The 2012 UEFA European Championship - Poland/Ukraine - The Thread!

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

England's tactics today were just ugly.

Exactly. I don't understand how they could continue lumping the ball forward when they know they have 8 guys in their own box. They consistently gave the ball away all game and seemed perfectly content with it.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by NBC

Development. It is easier for big clubs to pay for foreign stars than to develop their own. Too many big clubs that play in Europe against other top clubs are light on home grown talent. You need your best players playing at your best clubs. Granted it is a bit better now, but a few years ago Aston Villa supplied a disproportionate number of England squad players and clubs like Arsenal did not.

But this is a major digression from this thread.

I don't think is a major digression. I think it's a relevant topic.
Germany and Spain have key players who play for key teams. England do not.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I mentioned two matches earlier

England-Holland Euro 1996
England-Argentina WC 1998

even England-Brazil WC 2002 (although that when I think England started to go downhill)

THAT's English football.

That was the prime of a particularly good English team that has now aged out, it is possible that Hodgson can put a good team together around Hart and Walcott for the world cup but England has no where near the talent of Spain or Germany right now and crucially doesn't have a legitamate goal scorer, Rooney is a twat, unfit and wholly over rated, hopefully by the world cup he will have keeled over from a pie induced heart attack and England can put a decent front 2 together.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by The Big Chill

Exactly. I don't understand how they could continue lumping the ball forward when they know they have 8 guys in their own box. They consistently gave the ball away all game and seemed perfectly content with it.

Frankly with Hodgson taking over so recently this was always going to be Englands fall back tactic, personally I think he should have used Rooney as a sub as the team looked better without him, but there was no way to really put together a team plan with 5 weeks

[SuperMatt18]

Italy was starting to have the same problem and still do. Really it's a big reason the financial fair play rules are coming into play, the major Euro nations were struggling to develop players.

Now that Juventus, and the Milan's are starting to run into financial trouble they are turning to their youth programs again.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

That was the prime of a particularly good English team that has now aged out, it is possible that Hodgson can put a good team together around Hart and Walcott for the world cup but England has no where near the talent of Spain or Germany right now and crucially doesn't have a legitamate goal scorer, Rooney is a twat, unfit and wholly over rated, hopefully by the world cup he will have keeled over from a pie induced heart attack and England can put a decent front 2 together.

hahahahahaha!

I was discussing more style. Even bad English teams in the 70s and 80s still played the English style (fixed 4-4-2). You could even go back much further to England-France in the opener in WC 82. England were crap but they went full out attack and beat France 3-1. Of course later England would crash out and France played in the classic semifinal.. but at least England played THEIR style (win or lose). And I think that no matter how bad England is, if they play their style, they can beat anyone because it's a tricky pressing style that's hard to defend against. England is one of the team I like because of this style.

England is England! Who cares if the rest of the world is playing 4-3-1-2 or 4-2-3-1 or whatever invention they come up with. English football is 4-4-2.

But today.. I'm not sure what England was doing.

[sadora]

Been out in the bush for 28 days, finally caught up in all the games I missed and glad to come back to the knock out stage. Would have loved to see England going through to play Germany, as it stands, I'm fairly certain that the Germans will go through to the final. Spain & Portugal should be toughest of the semis. Spain has a strong defense, one of the best keepers around right now and a great, ball moving midfield. Where they lack is attack. Portugal definitely has the upper hand in this regard and it will be interesting to see if Spain's midfield beats Portugal's offense. Would love to see a Spain vs Germany final though and as much as I would love to see Spain win the tournament again, I think this will be Germany's year. Should be a great finish to this tournament.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

But today.. I'm not sure what England was doing.

Today they played a 9-0-1, with the strategy of pounding it deep to the "1" every time they touched the ball.

Made little sense to me, in the first 15 they tried to keep the ball and would move it to the wings to use their speed but after that they regressed to just pound the ball up the field.

