Lots of positives to take into the Sweden game and hopefully it will keep the fans off their backs for the time been
Tactically Hodgson got it spot on, Redknapps gung-ho attitude would have seen us lose today. In Roy we trust!
I thought Danny Welbeck had an outstanding game. He showed great movement up front, won a lot in the air and had the work-rate to get back and defend well. Good game.
I actually thought we'd have been better off with kayode up front, shocking first touch, didn't offer an outlet when we were under the cosh and wasn't physical enough to hold it up. Depends what you are looking for from a striker I guess.
Funny how different people can have a completely different view of the same game - general concensus from what I have read in several match reports and what I thought myself was that Welbeck was the best English player out there. Needs to match the work-rate and other positive attributes with a goal (or at least a good attempt on goal) on Friday.
I thought the back 4 were our best performers. The front 2 were largely ineffective and failed badly at holding the ball to relieve the pressure.
imho I thought we played very well for the vast majority of the time. At about 70 mins France appeared to be a yard faster at closing down than us,which gave them clear momentum. If we can maintain the work rate, and NOT have these 10 minute lapses. If our strikers take confidence from the result and take their opportunity...Roy could comeout of this as a star....I think a positive I saw yesterday, was Rooney looking like a dog waiting to get out of the traps...He definitely looks up for if.
Like you say lots of positives, Johnson did well whilst not being my cuppa tea, neither is Milner, and he was the worst for me with Chamberlain having a so so game all though both kept their shape and tracked back. Young I was expecting a bit more from him too. Annoying though to see an attacking situation turned into a defensive one just to keep possession of the ball then go back up field and do what they could have done first time round. Boring to watch giving fewer scoring opportunities, less entertainment and adopted by all teams so far. Raised expectations for Friday. Thats all.
Thought we did well, kept them down to one real chance (the header which Hart saved) and it took a really good goal for them to get back in it. Felt like we just switched off after the goal by looking for half time but other than that we restricted them well. Like others have said, not that much attacking threat so it will be interesting to see how we do against the 'weaker' teams.
Thought England were brilliant. Parker and Welbeck were the stand out performers for me. Young was average, as was Milner, Chamberlain will be some player in a few years. Great performance though, looking forward to Sweden.
I personally thought Welbeck had a great game, thought both him and young held the ball up well, and I would have liked to see a bit more urgency from the midfield getting forward. Thought we were let down on the right hand side, the amount of room Glen Johnson was giving up was unbelievable, had to look a few times to make sure we'd not called Steve Foster upto the England squad, constantly backing off and inevitably, it led to their goal. We've got the hardest game in the group out of the way, and I rekcon we can kick on in the next two games, Oxlade-Chamberlin was a breath of fresh air down the otherside, and combined very well with Ashley Cole, who for me, love him or hate him, is an exceptional left fullback. Thought Milner was very poor tbh, his chance aside, I still feel he looked well out of his depth, and I reckon we'd have benefitted more from having Young on the wing and another striker upfront, maybe Defoe, or Carroll to win the ball in the air, and make the most of Welbeck's pace. Very positive going forward though, and i'm sure we can win the other 2 group games, hopefully by a comfortable enough margin to win the group.
Harsh to blame Johnson IMHO. Both Scott Perkins and Gerrard were too deep and too slow to react to France on the edge of the box.
Fair enough, they were more at fault for the goal, however both before and after, Johnson had given far too much room to Ribery and Nasri and invited far too much pressure, Joe Hart had to be at his absolute best for most of the first half. One that sticks in mind was just before our goal, where Ribery recieved a through ball from a counter attack, and had about 30 yards of space to run into, all because Johnson was fast asleep. Maybe i'm just biased because I think he's absolutely useless.
i thought he dealt with him well. Glen johnsons a good right back. they where a bit deep but i would still expect Hart to save that one.
I've never thought he was that good defensively but he seemed to up it yesterday. Milner infront of him on the other hand just confirmed what I already know. He is gash.
Hart will be disappointed at letting it in but he will also be disappointed that Gerrard or Parker failed to close the shot down.