[Archived] euro12 thread

[Veevs]

Young was the worst player for us by far.. at fault for one of Swedens goals (although why he would of been marking Olaf I do not know), looked off the pace, lost and gave the ball away so much it was daft.

Welbeck had a single moment in the game and personally bar a couple of nice moments (last gasp tackles mostly) Glenn J was awful for most of the match, Parker looked half dead in the second half, Milner had a couple of good moments but was generally poor (and looked tired), Carrol for me lacked awareness of those around him and his passing awful.. but hey satisfied with the result.

[RibbleValleyRover]

I honestly thought England were dreadful, in particular they appeared to be really badly organised, which is strange considering all the hype Hodgson gets about his team organisation skills.

Midfield was a shambles once again; they just cannot keep possession - something that will kill you against better sides. Defensively they were all over the place especially on set pieces.

On the evidence so far they will get murdered by Spain in the quarter-finals, which is looking the most likely fixture as I can see France putting a few past a nothing to play for Sweden to top the group.

[Amo]

Well, England made hard work of that considering we spent the pre-match being told what a class apart we are from those bog-standard Swedes.

[Rovermatt]

Sweden were shocking. They were never going to win that. Their ball retention makes England look like the Spanish and Ibrahimovich is a greedy, greedy player. Witness his dallying on the break in the second half as he attempted to beat just one more man. What an idiot.

[DE.]

First half Sweden were pitiful - England weren't even that good, Sweden just seemed to have no idea what system they were supposed to be playing. At first I thought they were playing defensive counter-attack, but they didn't get players up to support Ibrahimovic when he got the ball. I'm not really sure what they were trying to do but it was all too easy for England. We went in 1-0 up despite not really doing a whole lot.

Second half Sweden looked a lot stronger - they had no choice but to pour forward and when they showed some intent England came unglued. Two awful, awful goals to concede. Really poor defending, time and time again our defenders were caught out of position and had to make last ditch tackles. The rest of our team could not retain the ball and kept hoofing it right back to Sweden. One moment in particular that irritated me was fairly near the end when Joe Hart caught the ball from a cross - then proceeded to smash it down the pitch which cost us possession again. We need to learn to be more patient and retain the ball better or one of the decent teams will annihilate us.

Walcott's equaliser was a really strange goal, it had no right to go in but for some reason it did. Not often you'll shoot from that distance directly at the centre of goal and it goes in. The third England goal had a touch of class about it, great incisive play by Walcott and a superb finish by Welbeck. We didn't deserve it, but that's football.

Despite winning I don't think anyone can be too confident moving forward. Certain players in our team really didn't show up tonight - Ashley Young in particular was disgraceful, I forgot he was even on the pitch. Gerrard kept trying to play the 'hollywood' ball which was very irritating as it wasn't coming off for him often if at all. Alternatively I thought Walcott had a fantastic impact when he came on, he was the difference between winning and drawing/losing tonight. I hate seeing Milner on the wing, and hope Walcott starts against Ukraine. We've got the Ox if we need a pacy winger to come on, we don't need two impact subs who have the same main attribute (pace).

Not quite there yet but you'd expect England to qualify now. I'm absolutely sure our tournament will end in the quarters, though. Any of Spain, Italy or Croatia will have enough to beat the current England team. We may have beaten Spain in a friendly but that will mean nothing should we play them (and it's most likely we will play them). We have a better chance against Italy or Croatia, but I see them both as being technically too good for us. The way both teams play will bamboozle our fairly sluggish defence and there will be a lot of gaps to exploit.

Still, at least we're not Ireland.

[adopted scouser]

Moan moan bloody moan.

We have four points from two games, Holland, yes Holland have nowt.

Let's see what happens FFS, at least we're not Irish.

[G Somerset Rover]

Wellbeck is really poor in my opinion, his first touch is shocking.

I always knew MB Diouf was the better of the two as Nicko boldly stated......

[adopted scouser]

Wellbeck is really poor in my opinion, his first touch is shocking.

Yeah, the winner was shocking wasn't it

[RoyRover]

Still, at least we're not Ireland.

Is there a problem?

[Baz]

Either of Italy or Croatia would beat us comfortably, Spain would give us a banging. Don't forget we've still got to play the Ukraine and not lose.

Can't see us beating Spain or Italy, but can see us beating Croatia, who look ok going forward but dodgy at the back. Just hope our players realise Ukraine wont be easy meat, and forget to turn up.

[Audax]

You people know more than me but I think the Defence was better and more orderly when Sven was manager and Robinson was goalkeeper. That team did not give up many goals. I certainly don't blame Joe Hart but I think there is something amiss. Those who noted defence must be correct. Of course, supposedly there is another factor in England's future...

[Exiled_Rover]

Moan moan bloody moan.

We have four points from two games, Holland, yes Holland have nowt.

