England v Italy [Euro 2012 Quarter Finals]

[algi]

I am already sooo sorry!...

...believe me!

[men in blue]

Italy deserved it,they dominated the whole game and had many chances to win it

[DEAD_MAN_WALKING]

Well done Italy...

[cleanprophet]

Justice is done. I think this is the best way for England to go out. Getting hammered again by the Germans would have been the alternative.

From game one I've not been happy about Hodgson selecting Milner and Young on the wings. They haven't given anything going forward at all. Young, in particular, had an absolutely awful tournament. Comes to something when I was actually hoping Hodgson would play Downing instead.

Gerrard has carried England all tournament. But, carrying England in 3 games in a week took its toll. In the 2nd half he lost all energy and was cramping up inside 70mins. It's not a surprise that as Gerrard got tired, England got crap.

Have to say also, Rooney has not looked match sharp at all.

[Bunkertor]

Hm, seems matches between the Football-Giants have become less nasty as they used to be. Bad match by England considering Terry, Cole, Gerrard, Rooney, Welbeck...aso have played

[Hodge]

Well the right team went through in the end. It would have been a travesty if England had won on penalties.

Carroll had a poor season apart from the last few weeks, was our form striker going into the Euro's and I would have started him tonight. He may be a thick geordie thug but he did more in the time he was on tonight than Rooney did in 2 games.

Hopefully Roy will now be given a free hand to clear out the garbage and start to build for the future. Young & Rooney are good at club but incapable of producing it at this level. Gerrard runs around and works hard but is inconsistent and not a shadow of the player he is/was at club level.

Time to clear out most of this squad and build for the future.

[Ben2710]

Emotional and Nervous are just some words you could use to describe watching that! Wasn't a good performance but we held on and did are best. Well played to the lads.

Stop Crying Your Heart Out

We will be back and bring on the next challenge the World Cup

[RDuncan8]

[cleanprophet]

We will be back and bring on the next challenge the World Cup

Hopefully Roy Hodgson gets it right next time. That means not playing the likes of Milner and Young on the wings. They give limited defensive cover and create nothing going forward. I'll say it again, if you play 4-4-2, you have to have creativity down the wings as well as through the middle. There was none of that. The only creativity was from Gerrard and he was knackered. I've never seen him cramp up so early in a game and it shows just how exhausted he was.

Rooney and Wellbeck are not good enough as a partnership. Rooney was a disgrace in his previous tournament in South Africa and he wasn't much better this time around. He was just a non-entity. Wellbeck was the same. He scored a very important goal against Sweden and if he scores, fair enough. If he doesn't score, he gives you so little. My feeling before the tournament was that Carroll had to start every game. From now on, Hodgson has to start with Carroll and not be swayed (as all previous England managers have) by big names. He should have played Downing. That said, he should have taken Adan Johnson and he should have been playing ahead of Young or Downing.

[tottenham28]

We got totally outclassed, just as we have throughout the tournament only this time we were lucky not to concede at least 5 goals.
Having overachieved so far, this is about as good as it would have got. Roy has worked miracles getting this lot to do anything in such a short space of time but there is only so long at this level, that you can just throw your bodies on the line and expect to get another good result.

He should ask himself, why did he play a clearly unfit Rooney when he had options on the bench? it's hardly like he has set the world on fire at any major tournaments, is it?
why did he play Young again?, who was abysmal throughout the tournament and was so again yesterday, when he had Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench or even Downing.
As for Gerrard and Parker, although they had run their bodies into the ground for the cause, coming up against a great footballer that is Pirlo was the last thing they needed. They both needed a rest and unfortunately, England just did not have any good enough midfielders to replace them with.

Hopefully as said in a few earlier posts, Roy will now get his chance to try and turn England into a decent side at both ends of the pitch, as we are a country mile away from being close to one of the best footballing nations in Europe, no mind on the planet.

[cleanprophet]

As for Gerrard and Parker, although they had run their bodies into the ground for the cause, coming up against a great footballer that is Pirlo was the last thing they needed. They both needed a rest and unfortunately, England just did not have any good enough midfielders to replace them with.

