England woes

a) Jamie Carragher. No problems with him as a centre back, but he has absolutely nothing going forward as a full back. He can't move into position for Beckham to pass to him, and if he did, he wouldn't be able to cross it. And he's not creating space for Beckham. Rather worryingly, Beckham appears to be able to do little without the help of his full back.

b) The short passing in centre midfield. Bloody hell. Our 'world class midfield' can't move into space, can't pass to a player in space and if they decide that they might want to pass at all it takes them an age to get around to doing. Quick, crisp, short passing, please.

Any plus points? Only the desperate ones. We've let in our comedy goal for the tournament. By the quarter-finals (assuming we get that far) Rooney might actually be match fit. And I guess you can only put it so many high-adrenaline awesome performances, perhaps we saving ours until later.

No confident though. And I'd stick to 4-4-2, I can't see Ecuador liking Crouch much.

B

Posted By: Basil Wrathbone, Jun 21, 09:14:14