Watching England-Trinidad yesterday once again left me wanting to explode. When on earth is a manager going to make the most of England's abundance of talent? Even most hardcore England fans I know are troubled with the way England are playing despite their six points.
Here's what I saw yesterday:
-Carragher is not a full back
-Neither central defender has the inventiveness to orchestrate attack (they kick it long out of resignation)-the central midfielders are not getting the ball enough (they need to come deeper for the ball in order to take responsibility of the attack from the central defenders)
-the pressence of Crouch by default skews the attacking style toward the long high ball--which kills the kind of game that would see the likes of Owen, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard and now Rooney, flourish
-the right midfielder, Beckham, while excellent on set pieces and crosses, is not dynamic enough in the run of play and himself disturbs the flow of the team (and speaking of flow: does the team really need him to trot over to the left side of the field every time there is a long free kick over there?)
-since your top two men (the strikers) pretty much dictate "how" you play, England's style will only be corrected (and England can only win this tournament) if they have Owen and Rooney together up front, making runs, showing for balls, turning their men and hunting for through balls...
> from my Big Soccer post
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