England v Belgium Friendly

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Should be a good 'un. I'll say 3-1 England. Be interesting to see how Hazard does.

Problem is Crimey, Portugal have outperformed England in the more recent tournaments ironically beating England twice along the way, and Italy have a much better history in major competitions.

Maybe on the team sheet and on the day they are just as good, but the facts are they have out done England in recent competitions.

John wrote:Yer but rankings mean nothing, I mean England are 7th and I remember only a few years back the USA were like 5th. You can see why Belgium failed to qualify down to the fact they've got no striker. Lukaku looks a shocking prospect in my opinion for Chelsea and he's got no pace whatsoever. Must admit Hazard was a big disappointment, I guess his international record says it all about him and the fact Ligue 1 is hardly a top league. Also what does it say if the manager leaves to take up some dire job back in Belgium with Brugge?

They've got a great bunch of young talented players but as a team there quite poor and that was highlighted today in failing to score or beat an appaling England. They've got Croatia & Serbia in their World Cup qualifying group which in my opinion will be difficult to progress.

the rankings help out usa in a massive way- its all about who they play in there region. however in europe things are much tougher. and that is why belgium is high- even though they are much better than there ranking suggests

Graeme Swann's Cat wrote:

martyr_94 wrote:I hope England make it out of the group, always makes the tournament that more interesting being Welsh, its the one time I support England at football

Lets merge like we do in cricket. We finally get a left winger who isn't absolute balls and you get a team that occasionally does something!

We'll see how well that works in the Olympics.

John wrote:Yer but rankings mean nothing, I mean England are 7th and I remember only a few years back the USA were like 5th. You can see why Belgium failed to qualify down to the fact they've got no striker. Lukaku looks a shocking prospect in my opinion for Chelsea and he's got no pace whatsoever. Must admit Hazard was a big disappointment, I guess his international record says it all about him and the fact Ligue 1 is hardly a top league. Also what does it say if the manager leaves to take up some dire job back in Belgium with Brugge?

They've got a great bunch of young talented players but as a team there quite poor and that was highlighted today in failing to score or beat an appaling England. They've got Croatia & Serbia in their World Cup qualifying group which in my opinion will be difficult to progress.

Plus Wales

FreekShow wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:sad times, but at the same time i still remember the good times during the tournies we did ok in..

especially 96

I actually think, from a footballing perspective, that our France 98 team was better but we had some awful luck in that Argentina game. What was wrong with that Campbell goal by the way?

Alan 'can't be blamed for anything, even kicking a player in the head' Shearer had his arm in the face of the Argentine goalkeeper.

sportsville wrote:

FreekShow wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:sad times, but at the same time i still remember the good times during the tournies we did ok in..

especially 96

I actually think, from a footballing perspective, that our France 98 team was better but we had some awful luck in that Argentina game. What was wrong with that Campbell goal by the way?

Alan 'can't be blamed for anything, even kicking a player in the head' Shearer had his arm in the face of the Argentine goalkeeper.

I never saw that.

mystiroakey wrote:nothing at all- could have sworn it was v portugal tho lol- the two portugal games must have come in 2000 and 2002 then- blimey my memory

Against Portugal the holier than thou John Terry had his arm other the shoulder of the Portuguese goalkeeper.

so was it shearer or terry or both times sols goals were dissalowed because of another players infringements

Anyone else impressed with Witsel? Thought he played great, although the afro needs work if he wants to rival Fellaini.

Lukaku was awful, wasn't he? I think he'll turn into a good player eventually. And to the person who compared his touch to Heskey's. That provided me with a lot of laughs.

TSC wrote:Anyone else impressed with Witsel? Thought he played great, although the afro needs work if he wants to rival Fellaini.

Lukaku was awful, wasn't he? I think he'll turn into a good player eventually. And to the person who compared his touch to Heskey's. That provided me with a lot of laughs.

I'm with you there, Heskey has/had a much better first touch.

Crimey wrote:Rooney got injured in the Portugal game at Euro 2004, and sent off in the World Cup 2006.

I think England fans have this weird issue where it's either we're awful or amazing.

