Eriksson should he stay or go [R]

[futbolrey]

I'm not English but the English FA should fire Erickson A.S.A.P.

ON 2 occassions England lead and then lost b/c they decided to player bucker ball. No Team should resort to this kinda of tactic especially when u have a less than average goalkeeper.

[texgator]

I hate Bucker ball.......its even worse then bunker ball

[Prenn]

Stay

The simple facts are that for all Portugal's domination England scored twice during open play and Portugal once. It's not his fault the ref was bent.

[Kqql]

England could hire the "Trap"...:)

[lond2345]

get rid of Eriksson, bring in Scolari.

[burning247]

Stay.

Both losses this tournament VERY VERY unlucky, I just can't get over that call today. Come on Holland, if I have a Portugal-France final I will be sick for days.

[ALBU]

Holland v. Portugal semifinal would be a nice; looking forward to this possible draw.

[DEAC]

Eriksson has made England a very organized team, and that's important. But will he learn from his mistakes? He didn't in this competition. He tried the same nonsense against Portugal that cost him against France.
That said, it's hard to imagine England not having a third striker better than Vassel or Heskey. Heskey was dreadful in his cameo against France, and Vassel was worthless today. Is that SGE's fault? Maybe. Beattie was healthy enough to be on the team, wasn't he?

[Pazarius]

Go. And this is the very first time I've said it.

When you look at the midfield players we have, the way they play for their clubs, we should have been able to match Portugal there. Instead, they completely dominated us there. Ok we were defending a lead, but the best way to do that is keep possession of the ball and we just couldn't do that.

It's not just that one game. We let every team we faced have more possession than they should have. Not because we couldn't win it, we couldn't keep hold of the ball.

The defenders individually were all good. But we defended so deep at times we could nothing but watch the opposition attack again and again.

Even if we had managed to hold on for that 1-0 win, I wouldn't have been particularly happy. Watching your team staying in their own half and getting attacked constantly for 75 minutes is about as entertaining as watching your own heart being operated on.

For a short while, an incredibly talented 18-year old had propped up this fragile, cowardly one-dimensional team. As soon as Rooney went off the rest of the team abandoned all pretence of keeping the ball or playing decent football.

To be honest most of England's problems are still their own. We can't keep the ball, we don't have a decent left sided player, and the team can collapse at any moment. But these are the same problems we had three years ago. Problems Sven has been unable to do anything about. Perhaps another manager can.

[Mikey10]

He should go, he is a good organiser and nothing more. There are far better managers than the Houllier like Sven, and we should be trying our best to get one of those managers in the job. While that muppet is in charge, he will do nothing but stunt our team, and all we have to look forward to is scraping wins over poor opposition who we should hammer, and losing like this to teams like Portugal who we are more than capable of beating. We'll never win anything under this guy.

[sinner78]

I dont think Sven opted to play defence for 70 minutes .
Rooney got injured and the central midfield were knackered from the last game vs. croatia....They got overrun by portugals 3 men in the centre.
Rooney getting injured was the main thing because he is the link from midfield to attack.....We just couldnt get hold of the ball.

Having said that ,I dont like the way the team has the habit of constantly dropping deep in all the games we played.
I couldnt believe we played that way vs. the swiss.

[sendorange]

I dont think Sven opted to play defence for 70 minutes .
Rooney got injured and the central midfield were knackered from the last game vs. croatia....They got overrun by portugals 3 men in the centre.
Rooney getting injured was the main thing because he is the link from midfield to attack.....We just couldnt get hold of the ball.

Having said that ,I dont like the way the team has the habit of constantly dropping deep in all the games we played.
I couldnt believe we played that way vs. the swiss.
I agree Sinner, especially about the tired midfield and loss of Rooney. Those were the two things that really made the game an uphill task and meant the team couldn't keep possession of the ball.

