England (Non Whu) Vs Russia Match Thread

[Nesticles]

Personally thought England were poor

Hart looks a disaster waiting to happen. I don't think he is a 'top' keeper, and would not be surprised to see Guardiola bring in a new keeper to City. Sitting on a 1-0 lead with a team that can't keep clean sheets is ridiculous, especially with the options in players like Vardy and Sturridge on the bench who you would be expecting are there to kill games like last night off

I think England are in a dangerous position for Thursdays game now, pressure on against a very organised and well drilled Wales team who will be itching to get a result out of us

[artlin]

I'm not sure too many people have said it as it's not true.

England played well. More positive than negatives for me. The negatives, one being the result, only came from a couple of silly subs/tactical change at the end. The rest was as good as I've seen England play in a tournament for a while.

Not sure why you've mentioned Walker or Rose. I'm no fan of Tottenham, but nothing wrong with them at all. Both played well last night, and both fit in well with the way we constantly wanted to attack Russia with pace.

No, we did not play well. The scoreline was 0 0 at half time and we scored a goal from a set piece free kick. We did not score any goals in open play. Walker and Rose had no end product, they were just wasting energy. Sterling was a complete, total and utter waste of flesh, the guy just cannot pass the ball. We could have anchored our defence on the half way line because their CF Dzouba was such a half witted lump there was no way he was going to chase for a cross. The guy could barely walk let alone run. The result was everything. A win was a must. Couldn't care less how we played. It was all about the result. This is not a league game or a qualifier or a friendly. This is the real deal, no second chances now.

Say what you like about how well England played but passing the ball sideways or back, to me, is not playing well.

We play Wales next. How well do you think we will play against them?

P S. Well said, Nesticles.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

You're talking nonsense about the full backs. Sterling, fine, you're spot on there...

How will we play against Wales? The same performance gets us the win. Are we just looking at the results again? Wales were not even that good yesterday. They managed to sneak a 2-1 win against a team who put in their worst performance in 2 years, and still had more than enough of the ball and chances not to lose. Wales worked well as a unit, but beyond that were not that impressive at all.

I'm amazed at the negativity towards the performance of England, and the massive overhype of Wales...

[MilkyBarKid16]

I'm not sure how pundits can say we played well. If we had played as well as they'd said, Russia's goal wouldn't have mattered because we'd have been 2-0 or 3-0 up by then.

England have always had the same mentality in tournaments. It's fine if we don't get a result because we can get one in the next game. That attitude is fine in the Premier League, but not in a major tournament. We won't beat Wales and if Slovakia beat Russia, they will need a win to get second place.

[MD_HM]

Not sure why people think if we play the same we will be Wales...

If we play the same Sterling will still have no end product, Lallana won't be able to shoot, Kane will be anonymous and the owl will cock up the substitutions!

Wales will raise their game against us and will be much better going forward than Russia

I don't think we played terrible but the 3 players on the pitch to attack, create and score were all useless last night to the extent that I would have Sterling near the starting XI again; absolute fraud of a footballer

[Doc H Ball]

Does Sterling remind anyone else of Stuart Slater in year 3 of his career?

Nobody not playing regularly for their Club should be near the squad.

[uptonparkhurst]

Sterling is the only winger in the squad, but he is woefully out-of-form. When he was subbed it should have been with a pacey player like Vardy - not Milner. So the Russians can afford to push up and they manage to isolate their huge CB against our minuscule LB. Job done.
Trying to see out games 1-0 with this team ain't ever going to work. Let's hope Hodgson has learned that lesson - finally.

[vind]

I think we played well, should have been 1-0 up, the sub of Milner was not great and I would have bought on Vardy instead of Sterling. Also Kane on free kicks and corners seemed odd. However, we were much more the aggressive team and played with a good tempo.

[the pink palermo]

This is tournament football .

Playing well and not winning is not a good result .

[artlin]

Pinky, agree.


