- May 17, 2004
- 3,758
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Hart
Johnson Jagielka Cahill Shaw
Willshit Gerrard Milner
Barclay
Sterling Sturridge
Johnson Jagielka Cahill Shaw
Willshit Gerrard Milner
Barclay
Sterling Sturridge
We were pretty terrible. Here's what I wrote in the other thread last night:
BBC seemed to be blinded by us looking dangerous on about 4 or 5 occasions and then Italy just dropping off and seeing out their lead, but lets talk about...
- Closing down the opposition. This was absolute dog shit from us. I don't care what the conditions were like, you cannot just give a team that much time and space to stroll up the pitch and decide what they want to do with it. Sterling, for all he has been raved about tonight it seems, led the way in this total lack of getting in and about their deep midfielders. Rooney and Sturridge were also pretty abysmal in their efforts. Welbeck hit and miss, but tried a bit more to put some pressure on. You cannot let them stroll up the pitch at walking space, leaving 4 men ahead of the ball, and drag our centre mids out repeatedly because it leaves space in front of the defence. I don't think Henderson and Gerrard had good games, but they didn't get much help from those in front of them. Likewise with Baines. Was far, far too easy to play through us.
- 1st goal. How fucking basic was that? Didn't even get enough markers out to the Italian players hovering on the edge of the box. At what age do you get taught to pick up every man at corners... 6 years old? We deserved to concede for such amateurish stupidity. Another case where I have to ask what exactly we are doing during the week and on the training pitch and tactical team meetings.
- Tactically schooled. Outnumbered in the centre of the pitch yet Italy still found ways to target us down one flank through clever positioning and movement. We never looked like getting to grips with it. Combine this with piss poor pressing and it really was too easy.
- Fitness. I only saw one team with people getting cramp...
This wasn't a good performance. We had a few lively moments, mostly down to individual skill. As a team we were all over the place and sorely lacking in most departments, especially when we didn't have the ball.
Can sympathise with the players because of the sheer heat over here. But don't think we did too badly and deserved a point, although after the second goal I knew we wouldn't get anything out of it
Difficult to get any sort of atmosphere going here as well. Everything was drowned out by whistling, the locals really didn't seem to like us at all
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Difficult to get any sort of atmosphere going here as well. Everything was drowned out by whistling, the locals really didn't seem to like us at all
I went to bed instead of watching the game (I actually fell asleep before the Uruguay game kicked off!), but having seen Balotelli's goal, I really still don't understand why Welbeck is selected. Our flanks are currently a major weakness because they don't help the defenders. We mirror Brazil in that aspect!
I hope a few people had a go at Welbeck in the dressing room for just dawdling instead of closing down.
Manaus is great, the descent into the city is incredible. Just hundreds of miles of the Amazon and then this city just appears. We're here until Tuesday so hopefully gunna get onto an Amazon day trip on MondayHow was Manaus? What's it like as a place?
I couldn't really tell what support was like when watching. Seemed like a lot of "neutral" fans to me in the stadium. I heard a few "Italia" chants, especially at kick off, but couldn't tell how big the support was from either side.
In my opinion, Gerrard and Henderson lost you the game. The talk before the game was about closing down Pirlo, cutting off our support. He got the most passes last night and had the time to do his stuff, which is a cardinal sin when you play Italy. It's like not bothering to mark Iniesta for Spain. Prandelli said he put Verratti in because of the threat of England shutting out Pirlo, but in the second half he took Verratti off because he didn't need him since Gerrard/Henderson weren't bothering to do that. Gerrard isn't defensively good enough and he's trying to play a Pirlo role without actually having the technical ability to do so. Henderson doesn't have the discipline to defend either, just plays a box-to-box role and risks ending up looking like a headless chicken never truly getting involved in the game. England don't have a Pirlo type, but I think out of the centre mids Wilshere is the best at keeping the ball moving and linking up play. He's not a good tackler but he's an annoying fucker who will hound a player if given the instruction to do so. Even Milner could've done a better job at getting in our midfielder's faces. Milner and Wilshere would've been a better fit for that game than Henderson and Gerrard, IMO.
I think it's unfair to put slack on the English defenders as Baines didn't get any real cover from Rooney or Welbeck (once they swapped sides). Cahill and Jagielka, for the most part, did well enough to keep Balotelli occupied. The goals came from a set piece and the flank where we were doubling up in attack with Candreva and Darmian, who both played well. You could argue that a more defensive full back like Cole would've done better, but the fact still remains that we were clearly set up to attack down that side and Hodgson didn't do anything about it. As I said before the game in attack we'd end up being a 3-6-1 with Darmian going forward. On the left Chiellini wouldn't get as far forward and Marchisio would tuck inside, whereas on the right Candreva and Darmian caused problems.
