I questioned the tactics of SGE before this tournement began. In the World cup we retreated behind our half way line every time we took a lead. We went from looking good going forward to hanging on for dear life, even aginst lesser teams.
We did the same thing against France and although the lads did superbly for almost 90 mins ultimately this tactic cost us. We did the same thing again last night against Portugal.
I also question SGE squad and again this isn't hindsight!
Scholes isn't playing well enough to be in the 11. Cole on the left with Bridge at left back is a better option. It gives us two natural left footed players both who get forward and in Cole we have a player who can beat a man with the ball at his feet, in Bridge we have one of the best left foot crosses of the ball in football.
Beckham has been poor in all four games yet he never looked like he was going to be replaced. He did one quality thing in the whole tournement, the free kick for Lampards goal. He has missed two crucial penalties. Lets not forget that had he scored the penalty against France we would be playing Greece not Portugal. Why is he taking the penalties anyway, he applies none of the finess he shows when taking free kicks when taking the penalties. He just hits the ball as hard as he can, even the penalty he scored against Argentina was a poor one.
Dyer would have been a good replacement for Beckham on the right wing.
When Rooney came off why did SGE not put Scholes into the Rooney roll and either move Cole up or bring on Joe Cole. We would then still have the option of Vassel coming on for the last 20 minutes and it would mean Owen could stay right up front where he was worrying the Portugese defence.
What would we give to have had Alan Smith on the bench. Like him or hate him, he would have chased and harried the defenders to death. Defending from the front and supporting Owen he would have carried a scoring threat while preventing Portugal from building a move from the back.
Scott parker should have been in the squad ahead of P Nellille. Why take two utility players in the squad, once Carragher was selected there was no need for another utility at the expense of a specialist midfielder like Parker. Neville was guilty of a poor tackle which gave a penalty to Romania in the last Euro Championships and out we went. This time he allowed Rui Costa to get on the goal side of him and then made a pathetic attempt to tackle him which ended up with Costa being free to line up his shot and Portugal take the lead. Scott Parker would have been a much better substitution than Neville in last night game.
Sven has to go cos I don't see him changing too much and he's been found out twice now in major championships.
