International Football thread

[Alviro Patterson]

Some good play by a dominant England in the first half, don't want to tempt fate but Roy Hodgson might turn out to be a shrewd appointment by the FA.

[Durhamfootman]

Not sure quite what to make of that

Utterly dominant first half....... quivering jellies in the second.

Good substitution and change of tactics by Montenegro after half time. Nothing approaching any sort of adjustment by England until after the equaliser. Hard to play when 11 -v- 8 in the secong half. Carrick, Wellbeck and Cleverley stayed ion the dressing room I think.

Everything that was good about England in the first half was bad in the second. First question asked of Gerrard post match was about Rio Ferdinand

Still trying to get my head around that match

[sussexpob]

England need a fit Jack Whilshere like a pisshead needs a bottle of buckfast....

[Durhamfootman]

Don't get me wrong..... Very happy with the playing ethos that Roy is trying to instill into the side. There was a stat given in the first half that only Spain have made more passes than England in the whole of qualifying thus far. Sounds far fetched, but there you go. Happy with that. Not so happy that everything goes belly up whenever a team exerts any kind of pressure on us. Press England and they start to make mistakes... once they start to make mistakes they make more mistakes.... suddenly, and from a position of some strength, there is a full blown rout going on. That is disappointing really.

First half.... everybody looked good (except Wellbeck diving in the box.... ponce!). Second half Wellbeck, cleverley and Carrick went walkabout, Rooney got isolated, and everybody else got the jitters. We won no ball at all in the middle of the park, we lost every 50-50, and because we kept trying to push forward, every time we gave the ball away, and we gave away a lot of ball, we got caught out for pace on the counter. It was fairly horrifying really. Difficult to understand why, when under that sort of pressure, that it took well over half an hour for a change to be made.

In theory the way they changed tactics in the second half meant that we had an extra midfielder...... you'd never know it though because that extra midfielder was joining every other midfielder in trying the clear the ball off our own line for the bulk of the time.

This was Montenegro, not Germany, we were playing. My hoped for 3-0 win should have been very achievable. Certainly looked on at half time.

[Durhamfootman]

And the really annoying thing....... their coach took the ssip yesterday.... and we didn't ram his words down his throat!

[sussexpob]

I am as much as an advocate of the passing game as you will find, but in order to make it work you need to have a balance... the spain passing game only works in a 4-3-3/4-5-1, simply because the pocket passer in the centre of the pack (a) needs protection, and (b) needs a player either side from left/right/centre as an outlet.

The 4-4-2 is an outdated tactic that works in the Premier league because everyone does it. To pass the ball short you need something else.

The first midfield is the ball winner.... someone who breaks up play and acts as a shield to give time to your pocket guy who pulls the strings.... the advanced 3rd midfield, someone like Gerrard/Lampard who England have produced two world class players in a generation is just icing on the cake... but the key to the team is the pocket guy, the man who brings everyone else into play.

Sadly we f****ed arguably the worlds best ever player in this position by putting him on the left wing.... interestingly, that guy is Paul Scholes.... a man who Socrates/Eusabio/Messi/Xavi/Iniesta/Xabi Alonso/Zidane and Guardiola have all said is the best player in his time.

The lack of knowledge in English football from a tactical sense is abhorrent...sadly Hoddle, the only player to see Scholes for his true worth, didnt have anyone near the quality of Hodgson to play round him. Until English football realises that its that string puller in the centre that wins games we wont go anywhere.

[Durhamfootman]

and that string puller is not now, nor ever has been, Michael Carrick

[Aidan11]

Didn't see the game so can't comment on our performance but that result is not going to help us.

It didn't help my coupon either.

[SaintPowelly]

Should have picked Lambert, hes 5 times the player Welbeck will ever be.

[sussexpob]

Should have picked Lambert, hes 5 times the player Welbeck will ever be.

Thought Welbeck was one of the better players on the pitch... he isnt a world beater but he is decent enough

[Durhamfootman]

I don't rate Wellbeck at all. He had one good run into the box and then threw himself to floor when through on goal. I've got no time for that sort of behaviour. There will be some who say that there was a touch from the defender.... butterfly wings again... if he'd stayed on his feet he'd have had an opportunity to score. He didn't, so he got booked for diving...... quite right too. Leave that sort of nonsense to the South American players.

[braveneutral]

Unfortunately it is not just the South Americans these days.

[Gingerfinch]

I heard that Wellbeck got tripped, so therefore it was a penalty.

Back to Wellbeck. He does have pace but not much else. Ashley Young is a bigger worry.

[sussexpob]

The penalty was neither here nor there.... yeah he got contact but he could have stayed up. I did think the booking was very harsh though....

Its my belief you cant book someone for simulation if they do get contact.... it wasnt a theatrical fall and he didnt appeal.... Jovetic calling for Glen Johnson to get booked was more worthy

[Gingerfinch]

I haven't seen the penalty incident but if a defender is clumsy enough to make contact then you're entilted to go down. I expect the ref thought there was no contact, so branded a yellow for diving?