2011-12 Football/Soccer Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Welbeck continues to impress. Held the ball up exceptionally well, had a pass completion rate of 96% and created two goal scoring opportunities (as well as scoring a very nice goal).

I'm happy Carroll scored a goal, and what a goal it was. However, he also gave away the free kick for one of Sweden's goals with a stupid challenge. He had about a 50% pass completion and didn't create any chances for other players. So, he had a pretty lame match despite scoring, although I do recall a couple of headers away while defending which is always good to have.

Wasn't impressed with James Milner at all, I don't think he should start another game for England now. He really doesn't bring anything to the table other than a mediocre ability for us to switch formation to 433 easily (Young and Welbeck either side of Carroll in this particular game). We play badly with defensive wingers and Milner doesn't have the engine of say a Ji-Sung Park or Scott Parker. He'd be better coming off the bench when we're winning games to help close them out.

Glen Johnson was pretty bad at times, but I probably wouldn't change any of the defenders now they're settled. Gerrard and Parker is fine, but I do wish that Gerrard would try the Hollywood pass a little less often - it pretty much never comes off unless it is a cross (in which case it leads to a great chance for us to score).

Against Ukraine, the team might pick itself now:

Hart
Johnson Terry Lescott Cole
Gerrard Parker
Chamberlain Rooney Young
Welbeck​

Chamberlain played well first game as a starter, so he should be the attacking winger we choose to start. Milner has been pretty poor and offered little, so he should be used to close a game out as I already said. While Walcott has proved he is an impact player for when we need to make some chances. Rooney needs to come back in to get some sharpness and Welbeck / Young have done enough to keep their places.

England may only need a draw, but setting out to get that is always a bad idea. We should play a team like this and put them to the sword. That would see us through, and even if we did get a team like Spain in the next round, I'd play a similar team. The only change I could see would be the likes of Jones coming in over Welbeck as extra defensive midfield cover, with Gerrard a bit further forward and Rooney upfront alone (with Chamberlain and Young for the counter attack).
 
Milner did fine in that game I thought. He didn't have pace but he offered a decent outlet for the full backs and produced some good crosses. Young on the otherhand was abysmal. He has not turned up for Euro 2012 at all. I don't remember him doing anything at all apart from wandering around like he didn't know where he was supposed to be.

I would start Milner for the next game, I think he offers good balance to the team with a defensive winger and an offensive winger. Who takes up the offensive winger position is up for grabs, I'd like Young to turn up but if he is going to perform like he has in the last two then I'd rather have Ox or Walcott.

Glen Johnson has been excellent so far, way above my expectations. He has been relatively solid at the back, produced good tackles and hasn't tried any stupid trickery/shots or anything and has stayed disciplined. He hasn't been getting forward as often as he usually does but that's a good thing in my book.

Carroll again has impressed me, he is an absolutely huge lump up front. I just wish he was a bit better at holding the ball up, if he keeps improving then he could be a huge player but right now I think he's short of international quality so it would have to be Rooney and Welbeck to start up front.
 
I just think Milner's final ball has been poor and he loses it a fair amount. If he can't get into his club side's first team, I can't see a real reason for him to be starting for England. Young has offered more than Milner for me and created a few chances, but I do agree he's not hit the heights he did for United. He needs to try and take players on more (and win some penalties...).

Johnson has made some good last ditch tackles, but if you re-watch the Sweden game he gave the ball away around the half way line so many times I lost count, which just opened us up so much. He can't afford to give the ball away so cheaply like that or the better teams will cut us to ribbons. He's been our worst defender but none of them have been bad, which is good obviously.

Other than Carroll's goal I can't see how anyone can be impressed with his performance sadly. The work rate and effort is there, but other than the goal he did nothing positive other than try to win headers that almost always went to Swedish players. He did more negative by offering Sweden the chance to score early in the second half, there was no way he was winning that ball. Hopefully he improves as well, if we can be two goals up against Ukraine I'd love Carroll to get on for the second half.

Hopefully Rooney comes back with a bang and plays well with Welbeck and Young. I'd much rather we start the team I stated above, with Carroll replacing Rooney, Milner replacing Oxlade-Chamberlain, and probably Walcott or Henderson over Welbeck.
 
I cannot believe it either. To be fair, Russia have no one to blame but themselves. All they had to do was get a result against Greece and they failed to do so.
 
Mourinho'd/Di Matteo'd.

In all honesty though, I doubt they'll have much of a chance against Germany. Portugal and Denmark maybe.
 
Quite excited about the Group B-matches tonight. I like how every country in the group still stands a chance of making it to the next round, and that even Germany stands a chance of not making the quarters (if Denmark and Portugal win, they can lose by goal saldo).

Even though they don't deserve it, I'm still rooting for the Dutch to advance to the quarters. I can imagine it being a very interesting night, as it is hit-or-miss for every team.
 
Great performance for Ronaldo, aided by terrible Dutch defending. So much for Holland not like their defence was highly regarded but it been totally inept all tournament i don't think any other team would have defended any worse regardless of the quality of the group.

Still Germanys tournament to lose imo.
 
The Danes got robbed. I don't watch much football and so am not the best judge but minutes before Germany scored their second a Danish forward got a good shot but was being held by a German defender inside the box. Shouldn't that be a PK?
 
Holland were dreadful all tournament. Germany look really solid, I can't really see anyone else beating them. Having said that, Greece got through the group so who knows what will happen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top