EURO 2012

Strong rumours that Oxlade Chamberlain will start on the left, at the expense of Downing.

Either it's wishful thinking or apparently Hodgson can see an opportunity at France's defence and wants another man (only Young, Welbeck in forward positions so far) capable of getting through.

Personally I think it's a good idea. Ashley Cole should be comfortable with Nasri/Ribery both tending to cut-in, and having Milner on the right will mean he's an extra option to drop-back when Gerrard expectedly runs out of position.

Although it does mean that when Chamberlain and Gerrard are both involved in attacking moves (lol, as if we'll even have any) that Johnson will be cruelly exposed... et voila, France will dominate him and we'll be out of the Group Stage.

Gary your pessimism is not acceptable! WATMM IS NOW AN OPTIMISTIC PLACE

With far more stability and experience in defense, Ox for Downing makes sense. Cole can compensate for some of Ox's lapses. I like it.

I want to make fun of England right now but after the Champions League run by Chelsea, I regret to admit that anything is possible. I think Gerrard needs to drink from the fountain of youth to make it happen.

By the way, how on earth did I forget to lol @ Torres's expense yesterday afternoon? He still seems to be a neurotic teenage girl in front of goal!

Oops, did not see Gary's post, but lol...yeah, what he said!

  Quote

Our Ashley who Hart in Henderson,

Hello Leighton Baines.

Theo Walcott come,

Jagielka be done,

On earth as it is Roy Hodgson.

Gerrard this day our Danny Welbeck

And forgive us our John Terry,

As we Phil Jones those who Lescott against us.

And lead us not into Oxlade-Chamberlain,

But deliver it to Carroll.

For Jermain is the Johnson,

The Downing and the Rooney.

Scott Parker. Scott Parker.

 

Our men.

Made me lol a little.

  On 6/11/2012 at 3:37 PM, Obel said:

Gary your pessimism is not acceptable! WATMM IS NOW AN OPTIMISTIC PLACE

Sorry.

INGURLUND!!!

The American coverage on ESPN is so fucking embarrassing. JFC.

Alexei Lalas, Bob Ley, and a seemingly quite retarded and tongue-tied Michael Ballack.

Actually, Ian Darke and McManaman weren't much better yesterday during the Italy - Spain match. Darke mispronounced Giovinco and kept insisting that David Silva's assist on the Fabregas goal was going to be the "pass of the tournament!"

Anybody with half a brain saw a better pass 10 minutes earlier from Pirlo.

Looks like Little Miss Ashley wore her diving slippers today!

P.S. - Milner just pulled a Torres. *sigh*

Gerrard done well! 1-0

So many empty seats.. wtf?

Wow, two Joe Harts might not have stopped that. Well struck, fuck me!

Have to say, France look much better. Sorry guys.

blargh nvm

lost track of time and completely missed the first half. watching the highlights it isn't looking like a totally depressing mess, so that's something.

Great result for England. As we all probably expected, they're going to be very difficult to break down.

What a dreadfully boring match though...watching fucking paint dry yields more entertainment.

As I expected I missed all the action in the first half whilst I was making my way home from work, but tuned-in for a sticky and tense goalless second half.

Good result for England. Decent for France.

But England have no hope of keeping up the sort of energy needed for a containment game over the whole tournament.

Here's hoping that Hodgson goes more attacking for Ukraine and Sweden. We've got to win one of them realistically, so you might as well go for Sweden first. If it gets a bit dicey at least you can have another shot at Ukraine.

  On 6/11/2012 at 12:16 PM, jhonny said:

1-1.

Wahey. Not a classic, but England defended well and that's a good base to build from. A draw between Ukraine - Sweden would be great

Good lord what a boring match the ENG-FRA was, count on Hodgson so take the fun out of the game. France looked good and could have a chance to go far. England will probably defend themselves into the knockout stage, but I hope not.

Yeah, not a classic at all, but pretty standard fare for a tourney opener. Italy - Spain was a rare treat given the context.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Let me be the first to confess, and I suspect I'm not the only one, that I didn't even know Shevchenko was still alive, let alone playing football at a (somewhat) high level.

Ye I thought Shevchenko was dead.

Nice to see he's not though.

The late match was miles more entertaining than the first one. Ukraine played pretty well and the Swedish defense was a little suspect. Couple of nice headers by Shevchenko and of course it had to be ZLATAN to score for the Swedes. Otherwise I thought he wasn't too noticeable, other than not taking his man on Ukraines second goal.

What is the point of Danny Welbeck?

From a friend:

  Quote

Gerrard plays like a man who punches people if he doesn't like the music. He's a dog of a player and it looks like the crotch-rot has pretty much done for him as a player. He was so bad last season he was actually dragging Liverpool down, and Liverpool were pretty fucking awful.

 

He was specifically to blame for the goal too, though in part due to the style England now play. When the ball came out to the French midfielders where was Stevie Me? In the box, packed into the centre back position with that other portable barrier Parker. Not pressuring outside the area, conceding the play right up to the edge of the box. A lot of teams, in truth, will not score against this defence from open play because really, if you're packing the box and charging long range shooters it is going to be hard to beat Joe Hart, but Gerrard, lazy, sweaty Gerrard, dropped too deep, gave Nasri too much time. Boom. 1-1.

 

I want England out of this tournament, as quickly as possible, because what we are calling football is a disgrace. It's not just that our team is a motley collection of racists, thugs, adulterers, wife beaters and scum. It's that they play like cowards.

 

The only highlights for me of this England team have been Young, The Ox and Welbeck up front. Partly because when they are free to operate without relying on clumping fucktards like Milner they can play some pretty slick football, but also because it must make John Terry sick to his arse to have black players leading the English charge.

I lol'd. Heartily.