Going out with a bang!

Oh well, were out of the world cup, the typical high expectations and dreams tarnished, and those who doubted wallow in a hole of satisfaction. Like Liverpool in the premier league having to rely on other teams for favours it has the whole sense of embarrassment surrounding it, but with one game we still have to play,

I hope Hodgson sets out a very young attacking team similar to the one I mentioned in the last post, with one of the back up keepers in goal, as essentially the game does not really matter so we should at least give a cap and a memory to a keeper who may never get this chance again. Johnson right back as I predict it will  be his last major tournament, as well as Luke Shaw just to give in to the public feeling of Baines' poor performances. Jones and Cahill centre backs as Jagielka has been poor this tournament. Or even better a back three of Jones,  Cahill and Jagielka or Shaw, by having a back three Gerrard can sit deeper allowing another midfielder like wilshire to have more freedom to play in front of him. Or a midfield of, Gerrard, Barkley and Chamberlain with a strike-force of Sturridge in the centre, Lallana on the left and Sterling on the right. Hopefully we can put on a performance for the fans that will be cheering us on in the stadium and give the depressed fans back home something to be hopefully for come two years later at the euros with a strong, young attacking squad that will trouble the best performing team in the group.
The decision to keep Hodgson on, is a brave one, I think the phrase you cant teach an old dog new tricks is relevant here, his inability to change his formation style and lack of knowledge about how to use his most exciting players shows that he will never fulfil the high expectations of England Fans, however how many managers out there are dying to take the England job?

 I seen a couple of paragraphs in the Daily Mirror, explaining that the best young managers are both from Everton and Liverpool, but its close to impossible to convince a top manager in the premier league to move to an England Side especially with the amount of pressure that comes with it. Redknapp should of been appointed two years ago, Hodgson proved his lack of ability when he couldnt handle the pressure or players at Liverpool how is meant to do it for England, it was never meant to be.

Sheer Embarresment!

Tactically set up wrong, UN- influential substitutions and an overall lack of desire. Every header we lost we deserved to, Uruguay wanted that win more, it was as if the players were not focussed and were constantly looking over their shoulder out of fear. The passing was diabolical, and like when we played Italy we let them dominate us with their passing and just trying to move on the counter attack, this was never going to be possible with the lack of movement from Wayne Rooney.

Yes he is a scapegoat, but he never seems to give his true desire to the cause, every young boy would give an arm and a leg to represent England, to put on that white shirt that has been worn by true warriors and heroes over the years, yet the players who are wearing it just see it as duty? Where is the display of passion, the busting of their gut to get back and defend! it doesn't exist, I was confident going into this match i believed England would win comfortably and that Rooney would prove all doubters wrong, yet it was me left red faced as he missed two glorious chances to send England level or even England ahead and seemed to be too emotional over scoring a tap in from two yards out, I'd of liked to believe that Wayne Rooney a true professional would of seen this goal as an instigator to get the ball and rush back to the half way line and try to get another yet they wasted time celebrating allowing Uruguay that chance to re cooperate. The defence was subject to mass amounts of criticism throughout even the qualifiers and proved right to be, Jagielka cant handle Suarez, proven in every game he's ever played against him, yet the lack of experience and quality in the back four can't really be a subject due to the little amount of English centre backs with pure quality we have. Glen Johnson, how this man repeatedly gets chosen as a starter for England and Liverpool is beyond me, he seems to have a set pattern of doing a one two with a midfielder running at the defence, getting caught and losing the ball and repeat. His throw ins during the match, must of accumulated to a total pass rate of 4% every throw in of his seemed to go to a Uruguay player. People may argue that he got an assist but if they watch closely it happened because he brought the ball forward from a terrible touch and tried to 50-50 the ball with the oncoming defender and the ball somehow got to Wayne Rooney, pure luck.

Where as each of Uruguay's goals were down to the quality possessed by Luis Suarez, the main is a genius, he was one step ahead of every player on that pitch and single handedly crushed England's dreams, England go into the next world cup match needed to Beat Costa Rica while also needed Italy to beat Costa Rica and then Italy to beat Uruguay oh and they also need to beat Costa Rica by two clear goals, all confidence has gone, and the fact that we are relying on the simplistic ideology from Roy Hodgson depresses me, he doesn't give the wow factor or the motivational factor, imagine going into a dressing room 1-0 and Roy Hodgson trying to inspire you, I doubt he even said a word, the next game I would just like to see a very attacking formation, 3-4-3, Jagielka, Jones, and Cahill centre backs, Gerrard, Barkley, Wilshire and Sterling In midfield, along with Sturridge, Chamberlain and Lallana as the front three.

I highly doubt Roy Hodgson has ever heard of this formation, and will stick with his 4-5-1 system, he's becoming more and more like Mike Basset as the tournament goes on except I cant see him producing an inspirational speech at the end of tournament to inspire his team to victory. This post was more like a rant than a Support post, but as any England fan knows, frustration builds watching England at tournaments, just hopefully with the sheer luck of God (Not Robbie Fowler) we can get the results we need to turn this tournament into some sort of a success, Stranger things have happened!

Changes!

Rooney has undeniable ability, without a shadow of a doubt, he has been an icon in Manchester United red for the past ten years yet when he puts on an England shirt it seems to be the same old story, high hopes and destroyed dreams. In my opinion Rooney is best in the number 10 role behind the striker, every England fan would agree, this is where he wants to play, this is the world cup he wants to prove himself in, Let Him. Hopefully his performance against Italy will be looked back on as a walk up call, and the desire that he shows will equal that shown from the former Manchester United player David Beckham against Greece in 2001.Anyway enough on the Rooney saga, he should be given one last chance to prove himself, the number 10 role other wise he should not start as other players are eager to get their chance to shine.