Pirlo had two central-midfielders around him to do all the donkey work. He didn't have to do any defensive work. He just sat on the half-way line and waited for the ball to be delivered to him. Gerrard had to do lots of defensive work and then try to pull the strings in the way Pirlo was doing for Italy. He had no chance without running himself into the groun, which he did. It's a shame Wilshire is injured because I think England could have played like-for-like and played 3 men in the middle (Wilshire, Gerrard and Paker) that would have clamped down on Pirlo and give Gerrard more freedom to get forward.

Alternatively, of course, England could have played 4-4-2 with proper wingers playing - that means a left-winger on the left and a right-winger on the right. Young and Milner don't fit the bill and it showed, badly.

[muckman1]

whats wrong with england??
at the most important game the coach sticks to the "great liverpool team of 2011/12 " with andy c,henderson,johnson and gerrard----i cant believe how low the level of play has become on this team....andy carroll wtf????

young and millner in midfield are a waste of time.where are your players???i dont get it....
pirlo looked like zidane compared to what england brought to the table.....and btw rooney looks somewhat chubby around the hips

[riise94]

"Unwatchable" match between two old decayed ladies of Football Game.England a bad copy of Chelsea and Italy wasting goals and goals lacking of quick penetration.Disappointing...
The Cup will be a matter of Germany and Spain!

How dare you compare England to the European Champions! Lazy journalist syndrome again. I thought it was a very exciting game and thank God for England who not only paid for my afternoon and evening's beers but also next week's too. Bless them!

So what we got knocked out. We are shit. But at least we know it!

PS Unlike some teams left in the tournament,at least we have actually won a major trophy. Hard to believe but true.

PSS I can't believe a Marsbar fryer is on this thread taking the piss out of England. Shit yes. But we'll never be so shit,we'll lose to Costa Rica in a World Cup finals. We'll never see the Haggis eating skirt wearing gingers in a major competition again.

[Angelrat]

Was a great game, sadly England couldn't bring offensively what I had hoped. Defensively they were very impressive. Terry and Gerrard were true leaders throughout the tourney, and an example for spirit and mentality. Damn, if only they were dutch

[RunRickyRun]

Why England are and will be shit

There are 2.25 million players in England and only one Uefa-qualified coach for every 812 people playing the game. Spain, the World Cup favourites, have 408,134 players, giving a ratio of 1:17. In Italy, the world champions, the ratio is 1:48, in France it is 1:96, Germany 1:150 and even Greece, the Euro 2004 winners, have only 180,000 registered players for their 1,100 coaches, a ratio of 1:135.

Oh well. At least England have a shiny new stadium (cost £1bn)

[Redbullsnation]

All-out defense, I do that all the time on FIFA when I play a big team

Too bad it didn't work for England right at the end

[cleanprophet]

at the most important game the coach sticks to the "great liverpool team of 2011/12 " with andy c,henderson,johnson and gerrard

Yeah, what was he thinking picking Gerrard? lol

Instead, he should have picked er, er - let me think, he should have picked, er, er, hmmm

The players were not the problem. The problem was that he wanted his team to be defensively solid and hard to beat, but he picked the wrong formation to do that for the players he played. Should have been 4-5-1 or Milner and Young not on the wings in a 4-4-2 formation. One or the other and not something inbetween - we got something inbetween.

[NY17]

Didn't work lads!

[DEAD_MAN_WALKING]

One or the other and not something inbetween - we got something inbetween.

Yer in the picture below your post or above my reply...lol

[muckman1]

Yeah, what was he thinking picking Gerrard? lol

Instead, he should have picked er, er - let me think, he should have picked, er, er, hmmm

The players were not the problem. The problem was that he wanted his team to be defensively solid and hard to beat, but he picked the wrong formation to do that for the players he played. Should have been 4-5-1 or Milner and Young not on the wings in a 4-4-2 formation. One or the other and not something inbetween - we got something inbetween.

gerrard is captain and rightly so....if you think henderson,carrol or johnson are helping the team you are just wrong.they didnt bring anything to the table.same goes for young and millner.
then you say the players were not the problem.i dont get that.the problem is that england doesnt have enough class to compete at the highest level...

you can always say that it was close in that game and all that ( which it wasnt ) but for the future i cant see anything good...start building teams in your league around good local players.goddamn that cant be that difficult in the motherland of football.did the premier leagues big money dilute your football-brains that much????


some spitefulness in my statements of course