Although I intended to spend most of Sunday working, we warmed up for the game by playing a bit of 2 on 2 football ourselves. Somehow David B and I took a 4-0 lead, only to lose 9-4 against Ed and Dom.
The England match itself never looked to be such an exciting affair - it always seemed one goal might nick it, and so it was. Amazingly Beckham seems to think that one free kick in 4 years has justified his place.
Personally I'd be happy to see Lennon replace him on the right, and Carrick or Hargreaves to drop Frank 'shots but doesn't score' Lampard out since he's clearly misfiring and hindering Gerrard's game. Still, it's probably too late for such tinkering, so I guess we have to stick with the experienced players we have.
On the bright side, both Carrick and Hargreaves have done well when called into the holding midfield role. The two Coles and Gerrard are the only others who've really impressed me, though Terry does seem to be improving (he's never produced his club form at international level, imho)
I don't think Rooney up-front alone was particularly successful though. While he did adapt to the system somewhat, he prefers to drop off another striker, and playing him with his back to goal seems to neutralise a lot of his threat. Crouch is the obvious answer - if it were up to me, at the expense of Lampard. Though with Walcott still untried, that wouldn't leave many attacking options on the bench.
No comments:
Post a Comment