Back to Rainbow Bungle

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP TALK


Presumably Roy Hodgson's favourite TV programme is Rainbow and his bungled another England game and let wales win the Group.

England had no opposition, yet all we could really muster were shots from the edge of the box. Vardy got in and missed his chance, Clyne got in and instead of playing the ball across to an unmarked player with an open goal he shot and let the keeper avert the danger.

daniel Sturridge  did perhaps two things all game. He looked incredibly selfish and kept getting in the way. His movement off the ball was appalling, he wasn't making runs to take players out of position, he was milling around the ball without giving the man on the ball passing options and when he did get the ball, passing was the last resort, by which time there are no openings.

The guy is an impact sub in an England jersey, no more. Wilshere failed his audition, perhaps he was just played to try and get him fit, but again at the moment, he is just an impact sub when the opposition is getting tired.

We had plenty of the ball and didn't do a lot with it quite frankly. Winners don't make excuses and failing to score when you have all the ball isn't anywhere near good enough. That is the problem when you send teams out who you have trained to play for 0-0 at half-time. If you want to change that it isn't simply a question of saying let's try to win from the start. It affects how the midfield, in particular, play. Playing for 0-0 they don't get in the box as often as they could leaving you light on numbers and therefore we have less opportunity to create clear cut chances.

We see it at Tottenham, Cristian Eriksen likes to stay behind the ball, if you have a midfield with that mentality then it is difficult for them to play with a goalscoring instinct.

All the talk of Jamie Vardy and he did nothing all game. Ryan Bertrand showed he is vastly inferior to Danny Rose and you have to ask yet again why Roy Hodgson was persisting with him in the qualifiers. It is plain stupidity to come into a tournament after all that qualifying to suddenly realise you have been playing all the wrong players against weak opposition and now you have to change everything and play players together who now have to learn from scratch.

It is those little things that contribute to losing a goal in the last minutes. Everyone has to know everyone's game and how they are going to react in different situations, that isn't going to happen if a team doesn't play together.

Against Slovakia, he flopped yet again, just as he flopped in Brazil, as expected. You get what you pay for and he is only the England manager because he is cheap and he saves the FA money on wages. He has selected a bunch of unfit players who have had injuries and throws them all on the pitch together. If I were Ross Barkley or John Stones I'd be feeling pretty pissed off right now, especially Barkley who has had to sit and watch a bunch of half-fit players preferred to him.

Hopeless Hodgson does it again. Back to Rainbow Bungle.