Well, I can breathe a sigh of relief. I never believed that Ecuador would beat England, and from the way they played after they went down a goal, neither did Ecuador.
I'm not really happy with England's play. It seemed to me that both Gerrard and Lampard were trying to be team players and share the ball with each other and to me it was quite evident that that doesn't work. Very sad really, perhaps Sven will move one out to the right wing and play Beckham in midfield. I would love to see the experiment at least as it would allow Gerrard and Lampard both to make forward runs and perhaps take advantage of Beckham's incisive passing to split the defence.
To win this World Cup, we're going to have to play ball to feet as we did today (with the exception of Robinson's passes to Rooney). Our wide play today was all from the left (Joe Cole) and little or nothing on the right until Lennon came on.
I liked Carrick in the central holding role.. I would like to see Downing on the field with Lennon as subs in a second half where we have to either pile on the pressure to keep a lead or bring us back in to the game. So start with Beckham and Cole on the wings of midfield and replace them when they flag with Lennon and Downing. Run the enemy off the field..
Play 4-1-3-1-1 with Gerrard or Lampard sitting behind Rooney. We'll see what the next game brings.
I expect it to be England-Netherlands for the quarters.
Posted by artandscience at June 25, 2006 12:39 PM