England v Italy match thread.

[Sippo]

Must be that mid-season break they have

The point is that other players have played a lot more games yet still perform. We can't use the excuse of tiredness all the time. England were outclassed. Simple as.

[wiggy]

I think people were going  ott with the slating of players-reasons we lost etc. The cracks were papered over in the group stage and the improvement didn't happen which was needed to progress. That said, progress was made by Woy overall and things will improve. He is the right man or the job and did well in a short space of time.

We had chances,penalty shouts, and first half made a great game of it. I think there are positives to take from it

Agree with this.

I think we are on the verge of a new dawn for the national team. Not saying we are going to be world beaters, but I cvertainly hope we will be younger, hungrier, better organised and more competetive. We have a good crop of young players coming through, and I think the right manager to get the best out if them. Now all we need is for the FA to just leave Roy to it and not interfere. Also need the tabloids not to go mental if Roy decides to drop the last of the old guard (not saying Terry and Gerrard didn't do well in this tournament, just that we need to look to plan for ther next one).

[mrverve]

It's the same old story with England, can't keep the ball, run around the pitch chasing wasting energy, finally win the ball but are too fatigued to do anything with it.

Maybe the reason the other teams are less tired isn't because of winter breaks (notice that the majority of the big clubs go to Asia etc. to play meaningless friendlies in that time anyway) but because they keep the ball better and thus are less inclined to tire early, just a thought.

I don't really get the criticism of Rooney either, you need to get the ball to him and when you have only 32% possession it doesn't exactly play to the attacking players' strengths does it?

[DMR]

Magnificent defensive effort, just a shame the attacking players never offered an outlet to release the pressure.

Young and Rooney were appalling as they are alledgedly the talented ones in a mediocre side.

QF exit was about what we should have expected, just a shame we never had a go at them.

[Batch]

England were outclassed. Simple as.

Yup, sometimes a team play better than you because the ARE better than you. Like yesterday.

We are a top 8 European side, and we got to the quater finals. This is despite the FA's incompetence at appointing a manager with sufficient time to do any preparation, and a few injuries/sulks (Carrick) meaning the squad we took was probably not the very best it could have been.

Rebuild time now for 2014.

[Bathtime]

Tactically out played - clever Italians closed us down in mid field coz that`s they way they play the game. Second half was pretty poor and Rooney way off the pace however had he connected with that over head then....! Far too many times the ball was passed back to Hart who kicked aimlessly up field. If Walcott is going to come on then someone needs to pass the ball to him and Carroll to be honest can head the ball but not much else. He ended up defending....Young had such a poor game I was surprised to see him line up for the penalty....I have seen so many penalty shoot outs lost that I am not sure how it would feel if England actually won one...probably disappointed coz then I couldn`t whinge on about how shit England play...looking forward to Andy Murray being hammered in the semi final again and lots of silver / bronze medals in the Olympics  

[fittons_coaching_badge]

This is where Roy will earn his corn.  Plenty of players on whom he will have to make a decision with regards to there international futures. Terry, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Barry, Parker will all be well into their 30's by Brazil 2014.  I dont see them as the retiring types so balls in Roys court!

A chance in a weak qualifying group to blood the likes of Cleverly, Wilshire, Rodwell, Kyle Walker, Phil Jones ..... But until these players learn to cherish and keep the ball England will continue to fail at the highest level.

Like I said in an earlier post somewhere ... I want to see some youngsters go ply their trade in a foreign league such as Spain or Italy where possesion in 9/10 of the law rather than the get it forward ASAP nature of the EPL.

I am 30.  Will England win something in my lifetime?  I aint loving the chances!

[fuzzy]

We were never going to win this competition so I'm not dissapointed that we didn't win lat night.

I am dissapointed by the way some of us played.

Please excuse me while I commence an egg sucking lesson but here goes-

To win games you need to score goals.

To score goals you need to have possession of the ball.

To have possession of the ball you either a) need to win it off the opposition, b) pass it to someone playing for the same team as you c) stop passing the ball to someone on your team who is surrounded by the opposition or d) stop trying to dribble the ball through a crowd of opposition players.

Too often last night we wasted what little possession we had through wayward passing, not finding enough space or being too believing in our ability to run the ball through the Italians.

On the upside, Roy now has four competitive matches under his belt and can use the knowledge gained towards the next competition.

[carbonwhite]

anyone defending rooney are obvious man united scum 

[Reg Smeeton]

Our problems run much further than simply taking 2 teams out of the top flight and giving them time off mid season, Reg.

We haven't got the players, simple as that.

We do have players, but they're knackered out by the latter stages of tournaments, which doesn't give them the best chance. Of course, you can always do with more players of a better ability, but as I said before I think there are 5 players who play in the Prem, who are in the semis of the Euros....countries with smaller leagues and mid season breaks tend to do better.

[bigbobjoylove]

[url width=620 height=400]http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/598774_10151021711954238_650166929_n.jpg[/url]

Good try.

[walcot red]

We do have players, but they're knackered out by the latter stages of tournaments, which doesn't give them the best chance. Of course, you can always do with more players of a better ability, but as I said before I think there are 5 players who play in the Prem, who are in the semis of the Euros....countries with smaller leagues and mid season breaks tend to do better.

Do the Spainish leagues have a mid season break? and don't they have the same number of teams as the Epl?

[mystical_goat]

[url width=620 height=400]http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/598774_10151021711954238_650166929_n.jpg[/url]

Good try.

I'm not one for smileys but that's brilliant. The crossed arms set the look off nicely .

 

[Reg Smeeton]

Do the Spainish leagues have a mid season break? and don't they have the same number of teams as the Epl?

Yes they do have a mid season break, and they have a 20 team top flight...the Spaniards have been saying though thier somewhat lacklustre performance so far is down to the number of games they play. When they played Italy, the Spaniards averaged 8 games more a season than the Italians.

I'll use Ireland to back the argument...mostly composed of Prem League players, although some of whom don't play much like Coxy, and easily the worst of the 16 teams present.

[jonny72]

I don't buy the need for a mid-season break argument, even if there was one the clubs would just organise more friendlies, or the number of cup games would end up being increased.

There are plenty of other sports that have longer playing seasons than the PL, baseball and basketball in the US being good examples. The difference is that in other sports the clubs manage their players workload a lot better, rather than driving them to physical exhaustion.

So we don't need less competitive games, just more responsibility from the PL clubs.