England v Italy

We got what we deserved.

Anyway it'll be interesting to see what the manager will do now with the team. I would like to think that Gerrard and Terry have played their last game. Rooney needs to know that he is not the great world class player the 'Red Tops' tell him he is.

Problem is, who else is there. Look at Glen Johnson. Never a full-back in a million years yet he's an automatic choice.

Long term, we should limit the number of foreign player per team and try to promote the locals. Easier said than done.

I think Hodgson has performed over and above expectations on balance, there's so much wrong with this current crop of England players. I'd rather lose to Italy on penalties that be humiliated by the Germans, which was inevitable.

Michael Bolton wrote:England were really poor tonight. 4-4-2 is just such a shit formation, we've seen that last season at Bolton. But why play Milner on the right? He's gash. I think a 4-3-3 not only makes England stronger in the centre of the park but it has more attacking threat.
I couldn't believe how bad Parker, Young and Milner were tonight. Parker couldn't even pass simple balls to his own team. Milner and Young gave the ball away almost every time they got it.
I am not sure Roy is the answer for England, his formation and line up tonight IMO was not right. Italy dominated possession, Pirlo was fantastic. But with a 4-3-3 he would have found it a lot harder to play.
I just think that the Ox and Walcott playing wide with Rooney up front would have been so much more dangerous.
Shame its all over.

I agree. If we are going to get beat at least we should give ourselves a fighting chance. Oxtail-Chambermaid and Walcott are attacking players so they should be given a chance from the off.

Rooney and Young were shite but because they play for United they were a shoe-in. City won the League so I think Adam Johnson should have been selected but wtf do I know?

chipbutty - I think Wilshere and Chamberlain will become really top class international footballers but unfortunately for England I can see little else in terms of midfielders and strikers coming through or who can be brought into the team. I think the defence and keeper positions are fine.

I don't see a bright few years ahead for England.

Agree with most ..... Rooney proved once again he is not the great white hope...Young, Milner, Parker all good club players but not quality. Henderson came on and I don't believe he kicked the ball once. The defensive players all ran themsleves into the ground....good work by them.

Strangely the one player who came through for me was Lescott who I never really rated.....but to me him & Terry were our best of the tournament.

Overall the Hodgson experiment is worthless. I can't see where we go from here to be honest.

I'm not sure about the "over achieved" line.

the perception is that England have multiple world class players, Gerrard, Rooney, Hart and Cole.

surely a team with that many "world class" players should be "in" more games.

They were hampered with injuries to Lampard and the Rooney situation + of course Wilshere being out who i do think is superb.

long term England need to seriously think about ditching the likes of Terry, Lamps etc and work with players like Wilshere, Sturridge, Johnson, Ox, and start to pick on form a lot more.

Reebok Trotter - totally agree about Adam Johnston. I mean who would City play out wide - Milner or Johnston? Johnston every time. Milner is used as a central midfielder when he plays nowadays. I can't believe Roy played him out wide again.
I really like Oxtail, I can't believe he didn't get on the pitch tonight. I didn't like Welbeck in the starting line up, even though he did do quite well in the air and helping back. I just don't think he is international class, well not at this moment in time anyway.
I cannot believe Young played the whole 120 mins, god he is really shit isn't he?

Sorry - Adam Johnson, not Johnston.

Hodgson has come in and recognised that there isn't enough technical talent there to go all the way in tournaments playing a simple game, and so has put a lot of focus into making the side defensively solid and difficult to score against with a view to going into games looking to just knick a win. His approach is good - some of the players he's shown confidence in over others aren't.

What irritates me is commentators' idea that "there's just a new confidence about this England side". We've been here before. There was a "new confidence" about Eriksson's England that beat Germany 5-1 in Germany and Capello's England that beat Croatia 4-1 in Croatia. There's nothing new or exciting about Hodgson's England apart from the fact that they can defend solidly, whilst being pretty uninspiring on the attack.

Another puzzle for me was the non selection of Micah Richards. He performed really well for Man City as a good defensive wing back so why he wasn't selected is beyond me.

It's the same old story .... we just don't have the technical players to pick from. However I do believe we have better than what was on display tonight. Even that donkey Downing would have been better than Young tonight.

I'm glad that the whole thing is over.

England have been poor throughout and have been taught technical lessons on how to play football in almost every game.

