Originally Posted by iamsofired:
“Lol internet - England lose two very tight games vs two higher ranked teams becuase of some schoolboy defensive errors so Roy must be sacked.
Eyeroll.”
Indeed. all the familiar calls for more passion too. As if headless chicken style ever worked well before. What no one seems to be mentioning is some key midfield players we were missing for these two games:
Theo Walcott
Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
Andros Townsend
Any one of them would have made for a more balanced team. The only mistake Hodgson made was in playing four specialist attackers and only two specialist midfield players to start with. 4-3-3 might have been better. When Lallana and Barkley came on the midfield improved. Lallana is the left sided midfield player England have been seeking for decades and we under utilised him. The four front players are very talented but they won't break down a well organised defence by themselves. Against Italy, in a more open game, they looked better. The lack of wide midfield cover for the full backs increased the defensive frailty.
The lack of a decent central defensive pairing was not Hodgson's fault. Terry has been ruled out for ages and quite rightly was not invited back, no matter how good he still is. Dawson has been injured. Jagielka isn't the best but he's really all we've got to play alongside Cahill.
Let's not forget. Had the referee sent off Gadon in the first half last night, as he should have done, we would have been looking forward to the Costa Rica game with hope.
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