Thetownend.com

Couldn't see a thread for tonight, thought it worth having a thread for the whole day as well.

Loving watching Costa Rica beating Uruguay & Suarez.

Rumours Sterling will play ahead of Lalana tonight. Would prefer to see him play instead of Wellbeck or Rooney myself.

But what the fuck do I know.

These Costa Ricans are no mugs. 

I flipped over to SSN just now and they have the England team on their ticker - showing Sterling in and Lalana out. 

The England team, must be represented by players of clubs geographically closest to each other in the competition. 7 from the city of Liverpool, 3 from the city of Manchester, Cahill the only London rep, and he comes from Derbyshire and used to play for Bolton.

Bit of luck we didn't get Costa Rica up first game....

Yeah.  Maybe they'll have 6 points in the bag by the time we play them and they'll ease up a bit against us!

 Ace....Maxi Pereira, Uruguayan special.. first red card  :)

Getting excited for this now. Come on TOWN

This Workd Cup has been great so far.  Uruguay were poor, but I thought Costa Rica played them excellently and their game plan was perfect.  Much easier without Suarez, I suppose

I'm surprised Lallana has been left out as he keeps the ball so well which I though would be needed in this heat, but apparently Welbeck is he man to look too instead?  I like the pace of Sturridge and Sterling, though, that'll scare them and hopefully create more pace for Rooney and Gerrard.

Come on England! 

http://youtu.be/zTzPww3AqaE

Disappointed by the arm folding technique of the England Squad in the pre-match squad roundup. Some very poor displays.

Get in there. 

Only England would equalise only to have their physio break his leg in the celebration.

You couldn't make it up! 

Good goal though.

Average game. Neither side is impressing.

Liking the look of the england side so far attacking wise, sterling very impressive and welbeck doing better than I expected!

Bit suspect at the back so attack attack attack!

I think there far more positives than negatives, it was a game we didn't really deserve to lose but goals win games & the ities put the ball in the net & we didn't. We had Chances aplenty but the final ball at times was lacking.

Possibly shouldn't be disappointed but played ok, we do have some issues.

We seemed much better in first half,  changed system at half time as Rooney struggling to defend and never looked as good after that.

Sterling did well but looked fucked after 70 minutes.

No idea what Wilshire was supposed to be doing or what he brings to the team?

Sturridge never seems to be in the area.

Whatever you say about Johnson (and he cannot defend) he seemed to see available as the out ball for most of the second half.

We just look naive and a little bereft of ideas.

I can't remember Hart having a save to make in the second half and it's a shame we didn't capitalise on the number of corners we had.

The right side was our problem, but the second goal was rubbish defending.

Not sure how Rooney got 90 minutes either?  Rubbish in that position. Henderson wasn't great and Wilshere was worse when he came on.

We didn't deserve to lose that. We played pretty well throughout that game and if we go home then we've at least played one more decent game than 2010. Rooney has got to go - fucking awful. Sterling was excellent, Sturridge was very good. I felt sorry for Baines. Candreva was MOM. Pirlo was ordinary. If we can play like than in the other 2 games we should be ok.  

I actually forgot Wilshere came on...and I'm sober.ish.

I have said on fb that Rooney should be dropped, Lambert playing up front & drop Sturridge to the Rooney role as he has something to offer outside of the box as well as in it. I thought Lampard or Milner should have came on instead of Wilshire

How many more chances is Rooney going to get? Reckon Lallana and Barkley did more in 15 minutes than Rooney did in the whole match. OK, it was a good cross for the goal but he did fuck all else, except hit that corner straight in to the terracing.

Thought we were the better team overall, but Italy took their chances and knew how to finish the game off. We had more shots, more shots on target, more corners, more of pretty much everything. Except goals.

Important thing is we actually had a go for once and the younger players were all pretty good. So no complaints.

Agree with Rooney needing to be dropped in favour of Lambert- Lambert up front with Sterling, Sturridge and Welbeck in and behind him would be dangerous.

Henderson had a job to do tonight which he did okay - try and keep Italy's playmakers quiet.

Primarily though, get that fat Shrek lookalike out of the team and onto the bench. With the best will in the world, he is not a winger and he's wasting a place in the team. Give him his credit he put a nice cross in for the goal, but any half decent winger or forward in that position would put that ball into the edge of the box from there. Rooney serves no particular purpose in the position he's playing and pulls the rest of the team down with him.

Overall quite positive for a defeat. We can beat Uruguay and Costa Rica if we play like tonight against them.

Side note, we should have had at least one penalty and some of the refereeing decisions tonight were very odd - going through the back of someone forcing them to go off is apparently fine but catching someone's heels giving them the opportunity to buy a free kick is a yellow card? Okay then...

Hodgson has just said it's harsh to suggest that Rooney didn't look comfortable and thought he did brilliantly.  Clearly he was watching a different game to the rest of us.

Utter tosh.  Hodgson needs to take the rose tinted specs off.

We are not shit.

We are in the last 32 of the World.

BUT we are not good enough to progress.

