World Cup 2014

[PeteC]

A very deflated feeling. Great excitement and hope after Rooney scored, to be dashed by Gerrard's backwards header. Not a good memory for him going forward. You can't deny the excitement Suarez brings to the game though.

[Bamboo Grove]

I just can't understand why Hodgson insisted on playing 5 Liverpool players an the starting line-up. Particularly, Gerrard, Johnson and Henderson. They bottled up an almost certain championship trophy and must still be down with that. They were surrounded by no players whose teams would have accomplished something, except Hart. You could see how their game went down after Uruguay scored. Sturridge and Sterling were fairly good vs Italy but didn´t shine today. Well, one can always say that Suarez did well but he wasn´t surrounded by players who were psychologically down.

[dtaai-maai]

I'm not too disappointed as I wasn't expecting much before the tournament.

... what a poor team England are. Can't pass, too often dispossessed and the final ball wasted.

Have to agree completely with the above. We gave the ball away far too much and didn't look like a team. There are a few what ifs, particularly with the Uruguay skipper not getting a 2nd yellow after half an hour, but at the end of the day we simply didn't have enough class. Much as I hate to say it, but if Suarez had been playing for us, we'd have probably won by a street.

[pharvey]

I just can't understand why Hodgson insisted on playing 5 Liverpool players an the starting line-up. Particularly, Gerrard, Johnson and Henderson. They bottled up an almost certain championship trophy and must still be down with that.

Surely Suarez was one of those Liverpool bottlers?

From my point of view, England didn't play as well as they did against Italy, and they haven't deserved to win either game (although close on both)...... Not much to complain about I wouldn't have thought.

I believe they can still qualify for the knock-out stages depending on "other results" going their way?

[dozer]

England's attack cannot be blamed for the result, their defence was poor. They always looked susceptible to pace and Suarez, despite being half-fit, caused them problems all night.

I notice that their are quite a few blaming the premier league for the demise of the English team, but the reality is,1966 aside, they have never been above average.

[Bamboo Grove]

Pharvey wrote:

Surely Suarez was one of those Liverpool bottlers?

He was but in this particular game he wasn't surrounded by other bottlers.

[dozer]

I believe they can still qualify for the knock-out stages depending on "other results" going their way?

After losing tonight I wouldn't fancy England's chances against Costa Coffee never mind Costa Rica.

[Zidane]

The centre of the defence was found lacking again for both the Suarez goals.Leighton Baines has had a very poor couple of games at left back,also.
The plan to move Rooney inside and put Sterling and Welbeck on the flanks didnt work.Although Rooney scored he also managed to hit the bar from two yards out and hardly took the game by the scruff of the neck.Sterling struggled to make an impact on the right wing and is a much better player inside,playing just off the main striker.If you are playing Welbeck out wide it has to be on the right.He was anonymous last night and,surely,Woy should have given Oxlade-Chamberlain a run out on the left wing.
I hope for the final match,Woy gives starts to the Celtic keeper Fraser Forster,Shaw,Barkley and Oxlade-Chamberlain at the very least.

[arcadianagain]

At least Baa Baa`s not here to say "I told you so"

[Big Boy]

England are to have a new captain next week. His name is Rupert Underwood Smythe and he's the BA pilot for the flight home.

[bsdk1960]

At least Baa Baa`s not here to say "I told you so"

About Suarez or the 5 Liverpool players from England.

Maybe UK should seek permission to make a team with players from all the commonwealth countries,
then maybe they have a chance to go past the to the knock out stage.

I hope however the will go further and Uruguay can go home,there still a small chance.

[redzonerocker]

come on, Jordan Henderson playing for England? What do you expect?

and how depressing was it when he was replaced by Lambert

[Dannie Boy]

come on, Jordan Henderson playing for England? What do you expect?

and how depressing was it when he was replaced by Lambert

Well with 4 minutes to go, they could have brought anybody on and it wouldn't have made any difference. Against Italy I thought a number of England players played quite well whereas last night, there was not one player who performed better than ok and most were quite a bit below standard. As Uruguay demonstrated, you only need one stand out player to win a game and we didn't have one.

[caller]

I agree a lot with Zidane. I think a fundamental mistake was sticking with Rooney and playing him in the middle. The trio of Sturridge, Sterling and Welbeck seem to have a natural understanding and interplay. Rooney was excluded from that against Italy and that interaction wasn't apparent last night due to accommodating Rooney, which to all intents and purposes stunted our attacking threat. He may be our 'best' player, in the same way Greaves was in '66, but Greaves was sacrificed for the good of the team and that's what should have happened here, IMHO.

But then again and almost by way of contradiction, we had too many inexperienced players at this level. For example, Baines has been exposed and why is that a surprise? His only real experience at anything like this level is a few games in the Europa League for Everton and if it's not as if there was a pressing need to have selected him. That applies to Henderson whose technical limitations were exposed last night. We all knew that Johnson and Jaglielka were weak and Cahill was our best defender but hardly outstanding. An already weak defence was weakened further by Cole's exclusion and I won't even mention the spectre of JT who by a long way was the best central defender in the premiership last season.

I would have also played Lamps instead of Henderson, Sterling in the middle and Suraez in front of him. An option would have been Milner who has been in good form and would have provided cover for either full back.

Ultimately, what both Italy and Uruguay had that we didn't was what I would call 'nounce', or 'savvy' - an awareness at this level of what is needed, how to go about things, how to win, which comes with experience and 'having been there and done it', which is where we were sadly lacking.

[Pagey]

you mean sturridge I think not suarez