and
It’s probably our best performance over 90 minutes and it should restore some confidence. England manager Steve McClaren
This is what I heard after England’s dull 1-1 draw with Holland last night and I had to check, was he and the studio pundits who said England were good watching the same crap I was or had someone beamed in a copy of England’s 4-1 thumping of the Dutch in Euro ’96 for them to view instead?
OK the Dutch didn’t have many chances but I don’t see how having only 30% of possession can in anyway constitute controlling the game. I don’t see how consistently giving the ball away can give anyone confidence in this team and the muppet that’s running it.
If the Dutch had bothered they could have won that game easy, but they seemed content to just knock the ball about and not really try and score, it was a true mid-week runout friendly for them. But somehow the grinning ginger twat thinks this is progress.
Only bright light was Micah Richards at rightback, certainly not the number of back passes that so plague Red Nev’s game even with little support. For most the night he marshalled Dutch winger Arjen Robben well, unlucky on some occasions his obvious greater physique lead to the Chelsea man falling over a little too easily. And of course Richards played a major part in England’s goal with a great overlap to take the defender away from Joe Cole, giving him more time to get a perfect cross over for Rooney’s tap in.
Other than that it was the same old crap from the same old faces. With McClaren thinking he’s clever by trying to match the Dutch by going 4-3-3 which totally prevented Rooney & especially Johnson getting into the game.
Got to feel sorry for Johnson, I’m still not to sure he is international class, but he doesn’t get a fair deal with England. Instead of playing in the middle on the shoulder of the last defender he’s been stuck out on the wing – not where he should be at all. All too often he was chasing lost causes out wide with crap service that was usually followed up by having no support if he reached the ball, bloody Gerrard again going AWOL.
Yup yet again Gerrard showed a distinct lack of interest in representing his country, lost count of the amount of times he played someone into trouble, Richards most of the time, then sauntered off as if it was nothing to do with him, can’t remember a single tackle and his two “attempts” on goal well one was pathetic the other was ripe for the excuse makers. Thank god he wasn’t made captain, would have been so undeserved. Maybe that’s it he can’t be arsed after not getting the arm band…oh no wait can’t be that he wasn’t bothered beforehand.
Lampard, was he playing as was Joe Cole until he swapped wings but then he mostly just fell over when he had a chance to start things – maybe with the ref being the guy that was conned by Porto’s diving in the UEFA Cup Final against Celtic a couple of years back that was the plan. Carrick was another who didn’t show, one cracking shot apart (don’t think I’ve seen him hit it that hard before), he was inept, getting caught in possession or passing it to a bloke in orange.
What is it with the simple task of passing it to the guy wearing the same colour shirt as yourself, Rio did it a whole two times in the 90+ minutes the rest of the time he was lumping it up to a Dutch defender or making a deliberate attempt to place it right at the feet of a Dutch midfielder.
Rooney we were told was back to his best, not in anyway was this the kid that ran riot before and during Euro 2004. The rest of the back tour – Ferdinand, Terry & Cole – were again at their lazy worst. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rio move so slowly, but again told how excellent they were when he made one block. If they had played like that against a team that was trying it would have been painful.
Of course said pundits had to blame Paul Robinson for the Dutch equaliser, I suppose he was really I mean imagine expecting your defence of an England Premiership winning captain and a guy who cost £30million to clear a ball nodded back from a throw. Oh no the ‘keeper should come out into a crowd of 5 players to get that 🙄
And now England are third in their Euro 2008 qualifying group with the teams on the same number of games played, after last nights wins by Croatia & Russia. Does anyone really think Muppet McClaren is going to get us there never mind have a great tournament?