Well welcome to the Scotty Parker show! England captain for the first time and we saw exactly why the guy is actually a liability at international level when you come up against the better teams. First half we was good, very good when he sat and sat and sat. There was one lovely last ditch tackle and two wonderful blocks; and the one yard Scotty passes sideways and backwards were a joy to behold. The trouble is, Modric wasn't available to offer the forward impetus.
Second half, we saw the other side of Scotty when the armband went to his head and he suddenly thought he was back in Claret and Blue. Fatal! As soon as Scotty ranges forward, you know you are in trouble. Just before Holland scored, Scotty lost the ball and the Dutch sprang forward. The shot from Huntelaar went narrowly wide but the writing was on the wall. Did Scotty learn? Did Scotty drop back into position to sit and hold? By now the adrenaline was pumping. Cue the Arjen Robben show. Watch that first Dutch goal, with Robben running at an unprotected England back four and Scotty trailing in his wake, out of position and out of the game. Tell me, when was De Jong ever out of position? When were the Dutch centre backs left exposed like that?
And did Scotty learn? Well he dropped a little deeper, dwelt on the ball, in typical fashion, lost the ball and Holland nearly had their third.
Of course, the Parker acolytes won't want to see this. Nor will they want to see the terrible Parker pass that could have led to the breakdown of the attack that resulted in Young scoring our second goal - with Jones showing much more vision and ability on the ball than Parker has shown all season in a Tottenham shirt, opening up the Dutch in a way that Parker can only dream of. Nor will they want to remember Parker delaying and over hitting his pass, so depriving Sturridge of an opportunity.
Parker's blocks will be remembered. And Parker picking himself up after being poleaxed by De Jong and Kuyt will be remembered too. Because that's what Scotty does, he competes. But at the highest level, competing isn't enough, at the highest level you need class and control and a footballing brain, and Scotty is then found wanting!
8 comments:
It was Captain Scott whatever you say HF. Good luck to him. Time for you to leave the tent, maybe for some time.
What about Lansbury's goal tonight for the U21's. He deserves a run in the first team ahead of Nolan.
you forgot when he dawdled on the ball tried doing his little pirouette and slipped over
He never gave away a free kick that led directly to a goal though ;-D
kevin in Manchester writes..
spot on HF - although there was one moment when i feared for your bet .. didn't he thread a nice pass through to Sturridge or welbeck unmarked in the penalty area- you were saved by the offside flag! read Cascarino in the Times; great stuff
Anony-mouse says,
Regardless of how he performed last night you were always going to give Scott a negative review.
It was a patched up team last night so I'm not reading too much into it, however Parker still managed to be our best player. Admittedly this was not hard given the performance of most of the others.
Particularly in the first half he was the only one keeping the side's shape remotely together. It was an uphill task cos the rest of them seemed to only be on the pitch to see what a cohesive intelligent team like Holland look like at close quarters.
Of course he has his faults, but Parker doesn't have anything to prove to you, me or anyone HF- he's a top quality player.
Top class players hold their position for 90 minutes. Top class players can time a pass so a colleague isn't offside when it is delivered. Top class players don't then overhit the pass by five yards so the keeper can collect it. Top class players don't fanny around on the ball in their own half and lose possession. Open your eyes! Two great blocks, one very good tackle - all in the first 20 minutes, and then what? Did you see him LEADING the team?
Anony-mouse says,
Thanks for the advice but my eyes are open.
I know you'll tell me if I'm wrong but I think you'll agree there wasn't much to lead last night was there HF? Even so, he did OK within the confines of a poor team performance that was due mostly to our nothing-special-in-the-first-place- team being further weakened for various reasons.
And yes of course top class players do all of the things that you mentioned in your last post- unless you can name me a player who has never made a mistake in any game he's played. No, I can't think of one either. Even the very best players make mistakes each time they walk onto a football pitch- they are humans not robots. This is especially true for someone like Parker who doesn't hide when others do.
As this is supposedly a West Ham blog site, with occassional QPR diversion, how about an article on the west ham player of the night, Henri Lansbury, as suggested by 23:11. With one amazing goal (and with the quick look up and urgency he took the shot-cross I side with the former), a second well taken goal and other good efforts, surely he's worth a start in the team this weekend, rather than on the bench as the back up keeper. Come one HF, with your love of slagging off Sam you must be able to come up with some sort of critique!
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