Taylor's penalty was class. Limping up and then buries it. I've gotta say, watching Derbyshire in extra time was one of the few times I've actually felt sorry for a professional footballer. He's got a decent eye for goal, but he's probably the least suited of any English forwards (U21) to be a lone target man, especially against 4 Dutch defenders. He looked absolutely lost out there. At least Lita would've been able to match them physically, Derbyshire stood no chance.
PLAYER RATINGS ENGLAND V HOLLAND Carson 4 Rubbish on corners, rubbish on penalties. Even as a former White I can't see why he got to sign for Liverpool Hoyte 5 Drenthe made him look like a right spazo. Spent second half spraying aimless long balls straight to opposition players. Baines 6 Looked unfit or injured and Rosenior looked better. Onouha 5 Only playing due to the MCFC connection. Not a bad player but he isn't a prospect for full honours Taylor 7 Could have been 5-1 second half if he hadn't have played with the passion and pride of the Dutch. My man of the match. Milner 6 Couple of good moments but kept pretty quiet. Reo-Coker 0 Absolutely f*cking rubbish Noble 6 Another player who did nothing good and nothing bad. Young 6 1/2 Did okay and showed good pace and tricks but isn't strong enough to keep the ball under pressure. If you want aimless, head down runs with no end product then he's your man Nugent 4 1/2 Had a glorious chance to win after running through on goal but until then and after then he was anonymous and deserved to be subbed. Lita 7 Englands best technical player and took his goal well. Can be a bit wild shooting (first and second games of tournament) but did very well tonight first half, unlucky with the fk. subs Rosenior 5 No impact and did little to relieve the pressure Derbyshire 5 Pearce's fault this score because he waited too long to bring him on. Ferdinand 6 Did well despite looking unfit. We badly needed him to start. Referee: 1 Let Waterman go with persistent cheating and made some petty descisions. No choice but to book Reo-Coker though. Pearce 0 No tactics, nothing to relieve pressure, only plan was to keep holding on, ala Sven vs France in Euro 2004. Made wrong changes at the wrong time and although he seems to know he's not getting the job I feel sorry for him given that he is honest enough and obviously tries hard. What does everyone else think?
all the stuff about "proud pearce" is getting on my nerves. His tactics and substitutions were crap and the game should never have come down to pens. the FA will no doubt appoint the clown now.
worst case scenario pearce gets the under 21 job mcsven gets sacked pearce then gets the full job exactly the type of idiocy you expect from the FA.
he didnt even give a chance to routledge or vaughan. he just beat the starting 11 into submission with his horror tactics and substitutions.
nugent wasnt suited to the type of football pearce wanted to play. if you want to hit the team on the counter attacks with pace then pick routledge and vaughan. vaughan is a powerful striker who wouldve been a good partner for lita. if you take off lita then at least bring on vaughan.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6227744.stm England boss Steve McClaren was also at Abe Lenstra Stadion, as well as chief executive Brian Barwick, with the pair congratulating Pearce and his team in the dressing-room after the shoot-out. see ,this is where the clowns in the FA fall down. they reward failure . They havent even questioning pearces hapless tactical decisions.
these mugs are the reason we are in this mess. They mismanage every level of english football and appoint complete doughnuts in every coaching role. and reward failure time and time again.
We need the following: A European coach An FA that doesn't overrule the managers decisions on commercial basis' To scrap the FA and start again. To bar Pearce from working for them
Agree with 2-3-4, not so sure about 1, I was all for Hiddinck or Scolari, but I tend to think they would be manipulated more by the executive than a man's man, because the executive are English, believe it or not - Allardyce or Coppell would be good for me! Sam is an easy choice but you might not like the choice of Steve Coppell, he is his own man, he is a gentleman, he isn't stained by Scandal, Sven or Stephens........I have a great respect for Steve, he has made the proverbial silk purse, out of a sow's ear, unlike McSven.........
I'd love to see Coppell in charge but he's to clever to take the job now. Its a poison challice. I think we need a coach that won't be bullied into selecting the same players for purely commercial reasons. The FA are ridiculous, out of control, and answerable to no-one. They are over commercialised, alienating the fans and killing the grass roots. Seeing them refuse to sell empty corporate/club wembley seats to the playoff teams was the last straw. Even if McLaren hadn't wanted to bring Becks back I bet the FA forced it on him to help pay for the disastrous clusterf*ck that was Wembley. Where has the FA gone to get that money? Why grass roots and community programmes of course, meaning that when Wembley has paid itself off we won't have a national team worth watching in it. As for Pearce, What the hell did Hart and Onouha do apart from be at Man City to get a place in the England squad ahead of better players.
Coppell is a bottlejob who can't handle pressure and is unproven as a serious trophy winner. Onouha played quite well this tournament, I was impressed with him. The real problem was having 2 strikers in Nugent and Lita who can't hold the ball up or link play, then having two centre mids in Reo-Coker and Noble who are not possession players or tactically disciplined. There was no way to get the ball to stick anywhere, which was poor tactics by Pearce even with some of the senseless substitutions. He treated the U-21s like this was early 90's Prem football. Now he's apparently in talks for the job, if I was the FA my side of the talking would consist of two words beginning F and O.
Onouha is a decent defender, probably one of our better performances, but I stick by my original opinion of him. Too small and poor in the air to be a centre back, and I doubt he'd make a full cap. Under 21 doesn't necessarily mean 21 year old players, why couldn't he have promoted the best of the U19's U18's to the squad. Reo-Coker is vastly overrated and on this performance I'm not surprise how WHU fans treat him. As for the FA, this is all their mess and it doesn't help all these former Pearce teammates weighing in with their full support. Get someone to the U21's who is likely to manage the full team in the future, thus he will work with the players for a longer period of time. Coppell has done really well at Reading, as has Big Sam, but I think Sam has no chance because of the corruption allegations and no one else with any sense would want the job. Beyond him, Coppell and Stuart there isn't really an English coach who would touch the job. Also I don't imagine Big Phil would like the FA telling him who to select. The Lampard experiment hasn't worked and Gerrard is a better player. I love Beckham and still think he can play for England. Bentley and Lennon need international minutes rather than being allowed to dodge out of U21 action or being selected for the full squad and not playing.
What the hell was the ref doing on the penaltys. He is suppose to make sure the keepr stays on his line? not jump 2 yards of then dive that really annoyed me
its hoytes fault tht we r not through (see arsenal players cant take penalties only Gilberto) seeing as it would of been 5-4 to us if he had scored but no he missed and had to go on sudden death (even Taylor scored and he was crippled) But to be fair if we did get to the final who would we play seeing as we have 4 suspensions and possibly 2 injuries to first team players so...
oh yeah i was getting so pissed off by that i mean how can the ref not see that is he blind. probrably seeing as most of the decisions went against us even though it should have been for us like near the end when young and one of their players werejumping for the ball and young gets pulled down and the ref gives it against young WTF. also i think people shoul give McClaren some slack seeing as he hasnthad his best players to choose from (eg J.Cole, Owen, Hargreaves) but i do agree he could of still chosen Beckham
Stop complaining about the damn referee and accept the fact it was the team who lost the game, not the official.
I agree, if it happened once then the ref could be blamed but as it was the Dutch keeper did it 16 times without protest from England. Management ******** up.
I agree, the players should have been more vocal. Still if he'd have ordered retakes for penalties that went in, and these had subsequently been missed...... Nice to see Taylor burying his penalty after that Dutch cheating b*stard conned the referee into making him take one.