Is Roy right?

[Copps is Magic]

Nothing to do with selection, we had 4 or 5 chances that bounced off their players that should have gone in. It was just luck.

[Copps is Magic]

Just seen the goals for Wales, criminal defending from Russia. Disgrace to the tournament them.

[Filo]

We've struggled to break three teams down that we should have beaten comfortably despite massive amounts of possession in all three games, great teams find a way to score

[Copps is Magic]

I now make it we'll play Hungary or Austria in the last 16, France in the 1/4 and Germany in the semi if we get there. It was fun while it lasted.

[IDM]

England dominated but couldn't get through a packed defence.

Apart from not scoring, I think England should have tried more runs towards and into the box - did we have one decent free kick opportunity?

Credit to Slovakia, they parked the bus and with 4 points will probably get through in 3rd place.

One thing annoyed me, the bloody ITV commentator - made it sound like finishing second, unbeaten in the group, was not very good - and OMG we MIGHT end up playing Portugal!  They've been crap though, but I doubt they would park the bus, so the next round should see more space for attacking play.

[Campsall rover]

Russia's two centre backs are 72 yrs old between them.
We should have hammered them. The mistake RH made was not playing Vardy against them.
I still believe this England squad shows a lot of promise.
Just need to be more clinical.
Skirtal and the keeper were outstanding.

[Campsall rover]

I now make it we'll play Hungary or Austria in the last 16, France in the 1/4 and Germany in the semi if we get there. It was fun while it lasted.

I don't think France or Germany are unbeatable on the evidence of what we have seen.
This England team are not rabbits in front of the headlights. Showing no fear so far.
I wouldn't right us off just yet.

[IDM]

29 shots tonight according to the stats on BBC, 5 on target, but how many were blocked so quickly they didn't count as on target?

And that's without being much of a threat from corners, or crosses and with no dangerous free kicks.

On another night that performance generates 4 or 5 goals.

[RedJ]

We won't win it. But I'd be f**king delighted with getting to the semis. Happy with quarters. Any less, well...

[Campsall rover]

29 shots tonight according to the stats on BBC, 5 on target, but how many were blocked so quickly they didn't count as on target?

And that's without being much of a threat from corners, or crosses and with no dangerous free kicks.

On another night that performance generates 4 or 5 goals.

CORRECT

[BillyStubbsTears]

Just caught the recording after putting the kids to bed.

That's two hours I won't get back again. Clueless. In that second half, we didn't have the first idea how to pull the defence out of shape. Plodding, lumpen clodhoppers. England trying to emulate Spain by keeping possession is like Bella Emberg putting on a thong and a pair of fishnet stockings.

And here's a thought. The gap between Jack Wilshere and Andreas Iniesta is as big as the gap between Jack Wilshere and Richie Wellens.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Yes we are through. We could have made the passage easier but we have a reactive manager rather than a proactive manager.

He talked about hindsight. Use foresight Roy. Don't sacrifice your best performing players when they're on top of their games. You don't get extra points for playing the most players in the tournament.

He's probably ended up confusing himself now Clyne and Henderson have played well. Wilshire is another player who's not up to it so at least by process of deduction, we should see Milner, Sterling and now Wilshire benched for the rest of the tournament.

[Akinfenwa]

England got exactly what the performance deserved. Build up play so predictable and easy to defend against.

If you're wanting to play at that tempo then you need some serious flair and creativity around the box to create chances. We don't have that.

[The Red Baron]

Wilshere and Sterling. Two blokes picked on past glories who should be watching this on their sofas back in England.

[Filo]

We needed to move the ball much quicker to break them down, we had wave after wave of attacks, but each time we allowed them to set themselves

[Copps is Magic]

Everyone thinks they have some kind of steak in the starting line-up, and the first minor failing justifies their opinion.

Doesn't work like that in reality. The fact is we dominated that game from start to finish and created plenty of chances, more than enough, but it just didn't bounce for us. Every shot hit one of their players. 

They had one chance in the whole game when they got a lucky bounce and it fell to their player. No other team has done that to another team in the tournament. It was the right selection and the players performed fine.

[Prez]

Reminded me a lot of watching Rovers under SOD.

However its not the end of the world. If we cant beat whoever we play out of Group F (arguably weakest group) then we don't deserve to progress.

[The Red Baron]

I now make it we'll play Hungary or Austria in the last 16, France in the 1/4 and Germany in the semi if we get there. It was fun while it lasted.

That group's wide open. We could get any of the four.

If we avoid Portugal I'll be happy. I suppose if Wales end up with Croatia we might look back on this as a good outcome, if not a good result.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Copps

As you wish.

I'll demur on a couple of points.

1) We didn't "create plenty of chances". We created maybe three or four half chances, and for the rest of the match, we dominated possession against a team who were perfectly happy to cede possession and keep a disciplined shape. We had very little idea of how to break that shape. We laboured to play the ball in front of them, then either let Wilshere try something stupid and give the ball to them (1st half) or attempted camel-through-eye-of-needle shots from 25 yards (2nd half).

