England - the future....

[Ian Royal]

I think Smalling has had his best season since he moved to Man United and stopped progressing due to lack of playing. Just thought he was poor on Saturday, maybe as you say its the style of Germany's attack as they don't just hoof it up to a big striker. Problem is we know what type of striker he's more likely to come up against at international tournaments.

Yeah, i thought he looked like Hector at his worst, misreading situations and lunging in with no hope, leaving a massive hole in defence behind him. Misreading bounces and having the ball drop in behind him...

[Hoop Blah]

A very good display by an interesting England on Saturday.

I really don't think it's fair to say that it was either a weak or coasting Germany though, that's belittling the effect of Englands performance on the Germans. It's good to see a bit more positivity about the England team and they really need to keep that kind of intensity and attacking endeavour in future performances, regardless of who plays and who the opposition is.

Tonight will be another good chance for the fringe players to stake a claim and for Hodgson to see if he really get the team to play like that more often than not.

I'm still not a big fan of the 4-3-3 formation though. As others have said, we looked a bit flakey defensively at times and for all the praise I'm not yet convinced Dier is the immediate solution as the holding midfielder.

[BR2]

As others have posted, this was England being good to watch.
Unfortunately with ITV's commentary and usual hype we have already won the Euros .
I think I'll go mad if I ever read again "It's only a friendly...." used as a positive if we win or a negative or positive if we lose.

No other country treats a friendly in the same way as we do-competitively.
I am not saying it is a bad thing to be competitive but we have to acknowledge that the opposition, be it Spain, France, Germany or Brazil (and probably Holland tonight) treat these games as friendlies and watching Ozil pulling out of tackles compared to Alli and Henderson making crunching challenges proves the point IMHO.
Also the Germans were leading 2-0 when Hummels went off ("only a friendly" again) and the other two centre-backs were, by German standards, poor.

The downside of how we treat friendlies as I see it is that when it comes to the final stages of the big competitions there is no further level for us to step up to-fans will have already had the hype of good friendly victories and therefore expect us to be challengers but sadly we seldom are.

We do have some exciting attacking players who are great to watch but defensively I think we are lacking across the whole back 4 and the keepers are adequate but no more than that.

What a pleasure it is to see the liveliness and skill of Kane and Vardy and the vision of Alli rather than what is now a slower and more ponderous Rooney-I think Roy will make the mistake of juggling the team around to accommodate Rooney unfortunately.

[Ian Royal]

You'd have to be a loon to think that game gives any strong indication of a successful tournament. Where exactly has anyone made any sabre rattling about winning it?

I think that's a made up complaint as it has been for the last decade.

[No Fixed Abode]

I'm pretty sure you'll struggle to find English centre backs playing as well as Cahill and Smalling at the moment. Let's hope they have someone decent in front of them for a change to protect them a bit. We need a World class defensive midfielder.

[Hoop Blah]

You'd have to be a loon to think that game gives any strong indication of a successful tournament. Where exactly has anyone made any sabre rattling about winning it?

I think that's a made up complaint as it has been for the last decade.

There's been a lot of positivity about the performance and the way the side is developing, and rightly so. Some of the media have probably got a little carried away but I wouldn't say there's a wave of unrealistic expectations being built up by the press pack though.

In terms of taking friendlies seriously, I saw plenty of tasty tackles from the Germans as well as our boys on Saturday night and we're damned if we do and damned if we don't in some peoples eyes. I'm very pleased that our players took that game as seriously as they did because, by and large, it seems to be as a result of competition for places. I want the England team to go out and play with verve and commitment in every game because if they try and pick and choose we'll get back to the tepid performances we saw under the likes of Sven, Copello and McLaren.

The team for tonight is

Forster, Walker, Stones, Smalling, Rose, Drinkwater, Milner, Lallana, Barkley, Vardy, Sturridge

Sky are predicting thats a 4-2-3-1 with Barkley playing behind Sturridge. I've a feeling it might still be a 4-3-3 with Barkley and Milner either side of Drinkwater as the midfield 3. I am surprised that both Walcott and Jagielka aren't starting but I'm pleased that it's not a totally different 10 outfield starters as Hodgson knows just what those two can do for him.

[tmesis]

You'd have to be a loon to think that game gives any strong indication of a successful tournament. Where exactly has anyone made any sabre rattling about winning it?

I think that's a made up complaint as it has been for the last decade.

There's been a lot of positivity about the performance and the way the side is developing, and rightly so. Some of the media have probably got a little carried away but I wouldn't say there's a wave of unrealistic expectations being built up by the press pack though.
.

The daft thing is, there almost never is. It's just become a stupid cliche to roll out before every tournament, as if the press really believe that asking a pub full of England fans "who's going to win?", and having them cheer back "England!" really means they all actually think England are going to win.

They talk as if there's a bulk of England fans who get carried away by our chances before every tournament, but in reality you almost never meet people like that.

I remember before the 2010 world cup there was a prediction competition at work. Out of over 100 entrants, only one person tipped England to win, and he wasn't even English.

[Hoop Blah]

For years it's been the media who've hyped things up though, not so much the fans who just want us to be genuine contenders, and I think it's more the media expectations and pressure that really has an impact on the easily led public but, more importantly, on the players themselves.

[AthleticoSpizz]

WTF is going on with that kit again?

[6ft Kerplunk]

Made even worse by the fact that Holland's kit shows Nike can provide socks that match the trim of the shorts and shirts.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Yep, looks like some "cobbled together" Sunday league attire.......wishy washy and sh1t

[Hoop Blah]

Sky are predicting thats a 4-2-3-1 with Barkley playing behind Sturridge. I've a feeling it might still be a 4-3-3 with Barkley and Milner either side of Drinkwater as the midfield 3.

Well neither of those were right. Turns out to be the same 4-3-1-2 that was used in the second half in Berlin but this time it's a more familiar looking England performance with too many sideways half-arsed passes, a lack of tempo and a lack of players really taking responsibility on the ball.

[Hoop Blah]

It's not a fashionable thing to say, but I think this performance is missing Henderson's energy and drive as much as Deli Alli's extra bit of x-factor quality.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Nice

[seahawk10]

Wow, just tuned in to see a beautiful bit of football. Well done England. Get in!

[genome]

Guess that manages expectations a little, harsh defeat though as we were decent and both of Holland's goals dubious to say the least.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Yep a "harmless defeat"

One or two decent performances

Seen us win with worse performances

[genome]

Don't think I've ever seen a team park the bus in a friendly before...

[bcubed]

Don't think I've ever seen a team park the bus in a friendly before...

and they even made a substitution with 30 seconds left
Not really the spirit of a friendly

[Royal Rother]

Only watched the 1st half.

Wasn't going to put myself through another 45 minutes of that.

(Lovely goal though.)