The final friendly in front of the England fans ended with a win, but not a convincing one. Despite Portugal’s Bruno Alves being sent off after just 35 minutes, for a horrific high tackle on Harry Kane, the young, energetic England team failed to capitalise until the final 5 minutes of the match. Substitute Raheem Sterling provided the only spark in the match with a fantastic cross that was met by a glancing header from centre-back Chris Smalling who also gained a clean sheet in front of his new manager Jose Mourinho.
Although England won the match, the performance itself was so uninspired that, to be honest, it did not excite me nor the many fans watching at home. Almost every player, except Sterling, lacked creativity and did not show enough desire to unlock the door of a pretty poor Portugal defence. In my opinion, not one of the England players had a rating above 6, the constant loss of possession and wasted long balls will need to be eradicated if we want to do well at the Euros.
The System: 4-3-3? 4-1-2-1-2?
Another talking point about the England game was the system that Roy picked for the Portugal match which will not be far off the opening game against Russia.
The team:
Hart
Walker/ Smalling/ Cahill/ Rose
Dier/ Milner/ Alli
Rooney
Kane/ Vardy
The formation when attacking was a 4-4-2 diamond or a 4-1-2-1-2 with Captain Wayne Rooney playing in behind the two front men Kane and Vardy. However when defending, Vardy and Kane split wide to create a 4-3-3 with Rooney in the centre blocking potential forward passes from the Portugal defence. Although England kept a clean sheet the defensive aspect of the system hindered the attacking ability of Kane and Vardy. This is because when England won the ball back from Portugal there were no attacking runs being made due to Kane and Vardy almost playing on the right back and left back! With Vardy’s pace and power and Kane’s super ability to score a goal our attack was wasted and led to both of them being taken off towards the end of the match. Also when defending, Wayne Rooney almost looked lost when the Portugal defenders had the ball, he did not know whether to cover the forward passes or close down the defenders which led to Portugal’s centre midfielder Danilo having a lot of the ball. This then affected Kane and Vardy whom both had to track back to cover the diagonal balls that Danilo was playing thus again hindering their ability to mount any kind of counter-attack.
My Euro Team:
I think that the England team should look like this for the opening game vs Russia.
Hart
Clyne, Smalling, Cahill, Rose
Dier, Alli, Wilshere or Milner
Rooney
Kane, Vardy.
Firstly we can all agree that Joe Hart is the best England Keeper that we have and deserves to be in the starting line-up. My first change from the Portugal game is Nathanial Clyne into the team for Kyle Walker. This is the change I would make because of the defensive aspect of the game, I feel that Walker is not lazy but does not put as much effort into going back rather than going forward. Even though Portugal did not put up a great threat, at times Kyle was jogging into position rather than sprinting like he does going forward. Clyne is not as quick as Walker and perhaps not better at attacking but his awareness and positioning is considerably better than Kyle Walker’s which will in the end win England games.
My second and final change of the team from the Portugal game is the including of Jack Wilshere in my Starting XI. I would like to comment that Wilshere should only be picked if he is fit and can last a full 90 minutes. I think that Wilshere has undeniable talent that would help propel England forward during the Euros. Wilshere has his own ability to unlock a defence’s door with the likes of Kane, Vardy and Alli around him he certainly, in my opinion, provides others with a lot of chances. However if he is not fit to play then I would go for James Milner, although some fans may not like him, Milner has all-round attributes that he can bring to the team whether it be crossing or through balls. Regarding the rest of the team, no one can be replaced in the Starting XI that is for sure and with options like Sterling, Sturridge and Lallana from the bench, we do have enough fire power to surpass the measly two goals that we scored at the World Cup 2014.
Our Chances at the Euros:
All that has just been said about the possible team for the opening game against Russia, should not put off our hopes of at least surpassing the quarter final stages of the tournament. There is also an extra round in Euro 2016, the round of 16 stage, but that should not stop our chances of reaching the semi final.
Our route to the final is a little complicated due to the fact that there is an extra place in the next round for the best 3rd place teams but, should results go to plan, I feel England will win their group with 3 wins from 3 games. They would then perhaps face either Croatia or Ukraine. Both these sides, despite individuals who could cause danger, are not better than England so they should be on route to the quarter-finals.
Should expected results continue throughout the tournament, England will face a tough challenge in the quarter final against either Italy or Portugal. These two sides are on par with England’s ability and the game could go either way. If England reaches this stage of the tournament, with our ability up front, we should be able to either break down the Roman wall of Italy or the Lisbon wall of Portugal.
The real test will be in the semi final, where England will come up against, most likely, Spain. This will be the end of the road for England in my opinion as I think Spain’s technical ability will be too much for England. The three lions could cause an upset and beat Spain but I feel for that to happen Spain will have to have a bad day at the office and perhaps the controversial figure of Diego Costa to have the mindset of fighting rather than the concentrating on the match itself.
My Predictions for England’s route to the final:
Group stage:
England 1-0 Russia
England 2-1 Wales
England 3-1 Slovakia
Last 16:
England 2-0 Ukraine
or
England 2-1 Croatia
Quarter finals:
England 2-1 Portugal
or
England 1-0 Italy
Semi-Final:
England 0-2 Spain
Assessment of Roy Hodgson:
If England were to get to the semi-final of this European Championships would this mean that Hodgson should get a new contract? I think not. I am not saying that Roy has done a bad job but not a good job either. He has introduced new young players and given them a chance for example, Marcus Rashford and has qualified for every tournament so far which, to be honest, was not hard to do. His first tournament was Euro 2012, a right off they said, first tournament, not long in the job. England finished with a defeat in the quarter finals on penalties, of course, to Italy. Many people praised him for his work but he will really be judged on the next World Cup and Euros. World Cup 2014 came along and despite a tough group, fans were optimistic on the chances of England to at least get out of the group. Did they? No. Finished bottom of the group, 1 point, 2 goals. At the end of the tournament you’d have to say, have we improved? Most certainly not. Not yet perhaps?
Nonetheless we must now forget our past tournaments and focus on this one, and I believe that England have the ability to reach the semi-final, anything less and I feel Hodgson’s time as England manager will be up.
