nothing but wins now.

I have to agree, Rooney was poor. Again. I don't get how he can be so capable for his club and yet be so useless in an England shirt. And it's not Roy because he was crap under Capello as well.

The youngsters have given us some energy though, which is pleasing and we have to give the some credit. Well, except for Welbeck, he was crap as usual.

For what it's worth, I agree and disagree with you all.

Agree: Rooney is crap, end of. I hate all this "he's being played out of position". If he can't play in a 3 behind Sturridge, then he shouldn't play at all. He's on £300k pw FFS...one of the highest paid players in world football. Also, didn't the cross from him come from the left, and the shot from 8yrds come from him cutting in from the left side of the box?

Welbeck: I though he did a decent job on the right hand side, tracking back and stopping the Italians playing. If Rooney had 25% of Welbeck's positional play and work ethic, we'd have possibly won last night.

Sterling: Looked excellent all night...love the way whenever he gets the ball, his immediate thoughts are to turn and run at opposition players.

Sturridge: took his goal well, but didn't really see enough of him trying to beat players. He is definitely NOT a No.9. 3 times last night, great balls across the 6 yrd box were played, and he was nearer the edge of the box, rather than sniffing out a tap in. Would still have him over Rooney though.

Barclay: looked to create something every time he got the ball. Love his energy and enthusiasm. Is a must to start against Uruguay instead of Henderson.

Johnson: made better runs last night, but cannot defend for his life. Should have been helping Cahill out at the back post, but was too far forward to get back. 

Roy: it was a no brainer starting Sterling, however, Rooney? Really Roy, where's your bollocks? Saying the next day "it's an improvement" isn't really going to get us out the group.

He's had months to sort out the defenders, and he takes Johnson over Flanagan (the 2nd best full back IMO last season in the PL after Zaba).

He must let the kids have their head now....Uruguay were cut to pieces by pace against Costa Rica.

......................Hart.......................

Jones........Cahill....Jagielka.......Shaw

.....................Gerrard...................

Milner......Lallana....Barkley.....Sterling.

...................Sturridge....................

Don't rely on the full backs to do the attacking,  we have 5 players to do that job.

I'd like to see that team Blue but I reckon he'l start with exactly the same 11

IMHO I thought we played better than we have done for a while. Looked excellent when we burst forward. Shame we let Italy have the  right flank
Baines was totally unprotected thanks to the off form Rooney playing out of position

I thought Welbeck Sturridge and Henderson had very good 1st halves. Sterling was MOTM by a long way

Rooney had the shot which he should have scored and the very good cross for the goal, other than that he wasn't great.
Roy play Rooney up front or not at all FFS !!!

Johnson is good going forward but just a poor defender. Jones would be a better option
Gerrard was below par & was outclassed by the superb Pirlo again

Hart didnt fill me with confidence. Fumbled one, poss should have come for the Balotelli goal & was almost embarrassed by SMBs lovely lob

Having said all that we should have got a draw out of it with the chances we had & I still feel we can qualify as Uruguay & Costa Rica wont be as organised as Italy

I thought Gerrard was off last night too.  Didn't think Henderson did badly either even though I don't care for him.  Ox had an injury so was never coming on.  Got to switch it up a bit Roy - although thankful that he did play Sterling, Barclay, Sturridge and Llana (for a bit).  At least Cleverley wasn't there 

I dont think much was bad last night, Rooney should have played up front but never as a wide player. Baines was left too isolated on our left where Milner, Ox or any other player on the bench would have doubled up and stopped their constant advances down that side. Surely Roy could see that needed addressing and yet he persisited with Rooney despite the obvious fact he was not covering for Baines and letting us get murdered down our left side.
I dont think many other players were too bad last night and we have to use players sparingly in that heat, sticking all the kids out there for 95 minutes is never an option but he could have perhaps started with them and then changed it around later by which time we could hopefully been ahead. Roy decided to bring on Berkley and Lallana too late in my view and still left Rooney in place which i fail to understand, Jimmy would have been a better choice especially second half. It was also vlear that Rooney's confidence was affected, he could not even keep a corner in play that he took.  

