England vs Slovakia & Wales vs Russia

[Boogs]

[ame]https://twitter.com/c4ciaran/status/745002606402113536[/ame]

[Gibbo]

Henderson completed 44/48 passes and made more passes in the attacking third than anyone tonight (16/18)

Weird how stats can tell a completely different story to a perceived performance.

[Mr Darko]

Henderson's corners and crosses were pretty poor, either far too much weight/power behind them or not enough, either went out for a throw in or couldn't even pass their first defender. Do England actually bother with corners in training?

IMHO despite dominating for most of all three games England were pretty lucky to get 5 points...(1) the point again Russia from Dier's goal - was never a free kick, Alli ran/jumped into their defender, not the other way round. (2) First goal against Wales - their own defender passed it straight to Vardy on a plate.

[Kenneth]

I think that's a little one sided. Take away Hart's mistake and Wales don't come close to scoring. It's hard to breakdown teams who defend with 11 men all game.

[Bloodraven]

I think that's a little one sided. Take away Hart's mistake and Wales don't come close to scoring. It's hard to breakdown teams who defend with 11 men all game.

Top sides seem to manage it

[Kenneth]

Did you watch the France game? There have been numerous examples in this tournament . it's a problem Liverpool often fail to overcome also.

[dww]

They really haven't. I'm no massive England fan, but we have been very good in patches. I haven't seen any other teams that have been at it for 90 mins, Italy were crap against Sweden, France poor in all games. Germany poor in one of their two.

The main issue for me is that we have no effective approach to break down well organized defences. Throwing on forwards worked once but too often we look to have three or four players wanting to do the same thing.

No width and no natural 10 means that our approach play becomes predictable.

Personally, I think Hodgson made a mistake dropping Sterling. He has issues with his productivity but he links left and right and has trick in him that can open up defences. It is a massive waste to have Sturridge always dropping deep to create a similar threat.

[Phoenix07]

Sturridge always drops deep anyway. That's one of my issues with having him as our lone striker. It was nothing new.

[Kenneth]

The main issue for me is that we have no effective approach to break down well organized defences. Throwing on forwards worked once but too often we look to have three or four players wanting to do the same thing.

No width and no natural 10 means that our approach play becomes predictable.

Personally, I think Hodgson made a mistake dropping Sterling. He has issues with his productivity but he links left and right and has trick in him that can open up defences. It is a massive waste to have Sturridge always dropping deep to create a similar threat.

Hodgson is a dumbass and his idea of increasing the chance of scoring is to throw strikers at the problem. England have been a bit unlucky with Russia shutting up shop in the first game and then Slovakia playing for a 0-0 in the third. Both of those teams looked at the Wales games with a view to win them and set up accordingly, ideal for quality attachers like Bale and Sturridge to pick off. The next round should give England a better chance to find some goals now that it's knock out.

[labourRed]

No they've not. They've lacked the creativity in attack and tried to rely on piling attackers forward. Overall game management has been decent, possession has been decent, passing alright. But taking Lallana off, one who can play short sharp passes to get through a packed defense is just classic Roy. Basically, Skrtel bossed our strikers.

They played Russia who put 11 men behind the ball, and then Slovakia who did the same. Against a team trying to win they won and if Slovakia had needed 3 points they have probably won by a few goals.

Well i forcefully disagree. This is international football and the context of men behind the ball is not a new one in this arena.

They haven't played with width, their forward line is i dunno indiscernible. Take too long in possession (probably cause there is **** all options). Dier to his credit has performed as has Lalana whilst being ineffective.

They've a max of two games left and i won't be sorry to see their awful brand of football go.

[Fosterbloke]

Hodgson is a dumbass and his idea of increasing the chance of scoring is to throw strikers at the problem. England have been a bit unlucky with Russia shutting up shop in the first game and then Slovakia playing for a 0-0 in the third. Both of those teams looked at the Wales games with a view to win them and set up accordingly, ideal for quality attachers like Bale and Sturridge to pick off. The next round should give England a better chance to find some goals now that it's knock out.

Sturridge had had plenty of opportunities to pick off the opposition but has fluffed his lines on several occasions.

[Vermilion]

Sturridge had had plenty of opportunities to pick off the opposition but has fluffed his lines on several occasions.

Tru fact.

[Harv]

Whales

[dww]

Hodgson is a dumbass and his idea of increasing the chance of scoring is to throw strikers at the problem. England have been a bit unlucky with Russia shutting up shop in the first game and then Slovakia playing for a 0-0 in the third. Both of those teams looked at the Wales games with a view to win them and set up accordingly, ideal for quality attachers like Bale and Sturridge to pick off. The next round should give England a better chance to find some goals now that it's knock out.

Agree with that.

Although I imagine we will also struggle to dominate teams as much which could expose our defence.

[The_weatherman]

Agree with that.

Although I imagine we will also struggle to dominate teams as much which could expose our defence.

IF (unlikely) Iceland manages to win Austria and finish second, I reckon they will defend very deep and very compact against England.


Edit: Should have quoted Kenneth as well.