Quarter-Finals

[pawiel]

guess who failed once again today?

thats awful

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

England were dominated thoroughly in the middle of the park. Playing like Chelsea did in the CL will work once in a life time. Italy thoroughly deserved their victory. As i have opined several times, unless England play without fear they will struggle to go through and that's exactly what happened. Italy had a zillion attempts on goal and should have sealed the win in normal time.

[elkanofan]

England have done well this tournament.

I expected them to do either nothing or fluke it tot he final but they have played with heart, don't have the ability of Italy but did the best they could in this game.

Not been battered or disgraced.

Italy have impressed me a lot.

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

Pirlo's penalty has to be one of the highlights of the euros so far..What confidence ..

[Reverend Gooner]

Harry Hill should parody that face Hart was pulling when the Italian players were taking the penalties. Pirlo completely mugged him off.

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

Ashley young was low on confidence and Cole hasn't scored for England ever. Why the feck did they take the spot kicks ahead of Carrol and Walcott ?

[Myrmedus]

Hodgson's interview basically just confirmed what we may have thought: he actually PLAYED for penalties.

This is the problem we're going to have with him as manager, and it was displayed by the way we played throughout the whole tournament: he's too negative.

He has us playing like a relegation battler. He's set up tactics for our team as if we lack talent in the team, as you tend to when you're facing relegation. The issue is, we DO have talent in the team and we're not exploiting it because of the restrictive tactics he has us playing. Our players NEVER move. When we're on the ball, our players are static. When we're defending, our players don't pressurize the opponent on the ball (Pirlo anyone?) because they're static.

When we're static, we cannot pass effectively, because there is a total lack of options available to the player on the ball. Potential receivers of the ball are easily marked out of the game, any line between the player in possession and a teammate is blocked by an opposition defender etc. This is why we're so poor on the ball and why we come unstuck. Why are we so static? Because that way we're not caught on the break, everyone is "organized" etc. in other words, once again it's negative and rigid tactics. We don't play in a way that allows our talented players to shine, there's no room for our players to "breathe" in the setup.

I seriously worry how we're going to be for the next few years.

[Zenith]

Ca$hley Cole always looked like he was gonna miss, sometimes the facial expression of a player says enough.
Italy deserved the win, gutted for England though.

[Gould]

Ashley young has a drink problem, no doubts he'll be hitting the bar again soon

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

Italians were looking supremely confident even when they were trailing in the penalty shootout. The expression on the faces of Cole and Young just before they took their kicks was telling.

[Bergkamp64]

Pirlo's penalty has to be one of the highlights of the euros so far..What confidence ..

Reminds me of Pires ( in his style of play . A real cool customer Pirlo ) .

[Bergkamp64]

Since the dawn of civilisation there have been untold mysteries that mankind has strived to decifer and understand . The Bermuda Triangle , Bigfoot , The Pyramids . But how Andy Carroll gets to play in an England shirt has got to be one of the most difficult to fathom or comprehend .

[Arsenal Tone]

Good post myrmedus

[elkanofan]

Hodgson's interview basically just confirmed what we may have thought: he actually PLAYED for penalties.

This is the problem we're going to have with him as manager, and it was displayed by the way we played throughout the whole tournament: he's too negative.

He has us playing like a relegation battler. He's set up tactics for our team as if we lack talent in the team, as you tend to when you're facing relegation. The issue is, we DO have talent in the team and we're not exploiting it because of the restrictive tactics he has us playing. Our players NEVER move. When we're on the ball, our players are static. When we're defending, our players don't pressurize the opponent on the ball (Pirlo anyone?) because they're static.

When we're static, we cannot pass effectively, because there is a total lack of options available to the player on the ball. Potential receivers of the ball are easily marked out of the game, any line between the player in possession and a teammate is blocked by an opposition defender etc. This is why we're so poor on the ball and why we come unstuck. Why are we so static? Because that way we're not caught on the break, everyone is "organized" etc. in other words, once again it's negative and rigid tactics. We don't play in a way that allows our talented players to shine, there's no room for our players to "breathe" in the setup.

I seriously worry how we're going to be for the next few years.

When England have a team full of top players like Germany with Oezil, Schweinstiger, Gotze Muller, Podolski, Schrrule and Reus, players with a high level of technique and movement and good creativity, then you should expect attacking football.

England simply don't have those players, hence the negative tactics, if England tried to play the would not had got out of the group, let alone face Italy in the quarters.

Gerrard hasan't the pace to play that way, Parker can't create, he's a workhorse, Milner again, workhorse, Young has a bit of technique but no vision or creativity, he's a cross merchant. Welbeck isn't creative really either.

Strurridge didn't make the team but he seems to be very similar to Welbeck really, England just don't have those top class players. England have done the best they can, people should take heart in the effort i believe.

[Massa]

England aren't very good and the only way we could get results is by playing negatively so Hodgson got that spot on and it nearly got us into the Semis