I love the way England played

They played some great football.

I'm really liking this new team although I'm a little skeptic about Jenas the Rooney one was just awful. Should have been a goal

Joe Cole played really well. I wish I saw more of Gerrard, he didn't show much this game

All in all

Gerrard made the killer run and pass for the 2nd goal, and he curled the ball cross field to Joe Cole who then set up Jenas to score. That's just how Gerrard plays, he's largely anonymous unless you look for him, because he floats around so much he doesn't get the ball consistently, that is, until he makes a big play.

Gerrard made a very ordinary run for the goal, and mishit a shot that happened to fall at the feet of an onrushing England player.

His pass to Cole was swerving unnecessarily, so much so that it took Cole three touches to bring it under control.


Apart from those two very mediocre bits of play, and giving the ball away, he did nothing. A captain's performance?

mishit shot? Have you seen Gerrard strike a ball before? His technique is phenomenal. It was a cross and only the fool would say otherwise. Fool. His ball to Cole was fine, had Cole stood still it would have landed on him and he could have walked the ball into the net. It was more or less the perfect midfield performance.

Huey wrote:Gerrard made a very ordinary run for the goal, and mishit a shot that happened to fall at the feet of an onrushing England player.

His pass to Cole was swerving unnecessarily, so much so that it took Cole three touches to bring it under control.


Apart from those two very mediocre bits of play, and giving the ball away, he did nothing. A captain's performance?

The way Gerrard floated the ball gave Cole more time to back away from his marker and give himself space. I thought it was a very clever pass, even though it probably did have more spin than necessary. I would also agree with the last poster in that there's no way his assist was a mishit shot.

I only saw the highlights of the game so I don't know about his overall performance, but I don't think he deserves criticism for what he did in those two goals.

Overall very little difference from England under McClaren imho.

Some good moments but lots of schoolboy errors.

Bentley, J Cole, and Gerrard were good
Rooney's overenthusiasm diluted his impact
Crouch was OK but not on for long enough to have much effect
The rest were nothing special

Huey wrote:Gerrard made a very ordinary run for the goal, and mishit a shot that happened to fall at the feet of an onrushing England player.

His pass to Cole was swerving unnecessarily, so much so that it took Cole three touches to bring it under control.


Apart from those two very mediocre bits of play, and giving the ball away, he did nothing. A captain's performance?

best overrated player in the world!

Huey wrote:Gerrard made a very ordinary run for the goal, and mishit a shot that happened to fall at the feet of an onrushing England player.

His pass to Cole was swerving unnecessarily, so much so that it took Cole three touches to bring it under control.


Apart from those two very mediocre bits of play, and giving the ball away, he did nothing. A captain's performance?

sorry..but what youve written there is quite simply ridiculous

saints how in this world did you think that was a shot?

Is gerrard your new arsenal or something and everything he does you twist to put a negative slant on ?

Really?? I saw a complete shift in playing philosophy.... the impact/effectiveness may have been similar to Mclaren, but what England were trying to do was so different....

- Engalnd were trying to dictate pace,
- England were slowing down the pace of the game,
- England were rebuilding attacks from the defence

...these are things which have been totally alien to english football. Obviously it will take more than one game to start getting it right!!! Capello is teaching England to play a more continental game. My only worry is that England's passing was terrible yesterday, and you need very accurate passing to make this kind of game really successful.... apart from that, I think England did pretty well with the slowing down the pace thing - if only they knew how to do this against Croatia.

Roger Hunt wrote:Overall very little difference from England under McClaren imho.

Some good moments but lots of schoolboy errors.

Bentley, J Cole, and Gerrard were good
Rooney's overenthusiasm diluted his impact
Crouch was OK but not on for long enough to have much effect
The rest were nothing special

COTR wrote:saints how in this world did you think that was a shot?

Is gerrard your new arsenal or something and everything he does you twist to put a negative slant on ?

COTR you handsome devil, check your calender - it's opposites day! Saints is actually praising Gerrard

Torrente wrote:

Huey wrote:Gerrard made a very ordinary run for the goal, and mishit a shot that happened to fall at the feet of an onrushing England player.

His pass to Cole was swerving unnecessarily, so much so that it took Cole three touches to bring it under control.


Apart from those two very mediocre bits of play, and giving the ball away, he did nothing. A captain's performance?

The way Gerrard floated the ball gave Cole more time to back away from his marker and give himself space. I thought it was a very clever pass, even though it probably did have more spin than necessary. I would also agree with the last poster in that there's no way his assist was a mishit shot.

I only saw the highlights of the game so I don't know about his overall performance, but I don't think he deserves criticism for what he did in those two goals.

deserving has nothing to do with getting criticism on this forum

rio was at fault for the swiss goal, but he seems to have largely escaped unnoticed, where are all the threads that would have been created for terry?

110% wrote:

rio was at fault for the swiss goal, but he seems to have largely escaped unnoticed, where are all the threads that would have been created for terry?

bit harsh, it was a very good goal - you're not giving the Swiss much credit.

Glynn Hensen wrote:

110% wrote:

rio was at fault for the swiss goal, but he seems to have largely escaped unnoticed, where are all the threads that would have been created for terry?

bit harsh, it was a very good goal - you're not giving the Swiss much credit.

Exactly.

