Northern Ireland 1 - England 0
Yikes! What a horrible, embarrasing result for England.
While I think the players are partly responsible, you have to point the finger at Erikson, This 4-5-1, 'David Beckham Show' formation isn't working, and I think even worse than the formation is Erikson's tinkering and substitutions...
Can anyone explain his selection of Owen Hargreaves?? I suppose I should like this guy since he's Canadian, but he's shite! With all of the other quality English midfielders he should be nowhere near the squad!
Keiron Dyer
Scott Parker
Jermaine Jenas
Lee Bowyer
Keiron Richardson
Alan Smith
Nicky Butt
Paul Scholes
I think all of these players are better than Hargreaves, he was caught in possession twice in 5 minutes... I think Wright-Phillips was causing NI lots of problems, yet he's first to be hauled off, and then to replace Lampard with Hargreaves is such a total insult...
Rooney lost the plot and should have been pulled off a half-time, he's obviously a player that plays with a lot of passion and fire, once he freaked out and got the yellow, obviously he was told to calm down, but without that intensity in his game seriously lacked... After realizing that the 4-5-1 doesn't work, he should have pulled off Rooney, put on Defoe, and switched Phillips to the left wing, Beckham to the right and Lampard and Gerrard in the middle... That way you'd actually be getting service into the box and I have to think that Defoe and Owen could have gotten a goal or two...
Ah well, still a few games left to go for England to get back on track and quality for the
World Cup...