Graffito

I've been watching England for more years than I care to admit and nothing much has changed in all that time. Whenever they start by taking two touches and then passing painstakingly slowly across the back four my heart sinks and I know exactly what's coming..... a totally sh1te performance. As an indicator of how the match will go it never fails.

3 million.

What a mess of a performance. A lot of tension in the legs but that aside what on earth did Hodgson send them out to do. Just one big mess.

Sleep walking to elimination. Must move the ball quicker second half.

The history of England and epic World Cup failure is littered with excuses. England are better than Uruguay and Costa Rica. If we don't go through it's our own fault.

Give you that one. It's Johnnycake.

Alan T1tchmarsh.

Don't know what the average age of the teams was but there's not much between the squads; England 26 and Italy 27. Pirlo was peerless at 35. Gerrard arguably past his best at 34. Maybe Hart's got that wrong.

Some good points here, particularly from Italian perspective, but don't you think the problems for England down the left were key with Damian (is it?) able to play so advanced and tie up both Baines and Rooney? Or are you saying that a man on Pirlo would have dealt with this by wresting control in CM? An extra CM rather than an attacking midfielder might have done this for England. Someone to tuck in on England's left. But I can't criticise Hodgson too much. He went for it like we wanted.

Poor old Phil. Still being played out of position. Romania wasn't it?

Just got home and only skimmed this page but appears to be very negative. I thought a England did well overall and I'm positive about going through. The big problem was down our left, mostly first half, where Rooney simply didn't cover. Rooney's cross for the Sturridge goal aside, Italy's right back managed to neutralise both Rooney and Baines going forward. Seems like Roy playing what he considers to be his best players rather than his best team. Either play Rooney central or drop him.

Campbell looks very good.

But he doesn't know English. It would mean another translator. Remember Ranieri's translator at Chelsea? The one who didn't translate what Ranieri said but made up his own answers.

Pressure next season on whoever replaces Lambert as penalty taker.

I agree we should man mark Pirlo and it would seem sensible to detail one of our lesser attackers. That's Wellbeck. However, Peter Taylor was arguing at the weekend that he would ask Rooney to drop deep. Someone made your point; that's a waste of Rooney's attacking talent (less evident recently). But Taylor made a good argument, that if Rooney is standing by Pirlo when England regains possession, Pirlo will have to follow Rooney or we're a man over. Will Pirlo do it, in the heat, on every occasion?

Which of Italy and England is better suited to playing in heat and humidity? Possession will be key. There's a case for the likes of Lambert and Lallana. Do we man mark Pirlo and who should do it? Italy could be vulnerable to the counter attack. Keep possession then bring on fresh young legs for the final 30 minutes. On the face of it this has 0-0 written all over it but it is winnable.

Same goes for people who don't read posts properly.

Has anyone suggested he did?

Bit of a u-turn from me here. On first reading last night I got as far as the bit about looking for a champions league team to support, completely missing the other bit about Saints going out of business. Too many beers brought on by weather delay in Miami and another sub par England performance. It is, of course, very well written.

What a load of crap. Doesn't resonate with me at all.

Well...what did England create against 10? Tbf most sides will find it difficult to break down Honduras. But they didn't test our defence at all. Add in Honduras' physical play and it wasn't the best preparation.

He's right about Lallana though. He's a pivot. ****ing use him.

He just needs to take his jacket off, the plank.

Thanks for the link. That's actually a master class in central midfield play.