Monday, July 03, 2006
♥ 3:01 pm
England - A post-mortemOk england is out on penalties again... at the hands of portugal and big phil again...sigh...but their troubles started way before this knock-out.To be honest, England played their best footie in this match, even when they were at 10 men...but the big blame has to be put on one man... the swede..1) WHY DID HE BRING ONLY 4 STRIKERS?owen (half-fit), rooney (just recovered), crouch (nothing to say), walcott (who hasn't even played in the EPL)when owen got injured, that decision came back to haunt him. With rooney as a one-man attack (which is definetly not his best place), and crouch mis-firing who was going to score?lampard couldn't even hit his penif they had brought defoe, or even darren bent/andy johnson, it would have given them a extra diminsion in attack, not always depending on the long ball to crouch.and if you're going to bring walcott, u have to play him.when england went down to 10, walcott plus lennon would have thrown a bit of unpredictablitiy into the England attack, not just thumping the ball to crouch, and hoping someone gets into a good position.dump the dead-weight (jenas, etc.) and take defoe or bent.even at 10 men, England looked far the better team and should have used lennon and gerrard, maybe even walcott to press the portugese defence back, not just to play for penalties, in which England's record is bad to say the least.I still feel the ref spoilt it by sendling rooney off. The stamp looked accidental, and the shove should only have got a yellow. But ronaldo did no favours, dang for man u.There's only one Owen Hargreaves, couldn't agree more. Fantastic for England no matter where he played. For England's sake he should stay at Bayern, where he would get more Continental experience which will benefit him and the team.
Frankie Lampard was a huge disappointment, maybe exhausted after long seasons with Chelsea.Aaron Lennon and Joe Cole, two of the best players for England without a doubt. Pacy, creative and all.With so much creative talent available for Eriksson, he has done a horrifically bad job by playing the long ball to crouch. A combination of pace (with lennon/cole) plus true scorers in defoe/bent would have broken down the portugese defence. Rooney cannot play alone up front. He needs a person to work off, like with van nisterooy/saha at man u. Playing him alone, with becks knocking long balls to him is just crazy, almost criminal.but in all, England has come into this tournament without much creative ideas, a coach who can't really be bothered bout England, which is a cocktail for disaster.They should have just got rid of Eriksson after the sheik incident.ah oh well...England fan = frustration4 days to exams...shit