FIFA World Cup 2014 - GROUP D [Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy - 14/19/20/24 June] **spoilers**
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And was comfortably our best player in 2010, although that's not saying much.
Gerrard I think was told to play a certain way, he did pretty well mostly but was somewhat understated in the game as a whole (acting in some ways more as a safety net) - utilising him to play more positively would possibly have shown things a bit different.
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Yes - England would have been completely over-run and beaten by 2 - 3 instead of just one lol
Love it when all the experts who don't watch club football suddenly come out of the woodwork for the World Cup.
.Just catching up on all the football as I've been working.
Didn't think much to England to be honest, I thought England looked quite good going forward, despite Rooney's best efforts, and just felt the defence was very, very poor.
Baines did not get enough protection and was left exposed and looked poor, Johnson, well... he just is not good enough.
Italy looked very good, Pirlo was magnificent, Balo looked dangerous.
Rooney just is not good enough to play up top on his own, due to his tendency to drop deep, he's not fit enough or good enough to play a wider role, like the position he was playing against Italy. It looked a lot like Rooney was shoehorned in to a position just because England had to play him somewhere.
The Liverpool contingency looked good, bar Johnson. Welbeck had a good game, works very hard and had some nice link up play.
Anyway; I felt that was almost as good as England could play, I didn't think they were terrible, but Italy just showed their class. I think the Costa Rica game and the Uruguay game will be very difficult for England.
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What did Johnson do wrong? 
I'm not so sure, if they'd linked him up with Sturridge and Sterling a bit more when things opened up on that side due to Rooney dragging Italy off I think we could have seen a very different game, but instead he was playing it back into whatever their original plan was almost every time even when it was plain the plan wasn't working.
EDIT: I do almost wonder if there is a longer term plan though there for something like that given the way it was executed so as to not show their hand too early as ultimately beating Italy is potentially neither here nor there if they can do well in the rest of the group. (I guess that actually makes sense in the wider game - holding Gerrard back in the opening game is actually tactically sound).
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What did Johnson do wrong?
What did he do right?
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Defended well for a start.
Haha. With his non attempt to stop Balo's shot on the open goal.
Where was he for the Balo goal?
Johnson's defensive positioning and discipline have always been terrible, and show absolutely no signs of improving.
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Did you watch the game or do you just not understand football?
Caporegime
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and? Fifa is ENTIRELY based around sponsorship, like almost their entire income comes from the World cup and selling image/tv rights. The biggest/most popular players always get in these lists regardless of if the players were actually influential or not. Team of tournaments, often man of the match, and most individual awards are popularity contests, not even slightly accurate measures of actual performance.
Of course, the best players are usually pretty popular so there is often a certain amount of, lets call it, incidental accuracy in these lists. But there is almost always 2-3 players included who were absolutely turd, and make the list for more important reasons, like pushing names and brands.
Either way, even if Gerrard was good, or is in form, it doesn't mean he should be in the team. A good case he should be, sure, absolutely should start/be in the squad, no.
The biggest problem with England is they go, who are the best 11 individuals, okay, lets start them and go from there. Rather than, "what is the best 11 I can put together, with the next best 5 people to give me tactical options".
Other teams drop HUGE names for world cups because they are trying to make the best teams. Tevez didn't get picked despite being a brilliant player.
Gerrard was playing the more left sided Dm style role, and how often did he get across to help Baines? Most left sided central players would have dropped in to help cover that space a lot better than Gerrard did. Rooney was never back helping, but neither should he be on EVERY occasion, attackers get caught up field constantly. He should have gotten back more but the central midfield players also have to help cover. Rooney wasn't the only one neglecting helping Baines yesterday, not by a long shot. Welbeck when down the left didn't do a good job, Rooney did a terrible job, Gerrard did a poor job.
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Did you watch the game or do you just not understand football?
Johnson drifted in to the middle for no apparent reason before the cross went in, that meant Cahill was chasing to the back post rather than holding ground centrally. If Johnson was already at the back post, where you frankly expect him to be, he could have been ahead of Balotelli and positioning himself to win the header. Because he was out of position Cahill was running to the far post and while he could have won the header a player already in that area coming towards the ball would have had a FAR FAR easier job.
With Johnson somewhere near the far post, he could have seen the Balo run, got there first and ended up with Johnson and Cahill making a Balo sandwich making that header 20 times harder to win and score from.
Johnson is prone to aimless wandering out of position, he certainly didn't do a good job for that goal at all. It wasn't his worst game, but it wasn't his best and when he was really needed he didn't do his job, which is what matters. He didn't do much offensively and had an "easy" game as 95% of the attacking seemed to come down the right after 15 mins when they realised Rooney wasn't going to do his job AND he was up against a lumbering CB rather than a dedicated fullback so his job was already the easiest on the pitch, and he STILL made the crucial error when it mattered.
So rather than 30 crucial moments, he had almost just the one, and still made a mistake. He really isn't a good defender.
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Then how did you miss Johnson tracking the runner in to the box when the ball was crossed? Should he have let him run in to the box and score a free header?I've watched the game twice.
Edit: Ah right, two people with poor eyesight then. Ignore the fact he did the correct thing, just jump on his back because it's Glen Johnson.
Indeed.
He was poor all game, I was surprised we didn't take another RB with is this tournament. The fact Johnson starts shows we aren't blessed in the area but Clyne was good all season, even his replacement at Soton was better (Chambers?) wasn't Flanagan a RB too this season? Johnson is not a good enough player for this stage.
I thought Gerrard did ok, all things considered to be fair Drunkenmaster. I thought all the Liverpool players (bar Johnson) did well, Stirling looked very good and positive, Henderson and Gerrard work well in midfield and Sturridge did well considering too.
Rooney was awful.
Rooney was awful.
Johnson is not good enough. It's not bandwagon jumping. He's just not good enough. He's not the only one mind.
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At least have the decency to have a go at him when he does do something wrong, which is quite often, rather than when he does something right then
As per my earlier post I think Gerrard was specifically told to play a certain way and do a certain thing which didn't really allow him to stand out at all. Reading through this thread and adding stuff people have said onto my own thoughts I'm increasingly getting the feeling they are holding Gerrard back intentionally for now.