September International Break

4-1 now. 3 assists and a goal for Di Maria. Not too shabby.

 

After winning the world cup I'm not surprised to see a poor performance from Germany in a friendly

 

I can't imagine that the German punters are too amused!....

 

When are they ever?

 

Yeah, but paying, probably, top price to watch a "rerun" of the WC final, and then watching your team fail to show up and get pasted, must be a bit of a pisser!...

 

Especially if, as I've heard, it was more like 28 million, and half of that in performance bonuses. The story went that only 14 million has been paid so far.

And now he's been subbed. Perfect day for him. Called up due to injury, and played a leading role in mullering Germany in Germany.

 

Going back to the same old, same old, hapless England currently being given the runaround by mighty Norway

 

Is that the only way we can score, a penalty?

 

Urgh. Not impressed at all by this "new" England. Same old ****, shoe-horning players into a team and worryingly under performaing in a friendly against a weak side that treated it more like a friendly than we did.

 

If you're an England fan, is there a more depressing paragraph than this from Phil Neville

 

Only saw the BBC news summary.
A "red seat" turn-out that would make the Library "full house" attendance counters proud.
And a genuine penalty decision to be made by the ref for a challenge involving a Mouser.

Anything else of note to add about the game ??

 

Thought England looked actually good at times in the first half. When the players bothered to up the tempo there were some decent passages of play. Sterling was by far and away the best player on the pitch, if he keeps playing like this for England it can only be good. The trouble was that only Sterling and Sturridge were willing to really play the game faster, Rooney, Wilshere, Henderson, and the Ox (to a lesser extent) seemed only too content to knock the ball around at jogging pace for the majority of the game. Norway, for their part, got men behind the ball fast when they lost possession, pressed England well, and tracked England well on the break. The Norwegians certainly didn't make it easy for us. They had their threatening spells, as do most teams against England really, which were dealt with with varying degrees of success. Hart made some decent saves, nothing you wouldn't expect him to though. We never switched it on in the second half until the last 10/15 mins, which was very disappointing.

Overall, I think there is a lot of potential going forward for England if only they would play at a higher tempo and keep their heads up, looking for opportunities to pass and move into space. A proper RB is needed, but the likes of Flanagan and Walker should really start pushing each other for the spot once they're playing again, which is good for England. Theres actually quite a few young CBs as well who could be in the frame by the next Euros - I'm thinking of Stones, Dier and Chambers to name 3. Although not needed against Norway et. al. (no disrespect intended), against the top teams a proper DM is needed, I guess hopes will be pinned on Rodwell although I harbour secret hopes of Livermore(!) making a real name for himself this season. Unlikely though I know! With my controversial hat on, I would suggest that dropping Rooney, moving Sterling to a more central role, and bringing in another player like Barkley or Lallana (when they're fit) to play in a fluid 3 behind the striker (who actually could be Rooney) might make England a better team, but especially with Rooney having just been made captain I doubt this will happen in a friendly, let alone a game of any significance.

 

Unfortunately there are no real positives for the future while Hodgson is in charge as he is an old man who has never been known for the quality of football played by his teams, aside from short spells when he somehow managed to get Zamora playing like Messi, although that surprisingly didn't last, but was a entertaining season for Fulham who nearly won the Europa league.

Alex Ferguson (the ex Utd manager not the politician) will be noting NO in this coming referendum so now may be a good time to give him a job managing England, or we could just accept for the next 10-20 years England are going to make an embarrassment of themselves on the international stage and no matter who is in charge, won't make much of a difference.

Or the third option, put Tony Pulis in charge (who may be welsh) but there was a time when Martin O'Neil was favourite to be England manager. Looking back I doubt anyone will want to admit they wanted O'Neil to manage England (or us at one point(, Yet hand the reigns to Pulis and he could inspire England and bring back entertaining football at the very least.

 

Agreed that Sterling & Sturridge looked a threat all evening. Not much else about England did!
However, if the likes of Cahill & Jagielka are the best we can do at the back, the future looks grim!

 

It's a good job there's still cricket on when they disrupt the PL season before it's hardly started.

Yorkshire beat Lancashire to pull clear at the top of the County Championship.

Murray plays Djokovic in the U.S Open tennis shortly.

Very humid today - it's still summer.

 

I would have been enjoying Argentina destroy Germany if I were you, LDL. Di Maria three assists and a goal. The Di Maria Aguero Lamela front three were unstoppable.

 

There is no future for any of the home nations doing anything while we let far too many foreign players, managers and owners take over British football. While other top European countries share the trophies and reach the finals using a big chunk of British football teams we have been left to field players that would not get a look in with other countries as not up to standard. If Rooney is the best England got then the home nations are finished......but we all know that anyway....

 

I remember England being beaten by Norway 2-1 in the days of Margaret Thatcher so this is an improvement. I don't know if England/Norway matches are traditionally close affairs but a friendly cannot gauge form for competitive matches so roll on Switzerland. Yes Huddlefro, let's drop Rooney.

 

Ill mention on year......1966 ....that is nearly 50 years ago.....says it all really...

 

Don't agree at all. There are loads of England qualified players in the PL. Doubling the number is not going to make the best ones any better and will likely make the overall standard lower leading to the best ones not being challenged enough.

We need to change the coaching at grass routes so that kids are taught football not hoofball and we get some players with technical skills coming through