We're okay. We'll probably get out of the group stages, and yes, most likely leave it to the last game. I think we could genuinely just about get to the semis. While the friendly performances haven't been great, we've won both and kept two clean sheets. If this was Manchester United, it would be called winning like champions, grinding out results, which is what United do against lesser sides, and it's what we have done. We did give the ball away too much, but they were friendly games, it's to be expected.

Theres a difference between grinding out results and just playing poorly. How often do United manage just 1 shot on target at OT against any side?

can we stop this 1 shot on target rubbish, ok there wasnt that many but i remember at least 2 more shots on target other than the goal

What difference does it make if we only had 1 shot on target? We still won the match. If we only had 1 shot on target every match for the whole European Championships but we won every game 1-0 I wouldn't care. If you have 1 shot on target, the other team can 20 on target for all I care, because at the end of the day the stat that matters is the one in the top left corner of your TV screen

Olly we had more than 1 shot on target , this whole thread is littered with inconsistancies and that doesnt help anything or anyone.

Engalnd had 3(i am sure of that) shots on target- not good but as you say not as relevant as winning a game of football.

And when your on top , you dont need to push as much. The stat to take note of is that we limited the opposision in to zero clear cut chances and that we won the game

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18294160

Does confirm that we did in fact have 3 shots on target

Terry possibly out of squad with hamstring, oh please let Hodgson now have get on the phone to Rio.

Are we allowed to call up anyone who isn't on the back up list?

I can't even remember who else is on the standby list, Daniel Sturridge?

I seem to remember Spain winning the World Cup by winning 1-0 in every round, and they didn't even play particularly well. I thought they were outplayed in the Germany game.

Adam Johnson is also on the standby list

It's getting to the point though where we've nearly called up everyone on the stand by list!

olly the tractor boy wrote:What difference does it make if we only had 1 shot on target? We still won the match. If we only had 1 shot on target every match for the whole European Championships but we won every game 1-0 I wouldn't care. If you have 1 shot on target, the other team can 20 on target for all I care, because at the end of the day the stat that matters is the one in the top left corner of your TV screen

Unfortunately more often than not though if England play like they did against France then there's only one outcome really.

I would have expected more than three shots on target against the might that is Belgium, in a friendly match, at home in Wembley stadium. But then again, maybe England football team, isn't so good. Maybe it is the whole Premiership / League system that is partly responsible for not generating a wealth of appropriately talented and skilled English players.

Who cares if it was only Belgium? All that matters is that we won. If we can just get a winning habit into the team. As long as we find a way to win, I don't give a crap how bad our performances are!

Its a great attitude to have Olly, and tbh as a utd fan I have also got the mentality of a wins a win. If England play like they did yesterday however, they will not be getting out of their group. I think Belgium would have been tougher opposition maybe if it was a competitive game and Belgium had a decent striker.

olly the tractor boy wrote:... As long as we find a way to win, I don't give a crap how bad our performances are!

Exactly - it is no longer a sport for the spectator ... it becomes a sport for the statistician. With so much money in the game it all comes down to crap performances and the win loss ledger.

Nore Staat wrote:

olly the tractor boy wrote:... As long as we find a way to win, I don't give a crap how bad our performances are!

Exactly - it is no longer a sport for the spectator ... it becomes a sport for the statistician. With so much money in the game it all comes down to crap performances and the win loss ledger.

So if we got to the final you wouldn't find it a great watch? I find 1-0 performances usually to be a great watch, the tension as you are holding on. Like the Barca v Chelsea champions league semi final was great just body on the line defensive work. I'm sorry but the game isn't all about attacking, you can get just as much satisfaction from a great 1-0 defensive performance than a 4-3 win.

What's all the fuss about? England won two and kept two clean sheets, whilst still experimenting with players. Never thought I'd say it but we looked a different side with Walcott and Defoe on.

It could be worse, Portugal lost 3-1 at home to Turkey, France squeaked past Iceland at home, Italy got spanked 3-0 by Russia, Germany lost last week and Ukraine lost to Austria. Netherlands might've won 6-0 but we all know what good preparation that is (*cough* Jamaica *cough*).

In the bag, I tell thee. In the bag.

I'd have Defoe ahead of Carroll all day long. I've always rated Defoe and someone like him coming on in the last 20 mins always gives defenders a rough time and always has the chance of grabbing a goal. Very unlucky not to get one yesterday. I'd have Welbeck starting and then Defoe on the bench to come on second half in the opening group games.

