Okay considering I feared the worst... I was pretty impressed. What I like about this England is that we're buying into Hodgson's philosophy; we're forgetting about being mega stars and playing as a team. I don't think we're as shit as some people have made out to be (me being one of them). Some nice passages of play in there, but fully aware that France were a superior team.
Positives -
* The defence. Hart is a good keeper and despite a few hairy moments - most of them coming from Johnson who was still good, and Cole had a tough time up against Debuchy (who's class btw), they looked really solid. Terry and Lescott were great. We're not going to let many goals in this tournament, we restricted France to an awful lot of long shots.
* Oxlade-Chamberlain. His inexperience showed later on and he made a few silly mistakes, but he's such an exciting player. I'd rather have him over a one dimensional Walcott and Downing every time. The more he plays, I can see him growing into the side.
* Welbeck. Holds the ball up well, reads the game, passes, makes the right decisions. Can't wait to see him link up with Rooney and get in the box a little more, as I felt he had to drop back and do Young's job sometimes.
Negatives -
* Young was quiet. Didn't really do much but I think when Rooney comes back he'll be a little freer.
* The midfield. Parker just ran about not doing much but he passed the ball well at times. Tired massively in the second half and should have been taken off earlier. Gerrard is the type of player a free role was made for and he's so shackled in the centre it's unbelievable. He did almost nothing of note but he's a good enough player so that he isn't shit there, just unremarkable. Milner is shite for a first team player. It's okay for City when 25 of their league games are against inferior opposition but he's just so bland a player. He offers nothing in attack and was just there so Johnson could get forward
I was happy with the first half hour, we passed the ball well and created a few openings. The longer we got on, they got tired and succumbed a little to the heat as they always do, but they kept their shape. I'm happy. Fuck the haters including myself, I'll be content if we play like that from the quarters onwards. I'd like to see us take the game to Sweden and Ukraine.
The ref was pretty biased I thought, we should have had a few more free kicks and Cabaye should have been booked. Cabaye was great though, Nasri was very good as well.
