Now getting to put a 2 cents.. Lets talk about this England side in the context of their supposed status as a World Cup contender.
Since the England v Algeria game I watching this England side good and telling myself that I really underestimated the power of hype. Every single Algerian player was trapping, controlling and running with the football with more heart, purpose and confidence than these multi-million dollar bunch of EPL stars. I start to wonder if its the Sky HD TV footage or modern technology camera work that does have these men looking like superstars every sunday, because there is no other explanation how a comparative bake like Hassan Yebda or Nadir Belhadj could look so much better than Lampard and Glen Johnson in respective positions.
I was wondering how to describe the English brand of football and I finally decided on Pass the buck brand. If you look carefully at how they play, it is very, very predictable. When an english player gets the ball, he will immediately look up and pass to the nearest and easiest option in the vicinity. Lampard is king of this, as soon as you rush him he will just give up the ball to who ever closest. When you look at other teams, a player under pressure would on occassion try to beat his man or turn back in space/buy time to open up other options. But English players look for the quickest avenue to get rid of the ball. This equals no creativity and no inventiveness and an easy proposition for the opposition because they have much less to think about when deciding whether or not to commit to a challenge.
And lets call a spade a spade, Rooney was a waste of time this world cup. Forget all this opta stats and wikipedia and goals comparison and focus on his play during the tournament. His decision making was poor, his passing was off, his trapping the ball was horrendous. Confidence and form is a hell of a thing, and how it could make him look like a completely different player to the one that was ripping teams in Europe, its unfortunate it had to happen at the World Cup. I was shocked Capello didnt sub him in the last game instead of Defoe seeing as he is a man that has a reputation for respecting performances and not names.
As for the rest of them.. Ashley Cole is the only one for me to emerge with credibility. This tournament just showed that Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are overhyped to the max. Glen Johnson needs to learn to defend and not to panic.. Terry seem to be heading for a decline phase.. Barry was fairly basic, nutten real special.. Milner try.. he really try but he is also fairly average in comparison to world class players you would hope could win you a tournament.. and as for the rest, when you want to hinge your hopes on man like Heskey, Ledley King and any of 3 keepers that play for bottom clubs with no European experience yuh really cant be serious..
Laterz England... next!