Comfortable victory in the end. We created tons of chances in that match. 22 shots and 14 corners for us. OK, now let's get 3 pts against Poland and finish the job of qualifying.
Townsend!! what a discovery. Hopefully he keeps his place and doesnt get dropped for toothless walcott.
Having Sturridge up front and Townsend on the wing and we have got a cutting edge. makes a big difference from having the likes of Milner, Cleverley and Walcott in the lineup.
I'm just happy that Hodgson saw fit to put Welbeck, Rooney and Sturridge up front as starters. Defoe and Lambert should remain strictly off the bench options vs Poland.
Get in. That took balls from the management (Neville pressure?) to start Townsend rather than Milner. And, did it pay off? Did it, heck!
Walker is suspended. I think Roy will put in Jones for his place at RB. That's probably the right move. Jones is decent at RB and can cross well.
Smalling at RB > Jones at RB Unless they have some really tricky quick winger that Jones needs to counter defensively with his pace.
Was the obvious decision tbh in a must win game. If he put Townsend ahead of Walcott it would have required balls.
Roy Hodgson: "We had a lot of time to think about our selection. It was not easy to leave people like James Milner and Jack Wilshere out, as they also bring a lot of attacking flair.
Not a bad performance, though I hope Roy doesn't think Lampard Gerrard mid is the way forward because he got a result. Townsend looked okay, but I really liked Sturridge and Welbeck in the second half (when Montenegro stopped parking the bus). They were constantly moving and running into different positions and making it easier for our mids to pick out passes. Poland could be tricky, their goal now is to knock us out (as in no automatic qualification).
Thing is you don't wanna rush it too early with Morrison due to the hype. Besides both can't play Deep in midfield for the senior team right now which is where Cleverley plays and Rooney is playing as Support striker.
What I hated about the game today was the sheer unnecessary risks taken in team selection just to fit certain players into the team. Playing Lampard in a reserved deeper role like that is bizarre. Especially when Carrick is in the squad. I don't even think Gerrard should be playing that role either. Numerous times they both gave the ball away in silly areas. Simply can't play the roles well enough imo. Would love to know the reasoning other than 'experience'. Someone please try to convince me because it looks like they will start again going off the way subs were made? We just made our play through midfield far more direct and risky than it ever needed to be to get the ball to our attacking options. How exactly are our other midfield options going to gain experience if they can't even play against Montenegro at home? Capello was attacked for ages for not trying new options and Hodgson is still doing it now.
We will at least qualify for the playoffs if we don't win. Poland will be looking to win or just have us not win just to motivate themselves. I really thought England and Poland would be 1 and 2 by this time at the start of the group.