Rooney did the exact same thing to Nesta in the CL last season. Sometimes a striker will take the shot early and its hard to judge it. If you go all out to block it and he goes round you, you'll look even more stupid.

Roger Hunt wrote:Overall very little difference from England under McClaren imho.

Some good moments but lots of schoolboy errors.

Its early days, but at least Lampard wasn't playing!

And there seemed to be quite a lot of tactical understanding - the substitutions generally worked and for once, our play had tempo

The English posters are hard to please, but I liked that performance very much, of couse lets not forget that Mclaren debuted with a great victory too, so I hope this ends in a better way.

bluenine wrote:Really?? I saw a complete shift in playing philosophy.... the impact/effectiveness may have been similar to Mclaren, but what England were trying to do was so different....

- Engalnd were trying to dictate pace,
- England were slowing down the pace of the game,
- England were rebuilding attacks from the defence

...these are things which have been totally alien to english football. Obviously it will take more than one game to start getting it right!!! Capello is teaching England to play a more continental game. My only worry is that England's passing was terrible yesterday, and you need very accurate passing to make this kind of game really successful.... apart from that, I think England did pretty well with the slowing down the pace thing - if only they knew how to do this against Croatia.

Roger Hunt wrote:Overall very little difference from England under McClaren imho.

Some good moments but lots of schoolboy errors.

Bentley, J Cole, and Gerrard were good
Rooney's overenthusiasm diluted his impact
Crouch was OK but not on for long enough to have much effect
The rest were nothing special

Yeah i agree it looked a lot different to me. Everybody knew what they were doing for a change. Definitly more organized, more comfortable on the ball, no aimless long balls a better controlled tempo also.

It's not about individuals the team has been awful for a long time, and yesterday it wasnt. Mclaren won his first game 4-0, but England were not great as a team that day, it was just run around have a few shots.

I was only joking about Gerrard. I wasn't particularly impressed by him but he did better than the last couple of England games I saw.

Funny how several people's initial reactions were outrage and disgust and how no one saw the funny side.

That slow tempo won't last. Half way through the first half you could hear idiots shouting "Get it up there!".

re Bentley
TBH I wasn't that impressed with him. He made himself available to passes and was on the ball often but didn't try to beat his man and his crosses weren't particularly good.

El Tiki Taka wrote:That slow tempo won't last. Half way through the first half you could hear idiots shouting "Get it up there!".

re Bentley
TBH I wasn't that impressed with him. He made himself available to passes and was on the ball often but didn't try to beat his man and his crosses weren't particularly good.

But Capello will ignore that...he survived a full season with Madrid fans, half the board, and even some of the players hating his ideas.

Tweedle wrote:

Roger Hunt wrote:Overall very little difference from England under McClaren imho.

Some good moments but lots of schoolboy errors.

Its early days, but at least Lampard wasn't playing!
And there seemed to be quite a lot of tactical understanding - the substitutions generally worked and for once, our play had tempo

Hate to say it, but if the game plan is for midfielders to run beyond the striker and score, then there's alot of logic to having fatboy on the pitch.

I still think Rooney shouldn't be playing furthest forward.

i tought the worse player on the pithch was Wes Brown and he was out of position for the swiss goal.

A Cole was also poor imo

L r d wrote:

bluenine wrote:Really?? I saw a complete shift in playing philosophy.... the impact/effectiveness may have been similar to Mclaren, but what England were trying to do was so different....

- Engalnd were trying to dictate pace,
- England were slowing down the pace of the game,
- England were rebuilding attacks from the defence

...these are things which have been totally alien to english football. Obviously it will take more than one game to start getting it right!!! Capello is teaching England to play a more continental game. My only worry is that England's passing was terrible yesterday, and you need very accurate passing to make this kind of game really successful.... apart from that, I think England did pretty well with the slowing down the pace thing - if only they knew how to do this against Croatia.

Roger Hunt wrote:Overall very little difference from England under McClaren imho.

Some good moments but lots of schoolboy errors.

Bentley, J Cole, and Gerrard were good
Rooney's overenthusiasm diluted his impact
Crouch was OK but not on for long enough to have much effect
The rest were nothing special

Yeah i agree it looked a lot different to me. Everybody knew what they were doing for a change. Definitly more organized, more comfortable on the ball, no aimless long balls a better controlled tempo also.

It's not about individuals the team has been awful for a long time, and yesterday it wasnt. Mclaren won his first game 4-0, but England were not great as a team that day, it was just run around have a few shots.

LRD.... England did not feel comfortable on the ball when they do you will see the passing and off the ball runs in the middle being picked up a lot better. They new what Capello expected from them and they stuck to his game plan it other words their is a ground work for deep respect happening something thats been missing in the England set up for donkey's years.....

El Tiki Taka wrote:That slow tempo won't last. Half way through the first half you could hear idiots shouting "Get it up there!".

Dunno, I read an interview with Capello's assistant (given the title of General Manager, it seems) today, who made the same observation you did. He said that this was something English football needed to get over. 'England should still play like England, but a bit better'.

Seems fair to me. There's only so much the managers of the national team can do though, and it doesn't fill me with hope that the main sponsor of footballing academies is Tesco, rather than the FA...

I would rather that england play a high tempo game. i like that different teams play different stuff. it will be boring if the stereostypes arent kind of true.still exciting to see if capello can do something here. also i wouldnt worry about capello letting pressure get to him. he is too stuborn.