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Johnson had an excellent tournament compared to everyone else

Gerrard was disappointing last night, despite his performance in the last couple of group games where he really pushed things, he was wiped after 60minutes though

really and truly though, i cant believe we found it so hard to just pass the ball cleanly, it really really is a massive problem when an international team filled with a lot of talented individuals look like they could be out-passed by a 6th form inter form side... they should be embarrassed for themselves, fuck the fans, they should feel it themselves.

noam wrote:Johnson had an excellent tournament compared to everyone else

Gerrard was disappointing last night, despite his performance in the last couple of group games where he really pushed things, he was wiped after 60minutes though

really and truly though, i cant believe we found it so hard to just pass the ball cleanly, it really really is a massive problem when an international team filled with a lot of talented individuals look like they could be out-passed by a 6th form inter form side... they should be embarrassed for themselves, fuck the fans, they should feel it themselves.

To an extent when Gerrard had a bad game it really showed how instrumental he'd been in most of the playmaking in the group stage games. Funny cos his last season he's been pretty shit. And yeah, the Spain game may have been fucking boring but watching the passing of England compared to theirs was atrocious. I agree Johnson had a relatively good tournament. He seems to do better internationally than he does normally tbh.

leyenda303 wrote:

noam wrote:Johnson had an excellent tournament compared to everyone else

Gerrard was disappointing last night, despite his performance in the last couple of group games where he really pushed things, he was wiped after 60minutes though

really and truly though, i cant believe we found it so hard to just pass the ball cleanly, it really really is a massive problem when an international team filled with a lot of talented individuals look like they could be out-passed by a 6th form inter form side... they should be embarrassed for themselves, fuck the fans, they should feel it themselves.

To an extent when Gerrard had a bad game it really showed how instrumental he'd been in most of the playmaking in the group stage games. Funny cos his last season he's been pretty shit. And yeah, the Spain game may have been fucking boring but watching the passing of England compared to theirs was atrocious. I agree Johnson had a relatively good tournament. He seems to do better internationally than he does normally tbh.

yup defo

it was tragic watching them play during the second half of the Italy game, if we'd have scored in the first half i reckon we actually would have stepped up, as it is we sunk further back and had no guts to fight out of it

it disappointed me hearing the commentators and pundits call it a 'gutsy' display cos it seemed like they just replaced the words 'shambolic' and 'classless' with 'heart'... not how it works boys.

worst thing is during the first half at times we didn't look half bad when we had some energy in our legs and the game was paradoxically, being played faster and it was more end-to-end

Agreed on Johnson. Never been really been that big a fan of his but I thought he was great this tournament.

Terry was good too.

Why oh why did they not take Scholesy...

For all the talk of England playing poorly, Italy need to sort themselves out. They were pretty dire at times. They could (and probably should) have won that game comfortably. Pirlo had acres of space and pinged in pass after pass. Really poor finishing from the Italians.

I don't have much hope for them after going to penalties against a side who played as badly as England did.

Liam92 wrote:

wow that brings back memories of when Schmeichel was having that awful season and getting chipped by everyone, Match magazine had a cartoon almost identical.

scspkr99 wrote:

LA_Boxers wrote: Yeah. Kyle Walker is already a much better player. Johnson didnt overly offer anything going forward (like most of the team) and very little at the back too, bar a couple of good bits of work.

Nah he really isn't.

Johnson was responsible for two of the best chances in the first half, the one he possibly should have scored from and the ball to Rooney, he's a right back. He was also the one who came across to make the block towards the end. One of Englands most consistent performers across the tournament.

He also scored for Sweden. The only reason he looked ok was due to the fact most people around him were terrible.

nah fuck it nvm I'll just be happy starting next season with Johnson in our squad

Johnson was also helpd by the fact Milner was good cover. He was never left in a 2 on 1 situation with winger and and overlapping fullback. Whilst Milner was ineffective going forward, I've no doubt he was a big factor in how compact and solid we were able to be defensively.

Ashley Cole on the other hand has the positional awareness to know when to go and when to stay, and doesn't get caught out in the same way Johnson does. Well, not very often anyway.

