ponsaelius

Gerrard was back to being shit last night thar.

I like your posts but why do you have a shit as your avatar?

Shit punishment.

We did well at U17 level recently because Connor Wickham spent the tournament bulldozing opposition defences with his size and strength.

Yep.

I'm not sure if Hodge is the right man to do it but he did something similar in Switzerland 20 years ago. It can't be all him anyway, it needs to be an effort from many.

I think he's talking about the young lads Skirge, since he's saying he grew up with them.

He talking about the lads getting released?

Do they actually have any strikers left? Got a lot of work to do in the transfer market replacing goal output if Dempsey goes IMO.

He'll be like Guthrie was for us. You'd think so. I think Murphy's legs looked like they were going a bit last season but his ability should shine through in that league.

Based on what I saw in watching a full season in that division - Murphy should boss it, yeah?

I think the idea of selecting the right manager is the wrong way round in the way we do it. Going out and getting an expensive world class manager like Capello say just seems desperate. I don't think international coaches will win you tournaments generally, you have to get all the other stuff right from the ground up. Developing players the right way, playing a set system that all the players understand and work with and then simply having a decent coach who buys into the whole set-up. Just like Germany, is Loew a top manager or is he just a cog that fits the system? I dunno. Short term I think Hodgson was a decent appointment in all honesty. Whether he's the right man to help rebuild the whole set-up is more important than how he sets us up tactically in the short term with this current group of players.

There were a few times later where the Italian defenders seemed to stand away from Carroll and wait for him to bring it down. Only to then try to take the ball once he had it at his feet, or wait for him to pass before trying to win it back. He scared them at first and I thought he was going to make an impact but they had him sussed imo. Pirlo also seemed to get even more space once he was on, although that was also largely down to the midfield being abysmal and out on their feet by that point.

Should have started last night instead of Welbeck who has looked horribly out of his depth. What did Carroll do particularly better than Welbeck? Both won flick ons but didn't offer much. I think Carroll did OK compared to the horrendous displays of some of the others last night but people are seriously overrating his two appearances. For the few times he brought the ball down his distribution was hit and miss, 53% is a very poor stat. I thought he was poor against Sweden from 20 minutes onwards too.

Carroll completed more passes last night than Gerrard by the way. He came on in the 60th minute. Fuck. Me.

Can anybody really say that Milner and Parker have looked any better than they did for us in 06/07? They're exactly the same players.

Yep, England don't need to change their game to a Spanish style - but being able to string a couple of passes between themselves is fundamental. Countless times that the ball was launched in the hope that one of the forwards could hold onto it. Supposedly the best pass sequence for England was Hart to Carroll and he was only on for about 30 mins. It was aye. Joe Hart had our highest completed passes too

He's a massive part of the reason we consistently give it away. He's terrible on the ball and far too limited a passer. Not the only one but he plays the most crucial role on the pitch.

Something seriously bizarre when this chap is going round pretending to be his agent.

He's effective in the Premier League but is completely obsolete at last night's level because of both the quality of the opposition and the tempo of the game. Agreed. I only think he's effective in the league up to a certain level anyway. Didn't pull up trees here, relegated bottom with West Ham, flounced at Chelsea. Fair enough he's been effective at Spurs but only because he does the dogwork for somebody like Modric alongside him. So limited its unreal.

Can't believe the praise Parker gets and will never, ever get it. He's embarrassing if you ask me.

More impressed with the way he took the piss out of us for 120 minutes.

I'm not sure, I think its a combination of both factors. A player may be nervous but if they have clean technique it may be more likely to compensate for this. You have a shit player who is also bricking it and they just blast it without much finesse, or scuff it. Rooney looked the most nervous of all of them yesterday but his ability pulled through.