[Venom123]

If he insists on keeping these negative tactics he used at Liverpool and here at the Euros

England have a good set of players if they play to their strengths. Hodgson adopted Alex McLeish tactics.

I hate that people are even blaming Young when he was clearly performing what he had been asked to do, he was continually tracking back following a player, yet still being asked to get forward it's a big ask man.

Rooney hardly got the same type of support around him, that he's used to at united as everyone's occupied with defensive duties.

Gerrard gave his all, but it wasn't necessary for him to be doing so much - should've been just been playing a much more centre role than having to go so deep.

It's a shame as Italy were DEFINITELY beatable, if played to their strengths.

Hodgson is also managing above his level he's doing what he knows best, if you cant see after 120mins that Pirlo was there main threat and you still insist in not putting pressure on him - You're setting your team up for suicide against world class teams. This ain't Fulham bud.

This guy hit the nail on the head

(Original post by ArcadeFire)
Haven't read the whole thread, but going by the first couple of pages, the amount of Hodgson apologists is embarrassing.

The whole 'he did a good job getting to the quarters, the team isn't good enough' line is just an excuse. Sure, the team isn't brilliant, but it's pretty decent, and with a different approach we could have definitely given Italy a good game. Hodgson is a dinosaur and his tactics are archaic; rigid, flat, negative and not even particularly savvy defensively. Gerrard was totally wasted, whilst not the player he once was, he's shown that when given a bit of freedom in attacking positions he is still a top player, yet he was restricted to running sideways - alongside parker doing exactly the same job - chasing shadows for the whole game, with the occasional foray forward to take a set piece. Way to much was asked of them and against a better team than Italy the midfield would have been decimated.

There was no link between defence and attack, no fluidity, no pressure on the ball, and it's no great surprise that we can't keep possession when playing in two rigid banks of four with the two strikers isolated totally out of the game.

I also agree with the op about the criticism of certain individual players. Although the likes of Milner, Rooney, and Young were a bit sloppy and wasteful in possession at times, opportunities to do anything productive were few and far between, usually when they got the ball it was in their own half surrounded by opposition players, what're they supposed to do? Hodgson doesn't play with wingers, just 4 full backs with 2 playing slightly further forward.

As has been pointed out, the total lack of anyone picking up Pirlo was costly. If you're going to be non-existent as an attacking unit, you'd at least think that the oppositions key players would be nullified

I expect England to struggle in qualification for Brazil 2014, and if they do manage it then it will be more of the same come the tournament. Hodsgon doesn't believe in possession football, which, despite how people may trot out the cliché of 'only one statistic matters - goals', is a fatal error, particularly at international level.

[Venom123]

No-one has any input on this? Or am I 100%

[Bill_Gates]

to be honest, hodgsons tactics were fine but i just think the better team won.

[ConorRoberts]

Don't forget that there were a lot of players out due to injury... Give Hodgson a chance with a team back up to it's full strength I say.

But for the Pirlo not being closed down, you could put that down to tiredness of players...

Also Hodgson managed Switzerland very well, so not really over his 'level'

[Loat]

We will qualify, because our group is full of teams that we can beat. Even if we play mediocre football.

[C-Dawg]

No one decent was out due to injury. England is just generally crap

[Venom123]

(Original post by Bill_Gates)
to be honest, hodgsons tactics were fine but i just think the better team won.

LOL, Italy were average at best. You won't even hear a peep from Pirlo during the Germany v Italy match

England have better players man for man.

[Venom123]

(Original post by ConorRoberts)
Don't forget that there were a lot of players out due to injury... Give Hodgson a chance with a team back up to it's full strength I say.

But for the Pirlo not being closed down, you could put that down to tiredness of players...

Also Hodgson managed Sweden very well, so not really over his 'level'

Your input is invalid as Hodgson never even managed Sweden.

[ConorRoberts]

(Original post by C-Dawg)
No one decent was out due to injury. England is just generally crap

Frank Lampard (injury)
Gareth Barry (injury)
Kyle Walker (injury)
Darren Bent (injury)
Gary Cahill (injury)
Jack Wilshere (injury)

so you are trying to say none of the above 6 players are any good?

