Group B - England, Russia, Wales, Slovakia

[sledger]

Haha, that was fun. Really enjoyed that... in the end.

 

[Pothas]

Has Hart made a save in this tournament?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Has Hart made a save in this tournament?

Probably not. He is lucky that Butland is injured.

Hopefully he improves as the games go on, he can't get much worse.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Going off the BBC stats of the games England have had 35 shots in 2 games with 10 on target. Between them Russia and Wales have had 14 with 4 on target.

No idea if those stats are correct or not.

 

[vogue]

Sturridge interviewed really well after the match. Nice bloke .

 

[Furball]

Be interesting to see how other players who played in Champions League final go through the tournament. Ronaldo looked tired the other night, never really saw much of the Spain match.

Yeah the season seemed to finish ridiculously late considering there was a major tournament on.

 

[Tangles]

After the 2 matches so far I have to say the system doesn't seem to be working. The front 5 get narrow and only Walker offers any width. The slow passing and too many touches only makes things worse. I'd like to blame Rooney but there's more problems than that. Vardy certainly needs to start. Even if it's just for his scoring presence.

 

[Scaly piscine]

After the 2 matches so far I have to say the system doesn't seem to be working. The front 5 get narrow and only Walker offers any width. The slow passing and too many touches only makes things worse. I'd like to blame Rooney but there's more problems than that. Vardy certainly needs to start. Even if it's just for his scoring presence.

Yes not much they can do about it really given there are no wingers in the squad. Part of the problem is playing Rooney as a midfielder because he's too slow to add cover. If you have midfield cover then the full backs can push further up.

 

[wpdavid]

I thought England were actually a little bit better than against Russia, although Wales were much better than Russia were (but still quite bad). Can't see Hodgson going into the Slovakia game unchanged with the subs making such an impact.

That's my take on it too. I just think England got caught up in all the pre-match hype to some extent. They certainly played more controlled football for long periods of the Russia game.

As for the Slovakia match, I'd go with Kane and Vardy, with Sturridge as the impact sub. I know Kane has been mediocre to date, but I think he's been isolated up front by the formation.

 

[Uppercut]

That's my take on it too. I just think England got caught up in all the pre-match hype to some extent. They certainly played more controlled football for long periods of the Russia game.

As for the Slovakia match, I'd go with Kane and Vardy, with Sturridge as the impact sub. I know Kane has been mediocre to date, but I think he's been isolated up front by the formation.

Yeah, there's a bit of a mismatch because Kane and Alli really rely on sharp passes into feet between the lines, whereas Rooney specialises in pointless loopy passes to marked full-backs.

I think Vardy might just come in for Kane. Kane and Alli have both been mediocre but I think Kane has been slightly worse and changing him causes the least disruption.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah replacing Kane with Vardy is fairly seamless (obviously they have different games but you get me), taking Alli out, well we don't really have anyone else like him

I'd go with the side that started the second half tbh

 

[MW1304]

I feel like we're pretty much reliant on an in-form Alli if we're going to go deep. I'm not sure how we can set up without a creative 10.

 

[Tangles]

Yeah, there's a bit of a mismatch because Kane and Alli really rely on sharp passes into feet between the lines, whereas Rooney specialises in pointless loopy passes to marked full-backs.

Lol

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Sturridge interviewed really well after the match. Nice bloke .

In the interview I heard he thanked God three times for letting him score.

 

[Furball]

In the interview I heard he thanked God three times for letting him score.

What's Brian Laudrup got to do with anything?

 

[sledger]

What's Brian Laudrup got to do with anything?

Nothing. We're not talking about anagrams of "god".

 

[wpdavid]

So apparently we're making six changes tonight from the side that started against Wales.

Interesting approach when we haven't even qualified for the last 16 yet.

 

[auditor]

The commentator on Russian TV says 2 nd or 3 rd place will be Russia. On the loser Russia says nothing

 

[sledger]

So apparently we're making six changes tonight from the side that started against Wales.

Interesting approach when we haven't even qualified for the last 16 yet.

Sounds foolish if true. Absolute max I would go with would be 3, those being the 3 subs made during the other match.

If Roy genuinely believes that changing 6 players is the best thing to do for the overall quality of the team put out then fair enough I guess, a bit risky. But if it's to rest players then I'd say it's pretty foolish. Lot's of talk about Hart being dropped, not sure I'm in favour of that.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

So apparently we're making six changes tonight from the side that started against Wales.

Interesting approach when we haven't even qualified for the last 16 yet.

Well the sequence of results in order to knock England out is about as likely as Donald Trump launching nukes at Hillary Clinton's campaign base tomorrow.