Although I think Sven made a mistake in his tactics, by having Vassell and Owen up front together, we had two similar strikers neither of whom want to drop deep and link the play and this was made worse by the knackered midfield who didn't have the legs to get forward when we had the ball. When Sven did make subs they were too defensive and added little.

Sven should have brought on one of Dyer or Joe Cole, certainly instead of Phil Neville. IMO Hargreaves should have been subbed on for Scholes to play a defensive role but with more energy, and Dyer coming on for Gerrard with license to break forward on the counter as he can do very well and he was fully fresh. We needed that link player to create chances and get the pressure off the team so they could push forward and keep the ball better, as well as keeping the Portugese fullbacks on the back foot.

[DEAC]

You can't do what you don't try to do. You can't hold the ball in the midfield when your midfielders aren't there, but instead back in the box waiting for the attack. When England did get the ball, it too often floated long passes for Owen hoping to get a break like it did in the opening 3 minutes. I understand some of that is England's style, but with four mids like they've got, they can possess the ball through if they give it a shot. England didn't try that often enough in either the France or the Portugal game because the strategy was simply to sit on the lead.
Beckham never in his life spent as much time defending the box as he did against France.

[sinner78]

I agree Sinner, especially about the tired midfield and loss of Rooney. Those were the two things that really made the game an uphill task and meant the team couldn't keep possession of the ball.

Although I think Sven made a mistake in his tactics, by having Vassell and Owen up front together, we had two similar strikers neither of whom want to drop deep and link the play and this was made worse by the knackered midfield who didn't have the legs to get forward when we had the ball. When Sven did make subs they were too defensive and added little.

Sven should have brought on one of Dyer or Joe Cole, certainly instead of Phil Neville. IMO Hargreaves should have been subbed on for Scholes to play a defensive role but with more energy, and Dyer coming on for Gerrard with license to break forward on the counter as he can do very well and he was fully fresh. We needed that link player to create chances and get the pressure off the team so they could push forward and keep the ball better, as well as keeping the Portugese fullbacks on the back foot.


Maybe Cole would have been a better replacement for rooney.
I reckon he would have linked up with the midfield and owen much better than vassell....
Losing rooney was the main problem and it was sods law that he got injured.

[sendorange]

Maybe Cole would have been a better replacement for rooney.
I reckon he would have linked up with the midfield and owen much better than vassell....
Losing rooney was the main problem and it was sods law that he got injured.
I agree very much. Cole on instead of Vassell would have been good, his dribbling and his ability to play in that hole would have given us variety and another option. Judging from the comments coming from Chelsea recently that's the role they see for him, playing off a lead striker with midfielders behind him.

Vassell and Owen were just too similar, and Owen was working so hard anyway it made Vassell redundant and the play one-dimensional. This is what most disappoints me, there were options but Sven didn't use them, took the safe route.

[Wildman262]

I knew England were doomed the minute he brought Neville in. England have a good attacking team. They should have attacked. Vassel was also not the guy to bring in with Owen. They would have had a better chance with Cole on the field, but hey, what do I know. I don't have any knowledge of the game.

[Scotty]

Why it's time for Sven to go (http://football.guardian.co.uk/euro2004/story/0,14577,1247345,00.html)

[the3lions]

Of Course Sven Should Go, He Is A Disgrace, 4 Million A Year For This Shambles

Beckham Should Go To, The Stupid Twat

[sinner78]

Why it's time for Sven to go (http://football.guardian.co.uk/euro2004/story/0,14577,1247345,00.html)


sounds like a fair article... :(

[Prenn]

In hindsight I'm thinking that Sven should go. I'm getting over the disallowed goal and looking at the bigger picture, especially the Croatia and Greece games against France. Sven can't utilise our attacking prowess, our best aspect so surely he should depart.

Keegan was tactically useless Sven's not, he's average. The difference between the two is that Sven has a far more talented squad at his disposal. Time for a change I think, and not after we've drawn with Poland and Austria thanks.