Jump to content

Recommended Posts

The biggest thing I'm still hating is our terrible inter-play in the opposition half. The whole team spreads out, stands there marked. Very little movement up close to support each other and make something happen, only ever one player making himself available which is predictable and easy to mark. The most successful moves come down the flank but then our next major flaw, god awful crossing. Shame Gerrard can't be down the flank more as he seems to be the only player who can hit them in to the danger areas with a high rate of success. Some great long passing from him today.

 

These guys must work on creating smaller groups in the opposing half of 3 players minimum that can give-and-go under pressure and using first touch where possible. All the top sides can operate in smaller spaces than our guys can, the list of nationality's that do it way better than us is huge. Our defence doesn't look any worse than it has in the past with bigger names at the back, but then again tonight it was against Denmark.

 

I just feel our lack of ability to use any possession we get to be more cutting is something that will mean we never threaten the better sides, given that we struggle to do it with the worse ones. I wonder how much of that fault is down to the players just not being technically good enough or whether Roy sadly just doesn't have the staff or desire tactically to focus on improving this part of our game. Just feels like the same old rigid and stagnant stuff we've seen since 2006 era.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Rooney ruins the equilibrium of the team, he's not bad, just doesn't fit. It should be three in midfield and three up top with Sturridge through the middle.

 

Fully agree with this. Rooney and Gerrard are too similar in that they both need to operate in space and be on the ball constantly.

Link to post
Share on other sites

He's bloody brilliant and was on the cusp of being a star for some time; yet seemed like nobody felt like paying up. Rodgers laughing all the f***ing way to a CL spot and a title run? Fucking hell.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Rooney ruins the equilibrium of the team, he's not bad, just doesn't fit. It should be three in midfield and three up top with Sturridge through the middle.

 

Fully agree with this. Rooney and Gerrard are too similar in that they both need to operate in space and be on the ball constantly.

 

I think Rooney is at his best as a withdrawn striker in a 4-4-2, but he can still be effective in any of the forward positions in a 4-3-3.

 

Basically, he's too good to leave out.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest neesy111

 

Still to this day wished we signed Sturridge, rate him highly.

 

Even if we had. He wouldn't still be here :lol:

 

True. :(

Link to post
Share on other sites

The England team has a lot of promise at the moment  think. Had some decent bits of play yesterday.

 

Really thought he should have just played Rooney off Sturridge from the outset though.

 

Rooney will track back and drop deep, and so it will look like a 4-3-3 anyway, as it seems he was hesitant to play 2 upfront.

 

Could have then played Gerrard and Wilshere central, and had another winger on with Sterling.

 

Now that would have been a lot more interesting. He should be trying that out now, to see if it works form a possession standpoint, and defensively too.

 

England have so many dangerous options to bring on though. Lallana, Townsend, Ox, Barkley. Just need to nail down the starting 11.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The England team has a lot of promise at the moment  think. Had some decent bits of play yesterday.

 

Really thought he should have just played Rooney off Sturridge from the outset though.

 

Rooney will track back and drop deep, and so it will look like a 4-3-3 anyway, as it seems he was hesitant to play 2 upfront.

 

Could have then played Gerrard and Wilshere central, and had another winger on with Sterling.

 

Now that would have been a lot more interesting. He should be trying that out now, to see if it works form a possession standpoint, and defensively too.

 

England have so many dangerous options to bring on though. Lallana, Townsend, Ox, Barkley. Just need to nail down the starting 11.

I reckon our front 6 are actually pretty decent and they are all relatively young so the future is there. I reckon our front 6 should be:

 

                  Sturridge

Lallana          Rooney    Sterling

              Gerrard    Wilshere

 

That looks pretty balanced, Rooney can drop deep if needed, Lallana and Sterling can help create them moments of creativity, with Gerrard and Wilshere dictating play, and Sturridge scoring the goals. and as you say if its not working we would have options on the bench to change the game.

 

The problem with England at the moment is the back 4 (Or five depending on how you rate Hart), other the Baines, our defense is pretty shoddy, and we don't really have anyone for cover. Even though we kept a clean sheet yesterday, we still let an average Denmark side split our defense on several occasions. I know Jagielka has a partnership with Cahill, but if either of them get injured we are screwed, as Smalling or any over cover just aren't good enough. I also don't trust either Walker or Johnson at right back, and against the better teams at the World cup, we are going to get found out.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Think Gerrard and Wilshere are the best options, as far as establishing any kind of decent passing and possession. Wilshere will run with the ball effectively too, which none of the other England CMs tend to do.

 

Who else would you have in there? Don't really like the other options as much.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Gerrard & Wilshere isn't the most athletic of CM partnerships.

 

There's a problem here, because in the current squad we don't have anyone who is naturally good at protecting the back four. If anyone gets past our midfield, then they stay past.

 

The best available candidate is Barry IMO, but if he stood any chance of making the squad, he'd have done so by now. Personally, I'd pick him, but there's no chance of it happening.

 

In his absence, I'd have Wishere, Ox and Gerrard as my midfield three, but other options like Lallana and Barkley run them very close.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest DebuchyAndTheBeast

Possession football? England?  :yao:

 

The encouraging thing is that we have good and young counterattacking players so I'd rather set up to get the best out of them. The likes of Sturridge, Lallana and  Sterling would cause more havoc in any defense when breaking from deep rather than the slow buildup play that we usually see.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Think Gerrard and Wilshere are the best options, as far as establishing any kind of decent passing and possession. Wilshere will run with the ball effectively too, which none of the other England CMs tend to do.

 

Who else would you have in there? Don't really like the other options as much.

 

 

 

Honestly it's a bad position to be in. Both of them are good on the ball but both lack genuine athleticism and defensive know-how. I would play a genuine flat midfield 3 where the both of them can spend more time deep. I would go with a flat 3 or at least a #10 that is actually a midfielder e.g. AOC instead of Rooney. But even that's paper thin and positionally suspect.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Henderson could do a job of just closing people down IMO.

 

He certainly looks like he could, but he doesn't get used in that way for club or country.

 

I'd say there are better midfield players ahead of him. He looks a good all-rounder, but not one to make an impact at the very highest level.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...