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

adey said:
They just waltzed down our left, i lost count of many times baines was out of position. I cant help thinking cole would have done a better job defensively.
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Baines is much better than cole going forwad... we cannot have it both ways!

I would have taken baines and cole, leaving shaw at home.

Not sure what we do with rooney, but if roy doesnt play him at striker or just behind then there is no point playing him.
 
manic111 said:
I wouldn't say it backfired, we tried to beat them early doors and it nearly worked. The Italians are a more experienced team than us with far more technical players.

Roy has got an England team playing football that is worth watching for the first time since 1998. I think laying the blame at his door is a little unfair. We were beaten by an experienced team which simply knows how to win.
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It didn't nearly work. Yes, we looked a threat in attack for 45 minutes, albeit without creating any clear openings, but we looked exposed at the back the entire game.

It was a tactically naive performance. You don't play in those conditions against a side with 5 in midfield and the ability to pass around you, and try to steam roll them in the opening 25 minutes.

And we're hardly an inexperienced side.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Poor Utd or not, still a UTd side, but break down the results just a little.

Goals Stoke, Fulham, Cardiff, 2 Spurs, Hull, Palace 2, West Brom 2, West Ham 2, Villa 2, Norwich 2, City consolation goal.

Assists, Swansea 2, Norwich, Fulham, Arsenal, Cardiff, Villa, West Ham 2, Hull.

Since end of December he has no assists in the league, and scored against Villa, West Ham, West Brom, Palace and Norwich.

The massive massive majority of his goals and assists came against dire teams playing poorly against Utd and his form got worse as the season went on.
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Amazing that no one else matched those stats against those poor sides. It's irrelevant in a whole season who they came against, every one plays the same teams twice. Funnily enough when you constantly post goals and assists to suit your purpose you never break them down to individual club.

At the end of the season when everyone has played everyone twice, the only Englishman that scored more is sturridge and he started and the only player that got more assists was Gerrard and he started.

I was glad Henry was on the panel, balanced views with out the rage Shearer seemed to have. Shearer under performed so often for England except Euro 96 you would think he would be a bit more balanced. England fans are so quick to turn on their own.
 
I am amazed that the reaction to this defeat is so positive. Didn't see the game as close as some seemed to. Italy were a far more cohesive team. For me they completely dominated the midfield area. Pirlo again gave a master class. For me he was on a different level from anything England had. What surprised me was how advanced he played. De Rossi was the deep sitting player allowing Pirlo to have far more influence than I expected. He is a wonderful player and really gave a stark contrast between him and Gerrard, who was peripheral.

The plusses for England were that sterling and Sturridge had decent games albeit it looked as off they ran out of steam which is understandable given the conditions and the way that they play. Italy make the ball do the work which conserves energy.I always felt England were relying on individuals and high energy as their prime strategy. That's probably not the most sustainable way to play in such a sapping environment.

It's going to be tough now for them to go through.
 
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My thoughts on last night:

We played well in attack but our defense looked as vulnerable as it did during the friendlies, last night was like watching Liverpool with a makeshift defense - exciting going forward, terrifying going backwards. We need to improve should we get out of the group.

Rooney just gets in the way with his ill discipline of getting sucked towards and wanting to be on the ball all of the time, it might work at United with a team built around him but in an England shirt he seems to just disrupt the balance of the team. I suspect Roy wanted to drop him but is under massive pressure from the top not to as Rooney has pretty much become the face of the England team, hence trying to accomodate him on the left. Please show some balls against Uruguay Roy.

Uruguay losing has done us a massive favour providing we can beat both them and Costa Rica.
 
Compared to the friendlies the England team were a lot more organised. Our passing was better, link up play better, chances were better. Our defence is still a problem, but we all knew that. Overall we looked like a semi-decent team last night, with some good attacking moments against a very tough side. People forget that Italy beat a very strong German side 2-1 in Euro 2012.

