THE England thread

[stephenterry]

Square pegs round holes! Only exception Rooney, he's a natural in two positions.

Rooney has for once hit fitness and form at the right time for England.

It's great for him and would be for England a few years ago but I wonder how he will cope with the Welsh pressing game for an hour on Thursday.

They will try to expose his lack of pace at every turn....really unless England make changes...aka binning Sterling and playing a true 4-2-3-1 then I think they are going to struggle to beat the Welsh.

Wales have their tails high and really do have the quality to score...Bale might be a pink shorts Ponce but he's also a bloody good player.

We've got 4 class strikers in the squad, and you want to play just one? Makes no sense. Just like hodgson. With bale likely to score our best approach is to outscore them rather than pack the defence. Play to our strengths not try and hide our weaknesses.

[Travel2003]

Hodgson relishing a fixture 'between brothers'

osted at

England manager Roy Hodgson has brushed off comments made by Wales players in the build-up to Thursday's Euro 2016 game between the sides.

Gareth Bale claimed that Wales have more passion than England, while Aaron Ramsey said he felt the Welsh players are better on paper.

Hodgson says he welcomes the "spice" and "interest" in a fixture "between brothers", adding: "I don’t have doubts about our desire, passion and commitment. If people have another opinion then that's fine by me. It's not worthy of comment.”

from BBC.

[smokie36]

Square pegs round holes! Only exception Rooney, he's a natural in two positions.

Rooney has for once hit fitness and form at the right time for England.

It's great for him and would be for England a few years ago but I wonder how he will cope with the Welsh pressing game for an hour on Thursday.

They will try to expose his lack of pace at every turn....really unless England make changes...aka binning Sterling and playing a true 4-2-3-1 then I think they are going to struggle to beat the Welsh.

Wales have their tails high and really do have the quality to score...Bale might be a pink shorts Ponce but he's also a bloody good player.

We've got 4 class strikers in the squad, and you want to play just one? Makes no sense. Just like hodgson. With bale likely to score our best approach is to outscore them rather than pack the defence. Play to our strengths not try and hide our weaknesses.

OK play 4-2-4...I'd love to see that.

[stephenterry]

Square pegs round holes! Only exception Rooney, he's a natural in two positions.

Rooney has for once hit fitness and form at the right time for England.

It's great for him and would be for England a few years ago but I wonder how he will cope with the Welsh pressing game for an hour on Thursday.

They will try to expose his lack of pace at every turn....really unless England make changes...aka binning Sterling and playing a true 4-2-3-1 then I think they are going to struggle to beat the Welsh.

Wales have their tails high and really do have the quality to score...Bale might be a pink shorts Ponce but he's also a bloody good player.

We've got 4 class strikers in the squad, and you want to play just one? Makes no sense. Just like hodgson. With bale likely to score our best approach is to outscore them rather than pack the defence. Play to our strengths not try and hide our weaknesses.

OK play 4-2-4...I'd love to see that.

Back in my footballing days the formation was, from the back, 2_3_5, which migrated to 3_3_4.

[wooloomooloo]

Wales to beat England 6/1. Now that is good odds. England are odds on.

[Travel2003]

I'm 100% sure England will win this match.

If not, the "analyzing this and that" threads will not stop before the Premier leagues starts.

[wooloomooloo]

I'm 100% sure England will win this match.

Should win with the quality of the squad. Unfortunately, Woy's in charge.

An early goal by Wales then Woy goes in to complete meltdown. No Plan B for Woy.

[daveAustin]

Wales's trying to get under their skin (mammoth-motor-mouth bale) will backfire dramatically and they're going to get spanked.

[Funkybillyfish]

I think if England can keep Galen in check they should do ok.

[stephenterry]

Please...please...don't pick sterling. How hodgson thought he played well just shows how inept they both are. Any update on team selection?

[mommysboy]

Wales's trying to get under their skin (mammoth-motor-mouth bale) will backfire dramatically and they're going to get spanked.

Wales seem to be cock a hoop already. Listening to all the welsh pundits they've got every angle covered. They've already got 3 points in the bag.

[Bangkokhatter]

Please...please...don't pick sterling. How hodgson thought he played well just shows how inept they both are. Any update on team selection?

Given how we started in the last game i can't see the manager making any changes, but i agree about Sterling, just what does he bring to the side ?

[StevieH]

Wales's trying to get under their skin (mammoth-motor-mouth bale) will backfire dramatically and they're going to get spanked.

Wales seem to be cock a hoop already. Listening to all the welsh pundits they've got every angle covered. They've already got 3 points in the bag.

nah wales have nothing to lose. all the pressure is on england and hodgson here. i'm enjoying bale's gentle sledging though.

[RickBradford]

England to start against Wales with exactly the same team as vs Russia, that is to say, with only 10 men, plus a cardboard cut-out in the shape of Harry Kane.

[mommysboy]

Please...please...don't pick sterling. How hodgson thought he played well just shows how inept they both are. Any update on team selection?

Given how we started in the last game i can't see the manager making any changes, but i agree about Sterling, just what does he bring to the side ?

More worried about Kane to be honest. Can't help thinking Sturridge or Vardy should be playing.

[StevieH]

paul scholes reckoned england should start sturridge for this one. i like kane but he is a very premier league style of striker, which might be a blessing for the wales defenders. bale and ramsey will be a handful for the england defence.

[SantiSuk]

22 minutes of rubbish by 2 teams who are afraid of losing.

Neither will progress much beyond qualification if they can't do better than this

[jellydog]

A no brainer to ditch Sterling for Vardy. Mind boggling lunacy from Woy.

[jellydog]

Either Vardy/Sturridge for Sterling and/or Wilshere/Barkley for Rooney at half. Ugly so far.

[SantiSuk]

Is it possible for the FA to fire a manager at half time?

[SantiSuk]

The Tottenham boys seem still to be grieving over their end of season malaise. Has Welshman for a day, Smokie, spiked their drinks?

[Bangkokhatter]

Hart now at fault for both the goals England have conceded so far in the tournament, Stirlings miss from 6 yards not helping much either. Having said that no reason we can't turn it around.

[daveAustin]

Hart screwed up there but why can't they put it away, all them free-kicks/corners? Wales have been dire to be fair but same old with England, decent in qualifiers, dire at crunch time.

[SantiSuk]

What a difference with the right guys on the pitch. Wilshere for Lallana in the 70th please - his short 1-2s with the likes of Vardy and Sturridge should work well.

[Chicog]

Magic. I'm stuck in the pub with the Seoul British Council. They're buying jugs and fighting over the straws. kee neaow farang

[SantiSuk]

British Council Chic; all rugby boys surely? Milk their expense accounts and get something back for the rest of us taxpayers!

[SantiSuk]

Yippee - Welsh hearts broken.

Please put Sterling and Lallana back in the subs box now please Roy.

Pep has a lot of work to do this Summer!

[stephenterry]

What did I say? Play to our strengths. Finally hodgson did just that. Great.

[daveAustin]

Totally different second half. Wales parked the bus. Crackin goal, but.

[Funkybillyfish]

No slap for the fish tonight....... Garett who?