Hodgson made a few tactical errors last night. I think his faith in Gerrard and Rooney, the old guard, is misplaced. He set up with virtually 4 forwards to play an aggressive counter attacking game. Sterling and Sturridge were very good and caused us problems. Welbeck and Rooney were same old, the former disappearing for spells and the latter showing a lot of energy but not enough brain. It's a shame for England that The Ox was injured as he would've been a better shout than Welbeck. Regardless, Hodgson still left his defence with very little cover. When using such attacking players you need to rely on the centre mids to get stuck in, win the ball, release it for the counter, and then hold things at the back for you, particularly when your wingers have gone forward. Italy kept 3 at the back and De Rossi was always there to provide cover as he usually does.
It was a lot more promising from England, and I think they did miles better than 2 years ago, but they still need to grow a little tactically. They've got the raw talent and energy, just need a little bit more in the brains department.
Not related to the England team but to the England fans.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ngland-fans-torch-Italian-flag-in-street.html
Angry England fans torch Italian flag in street
Why is football cursed with a minority of moronic fans?
We were pretty terrible. Here's what I wrote in the other thread last night:
BBC seemed to be blinded by us looking dangerous on about 4 or 5 occasions and then Italy just dropping off and seeing out their lead, but lets talk about...
- Closing down the opposition. This was absolute dog shit from us. I don't care what the conditions were like, you cannot just give a team that much time and space to stroll up the pitch and decide what they want to do with it. Sterling, for all he has been raved about tonight it seems, led the way in this total lack of getting in and about their deep midfielders. Rooney and Sturridge were also pretty abysmal in their efforts. Welbeck hit and miss, but tried a bit more to put some pressure on. You cannot let them stroll up the pitch at walking space, leaving 4 men ahead of the ball, and drag our centre mids out repeatedly because it leaves space in front of the defence. I don't think Henderson and Gerrard had good games, but they didn't get much help from those in front of them. Likewise with Baines. Was far, far too easy to play through us.
- 1st goal. How fucking basic was that? Didn't even get enough markers out to the Italian players hovering on the edge of the box. At what age do you get taught to pick up every man at corners... 6 years old? We deserved to concede for such amateurish stupidity. Another case where I have to ask what exactly we are doing during the week and on the training pitch and tactical team meetings.
- Tactically schooled. Outnumbered in the centre of the pitch yet Italy still found ways to target us down one flank through clever positioning and movement. We never looked like getting to grips with it. Combine this with piss poor pressing and it really was too easy.
- Fitness. I only saw one team with people getting cramp...
This wasn't a good performance. We had a few lively moments, mostly down to individual skill. As a team we were all over the place and sorely lacking in most departments, especially when we didn't have the ball.
Manaus is great, the descent into the city is incredible. Just hundreds of miles of the Amazon and then this city just appears. We're here until Tuesday so hopefully gunna get onto an Amazon day trip on Monday
It's a really busy city which surprised me, it seems to be gridlocked most of the day. We got an open top bus to the ground yesterday which took well over an hour for a 15 minute drive. We've been to the bars and stuff of an evening and they're all pretty lively, lots of live music which seems to get everyone going. The locals are really friendly and helpful so really enjoyed my time here
The heat and humidity is almost unbearable. I've never experienced anything like it. 31 degrees yesterday morning, we walked to the ground at about 10am just to see how far it was and was just dripping with sweat by the time we got there
All in all it's a great city, I'll see more of it today as I'm in a different hotel which is closer to the downtown area
I've tried to attach some more pictures but the wifi is awful in this hotel and won't load them. Hopefully I can get some more of the city up later today
I'm here for the WC, have England tickets up until the 1/4 final but coming home after the second round game on the 30thDid you go to Brasil for the World Cup or are you based there?
I'm here for the WC, have England tickets up until the 1/4 final but coming home after the second round game on the 30th
Fantastic, never followed Ireland in a major tournament but we don't quality for manyI'm here for the WC, have England tickets up until the 1/4 final but coming home after the second round game on the 30th
That's superb. Whats the stadium like in person? Have you noticed much obvious discontent amongst local people or the opposite?
Hope you enjoy the rest of your time there.
Thanks mate, it's been great so far and still so much more to do!
Stadium was really nice. Theres loads of stalls and stands to keep you occupied, before the game they had a big budweiser tent showing the Costa Rica game. Beer is reasonably priced at the ground with Brazillian bear Brahma costing 10 Brazillian Reals which is around £3 and you also get a Brahma branded cup to keep, same with Budweiser which is 13 Reals. Outside the stadium there isn't much there except they turned a couple of petrol stations into beer stands.
I haven't experienced any discontent at all which is why I was a bit shocked when Brazillians were so in favour of Italy last night although understand it considering Woys comments. They've all been extremely helpful wherever I've been, Airports, Restaurants, Bars, shops etc. Was also in Sao Paulo on Thursday, and again despite hearing of the riots and unhappiness of Brazillians I've seen nothing of the sort and everyone seemed so excited for the game.
Some more pictures of Manaus and Thursdays fanfest if anyone's interested. I'm in a different hotel but still getting problems with wifi so it won't let me upload any, I got lucky with these few. (Spoilered as I know pictures from iphone can be pretty big)