2) The one chance that Slovakia had. Imagine that Evina-esque defending against any of the top 10 sides in this competition. Thank you and goodnight...

[Copps is Magic]

Find me a team who had 29 shots on goal in a single game this tournament.

[Bentley Bullet]

If only Theo was eligible!   

[dickos1]

Copps

As you wish.

I'll demur on a couple of points.

1) We didn't "create plenty of chances". We created maybe three or four half chances, and for the rest of the match, we dominated possession against a team who were perfectly happy to cede possession and keep a disciplined shape. We had very little idea of how to break that shape. We laboured to play the ball in front of them, then either let Wilshere try something stupid and give the ball to them (1st half) or attempted camel-through-eye-of-needle shots from 25 yards (2nd half).

2) The one chance that Slovakia had. Imagine that Evina-esque defending against any of the top 10 sides in this competition. Thank you and goodnight...

Vardys, wasn't a half chance, sturridges wasnt, Ali cleared off the line, Clyne wasn't a half chance.
We had these and then a shit load of half chances

[BillyStubbsTears]

They were all of the 25:75 variety. They were all ones where the striker would have to do something very good to score, or the defence not step up to the plate. Maybe I'm just not easily stirred, but in none of those cases was I out of my seat thinking, "THIS is it!" Vardy's perhaps was a clear chance, but that was it. Saying Sturridge had a chance when his foot didn't get within 18 inches of making contact with the ball is stretching a definition a bit.

Vardy's apart, they were half chances. The rest weren't even half chances.

[CrippyCooke]

They were all of the 25:75 variety. They were all ones where the striker would have to do something very good to score, or the defence not step up to the plate. Maybe I'm just not easily stirred, but in none of those cases was I out of my seat thinking, "THIS is it!"

They were half chances. The rest weren't even half chances.

There is no way on earth that the chances that fell to Vardy, Sturridge and Alli were only half-chances.

[dickos1]

Vardy was clean through one on one with the goalie? If that doesn't get you out your seat nothing will
Sturridge just had to get his toe on it, both extremely good chances

[BillyStubbsTears]

Lads.

I've just edited my earlier post on the Vardy chance. But to call the others good chances is getting a bit desperate.

Both of them were indicative of the way the game went in the second half. The Sturridge chance (sic) came from a straight run onto a straight ball. It's the hardest thing to do in the final third, and it was no surprise that Sturridge couldn't even make contact. It takes perfection to make that work. He nearly got there. But he didn't. So it's a half chance at best.

Alli's one similarly. Decent cross into the box, but Alli was stretching for it and did extremely well to direct the ball on target. But a moderate defender has done a good job of clearing it.

We've just played a side that is unlikely to make it past R2. Yes we've dominated possession, but you're clutching at straws to think that we've piled up lots of gilt-edged chances.

And as I say, f**k about at the back like Smalling did, against a decent side and we'll be one behind immediately. We've been in a poor group. We've scored three goals and we've shown vulnerabilities at the back in all three matches.

Had we had the nous and guile to win tonight, we'd have been looking at maybe NI/Czech Rep/Albania in R2 and Hungary/Portugal/Belgium/Sweden in the Quarter Finals. As it is, we're now looking probably at Hungary/Portugal in R2 and France in the Quarter Finals.

We have NOT had the nous and guile to win and to make the path to the business end of the competition significantly easier. Real contenders step up to the plate in those situations. We weren't able to do so.

[dickos1]

Not sure Portugal can finish 2nd in their group or it's highly unlikely. Have to disagree on sturridge he got there but missed the ball he didn't need a clean connection anything would've done. The Clyne chance was a great chance, he was fouled if he wasn't vardy would've had a tap in

Playing against better opposition will suit us, we're set up to utilise space in the final 3rd there was no space tonight

[BillyStubbsTears]

Dickos

Aye. But will playing against a better side suit our defence?

[Akinfenwa]

Yes 29 shots seems like a lot but that alone doesn't tell the whole story. Of those, 13 were blocked before they even reached the goal and only 5 were actually on target. I wouldn't automatically define a shot as a chance. It depends on the quality, so the total number of shots (or even shots on target) isn't particularly meaningful if they are mostly of poor quality.

The only clear cut chance I remember was Vardy's 1 on 1. On top of that we probably had about 4 half chances; Alli, Lallana, Clyne, Sturridge. I wouldn't class those as clear chances because you wouldn't overwhelmingly expect them to be converted.

The rest of the shots aren't worth considering at all. Mostly of the easily blocked or hopeful, long range effort variety.

[dickos1]

Dickos

Aye. But will playing against a better side suit our defence?

Don't know, defence hasn't been tested yet has it, that was the worry coming into the tournament,
And to be honest were playing far better than I can recall us playing in a tournament for a long time