Holland 1 Rooney 1. But 4-3-3 fails

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THE TABLOID REPORTERS don’t like Steve McClaren, so they hack him to pieces in print and on Radio 5 Live.

   

    The TV commentators are more like cheerleaders, so they want to give him a chance.

   

    Last night’s BBC commentators kept telling us that England, 1-0 up against Holland after a Rooney goal in 37 minutes, were “cruising”.

   

    We only had about 30% possession but the commentators reckoned we were “comfortable”.

   

    Then Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink came on as a sub and we found that we could not defend Robben’s long throw into the box.

    JVH headed the ball on and it brushed the arm of sub Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and broke to Rafael van der Vaart, who smashed it in.

    So it was 1-1 after 88 minutes.

   

    WHAT A STUPID GOAL TO CONCEDE !

   

    Then we started play a bit and Stevie Gerrard had a chance but he scuffed his shot into the ground and the keeper made a good save.

   

    It was a scrappy match notable only for a good duel between Arjen Robben and Micah Richards, who made his debut at 18 years and 144 days.

   

    Once again the influence of Terry Venables was plain to see.He always changes his team according to the opposition.

    That did not work in Euro 96 and it will not work now either.

   

    England mirrored Holland‘s 4-3-3 and used Andy Johnson on the right side, which did not work.

    Frank Lampard stunk the place out, again.

    But as soon as Joe Cole went on the right, we scored.

   

    Richards made an overlap, took a defender away, and gave Joe Cole space for a cross which Rooney knocked in from three yards. It was a killer cross from Cole and Rooney was pretty cool, allowing the ball to hit his right heel and bounce into the net.

 

 If England knew how to play 4-3-3 it could be a very penetrating way of playing, and Stevie G gave us glimpses of what it might be, getting in twice for decent efforts.

 

 But McClaren & Venables will never dare to use such an attacking line-up in a qualifying game, so it’s irrelevant

   

    We will suffer five days of tortured analysis after this England outing but in truth there was nothing much to say.

   

    England drew a scrappy friendly in Amsterdam and Richards made a decent debut. Brian Barwick should have hired a proper coach.Marco van Basten will still boss Holland in 2008 but not in the World Cup. NEXT !

   

   

    Earlier, Croatia won 4-3 in Israel.

    Their Brazilian, Eduardo, scored a hat-trick.

  In Paris, Thierry Henry headed the only goal against Greece and skipper Patrick Vieira won his 100th cap.

Holland 1 Rooney 1. But 4-3-3 fails

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By Myles Palmer

THE TABLOID REPORTERS don’t like Steve McClaren, so they hack him to pieces in print and on Radio 5 Live.

The TV commentators are more like cheerleaders, so they want to give him a chance.

Last night’s BBC commentators kept telling us that England, 1-0 up against Holland after a Rooney goal in 37 minutes, were “cruising”.

We only had about 30% possession but the commentators reckoned we were “comfortable”.

Then Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink came on as a sub and we found that we could not defend Robben’s long throw into the box.

JVH headed the ball on and it brushed the arm of sub Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and broke to Rafael van der Vaart, who smashed it in.

So it was 1-1 after 88 minutes.

WHAT A STUPID GOAL TO CONCEDE !

Then we started play a bit and Stevie Gerrard had a chance but he scuffed his shot into the ground and the keeper made a good save.

It was a scrappy match notable only for a good duel between Arjen Robben and Micah Richards, who made his debut at 18 years and 144 days.

Once again the influence of Terry Venables was plain to see.He always changes his team according to the opposition.

That did not work in Euro 96 and it will not work now either.

England mirrored Holland’s 4-3-3 and used Andy Johnson on the right side, which did not work.

Frank Lampard stunk the place out, again.

But as soon as Joe Cole went on the right, we scored.

Richards made an overlap, took a defender away, and gave Joe Cole space for a cross which Rooney knocked in from three yards. It was a killer cross from Cole and Rooney was pretty cool, allowing the ball to hit his right heel and bounce into the net.

If England knew how to play 4-3-3 it could be a very penetrating way of playing, and Stevie G gave us glimpses of what it might be, getting in twice for decent efforts.

But McClaren & Venables will never dare to use such an attacking line-up in a qualifying game, so it’s irrelevant

We will suffer five days of tortured analysis after this England outing but in truth there was nothing much to say.

England drew a scrappy friendly in Amsterdam and Richards made a decent debut. Brian Barwick should have hired a proper coach.Marco van Basten will still boss Holland in 2008 but not in the World Cup. NEXT !

Earlier, Croatia won 4-3 in Israel.

Their Brazilian, Eduardo, scored a hat-trick.

In Paris, Thierry Henry headed the only goal against Greece and skipper Patrick Vieira won his 100th cap.