1. We were unlucky with injuries. If you look at Germanys and Spains squad they have all their stars included, unlike us, our midfield was almost depleted. The difference would have been huge if we had Jack Wilshire, Lampard and even Gareth Barry involved. We had other players in the squad, but because they were not that good, our starting 11 almost picked itself in every game. It might have helped our cause if Rooney was involved in the 1st 2 games aswell. You could argue that I am stating the obvious hence the low expectation going into the tournament, but the positives need to be recognised.
2. Limited Preparation. We went into Euro2012 with just a matter of weeks for the players to get used to the new manager, new team mates etc. In some ways that doesn't sound too bad and can motivate and create more drive, determination, but compared to other teams like Germany and Spain, they know what they are all about and have done for the last 4 years! We had to identify our playing style in a rushed period.
Our back 5 were fantastic given the pressure we had in the 4 games and we could all see that.
Hodgson plays 4-4-2 and IMO its niave to think that, anticipating being the more defensive side, we could play that formation against a big team like Italy. Our Midfield just looked isolated for 100 mins of the game and the more Italy kept the ball, the more tired we got and looked unlikely to get a goal ourselves.
Our defence was very resilient to all that came their way, especially in the later stages of the game highlighting John Terry as our best performer.
We didnt believe in ourselves enough when we got to penalties. We had reason for that as we was outplayed throughout the game and had nothing to hold on to for us to believe we are better than the Italians.
In some ways Italy were there for the taking because they failed to find the back of the net after having alot of chances. That is a very dissapointing outcome as we could have sneaked at least 1 goal via set piece or counter attack.
I might be saying the same old thing everyone else has said or thought of, but I feel like we gave it an honest go and as long as you know they gave it 100% effort wise, its hard to fault the actual players. Its a big learning curve really.
I support England more now than I have done in a while.
Hodgson is a good man and a manager.
Bit early to say it but....World Cup Qualification Brazil 2014! lets bounce back and show everyone what we are really made of! I think we will!
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Completely agree with the back 5 they were awesome and IMO the best in the tournament, but then again I am massively bias...
yes the limited preparation had an impact both in terms of personnel and in the tactics employed, but for a couple of changes some people would have made it was probably the best squad Hodgson could have picked from and to have any chance of doing anything a well set up hard to beat formation/tactic was the best he could have played however that only gets you so far, only 1 match out of the 4 did England enjoy more possession than the opposition and even then that was only 52% against Sweden.
I've said for a long time our current game is not set up to be successful at International level, you have to dominate the play for long periods and be patient in creating chances, in this country you can hear the collective groans as a pass is sent backwards when really we should be happy to retain possession, the very simple idea of if you have the ball your opponent will find it very difficult to score. Maybe Wilshere can be our Pirlo player who can dictate the game but it is far too early to say, other than that who do we have?
I would like to agree that in a couple of years the team can improve but there is a distinct lack of quality coming through at the moment that I fear in a couple of years we will still be saying the same, Hodgson will probably be hounded out by the press because he has had 2 years to get it right and we are back to where we started. I have high hopes for the new England development centre and if we can change the mentality of coaching young players as others have said and at the same time encourage more people to take up coaching then maybe things will start to change, even if those things do happen it will take a lot longer than 2 years to make a difference.
*Sits back and waits for the miserable/anti-English comments*
We played with two banks of four who were clearly told to not roam out of position. This minimised the amount of times our full backs and centre backs were isolated into one-on-one situations. It also meant we were unable to provide options to the man on the ball. It was a plan we largely knew had to be implemented if, as hoped, Roy would make the team better than the sum of their parts.
The only way that system can work is if you steal a goal at a set play or counter. We nearly did against Italy, although we conceded far too many chances for such a defensive set up, they were largely half chances.
The amount of negativity, while far less than 2010, still surprised me. I agree with the 'fantastic' description - to defend for that length of time took extraordinary patience and resilience.
Had Rooney played like we hoped, or at least, with the desire of Andy Carroll, then perhaps we might have nicked a goal.
Alas, that system comes unstuck against excellent movement, which is why Germany would have put us out of our misery in the next game.
A shame, but not a surprise, therefore nowhere near as painful as years gone by.
If england started passing the ball around the back probing for openings, the majority of fans would be screaming 'get the ball forward'.
You see it already, Parker and Gerrard pass the ball around the back and fans in the stands are shouting to get it forward, they panic do exactly that and lose possession.
Until the rank and file of england fans accept the patient style of build up nothing can change.
By the way if Rooney doesn't like playing up front on his own, given his contribution in the last 3 major championhips, then ditch him and play a forward who is able and willing to play this role. Enough of this ego driven nonsense as well.
Compare and contrast with England.
They drew 0-0, we drew 0-0. They missed one Pen, we missed two. So I would say we are about one penalty behind Spain...
When England have had a good team that has deserved to win, but lost on penalties the same people tell us how we should be more efficient and that all the great play in the world does not win matches if you can't put the ball in the net...