England went out of the Euro's on penalties to Italy, yesterday. On reflection it was exactly what they deserved. Italy were more exciting to watch and produced many more clear cut chances to score, during open play. Most English fans expected England to be knocked out in the quarter finals anyway, so the feeling after the game was of acceptance rather than major disappointment.

Roy Hodgson didn't have much time to prepare the England squad but, if he had more time would England have done any better? I suspect not. We do appear to be short of quality strikers and it may be a few years before we have a striker in the mould of Shearer, Owen or Lineker. Rooney clearly isn't at his best whilst Carroll and Welbeck are clearly still learning the art of goal scoring.

Our midfield was once talked of as the golden era but, now it is only Steven Gerrard that can be truely talked of as world class. Lampard, Henderson, Parker, Milner Barry, Downing and Young are either too old or just not good enough. I hope Henderson can be as good as Liverpool hope but, at present he shouldn't be in an England shirt. Ashley Young has got to improve and is too easily knocked off the ball.

Italy controlled the game with Pirlo at the heart of everything that was good about Italy. Where is our version of Pirlo? In America playing for LA Galaxy, aged 37. Expect a few more years of quarter final knock outs as that is our level. In 1966, we clearly over achieved and we have been living off of it ever since.

Tags

Category_Football coaching Football Footballs International Sport

• Share on:
• WhatsApp
• Deel
• Tweet
• Pin it
• Messenger
• Email

---