England V Italy (Pre Match Build Up Thread)

[The Fat Controller]

England are unbeaten under Roy Hodgson in all matches, normal time and added time: yesterday's game is a draw, the penalties only decided who progressed

Doesn't make us any better.

You are correct. The point being, for me anyway, is under Capello i don't think we would have picked up a point against France and we wouldn't have been half as stubborn as last night. Roy is playing to the strengths of the available and eligible players. A few years down the line, perhaps we will have a few more technically gifted players but for now, i think Hodgson is due a bit of credit for making us a hard to beat team in a short space of time.

[Tall King Blox]

You are correct. The point being, for me anyway, is under Capello i don't think we would have picked up a point against France and we wouldn't have been half as stubborn as last night. Roy is playing to the strengths of the available and eligible players. A few years down the line, perhaps we will have a few more technically gifted players but for now, i think Hodgson is due a bit of credit for making us a hard to beat team in a short space of time.

Crumbs guys, take a break...! it's only a game of football, which we lost in case you forgot...Rules of football numro unio...score more than them....end of

[Phil78]

But Rooney has only ever been 100% fit at one tournament and in that instance he absolutely ran the show.

Why wasn't he fully fit for this tournament? Was fully fit at end of the season, had a couple of weeks rest before friendlies, had two games to rest during his ban.....

Did he rest up and keep himself fit for the upcoming major tournament, or jump on the first plane to Vegas and get on the beer?

I can't imagine the Spanish/Germans/Italians doing that can you?

[marshy]

Saw this on another forum:

30 Cristiano Ronaldo has had more shots in his first four games at Euro 2012 than the entire England squad (29) had at the tournament

20 Italy had more shots on target in their quarter-final match than England had in total in their four matches in Ukraine

88 England conceded more than twice as many shots to France, Sweden, Ukraine and Italy than they had against those teams

39 England had on average 39% of the possession in their four games, their lowest figure at a tournament since Euro 1980

29 Ashley Young and James Milner put in 29 crosses in the four games. Only three reached an England team-mate

300 England averaged 300 passes per match. The four semi-finalists have averaged 479

15 England completed only 15 passes in the 15 minutes of the second period of extra-time against Italy

18 England's most successful passing combination against Italy was the goalkeeper Joe Hart to the substitute striker Andy Carroll

115 Andrea Pirlo had more passes against England than England's four starting midfielders had against Italy

18 Mesut Ozil has created 18 chances in Germany's four games. Steven Gerrard, England's most prolific chance creator, has made six

102 England ran on average 102km in their four matches. Italy ran 7.5km further on average per match

86 England have had the most tackles in the tournament, with Steven Gerrard's 18 the most of any player

29 England have blocked the most shots at Euro 2012, 17 more than Italy, 19 more than Germany, 21 more than Portugal and 24 more than Spain

Stats supplied by Opta

I know you can prove most things with statistics, but most team passes being Hart to Carroll is piss-poor. [caveat being that I have no idea as to the veracity of these numbers]

Depends how you define 'successful'. It's hardly a success when it skims off his head and goes to the opposition. This was why I said in another post that it was the most depressing half of football I can remember. For those people posting that Carroll is the future all I can say is that that style of play should be the past, not the future. When we did put two or three passes together it went something like this. Knock it about at the back a couple of times, decide there's 'nowhere to go', pass it back to the GK who then punts it up to Carroll's head, flick-on, possession lost. Brainless. And talking of brainless and Rooney's suspension, why was he ever selected for the squad in the first place. For whatever reason he clearly wasn't fit and his 'return' to the squad was always bound to be disruptive to the team shape. I'm sure not many will agree but in the build-up and start to the tournament Young was actually doing ok in the hole and contributing goals and assists. As soon as he was shifted out wide on the return of the prodigal son his form took a massive dip.

One of the other interesting stats you quote is the one about km. covered which just cofirms the visual impression at the time that we just seemed to lack the energy of the oppostion. I would be willing to wager that the shortfall in distance covered arises from the fact that we simply don't move into a position to receive the ball thus making it even more difficult to retain possession.