Quarter Finals

[Ikki]

Such crap

England simply dont have the skill to do so!

Gerrard was excellent in the first few games but Pirlo embarrassed him tonight

It was man vs boys and Woy knew it was coming

Give the guy credit for taking an incredibly limited team to penalties

England were being outpassed by the teams in the group stage. It didn't take a great team to do that and England will always chase games in a flat midfield 4. But Hodgson didn't make the adjustment and relied on one of the forwards to do the most important job in the game - mark Pirlo. They should have just played a 4-2-3-1 with a midfield trio of Henderson, Gerrard and Parker with Henderson man marking Pirlo. The guy is 33 years old, and they let him walk around everywhere not hassled most of the time.

As I said, this will be even more obvious in the coming friendlies and qualifiers.

 

[grecian]

Yeah, I may be letter Taylor himself cloud my memories of that team somewhat. In any event, whether you compare this side to the 1994 one or not, it's certainly the worst since.

Though having said that, I honestly believe there's more spirit about this England side than previous ones in recent memory. Not that it did them any good I suppose.

Well, I actually think the side back then was decent, but the manager was by far the worse. Gazza got injured so draft in Carlton. Waddle Voted euro player of the year, or it may have been second, draft in Andy Sinton instead. We had decent talent then, but GT always liked the functional tryers. I'd say in quality many squads have been worse than what could have been picked then.

Taylor will always go down as the worst England manager ever imho.

 

[sledger]

Toss up between him and McClaren I would say.

 

[grecian]

Toss up between him and McClaren I would say.

yeah, he's a decent shout, we had enough to qualify then, but we weren't outstanding. Sven and Fab drilled out the easy qualifying, and made it look like a formality, I really wonder if that'll happen again.

It's almost like it's ignored we failed to qualify in major tournaments in 74, 78, 84. 94. 08, and we've been so close to failing so many times with other teams winning when they don't have to, or last 10 minute goals, I've never got why we're so arrogant about qualifying, and don't give any credit to managers that do.

ho-hum

 

[flibbertyjibber]

One thing you have to give Roy credit for is getting the team chemistry right. Am I right in saying this has been the first England team in ages where the team actually seemed united and not a bunch of primadonnas thrown together to make a team?

Not since Euro 96 and Italia 90 have we been as united. Strangely we overperformed in those 2 competitions too.

If Woy gets a clear run without injuries i'd fancy us to be quarter finalists in the World Cup too. About our level anyway on a good day, anything else and he a magician.

 

[Furball]

Taylor had Gascoigne.

Taylor had a Gascoigne who was either injured or drunk for most of the time.

 

[grecian]

Not since Euro 96 and Italia 90 have we been as united. Strangely we overperformed in those 2 competitions too.

If Woy gets a clear run without injuries i'd fancy us to be quarter finalists in the World Cup too. About our level anyway on a good day, anything else and he a magician.

bollox, we were boring against france, technically deficient but interesting against sweden, poor against ukraine and outplayed by italy.

 

[Furball]

Well, I actually think the side back then was decent, but the manager was by far the worse. Gazza got injured so draft in Carlton. Waddle Voted euro player of the year, or it may have been second, draft in Andy Sinton instead. We had decent talent then, but GT always liked the functional tryers. I'd say in quality many squads have been worse than what could have been picked then.

Taylor will always go down as the worst England manager ever imho.

Did Waddle actually play for Taylor?

Euro 92 is the first tournament I can properly remember (my memory of Italia 90 is pretty foggy), I don't ever remember actually seeing Waddle play for England.

 

[Cabinet96]

We ****ed it up when we didn't put a random steward in goal for the pens tbh

 

[GIMH]

Seem to remember him being injured for all the WC94 qualifiers, or not being picked once for. Couldn't tell you about the Euro 92 quals as I only remember the second half of th last qualifier, away to Poland. First half wasn't televised, Lineker equalised late on to take us through.

 

[grecian]

Did Waddle actually play for Taylor?

Euro 92 is the first tournament I can properly remember (my memory of Italia 90 is pretty foggy), I don't ever remember actually seeing Waddle play for England.

Oh, I think he did, he played about 10 minutes at the end of a friendly, and GT jocularly informed us that that was clearly all he had to know about some players, I think Robbo may have played in the same game.

In the end Taylor kept on leaving him out, using brilliant excuses all along, like he's probably in the best 23 in the country, but not the best 22, or all I want from forwards is to score goals, even though he picked Barnes ahead of him. Every press conference was a new reason why he picked the likes of andy sinton or tony daley ahead of Waddle, who was incredible with Marseille, got them to an euro final, and then came back to England to win Pfa player of the year for Sheffield ****ing Wednesday. Taylor kept on finding reasons to not put him in the squad though

 

[flibbertyjibber]

bollox, we were boring against france, technically deficient but interesting against sweden, poor against ukraine and outplayed by italy.

Still showed some fight considering how average we are, more fight than when we had better squads anyway

 

[Pothas]

bollox, we were boring against france, technically deficient but interesting against sweden, poor against ukraine and outplayed by italy.

I know, it really was just a standard England performance in a major tournament but Roy seems like a nice guy so everyone tried to convince themselves that this was a 'new' England, they were easily capable of producing those performances under Capello.

Roy is not a bad manager but I have no doubt the positivity around him will be gone by the time the World cup comes around.

Think everyone knows England got what they deserved today but no point ranting about it.

Italy were not fantastic by any means but should have won easily in normal time. Germany should dispose of them easily but it is Italy...

 

[social]

Still showed some fight considering how average we are, more fight than when we had better squads anyway

+1

The current squad actually put in which is something others can"t be accused of doing

Today they were totally outclassed and still got it to a lottery - nothing to be ashamed of IMO

 

[GIMH]

Italy win tournaments when there's a fascist government or match fixing scandal. We never had a chance.

 

[grecian]

Still showed some fight considering how average we are, more fight than when we had better squads anyway

When would that be then, apart from Mclaren we qualified and apart from germany we lost on pens, sometimes without being utterly outplayed.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Taylor had Gascoigne.

& Barnes, Shearer, Platt, etc

It would've been a travesty if we'd won on pens, but the whole game seemed to be set up for it.

Was interesting to note that Carrol won absolutely everything in the air. Somethng for Woy to think about.

 

[social]

I know, it really was just a standard England performance in a major tournament but Roy seems like a nice guy so everyone tried to convince themselves that this was a 'new' England, they were easily capable of producing those performances under Capello.

Roy is not a bad manager but I have no doubt the positivity around him will be gone by the time the World cup comes around.

Think everyone knows England got what they deserved today but no point ranting about it.

Italy were not fantastic by any means but should have won easily in normal time. Germany should dispose of them easily but it is Italy...

This is not about "performances in a major tournament", it is about quality

Did you see how technically superior the Italians were?

 

[GIMH]

& Barnes, Shearer, Platt, etc

It would've been a travesty if we'd won on pens, but the whole game seemed to be set up for it.

Was interesting to note that Carrol won absolutely everything in the air. Somethng for Woy to think about.

Carroll has been a major plus for us in this tournament. Looked motivated, energetic but also played intelligently, from a positional POV, which he didn't do most of the times I saw Liverpool last season.

 

[Pothas]

This is not about "performances in a major tournament", it is about quality

Did you see how technically superior the Italians were?

Yeah which is why it was a standard England tournament, they are not a very good side...