[Football] To the "England have been shit" crowd...

[Hugo Rune]

"The England have been shit crowd"

What, you mean people with the power of sight?

Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Hungary, Spain, France and Italy all able to break down defensively-minded sides.
Wales, featuring STARS such as: Hal Robson-Kanu (Reading), Johnny Williams (Palace/weak championship clubs) finished above us.
Iceland's squad of League 1 players garnered the same amount of points us as in their group.

How exactly are we supposed to react? Worship our heroes?

Hungary: 6 goals from 35 shots in the tournament.

England: 3 goals from 64 shots in the tournament.

Hungary's goals tonight showed exactly what we are missing so far in this tournament. Score goals in the manner they do and we could easily win the tournament.

 

[TSB]

Hungary: 6 goals from 35 shots in the tournament.

England: 3 goals from 64 shots in the tournament.

Hungary's goals tonight showed exactly what we are missing so far in this tournament. Score goals in the manner they do and we could easily win the tournament.

Yep and they've done it with only three players I've heard of. Says a lot about their group opponents, my football knowledge and our ability to turn a golden chance into a hit 'n' hope.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Created very little? Looked marginally better than Russia, Wales & Slovakia? Have you watched the three games?

Cumulative stats for the 3 games:

England

Average possession:61%
Shots: 64
Shots on goal: 15
Corners: 26

Opposition:

Average possession: 39%
Shots: 18
Shots on goal: 6
Corners:7

Against rank awful sides I'd expect nothing less from the possession stats.

The shot stats bare out what I'm saying. We've created very, very few decent chances against weak defences. There's a huge amount of hit and hope in that - 15 shots on target from 64 attempts is pathetic.

And we've still looked dodgy at the back against attackers that wouldn't get in the Brighton first team.

 

[GT49er]

Who might the "England have been shit crowd" be?

Yes, was wondering that myself.

Edit: OK, a couple turned up later in the thread!

 

[Surf's Up]

England have played ok, no more. Yes they have kept the ball better than normal, yes they have passed the ball quite well - but mostly at a fairly pedestrian and unthreatening pace. They are not firing up front I suspect because Woy doesn't actually know which players playing in which formation are going to deliver the goods. It's not as if he hasn't had enough time to work this out and his changes against Slovakia constituted an unforced error which underlined his uncertainty. He is a conservative, defence orientated manager who has chosen this moment to try and change his own mindset. The trouble is that it's just too counter intuitive for him. I hope I'm wrong but if England get knocked out by Iceland ..............

 

[saafend_seagull]

We don't have any wingers which is causing us problems. Should have taken Antonio.


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[Codner pharmaceuticals]

Results wise it's none too bad.

It's the turgid manner of getting there with no width, excitement or risk taking underscored by an England band funeral tune.

 

[Buzzer]

Results wise it's none too bad.

It's the turgid manner of getting there with no width, excitement or risk taking underscored by an England band funeral tune.

That's how I feel. I've gone from being super-enthusiastic about England - up until the South Africa World Cup - to complete indifference mainly because of the attitude of the players and gradually my interest is getting back up but I'm trying to manage expectations better so not to get too disappointed.

I think at times too many England fans, myself included, have the same attitude to England winning that Geordies have about Newcastle - completely unrealistic expectations given the squad we have and the strengths of the other big teams. Not being a big Premier League fan though doesn't help me because I struggle to recognise who half the England team are.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I certainly don't think we are a bad side at all. I just question the managers decisions sometimes.
We need to fire on all cylinders regardless that the opposition is Iceland. We need to build momentum.

Exactly.

I felt comfortable after the first two games and in fact thought we played quite well.

The last one was poor, any way you dress it up. Slow in possession, little creativity, poor passing, poor finishing. [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] if you think that was acceptable then I think you have low standards.



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[Kinky Gerbil]

Personally, I've found England quite refreshing. Unbeaten and deserved to win all three matches - it's just that sometimes it doesn't happen in front of goal. Germany found that against Poland (and only scored one against NI), France couldn't score against the Swiss, Portugal against Austria and so on.