Ashley Cole is next level compared to any other England footballer

capo ultra wrote:Ashley Cole is next level compared to any other England footballer

Next Level Penalty taker!

boom tish

capo ultra wrote:boom tish

Ashley Young penalty sound effect?

herbs wrote:Johnson was also helpd by the fact Milner was good cover. He was never left in a 2 on 1 situation with winger and and overlapping fullback. Whilst Milner was ineffective going forward, I've no doubt he was a big factor in how compact and solid we were able to be defensively.

Ashley Cole on the other hand has the positional awareness to know when to go and when to stay, and doesn't get caught out in the same way Johnson does. Well, not very often anyway.

Against Ukraine Milner went off on 70, against Italy he went off on 61, against Sweden 60 no goals where conceeded during those three games when Milner was off the pitch the only goals scored we're the two by Sweden though it could be reasonably suggested Johnson was implicated in one of them. Milner played the whole game against France.

So given that the facts are England never conceeded a goal when Milner wasn't on the pitch just how are we arguing that Johnsons performance was down to Milner.

I feel we would have conceded more if he hadn't played at all. By the end of the Italy game everyone was camped on the edge of the box anyway. How many of those goals were conceded down our right side?

it's mad that anyone is arguing about our defense. It's our complete lack of attacking options that is the biggest worry. Where's our Iniesta? Pirlo? Messi? Ozil? Nasri? Ronaldo? When the only decent forward player is Rooney there's something amiss. I think we did well given our total lack of world-class attacking options.

capo ultra wrote:it's mad that anyone is arguing about our defense. It's our complete lack of attacking options that is the biggest worry. Where's our Iniesta? Pirlo? Messi? Ozil? Nasri? Ronaldo? When the only decent forward player is Rooney there's something amiss. I think we did well given our total lack of world-class attacking options.

I don't think we used the ones we had as well as we could have though. I'm really not convinced by Welbeck and I think it was a sign of our desperation that we took someone that was unable to play the first two games.

I've warmed to Carroll over the last few months but he adds less when the team shifts to punting it up to him, he wins a lot but the quality is going to be questionable when he is winning the ball in the air back to goal, especially when England don't have a midfield that's looking to pick up on the loose ball.

What world class attacking options have Italy demonstrated? Spain even for that matter given Torres and LLorente don't start? Playing two banks of 4 against a 3 man midfield especially one containing Pirlo in great form isn't going to be pretty and is very unlikely to be effective.

Maybe Hodgson should have picked Oxlade-Chamberlain given just how good a job he did against Pirlo and Ambrosini in a game neither played in.

I think something about international football that is forgotten is luck. The luck that you'll generate world class players, and that they'll all be playing at the same time.

At the moment, England have (IMO) two world class players, Rooney and Cole surrounded by a team of 9 or so average players (compared to the top internationals), whereas Spain have handfuls. However, compare that to their Euro 96 squad, where it was Spain that had 1 or 2 world class players.

Maybe the next generation will fulfill it, maybe not, I get the feeling it's coming into Germany's time now.

garethom wrote:At the moment, England have (IMO) two world class players, Rooney and Cole

I agree, and Rooney was nowhere near his peak. It's no-ones fault really that we just don't have the players we did in tournaments past.

It's alright saying we should have thrown Oxlade Chamberlain on but he's still in his infancy. We can complain that Carroll and Welbeck aren't up to standard but the point is that there is no one else that is good enough, Defoe? Crouch? Holt? Come on now

England are missing a quality playmaker as well, all we have is a knackered Stevie Gerrard. Give me Pirlo over him any day.

...and let's not try and make out that any of Spain's midfield or Strikers couldn't walk into the England team. They clearly have much superior attacking options.

even a severely weak Italian team have a forward line that England would drool over, Balotelli, Di Natale and Cassano would all get a game for England. Come on now

We just didn't have the attacking options for this tournament. Simple as.

capo ultra wrote: England are missing a quality playmaker as well, all we have is a knackered Stevie Gerrard. Give me Pirlo over him any day
.

yeah Gerrard had a terrible tournament
he needs help, but we already have that covered

I wouldn't call Rooney world class when it comes to England, i can't remember a good performance from him since Euro 2004.

That leaves Cole...

The worrying thing is that even the likes of Japan and Wales outpassed England