Watched the England U-21 game last night

A few notes:

Holland are European Champions, but they have now lost a few of those players to the senior team. They looked pretty much like their senior team - good at moving the ball around but rarely look like scoring and make the occasional defensive error.

The goal was a gift from the defender. Awful mistake but well finished by Hoyte.

England played a 4-5-1 system which broke up the Dutch attack well but really didn't come together in the final third.

Walcott - the youngest player on the field - was a bit isolated on the left wing really. However, there was one flash of brilliance as he dribbled at high speed from a standing start deep in his own half past three Dutch players (the ball just seemed to stick to his feet) and hit an amazing 60-yard pass straight onto the toe of Wayne Routledge, who would have been clear 1-on-1 with the keeper but then failed to control it. He does look as though he will eventually live up to at least a lot of the hype if not all of it.

Huddlestone - great in the defensive side of his game but often missing control when trying to break forward. Good defensive midfielder though and very athletic.

Baines at left back was OK. Was then replaced by Rosenior. He was bloody awful.

Hoyte was quite good.

Central defence a couple of shaky moments but not too bad.

Milner - quite impressive, but seems to come from the Leeds school of w**kerdom. Reminds me a lot of Alan Smith in his style.

Nugent was my pick of the team. Held the ball up really well, brought players in. Strong, smart and has pace as well. Wouldn't mind us buying him if we have a spare few million! Very promising centre forward in the Ashton mould.

Cameron Jerome only had a few minutes but looked athletic but uncoordinated.

Carson - seems a bit jumpy to me. Made a couple of flying saves when the shot was going wide, and punched crosses away when under no pressure at all.

Posted By: Steve in Holland, Nov 15, 10:07:42