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England's Player of the Tournament?


Ambitious

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Daniel Sturridge played well IMO

Seen you say this a few times and wondered, goal aside, what you thought he did well?

I actually thought he was a big disappointment. Thought his control was that of a 10 year old, think bought his passing was poor, thought he made bad decisions, thought he wasted chances and thought he dived around alot.

Normally agree with your assessment of matches but appears not on this occasion!

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hart - shouldve saved suarez's 2nd shot, couldve made himself bigger, i reckong grant wouldve, ans shouldve got back in goal against balitelli

foster - was impressed with him aganst cista rica, dealt with crosses ad set oeices well, made some good saves

baines - fairly average, was pretty poor against italy despite having rooney with him, shouldnt have lost against the italy cross so easily

shaw - better than baines defensively and offered a lot going forward, was impressed

cahill - been okay most of the time, shouldnt have let balotelli at the ball, only mistake for me though

jagielka - good at times, although made many mistakes, shouldve stuck with suarez

smalling - looked good dfensively, although very uncomfortable with the ball at his feet

jones - made a few mistakes, but thought he was solid defensively mainly, limited going forward, reminded me of wisdom

johnson - made himself availabe plenty of times but offered little when he had the ball

Gerrard - ******* *****

henderson - never really noticed him thought he was just another player on the pitch

lamapard - was alright, much better than gerrard, made some good long balls to get us out wide and behind costa rica

milner - was good first half dictated the play, although shyed away in the 2nd half

lallana - was impressed with him, was surprised to see him come off, made plenty of runs in behind and played well

barkley - thought he was good, had a determination no one else had, will be one to watch for the future

sterling - superb vs italy, but i thought was poor v uruguay, kept trying to take on every man but shouldve passed, just needs better decision making

wilshere - was ok v costa rica but i never noticed him in the other games off the bench

rooney - tried to hard v italy, thought was good v uruguar and when he came on v CR, got himself in plenty of positions, unfortunate with some, shouldve scored others, seems to have matured a lot

welbeck - was average when he played, didnt do much going forward but tracked back enough

sturridge - was ok, scored but didnt offer much,was very poor v CR for me, reminded me of bamford

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Have to agree that Milner looked our most competent player against Costa Rica. 

 

Sturridge scored but missed chances that he shouldn't have.

 

Sterling was electric against Italy but subdued v Uruguay, much like everyone else. 

 

Henderson did himself no harm, neither did Welbeck

 

Cahill was steady as per but had 3 defenders who aren't good enough for international football next to him for the two games of any importance. Strongly believe that with the young attacking talent at England's disposal we should concentrate on Fullbacks who can defend as we aren't really desperate for the attacking qualities they bring. 

 

Gerrard was our worst player in my eyes. The way he bottled it for that 50/50 in the middle of the park when Uruguay broke and got the ball to cavani for him to cross for suarez (though if glen johnson could defend cavani would have been pushed wide and not allowed to cross a nice weighted ball with his favoured right foot). 

 

Which brings me on to Johnson (like Baines) very disappointing defensively. 

 

Jagielka did himself no favours. 

 

Think Hart is getting some harsh stick off people, no keeper would have saved Suarez's second he just smashed it straight across him! Unfair to judge him on that - probably should have made a better decision regarding chasing Balotelli to basically the corner flag though!

 

We scored two goals and Rooney got an assist and a goal so I can't fault him as that's probably what it is fair to judge him on. 

 

Quite optimistic for the Euros IF England get a coach who can get a team organised as when playing with 2 holding mids we shouldn't need the wingers to burst a lung getting back to cover our fullbacks.

 

Maybe build a Team around Cahill, Stones, Shaw, Flanagan, Henderson, Wilshere, The ox, Raheem, Welbeck, Barkley and Sturridge:

 

Hart

Flan Cahill Stones Shaw

Hendo Wilshere

Barkley Sterling Welbeck

Sturridge 

 

That team would easily finish in the top two of our very generous Euro qualifying group but I'd imagine Gerrard, Johnson and Jagielka will continue... 

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Seen you say this a few times and wondered, goal aside, what you thought he did well?

I actually thought he was a big disappointment. Thought his control was that of a 10 year old, think bought his passing was poor, thought he made bad decisions, thought he wasted chances and thought he dived around alot.

Normally agree with your assessment of matches but appears not on this occasion!

 

I didn't see that Costa Rica game admittedly, but I just thought Sturridge was very good in his movement against Italy and Uruguay and he's one of a few players who I actually enjoyed watching.

 

He has a heavy first touch yes, but with the ball under control he has quick feet and seems pretty intelligent - though against Costa Rica I saw the highlights of that miss and he could easily have put it on a plate for Sterling.

 

Just an opinion really but I thought he was the most consistent in the first two games and played well - not amazing, but well.

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You know what,I think Rooney. Goal and an assist, looked so much more himself than he usually does at these tournaments and he's managed to get that "hasn't scored at a major tournament since Euro 2004" thing off his back.

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I didn't see that Costa Rica game admittedly, but I just thought Sturridge was very good in his movement against Italy and Uruguay and he's one of a few players who I actually enjoyed watching.

 

He has a heavy first touch yes, but with the ball under control he has quick feet and seems pretty intelligent - though against Costa Rica I saw the highlights of that miss and he could easily have put it on a plate for Sterling.

 

Just an opinion really but I thought he was the most consistent in the first two games and played well - not amazing, but well.

 

I wanted to kick Sturridge as hard as humanly possible when he had that random pot shot from 30 yards out that went 20 yards over the bar.

 

I've watched some bad decision making in my time, but I think that was possibly the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. 

 

Apart from that, I do kind of agree. He could have done with taking a breathe now and again, he seemed to really tense when he actually got the ball, but I think his movement overall was good. 

 

He definitely has something to work with, bit like Michael Owen in his prime (but not as good) 

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Interesting one.

 

Sterling, I would imagine would be everybody's favourite, but does one decent game against Italy warrant it? I don't know.

 

I'd argue Gary Cahill's case, but I don't think there is any outstanding candidate for obvious reasons. 

Sterling was really annoying. I thought he was okay against Italy, but against Uruguay was awful and pretty much on the same level against Costa Rica. Kept the ball too much and ran into danger every time.

 

I loved him when I thought he'd scored that ghost goal against Italy, was cheering for about a minute afterwards.

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Out of all the players I saw i was most impressed with Shaw he should get the LB position over Baines who looked woefully out of his depth. Out of the 'regulars' I thought Cahill was probably our best player he looked composed and capable although not at all spectacular only losing Balotelli was his worst moment but Baines shouldnt have been done so easily.

 

On a side note even if we are stunning in the Euro Qualifiers the fact England has done so poorly for the past few years at major tournaments its really going to hamper our rankings and hence our seeding which I think it half the reason we struggled this time.

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