He was fine last night by and large, although he did lose the ball too frequently going forwards. No issues defensively.
FIFA World Cup 2014 - GROUP D [Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy - 14/19/20/24 June] **spoilers**
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He was fine last night by and large, although he did lose the ball too frequently going forwards. No issues defensively.
Caporegime
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He's asked to sit, cover the central defenders and start attacks. Most of the abuse seems to be because he's not as good as Pirlo in the Pirlo role which might be because he's only been doing it for half a season
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
I have, I would argue his original lack of positioning lead to Cahill being dragged out of position to the back post. As I've said though, the entire defensive performance from England was poor.
Johnson was caught out several times, Stirling got booked covering for him late on, Immobile was given an offside in aches of space on the right hand side too.
He's asked to sit, cover the central defenders and start attacks. Most of the abuse seems to be because he's not as good as Pirlo in the Pirlo role which might be because he's only been doing it for half a season
Yeah I think he was specifically told not to play as positive as his opposite number did, which means hes not a marked man early on so that if/when they do decide to play him more postively the other team is less expecting it.
I'm no expert but there was a few times when he seemed to be pulling his punches and it would kind of make sense.
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Caporegime
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Yes, because fullbacks just pick a player and follow them till they die? At some point you have to pass off responsibility. He absolutely DID NOT do the right thing at all.
When the ball is wide left(from England's view) the focus of the entire defence is LEFT. The guy furthest back leaving his post and leaving an area entirely undefended becomes difficult for everyone looking left to see. He ran away leaving the far post completely undefended, with a striker and crosser waiting for the space to open up and then putting the ball there, it's pretty much classic attacking play.
You track, to a degree, but you can't simply run completely out of position. If the ball had come in, was going into the middle and that man he was marking was running there, you follow(if it looks like no one else will challenge) but before the ball comes in, someone running across the defence is directly looking to pull someone out of position and create the space. A stupid defender follows him leaving a huge undefended space. The striker and crosser saw this happen and both knew precisely what to do. Rather than no space and a huge advantage to the player already at the far post in defending the cross, Cahill had to react and was at a huge disadvantage.
In no way was Johnson doing what he should, he did what a naive and stupid defender would do, leaving the team completely exposed and seconds later it cost us a goal.
Johnson was completely wrong to leave the far post undefended, entirely. Also don't forget that the runner he tracked ran to the near post(which Cahill had he not been running to far post could have covered probably) he let completely pass him, he slowed and allowed the defender ahead. Had the cross gone near post... he wouldn't have beaten the player to the ball because he fluffed that as well. Also because he gave up on tracking that run had Balotelli headed it across the face of the goal again Johnson wouldn't have got to it first. He was ahead of the player most of the way then edge of the box changed direction, slowed and the attacker got ahead. Even if he was tracking the run, he did it completely ineptly and caused Cahill to have to move out of position.
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Soldato
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You can stream it for free. Doesn't take more than a willingness and google search.
I don't have sky but still watch all Arsenal games this way. Not perfect but still enjoyable.
Plus there's always motd
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Pass him on to who? Cahill, who was marking Balotelli? If Johnson leaves his runner and he gets a free header he's then blamed for not tracking his runner.
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You know if that was Micah Richards he wouldn't have said a word about it.
Both goals absolutely woeful defending. The first, he has so much time, even to roll the ball forward before he hits it and we still didn't have a player within 15 yards.
The second, firstly Baines getting done ridiculously easy then Cahill not being close enough to Balotelli.
As soon as the second went in, you pretty much knew we wouldn't get back into it. The last half hour was pretty much impotent. Some of the crap spouted from Hodgson makes me want to put my fist through the TV.
The second, firstly Baines getting done ridiculously easy then Cahill not being close enough to Balotelli.
As soon as the second went in, you pretty much knew we wouldn't get back into it. The last half hour was pretty much impotent. Some of the crap spouted from Hodgson makes me want to put my fist through the TV.
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The only consistent aspect of England footy.
Too many England fans know nowt about kicking bags of air and the media love to wind them up.
Agreed, after last night I now think we'll get out of the group, I wasn't sure before, on balance we played well and I'm sure the pro's spotted all the problems we have and will take appropriate action in the planning.
Well this is completely incorrect. Johnson went towards the front post to track the runner, which should have been Jagielka's job. Jagielka's should have called on Baines to drop, meaning that he wouldn't have had to cover behind Baines and instead would have picked up the runner at the front post.
First rule of basic defending is man marking. At no point do you leave the player you're tracking in order to double up on a different player, especially without knowing where the cross is going.
Cahill and Johnson picked up the a trackers in the box, but Jagielka was out of position because Baines was out of position because Welbeck didn't track back. The whole goal stemmed from Baines being left 2 on 1 and a lack of communication from Jagielka.
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This...Cahill and Johnson did their job, there wasn't any point they could swap over the marking, stupid doing that anyway as Cahill is taller and should be marking Balo. Baines needed to press when he was one on one, had he pressed and missed, hopefully Welbeck would have run in behind and covered. But we backed off and allowed the cross. 9 times out of 10 it'd of been cleared, rubbish cross, etc etc..it was just a good goal. Sometimes you just have to say well done, good goal.
The damage had been done well before the cross came in at the back post.
You can stream it for free. Doesn't take more than a willingness and google search.
I don't have sky but still watch all Arsenal games this way. Not perfect but still enjoyable.
Plus there's always motd
The good thing about streaming is you get what matches you want not what Sky want to put on, I canceled sky sports because of content not cost which tbh isn't that much on a daily basis over a season.
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Soldato
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Hodgson has some big decisions to make this week; window or aisle.
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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.
My thoughts exactly.
I feel that rival teams havent peaked yet and have some gears to go through.
England, I feel, have played their best already.
However, if England can play like they did yesterday, in every game, I think they can get past the group stage.
If they can improve (which I doubt), then who knows...Semi Finals...maybe?
Soldato
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England played reasonably well I thought. I agree that they lacked the cohesiveness of Italy and their interlinking in the final third was somewhat lacking, but despite that they made a number of chances and half-chances, and had a few of our players been more on form the scoreline could have been very different. I can't remember the last time Rooney had a really good game in an England shirt against quality opposition. On the plus-side, at least he didn't stamp on anyone.