That was pretty dire wasn't it. I read somewhere that Milner completed 18 passes in the entire game. It would have been a crime if we'd gone through.
This is hardly a good Italian team either (Pirlo aside).
What concerns me more for the future is that Hodgson already seems to have his favorites, and rather than making decisions based on form and what's happening on the pitch, he sticks to reputation and substitutions that seem to have been pre-decided.
I mean, Rooney was terrible, but he left him on and took Welbeck off. England are getting overrun in the centre of midfield, so how on earth, bar long balls from defense, were England going to get the ball to the subs Carroll and Walcott?
Why not move Milner into the centre and tell him to stick to Pirlo. Milner isn't a creative player, and that's the kind of job that he CAN do. England then have 3 in the centre, so then remove Rooney and Young (who were doing nothing) and replace them with wide players Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott, who have got more possibilty of getting the ball played to them when England have a 3 man midfield and Pirlo has less time on the ball.
But it seems that Hodgson has his favorites.
Still, England's back 5 were absolutely superb. Welbeck looks comfortable at that level, and hopefully players like Wilshire, Cleverly, Rodwell and McEachran can step up and fill the creative void in the centre of midfield.
Still, I'm old enough to remember when people thought that Joe Cole and Carrick would do that.
Still, hopefully tonight will be a great game. There'll be a fantastic atmosphere here in Lisbon. Hopefully Spain won't do their usual suffocating the life out of the opposing team (and the game) with 100s of sideways passes.
