England vs. Croatia - Official Thread

[Kinky Gerbil]

I can't see Croatia progressing through the play-offs, they're not the side they once was.

Missing Key players to be fair

 

[The Wizard]

4-1

Poor defending.

Really unlucky from Green, made 2 superb saves there.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Great marking JT

 

[Dr Q]

Dire defending there.

 

[jordanseagull]

Eduardo

 

[Cantona's Flying Dropkick]

5 - 1

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

5..

 

[Frutos]

Speaking of awful defending...

 

[skipper734]

Comedy goalkeeping.

 

[csider]

Good left foot clerance............

 

[The Wizard]

What on earth was that?

 

[sten_super]

That thing with John Terry really irks me, especially when people go on about what a fantastic defender he is. When close to his own goal he becomes far too preoccupied with standing on the line trying to defend the actual goal rather than picking up his man. It's precisely because Terry wasn't bothering to mark Eduardo that he was able to stick home the rebound. I've tried telling this to people in the past but I get rebuttal after rebuttal. Maybe after such an obvious case tonight people may actually listen!

 

[The Wizard]

That thing with John Terry really irks me, especially when people go on about what a fantastic defender he is. When close to his own goal he becomes far too preoccupied with standing on the line trying to defend the actual goal rather than picking up his man. It's precisely because Terry wasn't bothering to mark Eduardo that he was able to stick home the rebound. I've tried telling this to people in the past but I get rebuttal after rebuttal. Maybe after such an obvious case tonight people may actually listen!

Why do English people always find the single negative thing in a thoroughly positive result?
IMO John Terry is a class defender, perhaps I'm insane.

 

[Stoo82]

Terry did very little tonight. When he does go in for a challenge he takes out the player. He was over passing at the back which could have cost a goal. Over rated.

 

[sten_super]

Why do English people always find the single negative thing in a thoroughly positive result?
IMO John Terry is a class defender, perhaps I'm insane.

I knew someone was going to say that!

It was the best England performance I have seen for some time; probably since the early part of Sven's reign.

However, that doesn't mean that it was faultless. There clearly is an issue in defence; Croatia didn't do much to test us but we still managed to concede a goal.

While you won't find me bleating about how 'football is coming home' in 10 months time, I am genuinely excited about the level of performance we are achieving. However that doesn't mean that we should rest on our laurels. John Terry has an issue when defending close to his own goal line, and IMO it's something that he needs to work on.

 

[SirDouglasLoft]

That thing with John Terry really irks me, especially when people go on about what a fantastic defender he is. When close to his own goal he becomes far too preoccupied with standing on the line trying to defend the actual goal rather than picking up his man. It's precisely because Terry wasn't bothering to mark Eduardo that he was able to stick home the rebound. I've tried telling this to people in the past but I get rebuttal after rebuttal. Maybe after such an obvious case tonight people may actually listen!

I do think he's a brilliant defender, but I can't help but agree with you here. In these situations he always goes straight to the line, when perhaps going to the ball would be better. I don't know whether he has been told to do this, or maybe he just automatically does it.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

We need to stop those silly errors, because if that was a World Cup game and we were 1-0 up then there is no excuse. If we can sort that out, then I can't see why we can't bring it home next year.

 

[cannedheat]

They came we saw we conquered, Fab Cap numero uno.

 

[Whitterz]

All round near perfect performance. Went asleep beginning of second half. Plenty of time to sort out samll errors.O Is it me, or am I the only one that thinks Rooney is the weak link up front?

 

[ram1992]

Good to see we've not left it to last minute to qualify and fudged it up like last time
Well done lads