Rooney has to ( and will not be) dropped....woeful. Neville suggesting that the shit corner he took was down to boggy ground was embarrassing.

We played ok to me. Didn't gamble in front of goal and missed the numerous great balls that were played in. We did ok...but at this level ok isn't good enough.

Didn't get that bit of luck either.....

Lets all hope and pray.

Best team won today

Yep. After the first 25 mins, we weren't really in the game. Nevertheless we're not bottom of the group, and have an outside chance of progressing. We weren't 2010 shite, and I think most right minded England fans would accept a decent effort at getting out of the group, even if we don't.

Playing like that should be able to beat Uruguay and Costa Rica

Italy probably deserved to win overall but we played quite well with little cutting edge and not willing to take enough gambles in the final 3rd.

Rooney was very poor, Johnson surprised me by how well he played, Sterling played very well and was my England man of the match.

Cahill got caught out but Mario once when it counted otherwise he and Jaggy played fairly well.

Hart should have got to the first goal really but is the best we currently have so it depends if we get great Hart or shit Hart.

Why does Sturridge shoot every time he is within 35 yards of goal? he should be a little less greedy and then he will be a fine player.

Overall we played well but didn't create enough good chances for our forward/s or maybe we just need Lambert up front instead of Rooney, never thought I would ever say that.

Would definately start with Barkley and possibly Wilshire starting at the expense of Welbeck and Henderson with Lambert in instead of Rooney.

All hope is not lost but its an uphill struggle to qualify now, but almost everybody had written England off before the tournament started so its no shock.

Yep, this is a pretty good critique.

I would only add that I thought Gerrard had a 'quiet night'.

So quiet I actually forgot he was playing apart from the poor free kick in the closing minutes.

Can we spend all week practicing crosses please?  They were generally absolutely woeful with the the exception of Rooney's for the goal

Totally agree about Rooney, yes he created the goal but was crap bar that.

Apart from one bad mistake i thought Cahill was excellent and our MOM.

Oh please, what game were you watching?

I wanted Rooney to play well, but the moment Baines was in his ear about fulfilling his defensive duties he just seemed to go off the boil. IMO Candreva and Darmian made Rooney's night difficult. If he was given the freedom of Sterling, it may have been a different performance.

I don't understand those slating Welbeck either. He was given a job to do and did it well enough.

The biggest frustration for me was Glenn Johnson running straight into Italian players hoping they'd simply disappear.

Not sure what Henderson has done wrong, I get the impression that much like Milner you can only interpret how well he has played if you are at the game as he does a lot of unseen donkey work. 

However depends how we want to change it, if Hodgson thinks we are deficient in falling over and constantly whining at the referee then Wilshire does strengthen the team.

Its not for what Henderson did wrong its just that Barkley offers a lot more going forward than Henderson.

This is the problem with Rooney he just doesn't seem to have the discipline to play in this team, he was drifting inside so much that it was leaving the right side of the Italy team with acres to run at Baines often doubling up. And as we cannot drop Rooney instead we reshuffled the midfield at half time to accommodate him and never looked as good after that hence why Welbeck was so much less effective in the second half.

For whatever reason everything went through Johnson for the last 20 minutes, whatever his shortcomings he's a bloody willing player and always available for a ball. Didn't help that Sterling was shattered at that stage which meant he seemed to be hugging the touchline which meant it was very congested out there as that is where Johnson naturally heads.

I don't rate Johnson and he is in the team by default as there isn't another option,  but he had an OK game last night.

But wouldn't Barkley replace Welbeck with Wilshire falling over next to Gerrard?

Anybody on here think the Sterling shot went in? Mildew and I in a heap in his living room!

Guilty!   ;D

Nearly smashed my head on the ceiling.

What you and Mildew get up to in your spare time is none of my business.

Bounced around the pub with everyone else  ::)

Haha half the pub did, i got thrown into a piano

Half the Merlin did, was carnage till realised
 :cry:

Yes me & a couple of mates, leapt in delight.

I thought Henderson played well last night.

Rooney wasn't fantastic, but was being played out of position. He did well for the assist though, and showed to come deep and try and get involved at the end, when Italy had 11 men behind the ball. He was no worse than Gerrard, Wellbeck, Wilshere or Barkley, he's just an easy scapegoat.

Prandelli must be one of the best tacticians working in the game today

Yup. Pub went mental.

Spot on. Plus he should have equalised.

Though we played quite well last nigh. Yes Italy had a lot of the ball, but they largely didn't do that much with it. We hit them with pace and looked quite dangerous, and Sterlling had a good game.

But the subs seemed to have the opposite effect to the desired one and we petered out. Obviously you need to make changes in those conditions though.

The Costa Rica win is a poor result for us, was willing a Uruguay equaliser at 2-1. Hopefully they have peaked now and Italy beat them :) We need 2 wins :(

Problem is that Rooney just isn't good enough and we've got better options.

Balotelli, Sturridge and Rooney all had one decent chance each - Rooney was the only one who didn't score.

