FIFA World Cup 2014 - GROUP D [Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy - 14/19/20/24 June] **spoilers**

Rroff said:
Rooney? that cross was a pure fluke, desperate play with no other options that Sturridge happened to be able to turn into something through giving it his everything.
Click to expand...

It connected to create a goal, so good cross (Even though I'd personally put the onus on bigging up why Sturridge is Englands No 1 striker at the moment). I'd rather take that all day than a good cross with no goal :p

In the formation we played today, I wouldn't have had Rooney on. I wouldn't have had Welbeck either.
 
Disappointed with the result but not too downhearted by the performance. Italy made us run an awful lot during the first half and then sat very deep in the final 30 mins having taken the lead - their positioning was so strong that they had to make very little physical effort to keep us at bay.

Thought most of the team played well but we were definitely exposed down our left, and Rooney certainly wasn't doing his defensive duties in the first half but livened up a bit in the second.

I did think our substitutions were a bit crap. Barkley was fine, but Lallana and Wilshere are too similar and we didn't have an attacking outlet or target up top. Would have replaced Sturridge with Lambert instead of Lallana.

We had more attempts and efforts on target, so a lot of it comes down to the necessary composure to take your chances - Rooney fluffed his lines when Balotelli took his goal well.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Yeah I agree, I just don't know what England fans expect. Only Sturridge scored more league goals than him last year, in a far better team and only 4 more goals. Only Gerrard got more assists? This from a united side that was pretty god awful, playing negative football. So we play this man as a winger?

Madness, play him upfront or not at all.
Click to expand...

People who only watch England think he's rubbish. He's a very good player but he wasn't comfortable in that position tonight, as you say he needs to be in a 9 or 10 position or not at all, and I don't think he's a great number 10 for England either.

On another note, dare I say it, I think Ashley Cole would have done a better job than Baines defensively tonight. All of his defensive experience would have been useful there.
 
Nate75 said:
the Rooney hate is starting to get beyond the joke.
Click to expand...

He deserves every bit of it IMO, even when he had everything going his way he fluffed relatively pedestrian play never mind any (valid) issues due to playing him outside of where his talents might lie.
 
Robbo said:
On another note, dare I say it, I think Ashley Cole would have done a better job than Baines defensively tonight. All of his defensive experience would have been useful there.
Click to expand...

I said when the team was picked it was madness, his performances for chelsea although limited where still class against the top sides in europe. I do think he still would have struggled with the cover baines had, baines is better going forward. We can't have it all ways, we wanted more attacking football and more positive football and that's what we got. It is bound to create more room for the others to exploit.

I'm not upset about that result. Normally we create nothing, I'd feel confident playing like that against the others gives us 2 wins, we need Italy to beat the other 2 now :)
 
Nate75 said:
no Rooney, no goal.

Did you miss that bit?
Click to expand...

Impossible to say, someone else might have produced more chances or whatever.

A lower profile player I'd be more forgiving but he barely looked like league 2 material out there on the pitch most of the time.
 
BaZ87 said:
Really? This is a bang average Italian squad and a tactically inept England side.
Click to expand...

A fair assessment.

How many times did one of our players just run headlong into a wall of Italian defenders? (a lot).

How many times did we see little one-twos in and around the oppositions box? I don't think I saw any.

Basically, any time we make a run into the opponents third, we just run straight into their defence and give them the ball. Then they counter. All night long.
 
Nate75 said:
no Rooney, no goal.

Did you miss that bit?
Click to expand...

Well, you can't really say that. You can say not *that* goal.
But if Rooney wasn't playing, that position wouldn't have been vacant. You may have got 2 different goals coming in from that position (Not saying you would, but your comment lacks objectivity)
 
Rroff said:
Impossible to say, someone else might have produced more chances or whatever.

A lower profile player I'd be more forgiving but he barely looked like league 2 material out there on the pitch most of the time.
Click to expand...

Just as it can then not deny it might have been 3-0 to italy if Rooney hadn't played due to this mysterious player in his absence maybe playing far worse.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Just as it can then not deny it might have been 3-0 to italy if Rooney hadn't played due to this mysterious player in his absence maybe playing far worse.
Click to expand...

I don't think it was much thanks to Rooney that it wasn't 3-0 :S infact tbh it was some pretty heroic efforts by some other players that stopped it being that. That header out the goal mouth for instance...
 
Martini1991 said:
Well that's always possible too. But we've got what we've got, so we can only judge on that?
Click to expand...

Exactly so you can't say someone else would have delivered that ball, especially when everyone else's delivery was so poor. Lennon beat players for fun as could Walcott and deliver as crap a final ball as Sterling. Yet people soil themselves because it's someone else doing it. That's not to say I don't think he's a fine player, I just don't think his performance in that game was that great.
 
Rroff said:
I don't think it was much thanks to Rooney that it wasn't 3-0 :S infact tbh it was some pretty heroic efforts by some other players that stopped it being that. That header out the goal mouth for instance...
Click to expand...

I could also argue if we had a player on the left who actually tried to cover Baines they may not have got their goals either.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Exactly so you can't say someone else would have delivered that ball, especially when everyone else's delivery was so poor. Lennon beat players for fun as could Walcott and deliver as crap a final ball as Sterling. Yet people soil themselves because it's someone else doing it. That's not to say I don't think he's a fine player, I just don't think his performance in that game was that great.
Click to expand...

But wasn't I on about shots that rooney could/should have converted into goals (From positions he'd find himself in his native position), not his winging ability? (And as said, he's not a winger, we have better wingers)

And no one's saying that another player could have delivered that ball. Change a player in a match, and you've got a different end performance, so you can't say either way, we may not have even conceded one if we'd played someone else (Purely because the game would be different, hell, we could have lost 6-0 :p)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom