The College Dropout

Marseille where simply the better side over the two legs, close but Didier was the difference. We had a lot of injuries in both matches and just about edged it the home game but only got the draw. Marseille were very disciplined and when Drogba scored the first you knew we where in trouble. IMO the team that played them over the 2 legs deserbed to get beat by a very solid side. The next year, when we outclassed Sporting for most of the tie would hurt more. The end of SBR's reign was littered with arrogance from the players AND fans.

Pretty sure Zambia won the AFCON like.

Great thing about Nani's was the run-up, you didn't know what to expect, especially with the stutter.

They miss those too and they are just repeating a motion. The very best penalty takers have missed crucial penalties (except Mario). Bankers like Shearer, Ronaldo, Shevchenko, Schweinsteiger, Raul, Baggio, Lampard, Alonso etc. No doubt practicing is important but shit happens. Shearer must have taken 100,000's by the time he skied it against Partizan.

Cole is one England's bankers tbh. Scored in an FA Cup Final for Arsenal. Against Portugal and in the CL. Only previous time he's missed was against Everton. You felt he, Rooney & Gerrard had to score if we was to win. The rest, can't have been in a similar position before. All this talk of German penalty takers, Bastian choked his in the CL final. (Technique x confidence/nerves) + Physical condition + an inch of luck + how good goalkeeper is at penalties = Penalties. imo. Technique and confidence go hand in hand. The more confident you are the better your technqiue, vice versa. Cole has good technique, i've seen him go for and succeed at the most difficult/rewarding top corner before and succeed. But for some reason his run up was unassured, as was the finish. We have The best penalties are top corner btw. Think Nani in that shoot out. They have 0% chance of being saved (based on a report I read), although of course they can hit the bar. http://www.leadersinperformance.com/the-leader/prozone-analysis-penalty-shootouts-a-lottery-or-a-science/ Great piece by Prozone on penalties.

Like the group game? Xavi hasn't been playing the Pirlo role this tournament either. He's been playing ahead of Xabi/Biscuits and has looked poorer as a result. Alonso has that role (although instructed to play it more cautiously than for Madrid until ET of QF's) and he plays that role in a more similar fashion to Pirlo as he plays more long passes and looks to switch play.

Like the group game?

Twatish. Has to be, their best player never took a pen. Or you want your best player lining up in the situation of most pressure. He should've been 3rd or 4th though, tbh. Strongest first. Second strongest last although in FM I start from strongest to the weakest

Wilshire and Cleverly I could both see being absolutely massive for England's passing game in the future. Even Rodwell, for a more defensive midfielder uses the ball so much better than Parker. Rodwell, Cleverly and Wilshire in a midfield three would have been 10 times better than the midfield in this tournament. There's certainly players that can play a far better brand of football. The question is how soon will they be given a chance? How long will Gerrard, Parker, Barry and lampard continue to linger? Well it wasn't a question at this tournament, because they were all injured. You're right though, those players are key and should be blooded ASAP. The problem is not individual players. It's our culture. How many times did Terry/Lescott hit it long? Compare that to Barzaghli/Bonucci. It's in our DNA.

Slightly embarrassing for Scott Parker imo as the apparently more defensive midfielder... Not really. Tackling doesn't = good DM.

The bottom line for me is that he didn't look fit. Bottom line is he was terrible. At 26 you shouldn't have such poor conditioning that you can't sit out a 6 week lay off.

Had we played with true width a raping through the middle would've been even worse. Gerrard + Parker can't cope with the wide players so narrow, what chance would they have stood if they was exposed?

Something like that, Defoe has a similar maximum as well. I would bank on Wellbeck and Carroll too, they can both finish. And to a certain extent Young (when he remembers how to play again). Welbeck has never hit double figures in PL and Carroll, nah. I don't trust them in front of goal. I am hopeful but not expectant. I'm talking about genuine class here.

His introduction probably encouraged more long balls. It's not his fault but when your technically inferior you just lunch it and Andy is an easy target. Look at how many times Bonucci won the ball but looked to pass it. I don't mean the times when he had time and space but when he'd make a clearance, it would be targeted to another Italian, like a pass. then watch Lescott. Terry didn't do anything wrong.

Yep, sussed is the word. Welbeck did a decent job of tracking Pirlo, not great but he would be near on occassion. Welbeck seems a tactically aware football player. As the game went on Rooney left Pirlo alone totally and Carroll did the same.

Welbeck had 82% pass completion rate. Carroll 53% pass completion. You need more than just those statistics to go on though. For example, if Carroll chests the ball down amongst 3 Italian defenders, but just fails to get it to a teammate, I would say that was decent play. But it would go down as a failed pass I assume. From watching the game, I thought Carroll did pretty well when he had the chance. There was a fair few times when the pass was just poor. He was doing the difficult things then failing at the easy ones. He wasn't bad but he wasn't particularly good either. When he's on the pitch the long ball is too common. I think he played 10 minutes more than Welbeck but he received the ball a lot more which didn't help really. For most fo the second half the tactic was Lescott > Carroll > Back to Italy.

Rooney is the only one with some actual class in the box. Rooney & Gerrard are the only players i'd like to see a chance fall too in this England side. What's a seasons best total for any of the other lads infront of goal in the PL? Carroll with 13?

Welbeck had 82% pass completion rate. Carroll 53% pass completion.

A narrow midfield with hard-working wide players is simply the way Hodgson wants to play. Look how narrow and deep Young played, is it because Cole can't defend? Milner is decent defensively and its probably why he starts but that's part of the plan, not because Johnson is weak defensively. Hodgson sent the team out to play defensively. Each and every game, did you not see that?

Should have started last night instead of Welbeck who has looked horribly out of his depth. More bullshit. Welbeck won every header and linked up play well and actually tried to pick up Pirlo. The lad had a decent game and tournament. He's better than I gave him credit for. Carroll won his headers but they went nowhere and lost the ball every time with his passing.

Bullshit. I thought that was pretty much the accepted opinion as well TBH. Would be interested to hear a multi-word argument from you like. Can you honestly say Johnson was a weakness in the defence? He's a decent defender. The idea of playing Johnson is to force the opposition fullback and winger into doing some defending. He rarely got forward so Hodgson clearly trusts his defence work. Poor positionally sometimes when keeping the offside line but individually, being run at, defending crosses etc. no sorry he was pretty decent. Milner played because Hodgson wanted to play a defensive and narrow midfield. Milner spent most of the game close to De Rossi who is a central midfielder.

Why is Johnson getting flack? Milner was terrible. Parker's never been an international player. Young terrible. Rooney terrible.

Bullshit.

Would be tremendous if England could beat the Italians. We haven't defeated a genuinely good side in the KO stages since.... Spain?

Malouda? No Nasri. Sigh.