When you've got an attacking team that will put balls in to the box and created chances you need someone to finish them off. The BBC commentators kept going on about it. Reckon Lambert is the only player we've got that does that.

A front for of Lambert, Sturridge, Sterling and Barkley would scare the crap out of most teams.

Thought Gerrard was pretty anonymous last night. Unfortunately the 2 oldies were poor. Rooney has to be dropped for the next game, move Wellbeck to the left and bring Lambert in. One thing Rooney does now is slow the game down, holds the ball and plays it simple allowing defences to get themselves together. Henderson did nothing wrong - wasn't brilliant but did ok. Johnson also did ok. We've played a hell of a lot worse. I am actually more optimistic after the game than before. This World Cup may be too soon but this team looks to have a decent future.

Lambert ahead of Rooney? Ridiculous. Play Rooney upfront instead of wide left more like.
Or bring in Barkley or lallana.
Conditions fucked us over as if it was played at a high tempo we would have won.slowed down suited the Italians. Wellbeck,sturridge,sterling were all decent.the latter easily our best player.

Rickie Lambert should not be starting for England. Ahead of our best player? Absurd.

I enjoyed our performance and see no reason why we can't progress. I think Hodgson got the line up spot on and would not change it for Thursday.

Chang has spoken, Rooney's our best player. Problems solved.

Phil nevilles punditry by the way. Dull as fuck and laughably awful. Really amused me.

According to the bookies, since Costa Rica won we are still odds on to qualify. If Uruguay had won we would have been 7/2 to qualify. So it was a good result for us.

If we can go on, of course!

Whereas I understand Rooney is playing out of position, it's because he's not the best in his position anymore. So don't play him then! Hodgson should have the courage to drop him if he thinks he has a better option. We have been guilty for decades of squeezing players in because of their reputations. Barclay or Lalana could have played that role. Rooney, central or out.....imo

In a nutshell that.

Except, of course, that Sturridge is better than Rooney!!

On yer bike, Wazza

Lambert has been scoring goals for England, Rooney hasn't. Lambert links up with other players really well, Rooney just seems to give the ball away and miss chances. With the exception of last nights cross what he has achieved for England at world cups? Fuck all. Time to drop him and see how he responds IMHO.

So apart from setting up the goal last night, scoring plenty of times for England, and playing well when selected in right position what has Wayne Rooney ever done for England?

You lot love to knock your own.

We've built him and now we'll knock him down Jan.

If we don't win this World Cup or the Euro's in 2 years time then Sterling will no doubt enjoy similar treatment. It's what we do!

We have better players in his favoured position and he's not good enough when playing out of position.

Why is that knocking him?

We need one more player who can hold the ball and pass it around to compete more in the  midfield.  In my opinion Lallana should come in on left to help Baines, the only change.   Otherwise it was very encouraging and it's great to have several fast skilful forwards to choose from. I don't think Rooney is as effective as Sturridge  and is past his best for big competitions, but what do I know?

I have been reading this forum without contributing for long enough to know that Janaage hates everything English so that means that none of us deserve an opinion especially if it differs from his.

I thought we played well last night and deserved at least a point, but we haven't learnt anything from 2010...it's the left hand side midfield problem again.

4 years ago, Gerrard was asked to play a captain's role and do that position, but he kept on coming more and more infield into his normal midfield, and the Germans took full advantage.

Last night Rooney did poorly in that role, leaving the Italians a free run at Baines. If he doesn't want to play that role, get him out of the team, and get someone in that will. That effort on the hour when he did the dirty work but then failing to even get the shot on target summed him up in the World Cup...promised a lot..but hasn't delivered anything.

The Italians were spot on at the end last night, as we looked the most threatening in broken play and on the counter. When they put two banks of four in front, we had difficulty in breaking them down in the last 15 mins.

It now makes the Uruguay game a must win. I think Suarez is not as fit as they've been saying, otherwise he should've come on the the last 15 mins yesterday when they were chasing the game.

'cept Swindon.

Truth is a lot of folk are on Rooney's back at the moment...for a variety of reasons.  Where I might take issue with Jan is that his post implied that we're more prone than most to having a pop at our own players, and I'm not sure that we are.  (I know a few Scots, for example, who are world class when it comes to criticising their own.)

Well, that's just a case of having more material to work with.

I don't hate all things English at all.

And I don't have a problem with other people's opinions, its what makes interesting debates. I may not agree with them, but that's not important.

Boring world if everyone shared the same outlook.

Rooney's a very good centre forward, don't think England have better.

Better than Sturridge?

Gary breen has scored more world cup final goals than Rooney!

My opinion is play him in position or don't play him at all. Stop fitting him in just because he's Wayne Rooney.

This

He's I think he is. Agree with comment about play him up front, it's where he should be, with a striking partner.

Have to say I agree, for years the same happened with Gerrard playing left wing (where he was dog shit) because the manager couldn't decide between him & Lampard.

By & large it makes sense to pick the best player available in each position, not the best 11 players & fit them in where you can.