We're all so accustomed to feeble, inhibited, dull football at tournaments that we're almost ready to blame the team for another similar showing, despite the fact this has been nothing like the team under SGE or Capello.

Two things I wanted in this tournament

1. Non defensive football - we have been on the front foot for 90% of the time
2. A young squad - only one squad is younger than ours

We are never going to win Euro 16 - but we have turned up to try and make an impact.

As with my club side they will learn to break down 10 men behind the ball at some point.

People who are moaning will never be pleased or don't understand football

 

[Brovion]

First up, I'm not in the "England have been shit" camp myself.

But your list does a massive disservice to Croatia, Hungary and Iceland.

Don't see why we should just be compared to the 'big' countries when these three have given a great account of themselves. Croatia especially look very good ( which admittedly you concede).

Agreed. Also I guess anyone saying England have been 'shit' has only recently gotten into football, I dunno, perhaps since the Amex opened. By tournament standards England have been unrecognisable from our usual dire selves. Frustrating, yes. Shit, no.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Against rank awful sides I'd expect nothing less from the possession stats.

The shot stats bare out what I'm saying. We've created very, very few decent chances against weak defences. There's a huge amount of hit and hope in that - 15 shots on target from 64 attempts is pathetic.

And we've still looked dodgy at the back against attackers that wouldn't get in the Brighton first team.

Slovakia are ranked 24th in the world and beat Germany at home the other week

Wales in the past year are unbeaten against Belgium

 

[midnight_rendezvous]

Just because other 'big' countries haven't turned it on doesn't excuse our poor performances. It'd be the equivalent of sitting an exam, not doing very well and using the excuse that because the other clever kids didn't do well either that it's some how ok. Meanwhile, the kids who everyone thinks are thick are putting everyone else to shame.

 

[Lower West Stander]

Squad selection was wrong IMHO.

He's only picked one winger - who is poor. Shouldn't have picked Wilshere who clearly isn't match fit. I just think Henderson is totally mediocre as well. Our full backs have looked good going forward but this is because they have been auxiliary wingers. If we had Townsend he could have given another option.


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[Postman Pat]

Have England performed below anyone's expectation based on every tournament since Euro 96?

In the last 18 years we have usually qualified, struggled in the group games and gone out as plucky underdogs in the knockout stages, or much worse than that (on occasion not even qualifying).

This is the most attacking bunch on England players I have seen in my lifetime and most of them actually seem to care about it too.

I fully expect us to beat Iceland and then go out to France on penalties, as is our place in world and European football.

 

[Puppet Master]

Slovakia are ranked 24th in the world and beat Germany at home the other week

Wales in the past year are unbeaten against Belgium

A good point. They also beat Spain in the qualifiers. They're no mugs and if a team like that comes for a draw, usually they'll get it.

I do agree with the posters saying the lack of wingers is going to cost us dearly though.

 

[Giraffe]

Totally agree with the opening post, come on England, it's ours for the taking.

And don't forget Rashford, expect to see him used as a game changer with 30 minutes to go in the knock out stages against increasingly tired defences.

 

[Biscuit]

Even Germany faltered against Poland. Could you imagine the meltdown if England did that?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

A good point. They also beat Spain in the qualifiers. They're no mugs and if a team like that comes for a draw, usually they'll get it.

I do agree with the posters saying the lack of wingers is going to cost us dearly though.

Slovakia's team is made up of top flight players as well.

I agree, but it is not like we have a load of English wingers that scream pick me

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I would say nearly evey team left in the draw. Genuinely don't understand people being positive about England, I think we've been really poor in a very, very easy group.

And we might scrape past Iceland but won't go any further than that as we have a dreadful manager.

A real pity as I think if we had a decent manager who was not afraid to drop Rooney and had picked the correct squad, team and tactics, we had a real chance this tournament.

For as long as we ask our players to play so many matches in what is the longest, hardest, season in Europe,without any kind of mid-winter break, and with major tournaments, the Euros, and the World Cup starting so soon afterwards, we will never have much of a chance of winning anything.

Our players are just too knackered.