I'm seeing more positives from this than negatives - and I was one of the people who said England were really sloppy in the build up friendlies when other people said we were good. And compared to other teams who we have seen so far in this World Cup, England could be far, far, worse.
 
Even though we lost I'm quite happy with the performance. It's certainly the best I've seen England play in a competitive match in quite a while.

We only had a weakness on the left hand side and maybe Rooney shouldn't start next game. On the balance on play we deserved a draw and should have had a penalty too.

Thought Barkley was impressive when he came on. Wilshere not so much.
 
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didn't know if this has been posted before?

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:p

EDIT trawled through the topic and found it earlier on :(
 
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Thing Pirlo created some sort of record yesterday. Not sure if it was for pass completion (around 92%) or completed passes (108 I think). It was the highest of the world cup.

Personally, I think England lacked a strong midfield. Italy went out with De Rossi, Pirlo, Marchisio, Verratti, Candreva who are all midfielders (Candreva is maybe the only one who can be considered an AM or winger). Also, Chiellini was never asked to run forward. Italy always has at least 4 players behind; Chiellini, Barzagli, Paletta and De Rossi.

Sterling, Rooney, Welbeck, Sturridge is too attacking in my opinion. First of all you have two players who are not naturally wingers, or at least, don't naturally play as deep. England's midfield, made up of only Gerrard and Henderson, had to constantly play against 3+ Italian midfielders.
 
aslco said:
Having a read of some of the italian papers - they think it was a hard fought win by Italy. Plent of respect for England, especially Sterling. They were surprised Henderson started, i think many expect Wilshere or lampard to feature.
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It's been obvious Henderson was going to start for ages I don't see how anyone would have thought any different. Wilshire is a waste of space he shouldn't even be in the squad.


aslco said:
They read into Rooney on the LW as a way of us attacking their inexperienced RB who ended up bossing, but actually I think we did that more to accommodate Sterling.
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No, we did that to accommodate Rooney.
 
Thought England were unlucky not to walk away with a draw last night at the very least, couldnt see them winning it in all honesty. England did have their chances though, just a shame other than Sturridge, they couldnt finish very well.

As for Italy, thought they looked impressive...Ballo was immense with his headed goal to give Italy the win but that cheeky little chip almost paid off too:p. Would not mind him at Arsenal next season, he has got the talent to become the very best that much is for sure. Pirlo is an absolute god of a player, that freekick that hit the crossbar:eek:...geezus almighty. Even after the game, Hart when he went to shake his hand just looked at him wide eyed and said wow just wow.

The group is pretty wide open, i mean who would have thought Costa rica would have beaten Uruguay...for me i think thats the biggest shock of the tournament so far. England definitely need to win the next 2 games and hope for the best regarding Uruguay and Costa rica. But both are going to be very tough games regardless...that Joel Campbell looks handy i have to admit...hoping Wenger gives him a chance next season with us.
 
The__Malteser said:
Thing Pirlo created some sort of record yesterday. Not sure if it was for pass completion (around 92%) or completed passes (108 I think). It was the highest of the world cup.
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Pass completion for both teams was very impressive - over 90%. That compared to the Costa Rica - Uruguay match, where I seem to remember both teams were in the mid-70s when the graphic came up.
 
Arrived at pub at 10.50, left at 1... Spent £60 somehow... Feel wounded...

Sore throat after all the shouting telling Rooney how **** he is. I have never rated him.
 
It's fun reading the Liverpool supporters views today. All of our players were crap.... Apart from the ones that play for Liverpool of course, they all played well:p

I'm not especially upset about last night tbh. We played OK and looked pretty good. At least we had a go and genuinely looked to win the game.

Italy were quite impressive too. Never count them out. Will be a tough opponent for anyone in this tournament.
 
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when we attacked we looked dangerous but we cant rely on booting it up front and hope someone can catch it.

some of the footy was better to watch than normal from england but gerrard , shrek don't work. give someone else a go. its not like they can do worse is it ?
 
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