re: Official LOL @England thread

Trolled

I'd say at least 10 of Italy's shots were worthless easy catches by joe hart.

Not that I'm defending England's game, but Italy didn't exactly impress either to me.

quote:

---

you think getting to the quarters with a brand new coach and numerous injuries is a joke?

---

Dude, don't act like they had to do a lot to get to the qtrs. They beat 2 bad teams and tied 2 good teams and were lucky to do that.
Oh, but you don't believe in luck in sports, whatever that means. Of course luck exists. It's not something you can agree/disagree on, it just is.If you watched the games and aren't biased or stupid, you could see that they just aren't that good. And I pull for England to do well. The brand new coach argument is dumb too. Like that complicated Hodgson 4-4-2 is really going to sink in if he had a little more time to coach em up, please.

Italy dominated the midfield to a shocking degree. Only Rooney seemed to be able to hold the ball for more than 2 or 3 seconds. Every other English player simply had the ball taken right off them like candy from a baby. You all did see how often De Rossi just almost casually took it off Young, Marchisio off Walcott etc etc?

That's Italy's strength and what is continually being effaced in most comments I'm reading.

Also, Italy forced England to pull back attackers to mark not only Pirlo but then De Rossi who seemlessly slipped into the regista role when England tried to pressure Pirlo. That Italy doesn't have to put less technical players on the pitch is where the gap lies between the two teams.

Italy's passing and spacing was on an entirely different level and it was plain to see (even for Macca for god's sake who's normally rather swallow needles than say something positive about Italy).


Italy took a lot of long shots because England packed themselves back even more than Ireland did against them. The long shots were to buy some space against the entire English defense packed inside the 18.



Italy finished very poorly but I'm also seeing a vast under exaggeration of the easy chances Italy created: I haven't seen half of their best chances mentioned once by anyone arguing they didn't create a lot of chances (for example: De Rossi's missed tap in from 3 feet out, Nocerino's near miss right after he came in, Diamante had a couple as good as almost any England generated etc etc etc)

Also, Terry and Lescott played like Champions with a capital C.

There's also some glossing over of the fact that England may have made it within 30 yards or goal in solid possessionless than 5 times in the last 45 minutes of the match.

That degree of domination was shocking for even the most optimistic Italian fans

None of this is to say Italy was massively impressive aside forme the midfield/passing/pressing dominance. Cassano played poorly and the finishing and final passes were poor. Balotelli needed to be a lot more aggressive going after passes into the box. Italy always has a lot of trouble with teams that pack the box. They usually only beat the minnows that France etc beat 10-0 in group stages by scores like 2-0.



Italy will certainly have to cut down on the defensive mistakes (Chiellini being out hurts a lot) and finish chances against Germany to have any chance at all because Germany is better.

However, they're significantly better than England right now and England winning that match, while very possible, would have been about like Greece beating Russia last week.

England legend Bert Tiddle on England's Euro 2012 performance

quote:

---

Roy Hodgson: Yes, I applied for the England job but the second I didn't get it I decided it was a twunt's gig. Meanwhile, Roy isn't Harry Redknapp and he proved it. Harry would've had this lot in the finals against Iceland and he wouldn't have paid a penny of tax in doing it. After they got knocked out, I texted Harry to see what legendary insult he had for Hodgson and he texted back "Xkqd rtusy" because he still doesn't know how to text or spell. Everyone knows that a 4-4-2 is worse than no formation at all and that's exactly what Harry would've brought. Plus Harry's jowls make Hodgson's look unattractive by comparison.

---

quote:

---

Italy had more pressure, but their forwards looked awful.

I'm not sure I've ever seen so many pointless crosses in a game. No one seemed to care enough to look for a target or find the ball.

---

No doubt but that's Balotelli for you isn't it?

quote:

---

you could see that they just aren't that good.

---

good enough to be one of the better teams in Euro. People love to say teams aren't good but when it comes down to it there isn't much separation. Let's think about the Euro's- Only two teams really stand out- Germany and Spain. They are pretty much alone at the top and then there are a few other teams like Italy, France, England.

quote:

---

The brand new coach argument is dumb too. Like that complicated Hodgson 4-4-2 is really going to sink in if he had a little more time to coach em up, please.

---

I'm talking about understanding players, knowing strengths and weaknesses, how best to use players, etc. It's more than just what formation to use. Alot goes into coaching/managing.

I notice you didn't mention the injuries.

quote:

---

Even those two don't dominate. Spain drew Italy, scored a late winner against Croatia, and generally created nothing outside of the Xabi Alonso's header against France.

---

agreed. Spain are not playing as well as they did when they won the WC in '10.

quote:

---

One of the things that makes soccer so great is how close the good teams generally are and the variation of styles teams can play. Like I said in another post at some point teams that could pass and possess the ball somehow became automatically far superior to the ones who could defend and finish. The object of the game is too score the most goals, not complete the most passes, and the team who does that is the team that deserves to win.

---

agreed I'm sick of hearing people moan on and on about passes being completed and how wonderful it is. That's not the point of the game. Passing doesn't win games.