Concern For The Future?
Having watched the U21’s demolish Slovenia 5-0 many people would have thought that the young lions would be able to overcome the Czechs with similar ease. However the senior side beat Jamaica 6-1 before jetting off to Germany, and we all know what happened over there.
Why didn’t we beat a team delighted to achieve a 0-0 draw? Playing with one striker upfront when the Czech centre backs are both at least over 6ft might be something to look at. Or, is Stuart Pearce able to drop any of his young starts if they aren’t performing? Take Richardson for example. He cant play out wide because Pearce wanted Milner and Young on the wings, so where do you put him? We've had Reo-Coker and Huddlestone in the centre of midfield for a while now so no need to disturb them, which meant Pearce played Richardson behind a lone striker. Fair enough if that lone striker can hold up the ball for his team mates to join in the attack but the wide men didn’t get involved in the game, so much so even Milner had a crack at playing off the striker, without any luck.
It seems to me as with the senior squad that if there's a big name player that can play the manager will do anything to fit him in rather than set a balanced starting 11 with pace, technique and passing abilities. One way for an English team to beat any opposition, especially abroad, is to hit them with pace and a high tempo and I saw neither of those on Monday night.
Fair enough we didn’t get beat like the Italians did, but they dominated the game from start to finish and would have been very lucky to walk away with a point never mind the three that they stole. And the Dutch managed to scrape a 1-0 win as well. This tournament isn’t over just yet and with no side looking in dominant form any of the 8 sides could walk away with this trophy.
Why didn’t we beat a team delighted to achieve a 0-0 draw? Playing with one striker upfront when the Czech centre backs are both at least over 6ft might be something to look at. Or, is Stuart Pearce able to drop any of his young starts if they aren’t performing? Take Richardson for example. He cant play out wide because Pearce wanted Milner and Young on the wings, so where do you put him? We've had Reo-Coker and Huddlestone in the centre of midfield for a while now so no need to disturb them, which meant Pearce played Richardson behind a lone striker. Fair enough if that lone striker can hold up the ball for his team mates to join in the attack but the wide men didn’t get involved in the game, so much so even Milner had a crack at playing off the striker, without any luck.
It seems to me as with the senior squad that if there's a big name player that can play the manager will do anything to fit him in rather than set a balanced starting 11 with pace, technique and passing abilities. One way for an English team to beat any opposition, especially abroad, is to hit them with pace and a high tempo and I saw neither of those on Monday night.
Fair enough we didn’t get beat like the Italians did, but they dominated the game from start to finish and would have been very lucky to walk away with a point never mind the three that they stole. And the Dutch managed to scrape a 1-0 win as well. This tournament isn’t over just yet and with no side looking in dominant form any of the 8 sides could walk away with this trophy.
