By Rhys Jaggar : England went for the win and got one
England were much better in the second 45 minutes and actually scored two goals in one tournament half (which doesn’t happen that often).
Roy Hodgson, no doubt feeling like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at the end of the film, loaded his rifles up and blew away his oppressors with fusillades of attacking intent.
Shearer basically echoed what you said before the game at half time, saying Hodgson was fighting for his job.
However, all that midfield domination and the three points doesn’t mask the fact that there is still plenty more improvement to come, plenty which needs to come and plenty which the players are capable of producing.
Nothing too disastrous about that, after all. Tournament football is about peaking at the right time. England certainly haven’t peaked yet, anything like. Quite frankly no-one wants them to peak against Slovakia either, but they do need to win and be even more effective in the final third.
Hart should be fighting for his place with Forster.
He was arguably at fault for both goals England have conceded and Schmeichel and Oliver Kahn both said he didn’t need a wall for a 35-yard shot (probably as a wall has no ability to stop a ball going over it and below a crossbar at such long range). It would be good for him to realise that if Kane can be hooked, so can he.
England need to limit the attempted imitations of Beckenbauer by Smalling. He’s a solid English Centre Back, he is not Bobby Moore in terms of passing. It is an acknowledgement of tactical failure if England reckon that is their best option.
Long range shooting was poor. From Kane, from Sturridge. Rooney’s placed bender was saved easily by Hennessy.
Crossing is still pretty poor. I don’t know what the world-leading stats are for crossing, but England’s crossing is nowhere near it. Too many don’t pass the first defenders, go beyond the last attacker or hit a defender with no attacker even challenging.
Rooney was being caught in possession in some dodgy places.
Against better opposition that might get punished. He should focus on that rather than all the plaudits he is getting (yes he played well again).
What I find highly amusing is how a few journalists are saying Dele Alli isn’t playing well. What a load of cobblers. The truth is that he is playing a disciplined team role, not having a team built around him. He is finding space in between the midfield and the back four with regularity, is being picked out by his team mates, and he is linking the play well without any OMG moments to date. I’d be interested in what someone like Scholes thinks about what he is doing…..
I don’t think hitting Harry Kane as a target man in the air was Plan A either.
If you wanted to do that, for gawd’s sake they should have brought Andy Carroll along. None of the people Hodgson selected would put route 1 target man as their top skills.
I”m not quite sure what England’s plan WAS in the past two games to bring him into the game. Either he wasn’t doing it or the plan was to make him look rubbish so they could play someone else instead. Wayne Rooney feeling challenged by him before the tournament may not have helped his cause…….it’s clear Wayne’s needs must be accommodated by Roy Hodgson. If you play Kane at centre forward, the overall strategy must be co-ordinated around his skill set. Otherwise, why play him?
Sterling had better perform brilliantly in training, primarily in terms of positional awareness and delivering crosses with pinpoint accuracy if he wants to get on the field again this tournament. I’m sure he wouldn’t have started if he weren’t a £50m Man City signing. I hope people finally realise that starting ‘names’ is no substitute for starting players in form.
Sturridge had better realise that although he scored the winning goal and showed plenty of desire, his execution was far from perfect. Everyone knows the talents he has, but talent is not the same as delivery. His attitude in front of the media has changed markedly for the better however, so it is likely that he may well realise this already. He can expect to contribute against Slovakia.
Vardy scored from 6 yards, which is what centre forwards do. He wasn’t a radical improvement overall, but he did what his job was: scoring. He can expect to contribute against Slovakia.
Rashford looked comfortable on the pitch, once he got over his first touch. It would be very interesting to start him against Slovakia, but I can’t imagine Hodgson doing that. He needs to be losing at half time against Slovakia with Sturridge and Vardy starting before he’d risk that.
Dier, Rose and Walker looked reasonably solid. Time will tell if stronger sides will expose weaknesses. There may be games where greater protection in defensive midfield is required. I don’t think that will be against Slovakia.
I hope the England squad enjoy tonight, then knuckle down with the realisation that their performance curve needs to go up another 5 times if they want to win this tournament. They should aim to beat Slovakia 2-0 or similar. A performance inspiring belief without euphoria.
The time for rational belief is after the last 16. Confidence after the quarter final. Dreams after the semi-final. Euphoria after the final.
Italy, Spain, France and Germany have performed better than England so far. But not so much better that England improvements cannot reverse that.
Without a victory over Slovakia, reversing that might need to happen sooner rather than later.
So beating Slovakia is a goal worth prioritising.
Myles says:
Thanks Rhys.
You obviously rated England’s performance more highly than I did.
It’s 9.30 already and I’ve just realised that I need to turn my normal Friday schedule upside down.
So I have no blogging time this morning.
It’s : eat breakfast, go for a swim at the gym, chill out in the spa and steam room, zoom back in time for Italy v Sweden.
Italy look a lot better than Germany did last night in that 0-0 against Poland.
Two pundits talked sense after the England-wales game.
Ian Wright said, “In the first half, people were passing and standing still.”
Managers have to be realistic and pragmatic and Slaven Bilic’s comments were pertinent.
Bilic said, “The first half was not good, Wales defend the box. In the second half when Roy done great changes, it was a different game. Maybe not in terms of quality of passing but they had bodies in the box and that’s how they scored both goals.”