Well the managers job is to get wins or not to lose, and if he doesn't have the players that have the skills to retain the ball, I am not sure he can be blamed too much. It's not like he can buy in players from Argentina or Spain or Africa.

There's no expectation for England to do well, but people will expect England to do well because there is no expectation. Crazy.

Nore Staat wrote:Well the managers job is to get wins or not to lose, and if he doesn't have the players that have the skills to retain the ball, I am not sure he can be blamed too much. It's not like he can buy in players from Argentina or Spain or Africa.

Since when did you have to retain possession to win football matches? I mean we beat Spain a couple of months ago 1-0 and we hardly had any possession at all. Look at Chelsea v Barca as well. As long as you defensively organised you don't need to have possession to win games

TSC wrote:There's no expectation for England to do well, but people will expect England to do well because there is no expectation. Crazy.

Very good point. I expect England to get out of the group, anything after that is a bonus

Unless we're planning on being insanely lucky, we'll be lucky to avoid finishing bottom playing like this.

Even if you're defensively solid you have to provide a threat going forward. We barely threatened the likes of Norway and Belgium. We aren't 'grinding out results', we're barely beating teams way below the level we'll play in a week.

Graeme Swann's Cat wrote:Unless we're planning on being insanely lucky, we'll be lucky to avoid finishing bottom playing like this.

Even if you're defensively solid you have to provide a threat going forward. We barely threatened the likes of Norway and Belgium. We aren't 'grinding out results', we're barely beating teams way below the level we'll play in a week.

As long as we don't concede goals I will always fancy us to score.

i wish people would stop going on about previous competitions and how we dont do well against certain teams.

we havent beat sweden in god knows how long. so? its like saying, last time man united played notts county they lost 3-1, so that means notts county are favourites?

We were comfortable in both those matches though, at no point did we really look threatened. We got all we needed to win the match and we're happy to settle for that, rather than going out looking for the kill and potentially getting caught out on the break.

Judging on these 2 games I don't.

olly the tractor boy wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:Well the managers job is to get wins or not to lose, and if he doesn't have the players that have the skills to retain the ball, I am not sure he can be blamed too much. It's not like he can buy in players from Argentina or Spain or Africa.

Since when did you have to retain possession to win football matches? I mean we beat Spain a couple of months ago 1-0 and we hardly had any possession at all. Look at Chelsea v Barca as well. As long as you defensively organised you don't need to have possession to win games

But I am not sure England have the choice ... if they can't retain possession then they will either win or lose without "retaining possession".

Nore Staat wrote:

olly the tractor boy wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:Well the managers job is to get wins or not to lose, and if he doesn't have the players that have the skills to retain the ball, I am not sure he can be blamed too much. It's not like he can buy in players from Argentina or Spain or Africa.

Since when did you have to retain possession to win football matches? I mean we beat Spain a couple of months ago 1-0 and we hardly had any possession at all. Look at Chelsea v Barca as well. As long as you defensively organised you don't need to have possession to win games

But I am not sure England have the choice ... if they can't retain possession then they will either win or lose without "retaining possession".

Oh right I caught the wrong end of the stick. Yeah I agree we dont have the players to do that, hence why we play the way we do

I think the one major thing is you've not faced a top quality striker, like a Benzema or an Ibihimovic (Yes I know that's spelled wrongly!!) yet. Yes, you've defended well, but not against a team that can actually hurt you.

To be fair, you're looking encouraging for the future. People forget that Roy can play good attacking football (the Fulham game v Juventus springs to mind).

To be fair, with Woy at the helm, I don't see us playing expansive, attractive football, it isn't his style.

However, two 1-0 wins, looking relatively solid fills me with a bit of hope for the Euro's.

Stop with the pessimism, some of your attitudes are starting to bore me.

Yes, England are poor but to say they won't get out of the group is nonsense. I expect all three games to be nervy affairs, as they always are, but finishing 2nd in that group is no big ask. No offence to any Swedes.

TSC wrote:I think the one major thing is you've not faced a top quality striker, like a Benzema or an Ibihimovic (Yes I know that's spelled wrongly!!) yet. Yes, you've defended well, but not against a team that can actually hurt you.

