England v Italy tonight

[Glaikit]

If England manager was Harry Redknapp, the result could be different.

Do enlighten us.

You can blame this that and the other, the reason and only reason England lost tonight, (and in the last 4 tournaments at the QF stage) is that the concept of ball retention is lost on the players due to the way we have taught at junior and youth level until very recently. If you spend 120 min chasing the ball your going to eventually loose your discipline and ability to break. The only player I would single out for criticism is Ashley Young, he's far to slow to see the play develop and holds on to the ball to long etc.. Some folks typically have had a go at Rooney, well, he's only as good as the service he's getting, and if you REALLY know football, you'd know he work incredibly hard for a forward. Well done England.

Agree with those that are supportive of Roy, he did a good job with the time he had with the team. Not many pundits expected England to get past the group stages after all. Also agree that Young was abysmal.

As for Rooney I think the criticism is quite justified. How many times during the game did his last touch fail him? Vast majority I would say, plus he also looked like he was still lacking sharpness and fitness. Roy's only mistake IMO was taking Wellbeck off rather than Rooney.

 

[ranski]

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[Carol M]

 

[georgie_no23]

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At least our fans have balls in front of goal

 

[mrlozzer]

What a spot ranski! Even that couldn't put him off scoring...!

You've got to love England fans...! Class!

 

[ksher]

Portugal also lost on penalties tonight.

 

[mrlozzer]

Portugal also lost on penalties tonight.

Well, what a let down that was... you'd think that Spain v Portugal would have provided a bit more excitement. It only got remotely interesting during ET...

 

[Mafoo]

Portugal also lost on penalties tonight.

What a dull game. Spain frustrate me. Loads of shooting opportunities missed. I wonder sometimes what they are trying to achieve on the pitch.

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[Lillywhite]

.. Spain frustrate me. Loads of shooting opportunities missed. I wonder sometimes what they are trying to achieve on the pitch.

I'm afraid whilst Spain are technically very good with their passing and ball retention, as someone who has watched football since 1957, their style would drive me crazy if I had to watch it every week. I like the pace of the English game, but our youngsters must be coached to retain possession better. Germany's style is more acceptable to me and this is the model our coaches need to aspire to. The FA need to encourage more people to get UEFA coaching qualifications because a recent survey showed we had only a fraction of registered coaches compared to Spain, Italy, France and Germany.