The Man U players were very underwhelming, Ashley Young should be the goat of the tourney for England as he was just brutal and Rooney was not much better in his two games.

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

hahahahahaha!

I was discussing more style. Even bad English teams in the 70s and 80s still played the English style (fixed 4-4-2). You could even go back much further to England-France in the opener in WC 82. England were crap but they went full out attack and beat France 3-1. Of course later England would crash out and France played in the classic semifinal.. but at least England played THEIR style (win or lose). And I think that no matter how bad England is, if they play their style, they can beat anyone because it's a tricky pressing style that's hard to defend against. England is one of the team I like because of this style.

England is England! Who cares if the rest of the world is playing 4-3-1-2 or 4-2-3-1 or whatever invention they come up with. English football is 4-4-2.

But today.. I'm not sure what England was doing.

They were playing 4-4-2 though. That is a main part of their problem, they just didn't have the CMs for it. Parker is a great player, but he adds nothing to the attack. Gerrard is a great player too, but he was asked to be far more defensive in the tournament then he usually has to do. In the end it all adds up to England having 2 players forward with very little support from their CMs. Add to that the fact that Young was poor today and we saw the England that we saw today.

[IceMan]

FORZA AZZURRI!

Italy completely dominated. England was lucky this even went to extra time let alone a shootout. It's so nice to shut up all my arrogant English friends.

The semis are going to be great.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by @VisitEngland
England lose on penalties. For more on our culture and traditions go to http://www.visitengland.com

..

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

English football is 4-4-2.

But today.. I'm not sure what England was doing.

Ummmm .... playing 4-4-2.

[d_phaneuf]

Hart and Rooney are the only players who started today that should start the WC qualifiers

[d_phaneuf]

maybe Ashley Cole too

that's not to take anything away from others, JT for example genuinely cares more than almost anyone and always gives 100% for England. I detest him at other times but when he puts on the shirt he wears it with pride. One of the few from the 'golden generation' in the last 10 years who you could feel that way

[d_phaneuf]

I don't blame Hodgson for this either, he had 3 weeks to work with what turned out to be an extremely injured team

but the youth need to take over starting in septemer

Walker/Jones/Smalling/Cleverly/Wilshere/Rodwell/Ox/Walcott/Rooney/Welbeck/Carroll need to be the one's who push forward

[SuperMatt18]

I have a pet peeve with the scheduling.

Not sure why but with the way they scheduled the quarterfinals Portuagal and Germany get an extra twos days off compared to Spain/Italy. In a short tournament like this those two days can be huge.

The teams that played each other should have played on back to back days.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

But then the days off between the group stage and the quarters would be off.

No perfect way to do it.

[Burn13]

Originally Posted by sadora

Been out in the bush for 28 days, finally caught up in all the games I missed and glad to come back to the knock out stage. Would have loved to see England going through to play Germany, as it stands, I'm fairly certain that the Germans will go through to the final. Spain & Portugal should be toughest of the semis. Spain has a strong defense, one of the best keepers around right now and a great, ball moving midfield. Where they lack is attack. Portugal definitely has the upper hand in this regard and it will be interesting to see if Spain's midfield beats Portugal's offense. Would love to see a Spain vs Germany final though and as much as I would love to see Spain win the tournament again, I think this will be Germany's year. Should be a great finish to this tournament.

muhaaaha!!! That's it we're still under the radar! Forza Azzurri.

[Notorious Honey Badger]

Germany and Spain final is my prediction. Altho I wouldn't mind seeing Germany make Ronaldo cry by beating him in the final

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Bagor

Ummmm .... playing 4-4-2.

That wasn't classic 4-4-2. Rooney played well behind Welbeck that he was almost in the midfield. When Carroll came on for Welbeck then it was he that played behind Rooney and came into midfield to retrieve the ball.

Parker was almost right in front of Terry.

So it was more like 5-4-1 or 4-1-4-1 It was weird.