Engerland

[Earl Grey]

Saw the match last night and I have to say we have a wealth of talent now when we are attacking.

All the time we pressed forward we looked fantastic (second half). And we had no Wellbeck, Sturridge, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere, Sterling, Lallana etc.
Indeed you could say we almost had a B team out really. Only weak men are, in midfield Jones and Henderson and up front Walcott doesn't look quite as good as the others imo.

Every time the ball was at the other end we looked like conceding, however.
We had the C team out in defence - and we have no A or B team waiting in the wings, unfortunately.
Gibbs is decent and Clyne looks promising (although he didn't have a great game last night) - but central defence is poor, Cahill being the only one who looks just about OK back there when playing. Even Hart is not to the standard we expect from Engerland keepers.

Where have all the international standard centre-backs of this country gone?

[pompeygunner]

I thought Hart was excellent & has been since the WC. Clyne, not @ his best but he can defend alright which is more than can be said for Walker IMO. Gibbs is another defender I like, a defender who can defend 1st & foremost which hasn't always been the case. Ref the CH's I thought Jagielka was decent but concede usually he's not all that for England. We need two quality CH's asap IMO.
Up top I thought Kane did well, but how many chances did Rooney nause up. Four I counted & against top teams you have to bury them. He didn't which is a shame because his contribution otherwise was VG.

[Locky_McLockface]

I think Hart is as good as the Shiltons and Seamans of the past.

I thought all four full-backs had poor games, tbh, Clyne did fine against Lithuania, but seemed overawed against Italy. Gibbs, no, not for me, and I thought Bertrand was worse (albeit he only had a brief cameo). Walker was fine, IMO.

I agree with centre backs. Smalling has no place in an England squad, Jones is only a little better. I am happy with Cahill and Jagielka, I thought Jagielka had a good game, and made some outstanding tackles, although he was lucky when he passed to Pelle, that Pelle forgot how wide a goal is. But that leaves us with zero decent quality backups.

Hopefully, these nice new bright and shiny rules on homegrown players that Greg Dyke wants to bring in will help in this respect.

[Pompey1985]

Carrick. Take a bow.

[Pompey Penguin]

It is a shame for England (and Man Utd) that neither Smalling nor Jones have trained on in the way it was hoped. I think that they have suffered from being in and out of the United team and playing in different positions (see also Webster, A.). However, at some point they have to step forward and seize a position.

It is difficult for young centre-backs, as it is a position that more than anything requires experience, and that is difficult to get in the PL. It is much easier for clubs to go out and sign a CB from abroad. I would like to see more young players going and playing abroad to gain the experience, but it is not in the British culture to do so and they can have very nice careers sitting in the PL without ever reaching their potential.

At the highest level, Barcelona play Mascherano as first choice CB, on the grounds that keeping and distributing the ball is more important than what we think of as traditional defensive skills. I wonder if this might be Carrick's best role for England, alongside someone like Cahill who is more of a traditional defender. He has played there on occasion for United. Maybe this is fantasy football, as an England manager would get slaughtered by the pundits for trying something like this, as Roy Hodgson was for trying Jones and Walcott in different-ish roles against Italy (just a friendly!).

[Earl Grey]

Barcelona play Mascherano as first choice CB, on the grounds that keeping and distributing the ball is more important than what we think of as traditional defensive skills.

This is a great point. It's what I was saying the other day to a couple of people on here who wanted a 'beast' of a CB to be purchased/loaned/whatever.

My contention was that players like Whatmough and Webster who play the ball around and are comfortable in possession are more valuable to the team than a gorilla who can head far and hoof far (only to have to do the same again 90 seconds later because the ball's come back into our area). Of course that doesn't mean when choosing CBs you pick a ball-player who's 5'6" and slightly built but there's a balance.

There is the point that solutions at the higher levels of football do no always translate to League Two type standards but I think in this case it does help enormously to have ball playing CBs.

[Pompey Gary]

I think Hart is as good as the Shiltons and Seamans of the past.

I think he's generally good but is erratic at times. Definitely not as good as the other two you've mentioned - at least not when they were in their prime.

I think the balance of attacking v defensive talent was very evident during last year's world cup. England are unlikely to get anywhere without better defensive qualities - and that doesn't only apply to the back 4!