Let's see what happens FFS, at least we're not Irish.

Exactly. We're not good enough to win it. As long as we don't embarrass ourselves, and we haven't, I'm happy.

[beerwins]

Hodgson has had two months or so to whip a very average England team into shape, I'm very happy with the way things are going.

[T4E]

Exactly. We're not good enough to win it. As long as we don't embarrass ourselves, and we haven't, I'm happy.

You went through the last world cup group stage without losing a game and people described that tournament as embarrassing. It's not an embarrassment to go out to a far better team, it's just a lack of humility that makes some of the English fans and media believe such.

Issakson's save from Gerrard last night may well have condemned England to a QF against Spain. You could really have done with that going in.

[ABBEY]

Yeah, the winner was shocking wasn't it

Hee hee ..

[Mattyblue]

So we have a 'lack of humility' if we think we've a chance and a 'lack of humility' if we think we are poor...

[T4E]

Thinking you have a chance is fine. Thinking you've a God given right to be successful and turning in to a load of whiny bitches when it goes wrong, is not.

[Mattyblue]

I haven't met one Englishman they thinks we are any cop, no sense of entitlement from what I can see.

The media on the other hand....

[RoyRover]

at least we're not Irish.

The sentiment of at least we're not English is universal.

[Gav]

I honestly thought England were dreadful, in particular they appeared to be really badly organised, which is strange considering all the hype Hodgson gets about his team organisation skills.

Midfield was a shambles once again; they just cannot keep possession - something that will kill you against better sides. Defensively they were all over the place especially on set pieces.

On the evidence so far they will get murdered by Spain in the quarter-finals, which is looking the most likely fixture as I can see France putting a few past a nothing to play for Sweden to top the group.

I think you're being a little unfair on Hodgson RVR, he's only been in the job a few weeks, and with those 2 idiots Terry and Cole in defence, it'll take longer than that to get through to them, they don't listen, they think they run the sides they play in. The sooner those 2 are dropped from the international squad the better, England can move on.

Whilst the performance wasn’t the best, I think Hodgson deserves lots of credit last night. Bringing Carroll in was a great move and the substitution of Walcott another.

[RoyRover]

I haven't met one Englishman they thinks we are any cop, no sense of entitlement from what I can see.

The media on the other hand....

I do think that there has been a calming of the usual hysteria that surrounds England by their fans. There is a general acceptance that England are an average international team on a level with the likes of Denmark and Croatia and that's nothing to be ashamed of. The media, though having been pushing the idea that because there is no expectation, the team have expectations. The one sided nature of commentary and analysis and the lack of respect for other nations has been at the usual level.

[Commondore]

I'd call that an unfair result. Once again, Sweden came undone by Hamrén's inability to organize a defense as well as some individual blunders, the first goal was great but wouldn't have gone in if either Gerrard or Carrol had got aleast some tiny amount of pressure on them and what Isaksson is doing on England's second I'll never know. This was the second time in two games we've lost a lead in the second half within five bloody minutes, teams with a safe defensive groundwork don't do that. Sweden bossed the midfield throughout, but while Ibrahimovic's strength on the ball is awesome he did slow the play down too much in key situations, which along with Elm's lacklustre passing and Elmander's concrete boots didn't exactly help our cause. Hugely impressed with Anders Svensson, 35 years of age and playing in the Swedish league he was still the best midfielder on the pitch in a game containing big names like Parker, Milner and Gerrard. He'll be sorely missed when he quits playing.

Also, did anyone else catch the BRFC flag?

[LDRover]

Yeah, the winner was shocking wasn't it

Did I say the winner was shocking?

Take his,IMO, flukey finish (I believe he was trying to control the ball) out of his performance and he was poor.

But still, if you want to pull apart every contributor who dares to have an opinion that you consider to be negative then feel free.

For what it's worth I'm delighted with how we're doing in the tournament thus far.

[Andy]

I think just getting through the group stage this year = success for us.

Anything further is a bonus and to be fair, as Greece and Denmark have shown in the recent past, anyone can win the competition once you're in the final 8.

Last night was a fantastic win, if only a medicre performance. Like Rovers fans need telling that substance over style is preferable after going from the effective Allardyce to the wholly incompetent Kean recently.

Let the snipers snipe. The vast majority of England fans know our squad's limitations and strengths - and make no mistake, we do have some genuinely world class players with like likes of Rooney and Gerrard.

Something that the Scots and Irish can't ever say is that they have the (often tragic) adventure we do at these tourneys and that we genuinely do have the potential there to win the thing, however remote it might or might not be.

So let them complain, whine and bitch about us.

We are England are there are few prouder.

[Rovermatt]

Something that the Scots and Irish can't ever say is that they have the (often tragic) adventure we do at these tourneys and that we genuinely do have the potential there to win the thing, however remote it might or might not be.

Does 'remote' potential count?