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England

One of the things that England manager's in the past have done wrong is try to accommodate player's by playing them out of position and Hodgson is doing that with Rooney. I don't want to slag Rooney off as I still think he is a good player but he needs to be playing as an out and out striker. It was a great ball for the goal but I can't help thinking he's a square peg in a round hole. My thoughts after last night are that you either drop Sturridge and play Rooney up top or you don't play Rooney, put Sturridge left and Barkley central.
 
Harsh on Wilshire, he is not a Barkley/Ox type of get the ball and run at defences. He looks after the ball, always available as an out ball to keep possession and can pick a pass if the runs are made. He controlled the game and basically had us camped in the Italy half for the last half an hour. Difficult to pick the killer pass when up against a 414 defence sitting deep.

Overall happy with the style we played but still lacking the technique and quality throughout the team and although Sterling did very well I would swap him with Rooney in the number 10 role or drop Rooney and have him as an option from the bench and play Lallana/Ox out wide.
 
Do you think Hodgson has said to Barkley, whatever you do don't get the ball in our half? lol
He was playing like a centre forward and barely got the ball after a while, he should be deeper and picking it up to start moves.
Enjoyed the game and we played very well in patches, we looked dangerous at times which gives me hope for the future.
 
Beezerk said:
Do you think Hodgson has said to Barkley, whatever you do don't get the ball in our half? lol
He was playing like a centre forward and barely got the ball after a while, he should be deeper and picking it up to start moves.
Enjoyed the game and we played very well in patches, we looked dangerous at times which gives me hope for the future.
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I think Martinez himself said he tries to stop Barkley getting the ball in his iwn half as he's 50/50 for great run/lose ball. I do think he was high up, but unfortunately that was because italy sat dep so not much space to run into.

Showed intent, but still think sterling will start in hole against Uruguay leaving rooney or lallana on the left.
 
I was up on my feet cheering Stirling's fantastic opening goal after 5 minutes , half way through a conga when number 1 daughter said "its not a goal, hit the side netting". I was sure it was in

damn replays :0

Thought we played well, looked dangerous but didnt take our chances in the second half. a good advert for the game, played in the right spirit and enjoyable to watch.

Still some issues at the back and agree with the comments about Rooney being out of position, but he did provide the goal assist.

Fingers crossed for Uruguay , its a must win, but we certainly have a good chance
 
sack ROONY off he is not good enough and if he cant play in his normal position DON'T put him were he doesn't fit just to play him,he hasnt got the engine to run up and down the wings for 90 mins and was left for dead a few times,young lads did well and we need more young blood in the midfield,my man of the match was SUPER MARIO he was brilliant,they didnt know how to handle him.
 
Fairly predictable result - damn, why didn't I trust my thoughts! - but a dew notable positives and negatives.

Great to see the 'new boys' running and starring. Rooney doesn't look comfortable in his role, though hasn't for a year or more! Miss wasn't a 'bad' one but could be expensive. Defence looked a bit fragile, though that's always the case when supporting a team. I don't think Woy gave sufficient/reacted fast enough to counter the Italian strength down the right - though how best to do so is (supposedly) why he's Manager and not me!

Loads of pressure on the next games!
 
Roy should definitely drop Gerrard! He looked out of his depth last night & we have quite a few options for that position.
 
Crucial decisions for Woy for the next game

Lallana must start as must Sterling and Sturridge

So the choice he has is either Rooney in the middle behind Sturridge and Sterling and Lallana wide

Or Wellbeck wide with Sterling in the middle with Lallana wide

Or the brave choice is Barkley , Sterling and Lallana as a three

Need creative and attack minded players on the pitch
 
Pin-seeker said:
Roy should definitely drop Gerrard! He looked out of his depth last night & we have quite a few options for that position.
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Like who ?

Gerrard tired after 60 mins or so but before that he was just solid
 
I thought if we were to lose we may as well lose playing relatively attacking football, which we mostly did. It's much better to see that than watching us go down by hoofing long balls to Andy Carrol. We are obviously a class down when it comes to keeping possession and being ruthless when we get to the oppositions penalty area. And we still have the issue where people sometimes just run away from the ball and do not offer a pass to the person who has the ball. Most of our players just seem scared to take possession if there is an opposition player near by.

However I thought the youngsters did quite well, I'd play Barkley in the next game as he is one player who is not afraid of getting the ball even if he is being marked. Also possibly Wiltshire as he is the same, but he didn't look 100% on it for me last night. Didn't see a huge amount from Lallana but he wasn't on for long.

But, and to quote Sir Mix-a-lot, I like big buts, if we keep the nucleus of the team together, also apparently there's a right back from Southampton who will be very good, and Luke Shaw at left back, in 4 years time we could have a very competitive team.
 
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Liverpoolphil said:
Like who ?

Gerrard tired after 60 mins or so but before that he was just solid
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but its a 90 min game the choice is do you start with him then bring him off and replace him or do you bring him on for the last 30 mins,or as we should have done is left him at home along with ROONY and built a team around the players of the future
 
6inchcup said:
but its a 90 min game the choice is do you start with him then bring him off and replace him or do you bring him on for the last 30 mins,or as we should have done is left him at home along with ROONY and built a team around the players of the future
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I think we mostly did. There's no point just dropping anyone over 25, sending a young exciting but very inexperienced team out there as they will not win that much without some experience. And they may well get disillusioned if they keep getting beat, and then the old problem of wearing an England shirt becoming a burden appears again.

It's probably Gerrards last major tournament, I hope that Roy has the balls to take him off if he is not performing that well, but his role now seems to be deep lying and the days of his late runs into the box for England are gone. At least against decent opposition.
 
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Played well and a draw would have been a fair result , Rooney on the bench next game as he has never done it and has had more then is fair set of chances and stevie G too as he is a spent force , remember 86 , england played robson and wilkins and change to reid and hoddle and things got better and we need a big guy up front as next game is against a team that dont defend high balls in that well ,
 
richy said:
He wasn't. Henderson did a better job and should've stayed on the pitch instead of gerrard. Imagine how tired he'd of been if Liverpool had of been in Europe.
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Not sure the relevance ?

Yes Henderson should have stayed on the pitch - they sat too deep and Italy had an easy ball out right all game long with Baines isolated. Need to push higher and get closer to the striker

Either tell Gerrard to sit and let Henderson to go forward or vice versa - at times they both just sat - Gerrard should have prob had a pen with one burst forward
 
JCW said:
Played well and a draw would have been a fair result , Rooney on the bench next game as he has never done it and has had more then is fair set of chances and stevie G too as he is a spent force , remember 86 , england played robson and wilkins and change to reid and hoddle and things got better and we need a big guy up front as next game is against a team that dont defend high balls in that well ,
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A big guy up front ? Like who ? To just lump high balls up someone - that's just going backwards
 
Drop welbeck, start sterling on the right ( Uruguay left backs suspended) lallana or Barkley on the left and Rooney in behind Sturridge, it's not difficult, at least give Rooney a game where he's used to playing, he'll always create chances,
 
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