Land of mope and glory
So Ireland’s Euro 2008 campaign has ended in failure. If it’s any consolation, England flopped badly as well. Blame poor organisation and silly tactics.
Tony Cascarino, 04 Dec 2007
After the misery Irish fans must have gone through for the last few months, I’m sure England’s week from hell put the smiles back on Irish faces. I can imagine the reaction in the Irish bars; I’m sure thousands of people hit the roof.
From England’s point of view, it was a complete shambles. Firstly, I’ve no idea why they played a friendly six days beforehand in Austria. That made no sense, coming just before such a crucial game. There’s always a risk that you’ll pick up injuries, and sure enough, they lost Michael Owen. This meant that having played two up front in the Austrian game, they took to the field against Croatia with only one striker, making you wonder what the whole point of the friendly had been. It was appallingly bad preparation.
They needed to stick with the same system, and when they lost Owen, it should have been a simple matter of replacing him with Defoe. Instead, Steve McClaren played for the 0-0 and it backfired horribly. England fell apart in every department. Everyone except Crouch and Beckham had a nightmare.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen England perform as badly. They only played with any urgency when they were 2-0 down and had to throw caution to the wind. Then as soon as they got back to 2-2, they stopped playing again, which was asking for trouble. It’s an established pattern with McClaren’s teams. His Middlesbrough side used to get good results in Europe when their backs were against the wall and they had to chase a game. But any time he approached it like a chess match, they got taken apart.
I must say, though, Croatia were magnificent. It was one of the best displays I’ve seen from any international side in a long time. They’re not naturally better players than the English lads, but they were properly organised. It makes all the difference at international level. If you pick the team and just throw them out there and let them get on with it, without giving them a clear gameplan, you’re going to get found out, as England and Ireland have proved. .
Page 1/3 <Previous 1 2 3 Next>
©Hot Press 2012. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | About Us Jobs @ Hot Press