Martell, sorry but I do not follow your reasoning.

You say Wales were poor but sneaked a win. We were good but only drew.

Well, as an England supporter, I know what I would sooner have.

Did not say Walker and Rose were poor just that they were wasting their time and energy. Woys crap tactics again.

[westhamdave1]

I'm amazed at the negativity towards the performance of England

Really ? We have just lost (sorry drawn - but it feels like a 6-0 defeat) against a very poor Russia team. Hodgson must be BFS in disguise ... 1-0 up against a dreadful team and manage to get a draw !!! Hopeless. Again,let me remind you - this was Russia. Imagine how the likes of Spain,France or Germany would feel just walking on the pitch to play us.They would have a 2 goal start before we even kicked off as they know how **** we are and they all know how easily they would rip us apart. Can we come home before Thursday please ????

[Sauce!]

"Justice for the England 11!"

Like farting in a lift, wrong on so many levels.

[simon hammer]

This is tournament football .

Playing well and not winning is not a good result .

Absolutely.

ALL about winning, even more so after last nights result.

Sterling and Kane out, Vardy and Sturridge as a front two. Change in formation, change of tactics and hopefully a change of result.

[OllyWHU6]

I thought we played well all in all. If we had a decent manager at the helm we win that game 10 times out of 10 in my opinion. Until the 60th minute or so we looked dominant, and well worth our lead. But 1-0 up against that Russian team, i'd be bringing Vardy on to run them ragged for the final 20 minutes or so. If we do that we win that game 2/3-0 in my opinion. Maybe 2/3-1 if they still get the last minute goal. Milner on for Sterling, and Wilshere for Rooney is just awful game management. Your captain is having the best game he's played at a tournament in a decade and he gets subbed off? You've made a bold call, played him in the middle and been proven correct, why doubt yourself when he's having a stormer.

Absolutely infuriating, and if we play like that again in the next 2 games we will struggle again. I personally had Russia as the weakest team in our group and we had no killer instinct. Even if we get through the group, we will get knocked out in the next round playing this way.

[Nesticles]

This is tournament football .

Playing well and not winning is not a good result .

Yep, this is all that matters

Up against a poor injury weakened Russian side in the opening game, you have to be taking 3pts there

The players will be feeling the pressure even more now on Thurs against Wales

[Jumby]

England must have some amazing attackers for Vardy not to get on after the season he's just had.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

Artlin...

Of course we'd have happily swapped outcomes with Wales. I'm not debating that.

Had we not conceded a late late goal, the majority would be saying how good of a performance it was. Sure, we should've wrapped up the win with the chances, again, not questioning that...but performance wise I was pleased.

Decent performance, not a decent result...

I'm starting to agree with Carnage now though...England are criticised for playing poor and winning...and now for playing fairly well and not.

[York Ham(mer)]

We rarely get past the group stages. In 13 Euro tournaments between 1964 to 2012, we've progressed to the quarter-finals or semi-finals four times. I suspect it'll be no different this time.

[Bend it like Repka]

Pinky, agree.


Martell, sorry but I do not follow your reasoning.

You say Wales were poor but sneaked a win. We were good but only drew.

Well, as an England supporter, I know what I would sooner have.

Did not say Walker and Rose were poor just that they were wasting their time and energy. Woys crap tactics again.

I am reading such drivel it is annoying me now. How were our full backs wasting time and energy due to poor tactics? They were getting forward as instructed, creating width and both had a good game in doing so? How many chances did we create last night?

[Bend it like Repka]

Sterling and Kane out, Vardy and Sturridge as a front two. Change in formation, change of tactics and hopefully a change of result.

So after one game which we dominated we panic and make wholesale changes? Yeah, that's good management. If a striker doesn't score every game he's dropped?

Plus Vardy and Sturridge are too similar, neither will hold up the ball and we'll just be the old England turning over possession every 30 seconds.

People are acting like we lost 3 - 0.