That's something that I've tried to put across. Belgium nor Norway had any striker to finish off any half. Benzema was in superb form for Real last season, keeping out someone like Higuain is no mean feet. Its all well and good saying you don't need possession to win games, that's a fact. However, there's a different between possession (60% of the play) and being able to retain possession. When your under pressure, and you need to take the sting out of the game, you need to be able to keep possession in order to allow yourselves to re-group.

Yes, you have two wins and two clean sheets, and in fairness England have looked relatively solid at the back. However, neither sides have qualified for a major tournament for a start, and France will be a different outfit all together. You can't draw upon games against Spain in friendlies, friendlies mean nowt, its what you do in the major tournaments, that's when teams bring their A games, and if England play like they have done so far like needlessly giving the ball away, they will get punished at the higher level. If they can cut out the simple mistakes whilst in possession of the ball, they will be very tough to beat, because as i'm sure everyone thought when Roy was given the job, they knew England would be very tight at the back and hard to break down.

There's only so much Roy can do in such a limited amount of time. I don't think there's ever been an England manager given 2 months to prepare for a major tournament with the amount of injuries and contrversies he's had to put up with so far, not to mention that the best player in the side is suspended for the opening two games. Roy deserves allot of credit imo.

I'm afraid I have to agree with ozzy on everything minus Hodgson. Guys taken over a ship riddled with holes 2 weeks before its due to sail.

Post Euros is when it gets interesting, hopefully this tourny is the watershed for whats left of the 'golden generation' minus ashley.

owen10ozzy wrote:The simple fact of the matter is England are poor. People can come on and say 'oh but the result is all that matters' etc etc and yes to a degree thats right. However the fact is that these friendlies should have been used to try things out in preparation for the tournament itself.

Hodgson hasnt done that. I dont want to become one of the bandwagon people so Im going to say it well in advance. He is not good enough for international management. Yes he did well with Switzerland (better than that actually he did fantastic) however the international game has moved on so much now it is a different complexity to 8 years ago never mind 20!

England are too rigid, play to defensive and do the basics wrong. The passing last night was woeful and to be brutaly honest not just inept but quite frankly embarassing. If you cannot retain possesion against the likes of belgium you have no hope against the power houses of Germany, Spain etc.

People seem to have forgotten how easily we were turned over by Germany 2 years ago. I havent...and nothing has changed since to suggest we will do any better. Yes we have kept 2 clean sheets...but we did that in the last World Cup and it didnt do us much good.

We will not get out of the group at this tournament...and even if we do by some absolute miracle in all likelyhood will come up against Spain in the Quarters and we will be shown up for what we are.

Sainty it isnt negative its just realism...Im never pessimistic when it comes to England because to be honest I dont expect anything anyway so just a good performance is a bonus.

A major club level country with a resoundingly average international team.

To even say Hodgson isn't good enough for international level is quite frankly rubbish. You can't just dismiss what he done with the Swiss. Who else would we have got? Redknapp? At least Hodgson can set out a team that knows how to defend well, Redknapp is a very poor tactical manager.

Right so two games into a new manager's reign. We've won both friendlies 1-0, absent of our best striker bar the half hour or so he played against Belgium. We're missing loads of players through injury - Barry, Wilshere, Lampard, Rodwell, Bent and Ruddy. Despite this we haven't conceded any goals in 180 minutes or even looked like conceding because our defence is up there with the best in Europe. The signs look bright - I can't see France scoring against us - yet most England fans are having a good 'ol moan about the lack of creativity we possess. Two words lads - Belief and Positivity.

England 1-0 France

Duty281 wrote:Right so two games into a new manager's reign. We've won both friendlies 1-0, absent of our best striker bar the half hour or so he played against Belgium. We're missing loads of players through injury - Barry, Wilshere, Lampard, Rodwell, Bent and Ruddy. Despite this we haven't conceded any goals in 180 minutes or even looked like conceding because our defence is up there with the best in Europe. The signs look bright - I can't see France scoring against us - yet most England fans are having a good 'ol moan about the lack of creativity we possess. Two words lads - Belief and Positivity.

England 1-0 France

+1 this

Theres positivity and theres blind faith I'm afraid.