Alert: Euro 2012 Group D: France v England 11/06/2012, 17:00, Donbass Arena, Donetsk, Ukraine [R]

V



P - 28 W - 16 D - 4 L - 8

Last time England beat France was in 1997 -



Starting team - Seaman, G. Neville, Campbell, P. Neville, Southgate, Le Saux, Beckham, Gascoigne, Ian Wright, Shearer (c), Batty. (Sub: Ince, Lee, Sheringham)

Will be doing well to scrap a draw.

I heard Downing and Milner lined up for the wings. Although probably better off going for Walcott -- Milner--Young.

Seems to be a toss-up between Welbeck and Carroll upfront.

Walcott is better as a super sub imo. I'll say it will be a typical cagey opening game 1-1, with France being the moral victors.

With Downing and Milner on the wings we have no outlet. Their weakness is the fullbacks leaving space .

Well for Woy it will all be about stifling, Downing and especially Milner will track back more effectively than Oxlade and Walcott. Painful viewing but it's what Woy has based his whole career on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jun/05/euro-2012-roy-hodgson-england-tactics

We'll see if 70's Swedish club football tactics still work

Maybe that's the thinking:

Cole and Johnson overlapping to give us width going forward, while Milner, Downing, Gerrard and Parker give us a solid bank to shield the defence when we don't have the ball.

Certainly seems like we're aiming for a counter-attacking system, conceding possession based on the warm-ups.

EDIT: And at risk of drawing on my United support once more, Patrice Evra has gone from being among the best left backs on the planet around 2009 to a liability since the World Cup.

Not sure if it's just coincidence, or if the calamitous events of that tournament effected him, but he's been nothing like he was. Defensively he's very iffy and while reasonable providing wide support in attack, his end product is lacking.

If we start with Downing and Milner then I wouldn't bet on us scoring.. France have weaknesses in defence which we can exploit, and if we don't try and exploit them then we deserve to lose.

I'd be inclined to use a 4-2-3-1, with Welbeck up front and Young, Gerrard and Walcott as the three. If nothing else, it gives us flexibility and pace in attack.

However, it's a moot point as Hodgson probably won't do this.

The thing about France is apparently that their defenders don't seem to do too well as a unit. Attack would probably be the best form of defence. If we look for containment, we'll play to their strengths.

I too believe this, given the circumstances, to be our most likely line-up/formation. Personally, I think Jagielka is a better central defender than Lescott but he and Terry have not played much together so we will most likely see Lescott given the start.

Keep it tight, hit them on the break and rack up another 1-0 win!

While Hodgson's tactics are far from revolutionary, we might get some benefit from the modern trend towards "keep-ball" possession football. For the first time in years, I observe many teams moving away from the more traditional solid back line and utilising pressing and possession as their first line of defence. This also means that ball-playing defenders are preferred, so they may edge out more natural tacklers and headers. More importantly, while there defenders may be excellent, we're probably seeing the first wave of continental defenders who don't often play against physical, aerial attacks.

As Chelsea showed (and more effectively, Inter Milan en route to their CL win), allowing the opposition to possess the ball in less dangerous areas, while crowding the passing lanes to goal, can frustrate an opponent.

However, the more important aspect of Chelsea and Inter's performances was sucking these teams in and hitting on the break.

My biggest worry (and we'll look at Chelsea again) is that if your defence isn't on point, you're riding your luck in terms of your opponent creating and converting chances. You give them too much of the ball, they'll hurt you eventually. However, we might have enough about us to get something out of that system.

As I said above though, I don't think France are a team you want to totally sit back against. Ribery and Benzema are dangerous, whereas Mexes and Evra aren't stellar for France lately.

My issue with having Milner on the right is that a Walcott would probably both torment Evra going forwards and also curb him from coming from deep as often due to Theo's counter attacking threat.

Given that France are undoubtedly more comfortable on the ball than off it, we can probably hurt them more with players that can possess the ball in their half. A Milner-Downing-Carroll combo against this team would probably result in too much emphasis on aerial attacks, which coughs up possession too freely.

However, against Sweden and Ukraine, the old school "simple but effective" might give us more joy.

I like the idea of mourinhos style but we don't have the quality to rely on that system. At Madrid he is loaded with talent and at inter and chelsea a lot of the players were at their peak.

I like the 4231 but I don't like Gerrard as a cm...I guess the option is either go at their fullbacks or contain them, I think we should play lopsided, Milner protect Johnson but use ox to terrorize their backup rb

Also missed a player out from the starting lineup last time England beat France Sheringham?

Don't know why I blanked on Ox. He should start.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is too raw to start in a game of this importance. Either way, I see us frustrating France and winning 1-0.

In a 4-4-2 I would have an issue w/Walcott as I believe he lacks the the defensive discipline to track back and would be a liability.

If we are playing 4-2-3-1 I wouldn't have a problem w/Walcott being part of 3 supporting Wellbeck

Seems that Terry is struggling to be fit for this game.

Hart said that terry didnt hold back in training .

It won't happen but Welbeck is suited to the no.10 role behind Carroll. The bonus would be Downing gets dropped and Young plays in his normal position.

Wouldnt that make it 442 as Welbeck despite working hard is a striker and he will leave his defensive duties unattended some times.