England......

I actually watched the game last night - solely because of the team he picked and to see how Harry Kane did.

I know it was against poor opposition - but the MF looked full of energy (sadly missing with us). I thought Delph especially, brought lots of pace - defending and going forward, though his passing needs to improve a bit.
The MF 3 looked solid and Carrick's passing was excellent...with Henderson providing that bite in there.

Sterling drifted in and out of the game, but when he runs at defenders, directly, he'll terrify most defences....and made a great run for his goal.

Welbeck is so underrated for me. Yes, he doesn't score loads of goals, though his record is getting better, but his work rate is immense and he's very quick.

Rooney was unlucky not to get a hatrick and held the line well. Clyne looks good going forward and has lots of pace - but as per Delph, his passing was well below what's expected at International level.

Baines was solid and always delivers a decent threat overlapping - which was clearly a tactic last night as both full backs bombed forward at every opportunity, even if it was to drag a defender away for the likes of Sterling and Welbeck to run into space with the ball.

Cahill and Jones looked comfortable on possession - but against the top teams - and Italy next week, we'll see how they fare.

4, should really have been 6 or 7....but the youthful look of the team was much better to watch.

Oh...and Harry Kane. Just can't stop scoring. Be good to see him partner Rooney against Italy.

I liked Lineker's tweet ...."only 48 more touches and Harry Kane will overtake Bobby Charlton's record"

Let's see how he does against the much better teams....remember Rickie Lambert?

I too watched the whole game only coz I was bored and had nothing better to do. I thought it was an average performance against one of the minnows of world football but the commentators were going on as if it was such a  tremendous achievement winning 7 games on the bounce for the 1st time in donkeys years. Yeah 7 times against either poor or average teams so it means absolutely nothing as when we come up against anyone half decent we all know we are waaay behind
 If Carrick and Henderson are the best we have in MF we will never get anywhere in world football. Very very average players. Their passing was OK not excellent but the vast majority of it was to the side or backwards. Neither of them have that Silva like killer pass in their repertoire
Baines was awful IMO. Clyne was better but gave the ball away a lot in the 1st half
Hart didnt have a great deal to do but as per usual we saw him a kick a ball straight out into touch. Why does he keep doing this ?
I agree about Delph & Welbeck though. Both hardworking quick and useful players
Great to see Harry come off the bench and score. Thought he held the ball up well and far better than Rooney who had a solid enough game but should have scored more
Sterling puts the fear of God into defenders & I would love to see him at City 50 times better than Navas
Defensively we were ok Didn't have too much too worry us but let's see how they fair against Italy that's if the team doesn't completely change as its a friendly

It doesn't matter anyway. All the big teams use friendlies as a jolly and we're the only side on the top 20 that actually bothers. In these games, we look good and can beat anyone (remember Brazil?) but as soon as the competition proper starts, suddenly they all step up a gear and we're left looking like puddings.

Mark my words, in the euros next year, we'll be in a group with two minnows and either Italy, Holland or Sweden and we'll be lucky to scrape through in second place. And then get punted out by Germany in the next round...

guess i'll stick to not bothering watching England in future...

I'm with you Bluey - I enjoyed it and agree with you re Welbeck and thought Sterling did well also.  Even Rooney did well - neh mind the naysayers - we just might do a bit better with a younger bunch.

Fair enough... I'll reserve judgement until we play someone who is off a higher calibre than the conference league.

Stats dont win tournaments, 7 on the bounce and 5 of those were from a group that a decent Sunday League team could qualify from.
As mentioned already, we won our WC quailfying group easily without losing a game if i remember rightly, we went to the finals and were woeful against the top class teams.
I am more hopeful for this group as they have pace and a younger average age but the media need to stop getting so carried away and in particular they need to stop piling the pressure on young lads like Harry Kane. They will round on him as soon as the goals dry up as we all know.

I was only calling what I saw on Friday night.

I seem to remember games against minnows where we struggled to break them down, struggled to score more than 2 goals....

We also saw the likes of Spain scrape a 1-0 win on Friday, the Dutch draw with a late equaliser.

I'm sure Tuesday will be a much tougher proposition with the likes of Sterling and Welbeck out.

Barkley was the darling not so long ago - now it's the most interesting man in the world - Harry Kane.

Not that long ago Cleverley was an England 'star'