Thursday 24 June 2010

Slovenia v England - My Analysis

We played very well for the first 25 mins, but as soon as the goal went in we noticeably backed off and started firing up front from the back again, but despite this we controlled the first half and thoroughly deserved our lead.

In the second half there was more of this long ball hoopla, but England were fairly solid despite a few close calls that last ditch efforts from Terry and Upson managed to prevent turning into something more. Rooney still looks off, he needs a goal fast, but apart from that a decent performance all round.

I couldn't work out why Heskey was brought on as he proved against Algeria he is as capable of holding the ball up as a man with no arms, J Cole made little impact, and for both changes I would have preferred Crouch coming on - he may have caused more problems...

Positives were Terry and Upson (a solid partnership), Milner was excellent, Gerrard was disciplined, Defoe managed to convert, and the fullbacks looked good going forward in the first half.

I think though that we still don't have enough to get beyond Argentina (presuming they win), Germany will be close and could go either way, but despite winning I feel down heartened that we didn't push on for the second goal as when playing to our potential as we did for the first 25 mins as we were by far the better team.

We need to improve for Germany, and hope that we are able to substantially improve again against the Argies if we hope to get into the Semi's.


Team performance: 7/10
MoM: James Milner
Highlight: Terry's last ditch effort to stop a shot with his head 6 inches off the floor

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