Well for large chunks of tonight's game, I thought we looked quite a decent team. Barry has his critics but he anchored the midfield well and allowed the attacking players to express themselves. Walcott did his full back superbly in the build up to the first goal, Glenn Johnson overlapped well and pulled back a lovely cross, Defoe stepped over intelligently and Rooney found it as easy to score as with a £1200 a time prostitute. 1-0.
Defoe could have played all night tonight without scoring - it was just one of those nights until he went off. But he played well, except when he tried to control that equisite Gerrard cross pass with his right when he should have shaped and slammed it home with his left.
Adam Johnson was a revelation. This boy is very, very good indeed. He exudes confidence and looks comfortable on both feet. It was a lovely pass from Gerrard to set up the second but Johnson timed his run superbly and showed great composure to round the keeper before tucking it away. How Capello must regret not taking him to the World Cup!
Ashley Cole was superb too and played the pass for the third, which Bent tucked away nicely.
True Switzerland were reduced to 10 men and still scored, but it was a hit and hope from outside the box that swerved viciously. Mind you, Hart looked decidely shaky tonight. He dropped two crosses, deflected a cross shot that he should have caught easily and kicked poorly. He was our worst player by a long way.
We could easily have scored five and Switzerland didn't threaten, even with 11 men on the park. Surely this now marks the end of the Gerrard / Lampard midfield pairing. This team had more pace, more balance and much more cutting edge.
Player ratings: Hart 4: G Johnson 7 Jagielka 6, Lescott 6, Cole 8; Walcott 7, Barry 7, Gerrard 8, Milner 7; Defoe 6, Rooney 7 Subs A Johnson 9, Bent 7, Wright-Phillips 6
10 comments:
I wouldn't feel moved if Lampard played his last game against Germany. We must move on from that partnership where Lampard brings little to the table. Milner and Johnson look very nice on the wings, and so does SWP, lucky Mancs. This new role Rooney is playing fits him to a T, and his partnership with Defoe is looking perfect. Let's just wait until the likes of Brazil or Spain (or Germany) though ay?
Remember that Switzerland beat Spain and they don't lose many games. What looked like two tricky fixtures have yielded 7 goals and a plus 6 goal difference. Can't be bad!
HF,
I told you he'd be good :). I was harping on about us buying him for ages. I'm surprised a club took so long to buy him from Middlesbrough when he was 2nd in line behind the great Stewart Downing!!! Football can be strange sometimes.
How rubbish was the design on that football? Things like that really irritate me. Whoever designed that must have been a right tit. It looked like someone had kicked it out the ground and it landed on some freshly laid tarmac. They need to go back to the adidas telstar or tango design or just bloody leave it plain.
The design on the ball? It was round wasn't it? Odd thing to notice Stani!
...design on the ball HF, not of the ball! Yes, I'm very sensitive.
What did you think of the effect of no Lampard?
We should sign that kid Xherdan Shaqiri a.s.a.p. Although we may be too late because I did read somewhere that Wenger has his eyes on him.
Ok first of all to everyone saying Rooney is ''loving this new role'' you are blind and stupid. Rooney played this role in every qualifier building up to the World cup and every game during the World cup. When he was played there during the World cup everyone was saying how stupid Capello is but now that we are winning again Capello is a genius for brilliantly creating this no.10 role that Rooney is thriving in. It's actually hilariously retarded how everyone buys into the tabloid crap without being able to form there own opinions. Second of all I would love to never see Teery or Lampard in an England jersey ever again. As people they are a disgrace and as players they offer nothing to the team. I thought Jagielka looked way safer at the back than Terry does for england. Lets be honest here when was the last time Terry played for England without looking shaky. I cant remember. And as for Lampard he brings nothing to a team unless he is played where rooney is being played. He can't stick his foot in, he cant get up and down the pitch, he's not physical and his passing is poor from the more defensive central midfield role that he would have to be played in for england. I would not completely omit Lampard from the squad perhaps because against bigger teams we might be better of playing the way chelsea used to under mourinho against Barca with Lamps playing off Drogba except we could play him off rooney.
Johntan,
Rooney played this role before but Lampard was in the team then cocking it all up. When Lampard is there, Rooney is not able to play this role properly as you later admit yourself when you say "Lampard brings nothing to a team unless he is played where rooney is being played". He gets in the way. Rooney and Gerrard have been influential in the last two games because Lampard has not been there.
I agree with you on Terry and Lampard. They should not be in the starting side.
I refuse to get excited again. I've been let down so many times and the world cup was the one that did it for me.
I'll get excited if we get into the quarters but other then that I'll consider it same old same old.
Promising though wasn't it?
So was the WC qualifying campaign HF.
England fans are now like WH fans. They've been burnt so many times now that they have no faith or belief anymore. They'll only believe it when they see it (and by that I mean it will take a good, not particularly winning, performance at a major tournament).
Sad but true.
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