Re: England our england!

......

"Three lions on a shirt
Jules Rimet still gleaming
50 years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming"

Time to revive for Rio 2016

I was delighted to see Frank score twice, but the match made me yawn. That's a polite way of putting it.

Re: England our england!

Now John, I have watched some good Imps videos on UTube and they have not been the yawn last night was in large patches.

Re: England our england!

Yes it was pretty easy for England but we moan whether they win lose or draw don't we? Good to see one or two of the youngsters get a chance to have a game though.
I get the feeling that the Ukraine will turn out to be a a lot sterner challenge come Tuesday evening, more of a test for the Three lions but hopefully the lads will rise to the occasion and progress further towards qualification.

Re: England our england!

I wasnt going to say this but yes I was bored. Sorry.

Re: England our england!

Our lads play in their group H match against the Ukraine tonight at Wembley. The Kick-off is at 20:00 and will be shown on ITV.

Not certain of the lineup and given the injuries and stomach bugs flying about I would think Roy boy is none too sure himself. Interesting that the young Liverpool winger, Raheem Sterling, has been drafted in to the squad as well as Midfielders Jake Livermore, of Tottenham, and Southampton's Adam Lallana.

Glad to see that Mr Hodgson maintains his position over Peter Crouch and others like him who think they have an automatic right to be in the squad even when they are long past their shelf life. A pity some other managers did not adopt the same stance long ago .

Good luck England, I think Ukraine might pose a few more problems than Moldova but we should get a win.

Onward.

Re: England our england!

I agree entirely about the Peter Crouch attitude Hammer, at least Roy Hodgson is letting them know who picks the team, I like his stance! Without a load of Prima Donas we may be able to build a team who can work together for the good of football and England in particular, the very best of luck to them tonight, no matter who plays against the Ukraine.

Re: England our england!

Looking at the nine groups that make up the Europe qualifyers even the most pessimistic supporter would have to concede that we were in one of the easiest and should win it. There would be far less strain on the nerves as we know that only the group winners would go direct to Brazil and we would accomplish that without the dreaded play-offs, would we not?.

After all these other teams are way below us in the rankings and pose little threat.
Well, we came down to earth with a bit of a bump last night and were 'Frankly' lucky to have got a point.

The 87th minute Lampard penalty saved us from the ignomy of fourth place in the table and much worse, it could have kicked off the familiar uphill struggle to qualify, as of now we are in 2nd spot on GD.

From the get-go the Ukrainians came to play and were far better than their 39th FIFA ranking but we should have known this from our last encounter at the Euros.
They seemed to put us under pressure immediately and we might well have conceded in the first few minutes. Their skipper, Tymoshchuk, dominated and controlled the midfield with more assurance than any regular England player could muster.

Rotan had time on the ball to do what he liked and provided the links to their attack. It was only a last ditch clearance by Gerrard that stopped him scoring in the first half.

The frequently tardy Lescott gave the ball away far too often which led to the first goal when the quite superb Konoplyanka cut in from the left and unleashed a stunning shot into the top right hand corner.

As for us, we seemed to have no game plan at all. We cannot simply blame the youngsters, there were enough seasoned campaigners out there to guide the team through any possible Ukranian maelstrom. They did nothing to help the kids who tried but were left floundering more than a little.

What are our coaches up to? why does it still take as many as 18 passes to get the ball from our half to the opposite end, only to see it go all the way back, almost at once.

I kinda hoped we had traded the dubious science of perennial back passing to one of knowing where the opponents goal was situated. We need to radically change the thinking and approach and get back to the real basics, starting with a really influential and unrelenting skipper.

Apart from the slow crawl forward we could not maintain any possession at all. Gerrard often gave the ball away and showed no hint of a captains leadership. His dismissal was farcical, they could all see from the start the mindset of the Turkish referee and they played into his hands. I am at a loss to understand the role Glen Johnson is playing, he may well make some surging runs but there is no cover for him and it exposes another weakness, again no method at all.

Lescott was his usual pedestrian and sloppy self and seemed to be on another planet for large parts of the game.

On the plus side, Danny Welbeck looked lively when he replaced a 'tired' - can you believe that of a fit 23 year old? - Tom Cleverley and was instrumental in getting the penalty that earned the draw. Hopefully when Roy gets a few more players back in harness things will improve but, they substantially have to and rather quickly.

Onward.

Re: England our england!

I cannot argue with any of your points Hammer but would add that personally I thought that the magnificent Defoe goal should have stood, you could never accuse the Turkish referee of being a "homer", that's for sure! Far too many of our so called seasoned players seemed to be disinterested for large spells of the game added to the fact that Tom Cleverley for me should have put at least Two of his chances away. Heaven help us if we play like that when we travel away in this group, perhaps by then some of our 'stars' will be back in the reckoning

Re: England our england!

I think you have to accept the fact this this current England Squad, along with previous ones, are never going to set the world on fire. Always the bridesmaid,never the Bride would seem to sum it up.They also seem to have a problem performing at Wembley, is it fear, or the fact they have to win there at all costs? I don't know what the answer is, but fans have to realise that England will always be in the top ten, as in music, but unfortunately never be No 1. Sorry to be so negative, but the Ukraine game was depressing.

Re: England our england!

Yes Bob, like you I saw nothing really wrong, the goal should have stood, it was at a crucial time and the result might have been altogether different. In all honesty it was hard to see a foul let alone a booking but all these pro's should have realised the ref was going to give them nothing.

Not negative at all John, pretty well sums it up really.
The old wembley could be intimidating but quite a few teams have played very well there.