England vs. France

[Doggy Styles]

It was a good solid performance by England.

[Old Hack]

I only watched the second half, in which I was treated to the harem scarem tactic often employed by woy; geta draw, defend like a group of scared teenage girls, hold on for 'brave' draw.

Second half was tulipe, I must have missed an absolute humdinger of a first half given the way papers, and colleagues, are going on abou it.

[doodab]

I thought Young and Welbeck did quite well personally, although they didn't see very much of the ball especially second half.

Yes, so do I, but I think if Carroll had been up front to hold up the balls coming out of defence Wellbeck or Young would have seen a lot more of it. As it was we seemed to be handing it straight back to them 8 or 9 times out of 10. It was a good performance, I just think we invited a bit too much pressure when we should have been holding onto the ball a bit more, especially in the second half.

I think Rooney, if he was available, would have made the same difference but more so, so we have something to look forwards to.

[d000hg]

defend like a group of scared teenage girls, hold on for 'brave' draw.

If you think defending well enough not to let any goals in is how teenage girls would perform then either you seriously don't understand the game or you hang out with some really tough girls.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Was actually a really good, high quality game. The French are excellent passers with players like Cabaye, Nasri, Ribery etc. England had several good spells of passing and were actually not that bad to watch.

Honestly this is the first time I feel the English players have not let down their fans in a very long time. They did the best they could and you can only ask that from them.....

I think the way forwards is to try to combine players from the 2 best english teams. defensive play by Hart, Lescott, Milner with attacking play of Welbeck, Rooney (when he is available), Young and maybe even throw Jones in there at half time to make a difference. Rooney and Welbeck already have a partnership at Man United so sod Carroll and Defoe. I also think Hart, Terry, Lescott, Cole, Johnson already have excellent understanding between themselves.

Overall couldn't have asked more from Hodgeson so far, especially with him starting AOX - shows he is willing to gamble a bit.

[Bunk]

I only watched the second half, in which I was treated to the harem scarem tactic often employed by woy; geta draw, defend like a group of scared teenage girls, hold on for 'brave' draw.

Second half was tulipe, I must have missed an absolute humdinger of a first half given the way papers, and colleagues, are going on abou it.

Despite the rankings I would say France are a better team, therefore it was a decent result. Benzema, Ribery, Nasri etc are better than England's equivalents, and Rooney was missing too.

[Doggy Styles]

I only watched the second half, in which I was treated to the harem scarem tactic often employed by woy; geta draw, defend like a group of scared teenage girls, hold on for 'brave' draw.

Second half was tulipe, I must have missed an absolute humdinger of a first half given the way papers, and colleagues, are going on abou it.

Do you understand football?

[Old Hack]

Do you understand football?

Not really, it must be said, but it was dull, with a capital F in the second half. We didn't press France at all, and seemed to be happy defending a 1-1 draw. I watched the Ukraine/Sweden match too and it was much more open, with both teams wanting to win (although ultimately Swe were poor).

Just seemed like same old same old to me.

[TheBigD]

Not really, it must be said, but it was dull, with a capital F in the second half. We didn't press France at all, and seemed to be happy defending a 1-1 draw. I watched the Ukraine/Sweden match too and it was much more open, with both teams wanting to win (although ultimately Swe were poor).

Just seemed like same old same old to me.

I think the heat may of played a part in England not pressing and defending deep.

Overall I thought we did pretty well. Expectations were rock bottom before the game so anything other than a thumping loss would have felt like a decent result.

I don't think Carrol would have done any better than Wellbeck/Young. I'd like to see the same lineup for the Sweden game.

Not expecting much from England. I'd be surprised if we get out of the group, even with a point against France, but at least we seem to be playing with some sort of identity i.e Defend deep, work the channels and nick a goal or two.

[russell]

First game is usally nervous affair, they managed to get a point, they have some good youngsters who will shine , young, wellbeck and oxlade.