Despite the few minutes or so when they controlled the game last night they always looked uneasy on the ball - too many players who are good at club level but can't raise their game.

Losing on penalties is no disgrace- at least they got that far.

If they had got through the result would have been a disaster. Germany would have slaughtered them- it would have been Dunkirk all over again.

They would have been left completely humiliated. At least they can claim that they held Italy over two hours of football.

Also we don't have to listen to the brain dead garbage that the so called experts on both sides ((Shearer, Hansen etc) have dribbled out since the tournament started.

rammywhite wrote:I'm glad that the whole thing is over.

England have been poor throughout and have been taught technical lessons on how to play football in almost every game.

Despite the few minutes or so when they controlled the game last night they always looked uneasy on the ball - too many players who are good at club level but can't raise their game.

Losing on penalties is no disgrace- at least they got that far.

If they had got through the result would have been a disaster. Germany would have slaughtered them- it would have been Dunkirk all over again.

They would have been left completely humiliated. At least they can claim that they held Italy over two hours of football.

Also we don't have to listen to the brain dead garbage that the so called experts on both sides ((Shearer, Hansen etc) have dribbled out since the tournament started.

Pretty much my thoughts as well.

It was like watching Bolton last night. Another manager who has a plan A (4-4-2) but no plan B or C if things aren't going to plan.

Rooney was absolutely shocking, one of the worst performances I've seen, he couldn't even control a simple pass. But, of course, Hodgson was too scared to take Rooney off.

Ashley Young has played virtually every minute of this competition despite not contributing a single thing in four games. I can't even explain this one, Hodgson must be mad. But the worst thing was letting him take a penalty, it was obvious he was going to miss.

I finally realised last night that Joe Hart is nothing but an average keeper. He doesn't command his area, flaps when the ball is in the air, and can't hold routine shots. If he'd been in Bolton's nets last season I suspect we'd have been down by February.

I have to say though, regardless of his limited ability, Andy Carroll made a difference when he came on. He won the ball but most importantly he put himself about a bit. I thought that was Rooney's job?

Terry and Lescott were good considering their lack of support, the midfield was pathetic. It could have been Mark Davies & Darren Pratley and we wouldn't have noticed the difference.

Overall a pathetic performance, not a single attacking player did anything of note. And worst off all, the manager let it happen.

It was horrible watching England. They surprised me for about 10 mins in the first half by being positive. Then it just got boring. Lots of long balls, wasted passes - it really was like watching Bolton.

I said at half time Rooney should be off - he was never in the game. Oxtail-Soup-Chamberlain would have done better up front. And then there was young abysmal.

When Young stepped up for the pen I said "He won't even look at the goal, he's putting it over" - they always do - players who don't look tend to opt for power and then if you combine that with how lacking in confidence he looked and how shite he was on the night it all added up to a nailed on miss.

Same old then. Future is looking bleak for us especially with the appointment of Roy ,shite pick for me . Should have been Harry no question IMO.

Don't worry peeps, OC will drive Bolton to greatness this season, and Woy will see how its done, follow suit, and the England team will follow in Boltons wake to fame, fortune, and a glorious future. (off for a lie down now)

We are all in agreement on one thing....it looked like a typical Bolton game with plenty of hoofs to SKD for the aimless nod on. You would think we would be used to it.

One thing I disagree with that the England manager should be English ....look where that has got us now. And Sir 'Arry would be the same way..... Crapello was a donkey but I still think a foreign manager who has no association or loyalty to a British club and will pick players on tech ability and form is the way forward. Right now you are looking at Rooney, Young, Parker etc for the next 4 or 5 years at least.

On a side note I believe that Utd are a step behind the very top clubs now because of a Young, Wellbeck, Carrick, and the reliance on Rooney, bringing back Scoles etc. I mention it because this is were England managers are required by law to select their players whether they are donkeys or not.

I think the realisation that England may not have performed quite as well as some said is coming home to roost.

Simply put, they will probably never win a major tournament playing in that way.

I think both Woy and England did very well given the players available. Sure I would have changed a couple of things, but it wouldn't get away from the fact that England is thin on the ground when it comes to skilful players and we were always going to get found out by better teams.

With the lack of quality, I thought Woy did a great job of shoring up the defence by going narrow - and it got us as far as we were ever going to go in this competition.

Only real criticism was not being prepared to take off Rooney or Young who were both shocking. That said there was no guarantee that the subs would have been any better.