The media critics like the formations used by Roy Hodgson. They see it as playing the right way. They tell us that our forwards are a golden generation. Once again I was reduced to shouting at the TV. Why? Because the longer the game went on, the more it cried out for an old fashioned English centre forward in the mould of Andy Carroll. We have taken 4 forwards to France. They are all quick, but they are all the same. They need space behind the last defender to be effective. Tonight Slovakia were never going to allow us that space. There are times when you just have to say, well I know it is a step backwards in terms of technique, but shove Carrol on, get crosses in to him and get players around him. In the knock-out games, teams will be willing to attack. Slovakia weren't. There will be more space, and there will probably be no need of an Andy Carroll, but tonight there was.
Agree with you but the fatal flaw is the "get crosses in" bit. Even Andy Carroll wouldn't have been able to make an impact tonight without a stepladder.
Not sure a big battering ram of a centre forward would've made a difference tonight with the poor quality and lack of service.
I have been banging on about taking Carroll to the Euros on here. Plus we have no wingers given Raheem is bosted. Sturridge was terrible tonight. You have to suffer tripe with him until he suddenly does something remarkable. Sometimes.
The strikers aren't the same at all. Kane is not quick. Neither Kane or Sturridge need space behind the last defender to be effective. I get your point though, I can see an argument to take Carroll instead of Rashford but I think a bigger issue is a lack of width, if we'd taken more than one out of form winger we might be able to get in behind sides & create more.
Slovakia opted for deep defensive tactics from kick off, and pretty much gave up any pretence of crossing the half way line for the whole of the second half. In those circumstances, it is very difficult to get behind them, even with wingers. That never used to stop the Danny Wilson team that won promotion to the Premier League because we had wing backs who could cross the ball in accurately and with bend to take it away from the keeper. England had the players to do this, but they had no-one who was likely to win the ball in an aerial challenge. In fact, most of the time, there was no-one except Vardy in the box. I have simply tried to illustrate how you used to beat packed defences in the past. You used the aerial route. These day though, such tactics are frowned on by the media, who think that it is always possible to pass through teams as Arsenal do. It is not possible unless your players are as familiar with each others games as a club side, but without a big lump, we do not even have the option of something different. In that respect, all our forwards are alike.
We are constantly making excuses for English players who arrive at another major tournament and are found wanting. Non of the top sides would have struggled in the same circumstances. Yet again we have taken injured or recovering players .....in what is let's be fair a poor group. Really want that Germany (2nd half) to show up.
Why do we play 2 holding or defensive midfielders against a team who we're not fussed about crossing the half way line. We seemed to make 3 passes when one was good enough... Before the torno....Roy stated he would not take injured or out of form players...yet we have Wiltshire Henderson Barkley Sterling 4 passengers
Phil McNulty, the BBC football reporter at the game made Eric Dier his star man. Now I do not know what Dier is supposed to be doing, or why we need a defensive shield against a team that is never going out of it own half. Although we had 66% of the ball, McNulty insists that our failure was because Hodgson made 6 changes. He sees Slovakia camped at the edge of their own box for the last 45 minutes and blames Wilshere because he was not instrumental in breaking them down, and failing to notice that Rooney was worse when he replaced Wilshere, and Rooney was our best man in the two previous games. Either I do not know what I am talking about, and believe me, I never rule it out, or McNulty doesn't. But one of us is trying to justify a previous statement, and one of us is talking to no-one in particular on here.
The problems start and finish with the manager for me. The first cardinal error he made was to change a winning team. The side that beat Wales ought to have been persevered with in order to further establish familiarity and a winning mentality. It's not as though we were stellar against Russia or Wales, so more practice of the last winning side playing together would have been a good thing in my view. Furthermore, if you're going to tinker and try others out, why not start with Stones, who is more mobile and attack-minded. Not a local bias, I just think he would have been better suited to that game. In the game itself, we had most joy in the first half when we played with tempo. But when the ball got near Cahill or Smalling everything slowed down and we reverted to (ponderous) type. (See Stones). We needed to keep fizzing the ball about and I feel Vardy would have been sure to eventually get on the end of something. Roy's addiction to Wilshere was costly. He was demonstrably short of match sharpness and should never have been taken in my view. When that became apparent, Roy reverted to his addiction to Rooney, and our play became even more predictable for the Slovakians. To make matters worse, Wazza (possibly piqued because he didn't start?) was out of form and touch, putting several passes/crosses astray. Kane is looking knackered, and he was also all too predictable for the Slovaks. And we had the possibly of a brighter and sharper (at this stage) Rashford sat warming the bench. Roy's a tired typical FA man in the mould of McLaren or Trevor Brooking. If only we'd had a Mourinho, a Wenger or (if you prefer English for England) Harry Redknapp in charge it might all have looked a bit more entertaining. And why you bring a lacking Wilshere and Sturridge and leave at home the thriving Townsend and Drinkwater, only Roy knows. Theer - that's my two penn'orth!
Me too. I only moved into the house at the beginning of the month, the neighnours must think I'm a right nutter.
Since we can't now change the squad, from what I've seen so far, either the two right backs, Walker or Clyne would make a decent winger, play them both with one defending and the other as an out and out winger.
Central defenders who can pass the ball forwards, centre midfielders who dictate the game,wingers who run at players and spank the ball into the top corner and strikers who can hold the ball up and score goals.if only we could find a team like that. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
They have though. France scraped by Albania & Romania with late goals & couldn't break down a Swiss side we beat comfortably in qualifying. Spain took 87 minutes to break down a Turkey side who got battered by Croatia. Germany struggled past the Ukraine & only made sure of the game in injury time on the counter attack. They couldn't break down the Poles.
the formation was all wrong last night. the changes woy made were for the most part ok however the way he utilesed them was wrong. The game was crying out for width down both sides, vardy/sturridge are not wide players. i would have loved to have seen proper wingers in the team. heaven forbid play a 442 in international football and tell the team to stretch the play, drag the opposition out of position and there comfort zone and create space for midfield runners.