[Venom123]

(Original post by ConorRoberts)
Don't forget that there were a lot of players out due to injury... Give Hodgson a chance with a team back up to it's full strength I say.

But for the Pirlo not being closed down, you could put that down to tiredness of players...

Also Hodgson managed Sweden very well, so not really over his 'level'

Your input is invalid as Hodgson never even managed Sweden.

Also comparing England to Sweden is idiotic.

[ConorRoberts]

(Original post by Venom123)
Your input is invalid as Hodgson never even managed Sweden.

Also comparing England to Sweden is idiotic.

Wasn't concentrating... Meant Switzerland...

[Sternumator]

Hodgson did well. Italy were the better team because their players are much better, even with this England could have easily won the penalty shootout and gone through.

[Angry cucumber]

So he had the grand total of a fortnight with his squad before the tournament, had very little time to get the squad together in the first place. Then several key(ish) members of the squad have to pull out due to injury... yet out of his first 6 games; we have 4 wins 1 draw 1 loss. Terrible isn't it

Yes we didn't play great, largely due to our lack of ball retention, but with Young, Milner and Rooney playing as they did... it is hardly surprising

[ThePants999]

Struggling to see how the Italy defeat had much to do with manager's tactics. If you give the ball away every time you get it, you can't have any tactics.

[ConorRoberts]

Joe Hart- Watches video's of every Italian penalty for the last ten years

Gianluigi Buffon- Watches naughty video's in his room

Think this proves watching porn is better than actually doing work...

[Venom123]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)
So he had the grand total of a fortnight with his squad before the tournament, had very little time to get the squad together in the first place. Then several key(ish) members of the squad have to pull out due to injury... yet out of his first 6 games; we have 4 wins 1 draw 1 loss. Terrible isn't it

So you were happy with England defending holding against every team?! LOL If I was an England fan, I'd have been so upset that my team had descended to the levels of Greece's play.

Also it's regardless of how long you have the team, you hardly get much time with them anyway in the long run, so you already know their strengths.

He used the same defensive tactics with Liverpool and he will continue using these tactics throughout his England career. I can almost guarantee he would've used the same tactics against Greece if you met them and made them look like world beaters.

[Venom123]

(Original post by ThePants999)
Struggling to see how the Italy defeat had much to do with manager's tactics. If you give the ball away every time you get it, you can't have any tactics.

What are you going on about?! Simple instructions like pressure Pirlo on the ball wasn't adopted.

Telling Ashley Young to defend all the way back then expecting him to contribute to the attack, then criticising him for his lack of attacking contribution is all to do with tactics.

[321zero]

Under Hodgson, we won the group, defensively we looked fantastic and were beaten by an Italian team who were simply superior to us.

He's the right man for the job and we need to accept that we are not a world beating team. We do not play attractive football but have enough quality within the team to get to the latter rounds of these competitions. I'm massively disappointed with our attacking play and with certain individuals who are unable to reproduce their club form, but with or without Roy Hodgson, that Italy team was far better than us.

If we would have got a lucky win on pens, then the Germans would have hammered us.

[ajp100688]

Hodgson's tactics weren't exactly great but I fail to see whatever else he could have done with the current crop of players we have? Quarter Finals is about our limit at the moment and even then we got there playing like crap but of course the media and everyone had to hype it up that we had a chance even though we just scraped past Sweden and the Ukraine.

The only time we really had a chance of winning anything was 2001-2006 when our team was genuinely world class and we ballsed that up due to a combination of players not trying hard enough, bad tactics and various misfortunes such as injuries (Beckham '02, Rooney '04 and '06, Owen '06 etc) and player's personal lives impacting on the squad (Beckham in 2004 being seriously off form because of his personal life, the whole WAG circus in 2006 etc).

[Venom123]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)

Yes we didn't play great, largely due to our lack of ball retention, but with Young, Milner and Rooney playing as they did... it is hardly surprising

I hate how people are criticising these players how can you expect them to do well, when there's no support, no midfield?! With 7 of the players defending...

You expect them just to run with the ball when they are immediately closed down by 5 players?!