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I was surprised that France didn't have a bit more urgency about them, although England kept their shape quite well I thought France didn't stretch the play as much as they might. It was definitely the dullest game of the tournament so far.

It will be interesting to see how (if) Hodgson adapts the tactics for the next two games, because I don't see how we can play like that against weaker opponents.

I don't understand why many people are surprised with England's approach. We don't have anyone capable of just giving the ball and asking them to open up a defence a la Xavi, Iniesta, Pirlo, Modric etc.
FWIW I thought we looked solid for the most part but could very easily crumble against a team with more pace than a very poor France side.

And not actually trying to win games worked a treat for Chelsea in Europe, why not try it at international level??

mystic eddie wrote:

I cannot believe Roddy still continues to get bites. He certainly puts on a good act. Well I assume it is an act because nobody could really be so thick and clueless without trying can they?

He's just turned very bitter since Liverpool's comical slide to mediocrity continued at pace under KKK.

Hopefully if Brendan Rodgers turns them around, his mood will improve.

Looks like Rangers are finished. Even more.

HMRC tell them to nick off

Liquidation now seems inevitable.

Good to see the Ukrainian authorities refused to let those muppets in the England "band" take their instruments into the stadium last night.

Unfortunately it seems that they gave them back afterwards.

gulfcoast_highwayman wrote:

Looks like Rangers are finished. Even more.

HMRC tell them to nick off

Liquidation now seems inevitable.

They're not finished, but I wonder if the other SPL will force them to start up again in Division 3 or allow them to stay in the SPL.

Cibaman wrote:

I dont think any England manager will get away with playing ultra defensive football for any length of time. But I think hodgson deserves to be cut some slack, at least for the time being.

Given the very short time he's had with the players and the quality available to him, I think it's reasonable for him to take a cautious approach, to concentrate on the defence and organisation. I just do not see how the current crop of England players could be successful trying to play expansive football. At least he's set out with an idea of how he wants us to play, something which his predecessors seemed to lack.


Of course it's quite possible that we'll fail to score in our next two games and end up going home early. And then he'll have to put up with the criticism. But I dont think he deserves it based on yesterday's game

I'm not bothered about England or how their results go, I lost all faith in the national side a long time ago, what I can't stand is people saying "we played well" when England didn't actually 'play'. I get defending, I get surrendering possession, but, as I said with the Italians, to not go out and play is defeatist and shows a lack of faith in one's tactics and ability to coach a side. You can be hard to beat but also attack and play with some form of intent, England never had that intent and they won't win anything meaningful playing for a clean sheet. You seem to have faith that Roy will change this but this is how Roy coaches, when he was Liverpool coach, Stoke City, for the first time since promotion, never had 50% possession or more against an opposing side. I think they ended up with something like 63% against Roy's side, and we all know how negative Stoke are. Roy clearly doesn't have faith in possession, which I don't mind, but to have no faith in attacking and counter-attacking with intent, well, that's just embarrassing.

Roddy B wrote:

Roy clearly doesn't have faith in possession, which I don't mind

The Question: Position or Possession.

Roddy B wrote:

I'm not bothered about England or how their results go, I lost all faith in the national side a long time ago, what I can't stand is people saying "we played well" when England didn't actually 'play'. I get defending, I get surrendering possession, but, as I said with the Italians, to not go out and play is defeatist and shows a lack of faith in one's tactics and ability to coach a side. You can be hard to beat but also attack and play with some form of intent, England never had that intent and they won't win anything meaningful playing for a clean sheet.

That's nonsense. England didn't do that, we had arguably the better chances in the game. Milner missed an open goal and Oxlade-Chamberlain and Young threatened to break through them several times. Sure we sat deep, arguably too deep, when they had a couple of spells of possession, but France did absolutely nothing with it. They created absolutely nothing.

Anti-Football is as valid as pure possession football and if the techncially superior team can't break it down, they don't deserve to win. It would be an idiotic thing to attack in a major championships with the team England have. They have nothing in central midfield at all, Gerrard is finished and Parker has no creativity in him. Defending deep and using Young, Wellbeck and Chamberlain on the break is surely the right thing to do.

Webcam from the national stadium in Warsaw. I've been trying to find one that covers the route of this Russian march that's happening but haven't been able to find anything yet. Any links please post.

http://agency.tvn.pl/pl/driver,3753.html