England vs. Italy, part review...

Unbelievably, I didn’t watch the full or even the majority of England vs. Italy last night. Some say I was lucky, others by the sounds of it would disagree and say that it was grace in defeat and that we played well.

I got home in time to pay uninterrupted attention to the last 10 minutes, and saw the highlights, so there is some premise to judge, critique, whatever you will…

The negatives were obvious to see; our final ball was missing whether that be delivery in from the wings or played through the middle. Had they been a little more existent, it wouldn’t have mattered if Italy had 4 or 11 men behind the ball, the amount of possession and pressure we put them under would have cracked soon enough.

One of my informants wasn’t best pleased with the decision to bring Wilshere on in place of Henderson, but based on what I saw Lambert would have been wasted because no one looked able to get the ball up to him!

What was a bit more real than our delivery was a drive and determination that has been missing for a while. The decision to go with youth over experience certainly bought it’s fruition on that front, but there were still signs of rotting, particularly on the left. And I’m not just on about the shambles that led to both the delivery and Balotelli’s goal.

Wayne Rooney, so often dubbed as one of the Premier League’s best players, England’s ‘golden’ boy, Shrek… The list goes on, but one thing he is not is an international World Cup player. I was on one hand gobsmacked to read that last night’s cross for Daniel Sturridge was his first contribution to an England goal at a World Cup in nine appearances over three tournaments. On the other, I wasn’t so.

As a prodigy in 2006, there was little to expect from Rooney, in fact far less than was expected of him in 2010. Having finished the season as Man United’s top goalscorer with 34 goals (all comps), Rooney was considered to be on form, but if that was a bestseller going to South Africa, his place coming back was as good as a 5-books-for-25p at a car boot sale in Biddulph…

This year has been different though. Despite United’s poor season, Rooney’s maturity has developed and he has been one of their star performers yet again amongst it all; that and for once he is settled and not surrounded by transfer rumours of a multi-dozen-million pound move away from Old Trafford…

Yet there is still seemingly a giant brick wall in the road to immortality for the lad from Liverpool.

His cross for Sturridge was perfect, and his effort as always was fantastic, but his clinical skill set which has served him so well at club level was yet again absent as he scuffed an opportunity to make the match 2-2 at the near post. To quote Alan Shearer: 

“Wayne Rooney might not get a better chance than he did in the second half.”

It’s hard to find any excuses for footballers on £250,000 a week playing badly, so the nearest I can come to is that Rooney isn’t playing in his best position; the coveted number 10. There is an underlying sense with England that you can’t select a team without Wayne Rooney in, but perhaps now that is a philosophy that needs revising because Sterling was awesome last night at number 10, and Rooney on the left wing wasn’t overly effective. 

There are plenty of arguments that he doesn’t fit into the system unless it is in that role so perhaps Hodgson is just trying to find a way of accommodating him rather than playing what is best?

You would hope that isn’t true, especially when you have Sterling and James Milner who can play effectively on the left wing. Personally I would choose Milner because he can provide the defensive support Leighton Baines missed so sorely last night, while also providing the grit and delivery England need. That then leaves Rooney in the middle, and Sterling on the right with Danny Welbeck on the bench. Sound fair? 

Tactics differ from game to game, and Uruguay will provide a completely different challenge to Italy. It seemed like so much effort was centred on playing to prevent Andrea Pirlo getting on the ball that we forgot other basics, and the quality of Italy shone through as our concentration waned with our energy in the heat. Against Uruguay at least the biggest concern is neutralising Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

With that hopefully taken care of, pace will be enough to beat the likes of Diego Lugano and Daniel Godin, so a gung-ho approach is more likely to reap it’s awards here than against the Italians. Costa Rica managed to undo the two-time winners, hopefully we’ll have enough energy left to do the same and set up a winner-takes-all tie with the Costa Ricans.. 

