Never, ever , ever, ever, ever, ever again will I let myself think England can win a match of any importance in a major championship. I should have known better. We could harp on all day about the whys and wherefores. Obviously numerous opinions on the game all over the standard media and social media. It is all fairly simple we don’t have players of real quality. We never will have players of real quality all the while the Premier League is the monster it is and I cannot see anyway in which that will stop. We were just simply poor, the goals were pathetic from a defensive point of view, don’t need a coach or anyone else to tell you to get tighter to one of the best players in the world. It really is not rocket science and we just make it all too difficult. Yes there is chance but just get them home and end the pain now for me. It is just murder being an England fan!
Obviously clamours for Hodgson to go, no idea if it is the answer, if people want an English manager who is there? If Hodgson resigned tomorrow Tim Sherwood would be a fair way up in the betting for the job if looking at English managers only and that tells me all I need to know about the state of the game over here. I am sure we will be told a root and branch investigation will take place and things will change. Football is 11 players v 11 and if your 11 are not as good as the other 11 more often than not you will lose. Once we grasp that fact rather than pretend we do have world class players we may actually do something.
Bet wise not a day with huge involvement and nothing of much worth to talk about. The Japan game was a draw as Greece still fail to score and this against a side who have only kept 3 clean sheets in 24 games. Ivory Coast just did not really perform for me and I will be interested to see how Colombia play in the first knock out stage or whether opposition has flattered them. I am not sure if any of the CS advices were tradeable as to be honest I just lost the plot through the England game.
Enough of all that and on to today.
Italy v Costa Rica is the first game with Italy worthy 1.6 favourites. I don’t want to bang on about England all over again but in the last game Italy controlled the game, did what they had to do and were happy to sit back once ahead and let England play in front of them that is where the possession stats people crowed about came from. Those who see it differently and claim England were unlucky need to take the white tinted glasses off. Whilst not the best Italian team for a while they showed class when needed. I expect them to win tonight against Costa Rica a side ranked, lets not forget, lower than Scotland.
Costa Ricas win over Uruguay looks even more of a surprise after last night and they won’t trouble the Italians in the same way tonight. Costa Rica were beaten by Japan pre tournament and have not kept a clean sheet in 13.
Italy with 3 points in the bag don’t need to be gung ho and can just be patient and probe their way to a victory.
I have not found any standout value anywhere for a bet so I will back the 0-0 at 12.5 and trade that in the first half and have a small dabble on Pirlo first goalscorer at 12.5 as Costa Rica’s five man defence are prone to conceding free kicks.
Switzerland v France is up next and I am keen to watch France again and see just how improved they are. Honduras were no test and a comfortable 3-0 win mayy have been flattering but I have a sneaky feeling France are better than a lot of people think. They usually self destruct a bit like Holland with disharmony in the camp. I can only think Nasri’s exclusion was more to do with his presence around the camp than football ability.
France will be very keen to top the group and avoid Argentina for what looks like a much easier passage against Bosnia or Nigeria.
Of course the Swiss will have the same thought process having won with a late winner against Ecuador. I didnt think they were overly impressive in that game and the French midfield will I am sure keep a young inexperienced Swiss midfield line in check.
I like France at 1.93 and will have a nice bit of that price. Putting all my eggs in the French basket I will back Benzema first goalscorer at 5.7 and small interest on 0-1 and 0-2 at 8 and 10 respectively.
Honduras v Ecuador ends the days action and Ecuador will be keen to give themselves a slim lifeline. Honduras can let goals in for fun but can also bag some as well. France destroyed them and Palacios sending off made things worse in that game but I expect both teams to have a go tonight and can see some goals in the game. Goals always mean decent trading so this may be one worth trying to stay up for.
Both Teams to Score at 1.95 and Overs at 2.0 will get small bets.
I will then have small interest on some big price scores for trading action and hope the opportunity presents itself.
2-2 at 20, 2-3 at 34, 3-2 at 65 and 1-3 at 17 hopefully will go close and the icing would be if I fell asleep and woke up dribbling at 4 in the morning to see it had finished 3-2!
Good luck whatever your bets are.
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3 Responses
As I see it, there are a number of things wrong…
1. There are not enough England qualified players in our top league.
Are the foreign nationals we have in the Premiership cheaper to the clubs than a British born/eligible player?
2. Our defenders seem incapable of adequately marking an opponent.
Pirlo was allowed to wander around unhindered as he wished…. this guy is in his mid-30s, and is acknowledged as coming towards the end of his career.
3. The FA does not run the top league in our country.
I can’t think of any nation where the top league effectively runs itself.
4. Square pegs and round holes.
The England manager, regardless of who it is, seem to want to have x or y on the pitch, and then play them out of their natural or best position.
I failed to get excited about the match last night, I had a feeling what might happen when Suarez was pronounced to be fit. Call me unpatriotic, but after watching Spurs for many years, I just didn’t think we were good enough to get out of the group, as we seem to not be able to perform at the very best when things are on the line.
David
I don’t see how England changing managers is going to make any difference, the problems with England aren’t going to be resolved overnight, it is a grass route problem and will take at least 10 years for any improvement to happen, England just simply aren’t producing the players necessary to win major competitions and it wouldn’t matter what strategy you employ over the course of a month long tournament any weakness in a side will eventually be exploited, especially against the top players in the World. England make too many errors in Defense, and seem incapable of defending the long ball.
The Midfielders aren’t able to keep possession even South Korea kept possession better in their first game than England did, the reason being is England midfielders are too impatient, if there isn’t a forward pass on instead of passing back to defense and looking to keep possession and wait for better chances English midfielders will attempt to go on an over ambitious run in doing so are actually running away from their own players so end up putting themselves in a position where there up against 3 or 4 defenders and their team mates are out side of reasonable passing distance. Not only that but this approach results in players tiring out faster, most top teams now make the ball do most of the work and therefore they are fresher towards the end of the game, it’s not coincidence that when Spain were the best team in the world they scored a lot of goals late in the game.
Then we have to talk about the strikers and it has to be said England’s performance in front of goal was appalling, if Suarez was playing for England, there is no question that England would have won the game comfortably.
Now England fans need to sit tight tonight during the Italy v Costa Rica match and hope that it’s a goal fest because if Italy only win 1-0 England will need to beat Costa Rica 2-0 and even Costa Rica will fancy their chances of scoring once and I think England will be struggling to score 3 goals.
There would be a couple of trades that I would normally be interested in tonight but I will be going out and won’t be able to track the market in-play so will need to pass. Luckily I have some trades for Ascot to compensate.
I must confess I turned the game off 12 minutes into the second half as I just couldn’t see how we could make any chances for ourselves the way we were playing. Yes Suarez is something special but those goals came from a total lack of bread and butter defending in my opinion. I think Hodgson is still our best option……it’s just the players that need changing. Our defending was inept and we rarely look like we will threaten our opponents goal.