I actually though Welbeck was pretty good in the 1st half and I'd play him again. Baines was left far too exposed throughout because Rooney kept drifting inside all the time, but no-one has the ballocks to tell him any different.
Sterling had a great 1st half, but imo went missing in the 2nd and tired too quickly. Cahill was at fault for their winner...he had 1 man to follow and mark, yet didn't...and it cost us.

I too say play Barkley in the middle with Gerrard holding (Henderson gets dropped)....but Hodgson will probably keep the same team and play Shrek out on the left again.

Id personally start with:

..........................Hart
Johnson...Cahill.......Jagielka....Shaw
..................Gerrard
Welbeck.....Sterling....Barkley...Lallana
................Sturridge

If we play the same team, Hodgson's job is on the line. i don't expect him to last beyond this world cup unless he gets lucky like Bobby Robson did at Ialtia 90.

He needs to grow some and drop Rooney and get over the Liverpool love in. Jimmy or Ox on the left to help Baines out and Barkley for Henderson. Sterling, Sturridge, Barkley and Ox is as good an attack as we can put out. Everybody else should be focussed on stopping the opposition scoring.

Thought Argentina were pretty underwhelming (apart from Messi's goal) - Bosnia deserved at least a point.  The Swiss look like they have it together.  Good win for them.

The football today has been a bit dull.  Portugal put up nothing against a rampant Germany, Iran v Nigeria was a dead rubber and this game between Ghana and USA has taken 83 minutes to get going - but this last 10 minutes has been the only really enjoyable bit to watch.  You can tell Robbie Savage feels the same way, he was getting quite excitable!

Anyway, onto the topic for a bit...

blisteringblue wrote:Roy just should not be the England manage, period!

Why not?  Who else was up for the job who was more qualified?  I seem to remember it was a toss-up between Hodgson and Redknapp.  Hodgson's CV reads, "Took the Swiss national side to their first World Cup finals in over 50 years."  The best Redknapp can manage is, "Got Portsmouth an FA Cup before my excessive spending sent them into administration."  Roy was the most qualified.

blueboy wrote:Roy: it was a no brainer starting Sterling, however, Rooney? Really Roy, where's your bollocks? Saying the next day "it's an improvement" isn't really going to get us out the group.

No, it's not, but he's not going to stand there and say he was crap now, was he?  That's the shortcut to getting lambasted by the press.  

He picked Rooney and we lost, so naturally we get the comments about him being left out.  So what if he doesn't pick him against Uruguay and we lose?  Then the comments come out about him being wrong to leave him out.  And it'll be mostly the same people.  He can't win.

blueboy wrote:He's had months to sort out the defenders, and he takes Johnson over Flanagan (the 2nd best full back IMO last season in the PL after Zaba).

Taking Johnson was his one error.  I'd have taken Flanagan too.  But then he has taken a lot of youngsters and perhaps he was concerned he might be too light on experience at the back, especially since the other members of the de facto back four (Ferdinand, Terry, Cole) aren't there.  Again, if he'd taken a completely new back four and got beaten, he'd be flogged by the press.  Again, he can't win.

blueboy wrote:He must let the kids have their head now....Uruguay were cut to pieces by pace against Costa Rica.

I completely agree.  We've nothing to lose right now, this is the time to go for the jugular.

Topdawg wrote:If we play the same team, Hodgson's job is on the line. i don't expect him to last beyond this world cup unless he gets lucky like Bobby Robson did at Ialtia 90.

What, really?   

I think you're jumping the gun a bit there, mate.  If we take into consideration that this is his first competitive outing with his own team (he was saddled with Capello's team in 2012) and the only thing we really lacked against Italy was a bit of clinical finishing. To suggest he should be sacked after only three games is extremely cynical.  You're not Fulham's owner by any chance, are you?   

I'm not going to keep defending him.  I didn't expect us to win this cup and, once I saw the group, I wasn't confident of getting out of it.  I just wanted to see him have the chops to cut out the jaded old guard who can't be bothered and field some young blood, which he's done.  This is a young team and they're only going to improve.  Frankly, I'm glad we're doing something positive about building a team for the future, because we've been needing it desperately for 8 years.

Well said Leo

The thing is, he played Rooney out of position and it backfired big time. If he can't play Rooney in his correct position, don't play him at all. Jimmy would never have let so many easy attacks come down our left. He has picked Johnson who is miserable. Sterling forced himself to be picked.