It’s all very well playing promising football with the youngsters we have at our disposal, but if we manage to do what just 4 of 46 teams since the 1998 World Cup have done and scrape through the group stages having lost the first game, we will have to change tactic because there are no second chances. We’re lucky to be getting this one…

Three Lions on a shirt, but are we still believing?

Just over a week to go now until the biggest fiesta on the planet. An event that once every four years eclipses the Olympics, and has groups of men ogling round the TV at the pub as they can’t have an outdoor barbecue because it’s raining in the summer. 

And that won't be the only water falling when the tears start as England yet again bow out of the World Cup early.

Even this ball can't be as deflated as some England fans...
Picture: irish-adam (Flickr)

I’m too young to really remember 2002, and 2006 is a hazy memory so in truth this is only my second proper World Cup experience, and there is not much optimism going to Brazil. Talk about walking into the gates of Hell, Manaus will certainly provide a similar heat…

I feel though that were it anywhere but Brazil, or South America, there would be a reason for optimism for once, not a pessimism that is somewhat alien in England in the build-up to a World Cup.

Back in 2010 with a squad that contained the likes of Emile Heskey and Shaun Wright-Phillips, knowing we could come up against powerhouses like Spain and Germany, there was still a dumbfounded belief that we could win. Fabio Capello soon tarnished that with Heskey’s introduction against Germany, while other unfortunate ‘factors’ didn’t help either… Lampard's ghost goal, Green's blunder, intensive training, boredom.

But this time round there is a common acknowledgement that we are doomed from the start, despite having a squad with a good mix of experience and young talent, eager to show what they can do having terrorised the Premier League for nine months or so.

The other thing that has been lingering around for nine months is the scape-kid though, and I’m sure that if/when we get knocked out of the tournament the kid will have become a goat, and his name will be either ‘Heat’, ‘Humidity’ or ‘Typical England’.

It’s a pretty damning sign of the level of pessimism when excuses are already being thought of by those people who appear to be blind to the advances of modern day football. Do they not think England’s pre-tournament build-up will focus on helping overcome the heat and humidity to give us a level playing field, or even an advantage over countries who haven’t identified it as a critical factor? 

Most importantly, have they forgotten that 2-2 draw with Brazil at the Maracana just over a year ago, where if anything it was the atmosphere generated by the home crowd that carried Brazil over the line? England’s defiance and bravery was - clichéd - like that of a lion, and they fought and battled against the odds to come away with an unlikely draw from a place where Brazil are unbeaten against European opposition since England won there in 1984…

So, what conditions? Now comes England’s record…

Rooney hasn't really fully formed on
the international stage...
Picture: Stephen Matthews (Flickr)

Thanks to us in the media, we don’t forget the stats about England’s dismal penalty record, or Wayne Rooney’s inability to perform on the international stage, or Gazza’s tears, the Hand of God, the Germans, Jorge Larrionda. Mike Bassett’s 4-4-f***ing-2. The list goes one...

It’s hard to see how all these recounted memories in the build-up to the tournament do anything positive; they are just a reminder of the disappointment we are set to bask in for another couple of years until the next tournament. It’s like instead of preparing for the tournament, we are trying to prepare people for the misery that follows instead of trying to get people supporting the country. 

Surely to capture a town square one evening full of fans singing and chanting would be much better motivation than a reminder of how we’ve failed before, and the pressure that comes with needing to beat those before this generation.

I’m not a believer in false optimism, but at the same time pessimism isn’t the answer. What I do think the current mindset of England fans could bring though is an ease of pressure; for once we are heading into a tournament with no expectation.

With that in mind, anything beyond getting out of the group stages could be regarded as exceeding expectation, and with hope and belief, who knows what could happen in that next 90 minutes?

Baddiel, Skinner and The Lightning Seeds famously sang “thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming…” 

Well nearly 50 years on, the dream is still there, it just needs the belief to go and achieve it. Like I said, I’m not a believer in false optimism, but support in the present could go a long way.