The problem is that if England can't win against a half-hearted Italian team then getting beyond the final 16 isn't going to happen.

The last we came fourth was 1990 and it was 2002 when England last made the quarter finals.

If the England team fail to reach the quarter finals it's really time for the FA to take a long hard look at English football and how it is set-up in the country as obviously isn't fit for purpose. The next generation of players like Stirling still don't stand chance of winning the World Cup unless sweeping changes are made to game in the country.

It's really Roy who needs to be taking notes. Pirlo made 1 tackle, 0 interceptions, 0 clearances and blocked 0 shots last night. Every time Sterling got the ball he went past Pirlo with ease, and the 35-year old never once gave chase. Essentially he's not expected to defend. De Rossi and Verratti were in there to do the running for him.

If Gerrard had that sort of support he'd certainly do better. In the England set up we basically have Henderson and Gerrard protecting the back four and that's it. Last night the front 4 were allowed a lot of freedom but it left us exposed at times.


That's fair enough but I'm not sure anyone really wants to see Johnson in the England lineup, Liverpool fans included.

With Henderson it's more of a gripe that he's given a role for England we've not really seen him do at Liverpool, so it's more difficult for him to flourish. I can imagine that's the sort of frustration United fans were feeling last night after seeing Rooney shoved out on the left and assigned to protect Baines whenever Italy had the ball. England managers seem to have this thing about making players perform roles they never have to do at their clubs.

Delete.

Did anyone actually think england would win against italy? They did play better than I thought they would but i wasn't surprised. Need a result against Uruguay. Their defeat was a big shock. Costa rica played really well and England shouldn't underestimate them which im sure they won't.

They did make the quarters in 2006 but I don't blame you for not remembering the Ecuador game.

all the pundits are talking about the next game against uruguay as a must-win for both teams, but whats the scenario if it ends in a draw?

I presume that would still put england in a pretty good position, since we only have costa rica as our last game, whereas uruguay have italy, not to mention that we have a better goal difference than uruguay

Lewin out of the WC then, lmfao, could only happen to us couldn't it, the physio getting injured, ruled out

I think it is a tad harsh to call the Italians half hearted, i thought they played better then that, but yes I do totally agree with the rest, even getting to the final 16 is going to be a massive challenge, and getting beyond that with the current state of English football is pretty much impossible. As much as my post was positive about England I am certainly not saying we are in any way a top team, doing so would be naive.

I don't think the FA will make sweeping changes, doing so would mean massive changes to the premiership and I can't see the FA giving up on the money in order to have a better national team.

For the first time in many years at a World Cup we put in a performance where we looked technically adept, and weren't just relying on pride, passion and strength. There was lots to be positive about last night.

Uruguay are a very defensive team though, and we will need to be a bit more clinical at times in the final third.

Its a shame its taken Roy such a long time to put this more attacking, but intelligent, formation together - as the team hasn't really had enough time playing using these tactics.

Defence is still our Achilles Heel - the second goal was a bit of a defensive horror show.

So how would you solve that then? Milner for Rooney (which is a change that I would consider) but then one of Sterling or Wellbeck would have to occupy the left flank and one right when going forwards.

A draw would be decent insofar as Uruguay lost by two. The worry would be if Costa Rica got a point or even beat Italy. If we go into the last game both on a point, CR 3 and Italy 6 that would be good chance.

It's an odd position now, where would win both our next two matches but still go out, or we could draw and win one and go through and possibly even win the group.

Assuming the best England can hope for is second place in the group now - a quarter final place against Brazil beckons. So maybe up to four more matches.

The problem is of course that Uruguay having been stung by last night may be a totally different side on Thursday - so its not going to be easy.

Anyone know how the qualification works if Uruguay, England and Costa Rica end up on 3 points each and there is a three way tie (Uruguay beat England, England beat Costa Rica, Costa Rica lose to Italy and Italy beat Uruguay).

Is the tiebreaker rule based on goals scored or goal difference or if thats the same???

It was a bit concerning to see a few of our players cramping up after only 70ish minutes last night. I've only watched a few games so far, has this happened with any of the other teams?

Jeez.... Pirlo - 108 completed passes....and there were some posters saying he was mediocre.

Lets face it England never do things the easy way so expect the unexpected. Its gonna be tough though. Out of our group i thought costa rica would be the winnable game but their defeat of Uruguay did surprise me especially how well they played. England are really gonna have to step it up if they want to get out of the group.

It becomes a question of whether we'd want to take something away from our attack in order to make our midfield more solid, in which case I'd probably have a midfield 3 of Henderson-Gerrard-Wilshere (sorry, I can't abide Milner ). Or maybe Ox instead of Wilshere, only Arsenal fans will have seen enough of him in a central midfield role to know if he could do that. I thought he was very promising there against Bayern.

The trouble then is that we need to go for the win against Uruguay and Costa Rica, so maybe removing a player from the attack could hurt us. Perhaps it would have been more wise to have the extra midfielder last night but that's the benefit of hindsight. In the circumstances we played fairly well and could have easily got a point.

Italy would be removed from the tiebreaker and it would be looked at as a mini league between the three teams, using Goal Difference, Goals Scored, Goals Conceded etc... and finally Drawing of Lots if the teams can't be separated.

Typically he used to be at Arsenal as well - they're always getting injuries.

How is it possible that we could still go out if we win our next two matches?

I wouldn't presume Italy are a sure thing and it's a fight between the other three teams. Italy came out on top last night, but I don't think a draw or even an England win would have been too surprising in that game. If people think that we are going to have difficult games with Uruguay and Costa Rica then I don't see why Italy aren't being talked about in the same manner because there wasn't that much between us and them last night.

Not really. Then again, no other games have been played in the Amazon. The England players did a lot of running last night.

Overall assessment:
The best England performance I've witnessed at a major tournament (going back to 2002). For the first time I actually feel like we are getting somewhere. Playing well from the back, we had 48% possession, looked extremely positive going forwards and deserved something from the game. Unfortunately when you switch off twice against a team as good as the Italians, you get punished. Welbeck and Sterling were outstanding last night. Hugely encouraging and I'm confident that we'll beat Uruguay and Costa Rica on the basis of last night's performance.

A few stats:
England's passing accuracy is the second best we've seen from the teams that have played so far in this World Cup (the best being Italy)
England have the best passing accuracy in the oppositions half so far (excluding crosses)
England have had the most attempts out of any team so far
England's crossing has been the worst so far

Reasons for optimism but clearly we need to work on the final ball and finishing.

As you say I cannot see any scenario in which that could happen after the first round of results. Unless of course Italy lose to Costa Rica

Costa Rica 6 points (beat Italy and Uruguay)
Italy 6 points (beat England and Uruguay)
England 6 points (beat Uruguay and Costa Rica).

England go out on goal difference?

"a half hearted Italian team"? How do you come to that conclusion? Italy wanted to win that game just as much as England. Just because England played well doesn't mean the opposition aren't trying.
If England get to the quarter finals they will have done well, even getting out of the group will be considered a success by some. With no expectations this time nobody will be dissapointed whatever they do, except for the England haters if they do better than expected.

Oaksjwhw

Someone fracturing and dislocating their ankle really shouldn't be a laughing matter, but yes it is rather ironic. It's easily done though - a few years ago I messed up my ankle just by slipping on some wet grass.

Rio Ferdinand has apologised for telling him to "run it off" and "man up"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...ted-ankle.html