Group C (England, Algeria, Slovenia, USA! USA! USA!)

[Kenneth]

Terrible display.

James 6
Johnson 4
Terry 6 - Too generous
Carragher 4
Cole 6
Lennon 5
Lampard 4
Gerrard 6
Barry 6
Rooney 5
Heskey 1 How was he worse than Rooney? Or Johnson? Or Lampard? Don't agree with picking out Heskey.

[paulg]

Carra covered for Terry a couple of times, too.

I don't think I've ever seen England play that badly.

[McDermotX]

some people think he is injured.

one thing rooney isnt is a shirker no matter what you think of him.

He almost looked like he was sick the way he was playing there........absolutely crap.
People go on about the ball bouncing of Heskey, but Rooney was especially poor tonight.

[Shaggy]

Personally I'm not a fan of the whole boo boy mentality. It's utterly classless and the fans booing need to take a long hard look at themselves, piss off home and burn their match tickets. They have no right to call themselves supporters.

Their performance is just as shameful as anything on the pitch.

The booing was a disgrace. I dunno if it's been mentioned in the thread...haven't seen it yet, but in case anyone missed it.......a cameraman got in Rooney's face as he trudged off at the end, with a cacophony of boos ringing out around him (England fans obviously) and he said angrily, and directly to camera, "that's nice innit, being booed by your own fans"

He's right though. Disgraceful 'supporters'.

[GraciousGooner]

Carra covered for Terry a couple of times, too.

I don't think I've ever seen England play that badly.

2nd half Croatia. Away in Russia. Though that was woeful. Capello is meant to be a tactical genius. NONE OF THESE PLAYERS ARE USED TO A 4-4-2 FABIO. Least of all our best two midfielders.

[paulg]

Heskey was worse by quite a distance. He clearly has no footballing intelligence at all. Lost virtually every header he went for. Defoe won more headers than him.
At least when Defoe came on we passed it along the ground a bit. Launching balls up to Heskey / Crouch is too easy to defend against.

[Shaggy]

He almost looked like he was sick the way he was playing there........absolutely crap.
People go on about the ball bouncing of Heskey, but Rooney was especially poor tonight.

He was indeed, but the ball bounced off Heskey all night. All bloody night! It was unbelievable, even my wife cottoned on to it.

[MrsB]

This is pretty normal for us in the world cup but. Start off depressing, get a good run on, build up hope, then crushing disappointment.

We'll still get through and go out in the quarters on penalties

Don't forget that Capello is Italian. England will go through the first round scoring as few goals as possible and win it in the end.

[paulg]

I agree 4-4-2 is wrong. But surely, no matter what formation you are in, you can pass to a team mate?

[Kenneth]

Heskey was worse by quite a distance. He clearly has no footballing intelligence at all. Lost virtually every header he went for. Defoe won more headers than him.
At least when Defoe came on we passed it along the ground a bit. Launching balls up to Heskey / Crouch is too easy to defend against.

Sounds like you blame Heskey for the fact that people played high balls to him No way was he worse than Rooney.

[McDermotX]

Personally I'm not a fan of the whole boo boy mentality. It's utterly classless and the fans booing need to take a long hard look at themselves, piss off home and burn their match tickets. They have no right to call themselves supporters.

Their performance is just as shameful as anything on the pitch.

True, (don't agree with it myself)
but a country's World Cup run is sometimes carried along with strong emotions and bluster, so it comes as no surprise to se a lot of the En-ger-land fans giving it loads when they are served **** like that............can't say we'd see it with other teams (although there was bit with the French last night)

[Chrono]

The booing was a disgrace. I dunno if it's been mentioned in the thread...haven't seen it yet, but in case anyone missed it.......a cameraman got in Rooney's face as he trudged off at the end, with a cacophony of boos ringing out around him (England fans obviously) and he said angrily, and directly to camera, "that's nice innit, being booed by your own fans"

He's right though. Disgraceful 'supporters'.

I wonder if you'd feel the same if it cost you over £1000 to watch that. I'm not saying booing helps or that it is a good thing but I totally understand it. The way they played was more disgusting than the booing imo.

[Armchairkopite]

Simple Heskey = no goals Crouch = Goals

Its not rocket science, goals win games

[Kenneth]

I agree 4-4-2 is wrong. But surely, no matter what formation you are in, you can pass to a team mate?

We had 2 strikers against 3 CBs. In possenssion, we had 4 MFs against 5. No space at all, and ala Liverpool, they had no idea how to create any.

[Kenneth]

Simple Heskey = no goals Crouch = Goals

Its not rocket science, goals win games

Agree completely. Crouch should be starting, IF we are going to persist with 2 strikers.