Henderson & Winks a different league to Delph and Rice

Henderson & Winks a different league to Delph and Rice

Did you watch England last night, well, England's second team with all the players missing?

I will say one thing, Rice and Delph were terrible and they certainly showed that Jordan Henderson is in a different league, as is Harry Winks.

Why?

Well, look when Maguire had the ball at the back, on the left, had no passing options so passed the ball to Calamity Stones, his fellow centre-back. Delph and Rice, who were in a straight line, simple jogged across the pitch in a straight line and if the ball was played back, they jogged back.

That was the extent of their movement. They were at the heart of England's problem.

The Dutch ran from deeper, they ran at different angles, they created options through their movement off the ball.

Both Henderson, Winks and Dier in fact, also drop and try to create a passing angle or stretch the press to leave gaps for others to exploit.

Delph and Rice were just rigid. That coupled with a lack of movement in midfield ahead of them meant England didn't have the guile and nous to play from the back and against a decent team, the Dutch were no great shakes, only their centre-backs and central midfield, England would have got hammered.

Against Ajax, Eriksen was the only player with decent movement in midfield, hence we struggled to play from the back, with Winks present we improved in the final but Eriksen and his fellow midfielders weren't moving enough and our full backs were no better.


Most of the game is played off the ball and the English aren't good enough at it.

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