Here is my starting 11 for the game against Uruguay:
                       Hart                                                                         The goalkeeper picks himself

   Johnson--Cahill-Jagielka--Baines              The back four, especially Johnson is vulnerable but without any                                                                              other options there is simply no other alternatives
                   Gerrard
Sterling        Henderson       Lallana       The midfield with Gerrard and Henderson will be more secure                                                                     after more experience for Henderon, with sterling already                                                                           settling well, the added creativity of Lallana could give England that                                                                                                           missing spark
                   
                        Rooney        Definitely, owes something to England, needs to perform or be dropped
                     Sturridge        England's best striker and finisher since a decade ago, given the right delivery,                                                                    could be a surprise candidate for top goalscorer

It's great to have a squad as inter changeable as we have, we are spoiled for creativity, the influence that players like Sterling, Lallana, Barkley and Chamberlain can have on a game gives us more hope if the game plan is not going well. It was a tough choice as to whether to include Barkley or Lallana but i think that because the position is left midfield the position is more suited to Lallana's ability rather than the direct powerful runs of Barkley.

However if Rooney fails to perform, a ready made back up for him is Ross Barkley, deemed as future England captain every time he gets the ball he looks to create something, if Rooney is lacking in his position, Barkley will come in and do a fine job, he could also fill in the position of Henderson. Barkley is becoming a phenomenal player and a player of little knowledge to the opposition, he could be our secret weapon if used right, but at the end of the day its Roy Hodgson who picks the team, I'm just a fan with high hopes and dreams.


                       

The Match Review!

Positives to take from the match? Hopeful for next game? This gives us excuses to lose the game? No, England lost the game down to a sheer lack of awareness of how dominant Italy's midfield would be, Pirlo and Marchisio ran the game, as the midfield were simply not close enough. Henderson however much I rate him should be experienced enough to understand that he needs to be touch tight to Pirlo, obviously Pirlo has more class than Henderson but no other player on that pitch will have the endurance that Henderson possesses meaning that if Pirlo gets away and gives a pass off Henderson could of moved into a better position by his gut busting stamina.

I think this lack of understanding came from Roy, he obviously did not plan for Italy dictating the game so much and relied on his own player's abilityto simply back off and close down Pirlo without being on his toes, this left Pirlo to simply get the ball out of his feet and to thread the ball through to either Marchisio who consistently strayed behind Gerrard and in front of the defence allowing him acres of space to run into into. Another talking point was Rooney, many are questioning his ability and everyone is right to, a player who commands an income of £300,000 a week should be able to transfer his game to the left side of the pitch while also having an impact. The only thing that Rooney done well was a cross that was superbly put into the net by Daniel Sturridge, this however was overshadowed by three significant points, his horrific corner which ended up about 50 yards behind the goal, his chance to equalise he dragged wide (which any other player would of scored) and his lack of ability to defend. Baines did not have his greatest game with this in mind, Rooney should of had the basic mindset to acknowledge that Baines was being beaten by Italy's right side and sat deeper to nullify the opposition. A wise move would of been to bring James Milner on who would of chased and closed down the opposition in Rooney's absence, this chance may of altered the whole game as more energy from England may have of stopped the ball getting to Ballotelli for Italy's second and ultimately the winning goal.

At the end of the day I can understand many people's point of view that England played well, yet it clearly wasn't well enough, Italy are by no means one of the best teams at this world cup and England looked very vulnerable against them, imagine having to play Argentina, Germany, Brazil or Holland we'd be ripped to shreds. The most important thing now is too look forward to a simple easy relaxing fixture against, Gulp Uruguay and Luis Suarez.

First Adrenalin Rush!

Seeing the official squad being named, nothing surprised me which meant Roy Hodgson actually done something right for a change. Other England managers in the past have often threw in the highly anticapated wildcard deemed for all these high expectations, Roy has not done this. You could argue that Raheem Sterling fits the bill as the wildcard however his form and his ability had already cemented his place in the world cup squad there was no real potential to be fulfilled in this world cup like there was with Walcott in Germany 2006 who actually never even played a single match!

The squad however seems to be balanced in harmonic tune, with a good mixture of highly established and respected players such as Gerrard and Lampard as well as the young players with a burning passion to play like Barkley and Sterling. The only downside which is typical flaw in the England team as of late is the lack of pure passion of the back four, the missing place of England's fourth lion, which for years was replicated in the performances of John Terry, the passion he shows in every game would of been a great asset for the England team however the typical calmness of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka should give England much hope, they are both experienced and both very rarely make mistakes the further this tournament proceeds i predict that these two players will form a great partnership. The strikers, Lambert, Sturridge, Rooney and Welbeck its more than likely that only three of these players will be billed as starters or main players (that means Lambert is not). However after his recent move to Liverpool whenever Lambert is on the pitch, he will have a massive influence his sheer drive and determination will mean his chance to shine will not be passed up, he could make a massive difference in a game that is dictated by strong defenders, his power and his finishing ability is unquestionable leaving many good options for Roy to choose from. The other three, as long as they establish their positions on the pitch, and can thread balls through to each other, I expect goals and more goals. Especially against the vulnerable defence of Uruguay.

 I can see Rooney's favourite position behind the striker being relinquished due to the requirement for more space and creativity which I think Rooney will not be able to create in the tighter games where as a player like sterling or Barkley can run through defences for fun. Anyway the squad alone is a relatively strong one, the players Roy has picked shows an eye for the future which is something we have lacked in a lot of tournaments, hopefully our young lions can learn from the established alpha males and make our country proud this summer in Brazil