England vs Italy

[bladeplayer]

Well Ireland got slated for not playing well , we gave Italy as good a game a Germany did , different tactics il admit but the early goal killed us , the two teams out of our group are in the final , maybe the gobsh*te journalists over here should take note ,

Stuart, which would you prefer England taking Italy to pens & having a 50/50 chance or geting the lesson Germany got ?

Ok it ended 2-1 but Italy had the chance to make it 4-0 by the end ..

 

[Val]

It wasn't just Pirlo though last night, they were scared stiff of Balotelli and got far too tight, both goals were defensive errors and Germany in the end got punished for playing too attacking. De Rossi was pulling the strings too like he has in most of the matches and Montolivo doing the work they have a hard working class midfield that possibly on Spain can match.

The full Italian midfield are class and if too much focus is on Pirlo then Montolivo, Di Rossi and Cassano will pull teams apart with big Mario hovering around the last defender. This is exactly what Germany did last night.

I firmly believe Italy will beat Spain mainly due to Spain stubborness to play a striker.

 

[Marshy77]

The full Italian midfield are class and if too much focus is on Pirlo then Montolivo, Di Rossi and Cassano will pull teams apart with big Mario hovering around the last defender. This is exactly what Germany did last night.

I firmly believe Italy will beat Spain mainly due to Spain stubborness to play a striker.

I backed Spain from the start but after watching them pull England and Germany apart I think you could be right. I've been really impressed with Montolivo he looks a class act and by playing alongside Pirlo and De Rossi he's only going to improve.

 

[Val]

I backed Spain from the start but after watching them pull England and Germany apart I think you could be right. I've been really impressed with Montolivo he looks a class act and by playing alongside Pirlo and De Rossi he's only going to improve.

Italy should have beaten Spain in the group stages already so they won't fear them.

Impressive side and to think they were 7/2 odds last night.

 

[Liverbirdie]

They tried to shut down Pirlo, they changed their formation and still failed. The only reason you hate Hodgson is because you are a Liverpool fan

Tiger, your probably right. We seen the way Roy sets out his team, tactics, subs, press conferences etc for 6 months, and to be honest most LFC fans would have wanted him to fail, as most aren't arsed about England.

However, he still didn't do anything exceptional in the Euro champs, he wasn't woeful either. He wont do great as an England manger though, he may qualify for Brazil but we will get there and at best go out at the QF's again.

What Stuart said, and I agree with, is that he has generally only done well with under-performing or small teams who don't expect much. For clubs/teams that expect a lot (never mind if they should or not) Inter, Liverpool and England he doesn't do much.

He is good at making his team hard to beat, but not good at making teams better from an attacking point of view.

 

[Snelly]

Well Ireland got slated for not playing well , we gave Italy as good a game a Germany did , different tactics il admit but the early goal killed us , the two teams out of our group are in the final , maybe the gobsh*te journalists over here should take note ,

Stuart, which would you prefer England taking Italy to pens & having a 50/50 chance or geting the lesson Germany got ?

Ok it ended 2-1 but Italy had the chance to make it 4-0 by the end ..

You make reasonable points but just to check, you are not saying that England are comparable to Germany are you?

That would be absolutely ridiculous... I am sure you are not...

 

[Marshy77]

What Stuart said, and I agree with, is that he has generally only done well with under-performing or small teams who don't expect much. For clubs/teams that expect a lot (never mind if they should or not) Inter, Liverpool and England he doesn't do much.

Isn't that England? To be fair to him and I read a bit about him when was appointed as England and he did do well in his time at Inter, even the chairman has said so ever since.

I'm prepared to give him time. We looked a better team under him than the last couple of managers and he only had over a month with the players, I don't expect a dramatic change from now until Brazil but I wouldn't expect that under Harry if he were to have been appointed.

 

[Junior]

People can blame who they want, but the one simple fact is that our players are / were nowhere near good enough.

Yes, we played with heart, which was good to see, but Jo Hart aside (and im as far from a City fan as you can get), we have no world class players.

I've never seen a team so clueless as England were going forward against Italy. It's worrying that we have no creative central midfielders coming through the ranks.

 

[bladeplayer]

You make reasonable points but just to check, you are not saying that England are comparable to Germany are you?

That would be absolutely ridiculous... I am sure you are not...

No mate def not , what im saying is Italy are probably better than most (myself included) gave them credit for , so RH tactics against them was spot on , he realised they were a better team & tried to contain them , ok it didnt work but it got closer than all except Spain so far ..
England & Germany are as far apart football wise as they are geographicly ..

 

[bladeplayer]

People can blame who they want, but the one simple fact is that our players are / were nowhere near good enough.

Yes, we played with heart, which was good to see, but Jo Hart aside (and im as far from a City fan as you can get), we have no world class players.

I've never seen a team so clueless as England were going forward against Italy. It's worrying that we have no creative central midfielders coming through the ranks.

Not near good enough ? totaly agree mate thats true ...

Played with heart ? most but not all ...

Creative Midfielders ? i would say cleverley & wilshire may well grow into this , world class centre forward seems a harder find id say ..

 

[Snelly]

No mate def not , what im saying is Italy are probably better than most (myself included) gave them credit for , so RH tactics against them was spot on , he realised they were a better team & tried to contain them , ok it didnt work but it got closer than all except Spain so far ..
England & Germany are as far apart football wise as they are geographicly ..

I agree with you. Italy are impressive.

And we are not in the same ball park as them or any other of the semi-finalists.

To those saying we have no creative midfielders, I would suggest that we do but they were either not selected, injured or retired. E.g. Leon Britton, Adam Johnson, Jack Wilshere or Paul Scholes.

 

[Tiger]

Hart, Butland, Richards, Walker, Jones, Cleverly, Rodwell, Wilshere, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Nick Powell, Welbeck...

Quite a few players there that have potential but with the exceptions if Wilshere and Hart I dont see any world class players in there. We've lacked creativity for a long time but if we can be hard to beat it at least gives us a chance.

I think this generation of players will benefit from the muted expectations and the missing 'golden generation' label. A WC quarter final exit on penalties sounds about right. Would make us one of the top eight teams in the world...

Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Croatia, Ivory Coast, Ghana...

 

[Liverbirdie]

Isn't that England? To be fair to him and I read a bit about him when was appointed as England and he did do well in his time at Inter, even the chairman has said so ever since.

Yes England are under-achievers, but it still doesn't stop massive over-expectation from the tabloids and the ingerlund fans. Albeit, more muted this time than normal.

When we went toe to toe with Italy for 20 minutes we created some good chances, but then we sat back waited for pens (which we all know we are crap at) then went out as normal. Just because a team is better than you,doesn't mean you just give up as an attacking force.

Greece have won this competition in the last decade,even.

Inter still sacked him after 2 years didn't they?