International Friendly - Norway vs England

[abigsmurf]

Bit late for a match thread but didn't it seem appropriate to put it in the squad thread.

England are winning but ultimately the point of friendlies is more to tweak the tactics and selection so you've got to look more at the performance.

Despite that it's a bit flat, make it look far too much like hard work against a side that isn't really all that good (awful defence for the goal). We should be causing Norway's defence far more problems.

Carroll has been terrible, messing up almost every touch. There was a moment when Milner had gone on a good run, you saw him look up, see Carroll in a good position and then decide he'd be better taking it on himself at the near post. When players so visibly have so little confidence in a player, you have to wonder why he's starting.

If this hadn't been a friendly, Gerrard would've been sent off. Didn't need to make the tackle at all.

Only positive (aside from the fact England are winning of course) I suppose was Young but against better sides if we play like this he'll just get tightly marked and get taken out of the game.

 

[Scott Harris]

How does Downing , Barry , and Milner get in the squad and Johnson , Carrick and Sturridge miss out ? It's a joke how some of these players are going to the Euro's.

 

[The Brit]

what gets me is that stevie me is assured of his place again despite doing nothing this season...everyone is dismissing idea of frank starting and yet he has had a great last three months of the season and played a part in winning fa cup and champions league...been playing in a more disciplined role so I'd put him ahead of useless barry next to parker

 

[The Brit]

How does Downing , Barry , and Milner get in the squad and Johnson , Carrick and Sturridge miss out ? It's a joke how some of these players are going to the Euro's.

agree about johnson and sturridge, but carrick is sh*t at this level...looks good at utd cos they dominate possession, but as soon as he is up against anyone decent - i remember his performances against barcelona and spain for utd and england respectively - and the game has just passed him by

 

[Eight Times]

Ah sod them, will all end in tears anyway, always does......

 

[dkw]

Gerrard was appalling in that first half, every pass was an attempted hollywooder and he was wandering again leaving massive gaps in the middle of the pitch. He has no self control at all and simply cant be trusted to run a midfield against better teams. Lampard has altered his game the 2nd half of this season to do just that, control midfields.

 

[Gem]

Christ, I didn't even know we played till I was browsing the Sky Sports website this morning. I trust our players didn't play due to them having the Champions League Final (which we won btw) last week?