England vs Sweden

30, he already gave up international football for 2 years before, but came back for the Euro qualifying when Hamren was hired

 

I don't remember huge amounts of the game as it was a very boozy night, but facking hell it was good to see us play with guts and gusto. If I am being honest I couldn't see us coming back from 2-1 down but fair play to them - they kept going and stuck to their guns.

 

Considering we havnt got Cahill or Lampard and a recognised experienced right back, we are doing well. So far Ive been impressed with England and Hodgson. Im not saying we gonna win it but you have to say the passion and the commitment, from some very ordinary players, has improved no end. Personally I dont think we'l get passed Italy or Spain, if we qualify but then again you never know........that is the beauty of following England.

 

Glen Johnson, 200+ premierleague games and 30+ England caps, but yeah not experienced.

 

Ok a decent right back.

 

Johnson was one of our best players against France and was good again last night. People just see him as an easy target. We're without Kyle Walker and I'd rather have Johnson than Micah 'I'm too good for standby' Richards.

 

Yea hes good alright....thats why he was caught ball watching when he shouldve been stepping up to give the Swedes their first goal on a plate. He only looked good making last ditch tackles to correct his positional play which was awful. Yea he was good against France, so you can add consistent to me list n all.

 

You can't blame their first goal on Johnson, it was horrendous marking from Young, not at one point did he have a clue where he was? You're screaming out for an experience player there but Walker only has about 60 premierleague games under his belt and just the two England games.

Johnson has had a good tournament so far and is good going forward. I can't believe people are suggesting playing Phil Jones instead of him. :dismay:

 

Im not screaming, Im typing.

Phil Jones faded quite dramatically towards the end of last season, so I agree totally with you on that one. Id prefer Micah Richards playing at right back, if I was to 'prefer' anyone. Or even go 3 at the back, with Parker in front of the 3, Gerrard, Young and Milner, Rooney in front of them and Welbeck and Defoe/Carrol (Id hav taken Crouch meself but hey ho) up front. I think thats 10 outfield players. I aint got me specs on.

 

If Micah Richards cared enough about England he'd be in the squad right now, but he doesn't, so he's not.

If England are going to get anywhere this tournament we need to be organised and changing it to 3 at the back would be stupid. We need a balanced team and I'm very happy with the back 5 players. Midfield have been ****e bar Gerrard and The Ox, while Carroll and Welbeck were both good, so not sure who I'd drop to put Rooney in the side if I did at all

 

Hel drop Carroll for sure and stick to the same system....I think. But then again he changed it for the Sweden game so you never know. To be perfectly serious Don, I take me hat off to Roy Hodgson. To come in at such short notice, prior to a major tournament with so little time to prepare and with major players missing, has to be respected, no matter what. We seem to be more of a team to be fair.

 

Anyone who thinks Glen Johnson played well last night hasn't got a clue about football, it's as simple as that. He played the Swede's on for their first and should have done better keeping it out, and was absolutely nowhere to be seen for their second. As I said before, the only couple of good things he did last night were a decent cross or two and a couple of good, recovery tackles from his own mistakes. His defensive positioning is barely Premier League standard let alone international standard. He's not good enough and it was an awful decision not to bring Micah Richards to this tournament after Walker's injury.

 

That is absolutely ludicrous to blame Young for the first goal. Young pushed out with the rest of our defense, as he is supposed to do and Johnson hung back, playing at least 2 guys onside. I've just watched it again 3 or 4 times and I genuinely don't understand how you can blame Young instead of the guy who failed to do his job and push out with the rest of his team. Well, I understand Young wasn't marking the guy, but his job isn't to hang back and mark 1 guy, his job is to push out with the rest of our team.

The second goal, Johnson clearly loses Mellberg because he's ball watching and leaves him with a free header. It's all well and good saying he's an easy target etc, but when he makes such costly and elementary mistakes, he's going to be a target for criticism. Against France, he was excellent. Last night, he made 2 huge errors.

 

Can people please stop bringing up Micah Richards?

He is not in the squad as he threw his toys out of the pram and refused to go on standby.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18471301

I like how the Swedish players have thrown their toy out the pram saying they were better and deserved a point etc.

The last time i checked the winner is decided by the team who scores the greater number of goals?

 

I like how the BBC have completely mistranslated the original article and left half of it out.

Zlatan, Hamren, Mellberg and Svensson were all quoted as saying it's Sweden and only Sweden's fault they're going home.

- http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/landslagsfotboll/em2012/sverige/article14989428.ab

 

And wrongly so, but if he'd been in the full squad in the first place like he should have been then it wouldn't have even been an issue.

 

http://www.jacatu.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=7850

EDIT: wrong link!

 

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/shot-by-kern/sweden

 

Agreed.

I thought Johnson was poor and had the same argument at work today. His 'brilliant last ditch challenges' were off the back of his own poor defending in the first place! He's far too often caught ball watching or too square-on.

 

In that sense he reminded me a bit of demerit at times, although the tackles received the plaudits they were only needed because poor positioning put him in the situation where they were needed.

 

Not a bad result as we were playing our reserve squad, with two old codgers in the midfield.

 

With Johnson, the criticism seems more like it's disgruntlement that he receives such praise for the 'fantastic tackles' he makes (and yes, there were a couple of exceptional ones) when they've only followed his mistakes that came before that.

If he didn't make the basic mistakes, he wouldn't need to follow up with the tackles afterwards so, whilst he would be a more effective player, he wouldn't get as much credit because there isn't as much 'for the cameras'. It's a lose-lose situation, really. Look at Cole, for example - he made fewer mistakes than Johnson yet very few people are saying he's 'England's best defender on the night', purely because he was solid all game rather than spectacular after messing up.

 

Johnson is ok, I watched the France game and thought he looked like the weak link but made some good tackles. His pace makes up for the lack of pace in john terry somewhat. The Sweden game also he looked the weak link, at least until terry and Lescott decided to leave mellberg free in the 6 yard box. In Phil Jones we have a much poorer option for the position. Ashley Cole by the way is one if the best full backs in the tournament despite being a p***k.

 

:sign15: Ha, quality side boob in that Swedish club.

 

Media now predicting doom and gloom as Walcott is possibly injured.

I'd be more worried about any of the other players getting injured.