If we lose again, then he should be gone. He won't deserve another chance for me.

Topdawg wrote:The thing is, he played Rooney out of position and it backfired big time. If he can't play Rooney in his correct position, don't play him at all. Jimmy would never have let so many easy attacks come down our left. He has picked Johnson who is miserable. Sterling forced himself to be picked.

If we lose again, then he should be gone. He won't deserve another chance for me.

Yeah, you tell him Dawg     .

There were positives from the game but that was down to the individual capabilities of the players and not the tactics of the manager.

Even a blind man could see we had massive problems down the left yet the manager didn't change things around at HT and we got punished.

Topdawg wrote:The thing is, he played Rooney out of position and it backfired big time. If he can't play Rooney in his correct position, don't play him at all. Jimmy would never have let so many easy attacks come down our left.

I totally agree with you. Rooney should be capable of playing on the flank, but he clearly didn't want to. Granted, Roy should be telling him to do the job instead of slacking off, but then he's not the one handing him three hundred thousand crisp ones every week. Roy's got the difficult job of getting the team to play for the good of their team and their country, but Rooney sits in that group of "I don't give a crap" and he's shown it in every major tournament he's been in in the last six years. If he's not played in his favourite position then he doesn't bother. And even when he IS played there, as he did in Euro 2012 and in South Africa in 2010, he still didn't arse himself.

If it were up to me, the jug eared scouse tosspot would be sitting watching the World Cup this year. From his armchair. I suspect this would make me as popular with the drooling masses as Ed Milliband currently is in Liverpool and no doubt the Shrek-a-like would take to Twatter every day to bitch about it with the ripped swimming hat gob Ferdinand...

If Roy has told Rooney to do a job on the left, then he obviously wasn't doing the job he was told to do. Why didn't Roy sub him then? The biggest danger, by far, was down the flanks especially the left and we were lacking there. If we are effectively playing with 2 DMs then we shouldn't be exposed so easily.

I also think people who wanted Cashley replaced by Baines are thinking twice. Be careful what you wish for.

Well, yes, quite. I do worry about our back line in total because, as I've said before, the only regular in there is Johnson. We have a new CB pairing and a RB who has only really had the odd cameo.

That said, if Capello or McLaren had any chops at all, they'd have been putting in contingency plans to cover us for the eventuality that our back four would consist of three players in their mid thirties and a pudding. Baines and Cahill should've been playing in tournaments four years ago, not just becoming starters now. At least Roy is addressing the problem and, while it's not going to get us very far this time, it means we may stand a better chance in the Euros in 2016. It's this reason that I want Roy to hang around, because I happen to think he's doing something positive. I mean, take Germany - Joachim Lowe had to do the same thing when he stepped in and now look at them, thrashing Portugal and everything.

Maybe if the FA had been sensible enough to bin Capello off in 2010 and get Roy (or anyone else) in before the last Euros instead of leaving it until the last minute, perhaps the squad we have now wouldn't be so heavy on newbies and be a bit more settled.

After watching the last few games, I think we would've had no problems at all with getting out of group H, even if we were in there with Belgium. None of those four teams seemed to have much in the final third, frankly.

Positive head is now back on, and I can see nothing other than a 2-0 win against Uruguay.
Of the two teams, I think we looked far more accomplished than them in the first game, so, onwards and upwards.
As for the scouse thug, well I think he's shown what a complete prick he is by sulking and not putting in a shift, and at any level of football that's disgusting, but particularly so at a World Cup.
I can't see Jimmy Sommerville's dad putting up with that next season, so I think he's just guaranteed himself a transfer out of the theatre of shite.
Bollocks to Rooney, but C'mon England.

Because of all the media frenzy that's gone on, Rooney'll get put back in middle behind Sturridge....so he'd better well fuckin score and win us the game after all this. Where he plays Sterling now is anyones guess, as he seems to love Welbeck on the right.

As i said earlier, i'd like to see a more attacking 4-1-4-1 formation, but it don't think it's gonna happen. If he sticks to his 4-2-3-1 formation, i think (of the 3) he should drop Welbeck, play Sterling on the right, Shrek in the middle and Lallana on the left.

I'd go with that, Shaken. Sounds like a decent front line to me.