Euro 2012 Quarter Final 4: England - Italy (24/06/2012)

This tournament shows another thing about England, how over-rated bloody Rooney is. He was a passenger again this tournament, no pace, and lacks skill to beat a man. For someone who is meant to be technically superior to others, he was left wanting against better players.

 

Would you rather we play attractive, attacking football? So would I, but I don't think our players are technically gifted enough to do that.

 

Correct.

Hodgson's got to be brave now and clear the old guard out...i.e. Gerrard, Terry (although both were immense in this tournament) and Parker.

Wilshire when fit has to come into the midfield, as does Chamberlain. We need players that can keep the ball and move well off of it like the Italians and the Spanish.

I bet Sepp Blatter now thinks penalty shoot-outs are wonderful! :dismay:

 

In general, this post I agree with entirely.

Still a kick in the *******s to lose on pens.

 

Like Moog said, it's all mental. Paychecks don't mean you can put a penalty away like Chuck Norris disposes of bad guys.

 

F**k off Hansen.

Where the f**k were Scotland? Oh yeah, at home...AGAIN.

 

Alan Hansen just gave the "England were average throughout the tournament" speech. Didn't he say that England were good after France and Sweden?

 

Why do English players lack the ability to keep the ball. I don't mean the Spanish style of 40 passes but 3 or 4 to create a decent opening would be nice.

 

If i were Italy I'd be ashamed to not have won in 90mins I thought we did well to take it to pens.

But we all saw it coming, im not that dissapointed. We had 4 of our best players out through injury, and the liverpool b team on the bench, with a brand new manager so overall im happy with our performance this tournament.

 

Pirlo was a different gravy from start to finish and what a pen! What we really lack is a player like him, somebody to pull the strings and keep the ball in any situation. I think it's time the Premier League concentrated on English players and not bleeding the best of the rest of world.

I also noticed how unfit our players were in comparison to all the others. Parker hasn't made it passed 70 mins in a game has he? Not to sure what the answer to it is but it is worrying.

 

Yeah, but these players are paid as much as they are because they are meant to be at the top of their profession. The mental side of the game is included in that. The likes of Rooney should never play for England again, I actually rate him but he is f**king awful for England, completely bottles it every time.

I'm not as angry as I'm actually coming across, we deserved to lose. It's just the disgraceful manner in which we played the game and the fact we lost on f**king penalties yet again that's infuriated me. I'd rather lose 8-0.

 

Why? We defended like beavers, and if anyone can appreciate that, the Italians can.

 

They missed a load of chances and dominated the game, but you're right.

 

Parker came into the tournament injured, that's why he's not been at his best/fit for full games.

 

It not a question of playing attacking football, but when you play your central midfielders as both defensive ones parked in front of the two centrehalves you leave a massive gap in the middle of the park, if you went to the Tottenham game this year we showed up Parker as he sits too deep and that is Watford. Also Milner should never wear an England shirt again

 

I think our only good wingers this tournament were Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott.

Ashley Young - awful
James Milner - awful

 

Hasn't he played injured though? He has been carrying an achilles injury since around the time Spurs form deteriorated in March.

 

Ironically I thought Parker was brilliant for most of the tournament.

Agreed with Nath. Rooney didn't turn up tonight. Which is a shame, because he is world class on his day for Man Utd, sadly he doesn't have his day when he plays for England and looks a shadow of the Man Utd player. His first touch and final pass were shocking. Difference between someone like Ozil and Iniesta, their final ball is usually excellent.

 

We defended like absolute c*nts most of the game Cheeky. If Italy could finish it would have been 3/4-0. The amount of times we tried to push the line up and just failed miserably and left them onside was embarrassing. Everything about that performance was absolutely awful.

 

Rooney should never have played, as he was not match fit!

Young had a terrible tournament!

Our back four were immense in most of the games; and although I was disappointed that Johnson got the nod over Micah Richards, I have to admit that he may well have been our player of the tournament!

Joe Hart, Gerrard, Caroll & Parker did OK!

The rest of the team were average at their best, but generally poor!

Hodgson, did OK considering how late he took over, and I have high hopes that he might go on to be a good England manager!

 

I don't think you're seeing the whole picture here. They are footballers, not mental magicians. Every time we lose a penalty shootout, the fear and problems grow, and this is something that has to be sorted out as a group. Hodgson has only had a month or so with these boys, but I really do believe that things will improve and that Hodgson and his management can see England through this penalty business.

 

We're ****ing awful, have been since 1970. With a brief rising in 90 and 96.

Players picked on reputation, a fear of substituting the stars during the game, a combination of the players not particularly caring and the ones that do are too scared about failing and getting hammered in the press that they play within themselves.

We take it all too seriously nowadays. I watched that 'One Night In Turin' movie the other day and it had lots of news footage of the England players in 1990 swanning around the pool in Italy having a laugh. If they did that now, they'd be slaughtered.

We're a footballing nation setup to fail that does fail.

No shocks to be seen here.

 

You're seeing the negatives Nath. So could we, but we didn't take our chances.

 

Woeful. Beyond woeful. The real kicker is that Italy are a shadow of a team these days, without Pirlo they aren't very different to us. The problem is Pirlo is a different class to everybody else on the pitch in blue or white.

Awful defending, no closing down, no pressing, nothing. Young, Gerrard and Rooney were all beyond awful.

At least we got past the group stage.

 

Haha! Technically woeful! What's to point in playing for penalties if we're woeful at them too? I really don't care about England. Watford are 100% more exciting to follow, even off the pitch here is better than watching England.

 

Pirlo, what a player.

 

:sign15:

 

The anger in this thread is hilarious.

 

Forget about James Milner, Ashley Young and Rooney. Mark Lawrenson is the problem here. How he has kept a job at the Beeb for this long is beyond me.

 

Lawrenson is an absolute mongoloid, bias, has a chip on his shoulder, chats absolute rubbish and acts like a baby when things aren't going his way.

 

I'd also happily give Alan Hansen another scar on his face as well. C**t.

 

Mark Lawrenson sure uses "we" a lot when talking about England.

 

He wishes he was English.

C**t.

 

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