NFR Roy has the Midas touch

[Bassey the warrior]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18473557

I still have a lot of respect and admiration for the man. I'm chuffed with how this is all going. Of course if we lose to Ukraine it will all turn on it's head but for now it's very pleasing. He's proving the doubters wrong as the players are happily responding to his methods.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

I hope he keeps winning if only to shut up the giggling Linker , the unprepared and  smamy Shearer and that p****  Lawreson. Listening to them, you would think Carrol and Gerrard won the game all on their own.
   
And that Gabby Logan!!!! her interview with Welbeck was a disgrace, her monologue on how fabulous Walcott was was a disgrace considering the lad in front of her got the winner in spectacular style   
Hanson I can tolerate  and lee Dixon (just about)  but that's it 
The British media and in particular  the so called experts are bitter pills   
 
 
 

[EJL]

I hope he keeps winning if only to shut up the giggling Linker , the unprepared and  smamy Shearer and that p****  Lawreson. Listening to them, you would think Carrol and Gerrard won the game all on their own.
   
And that Gabby Logan!!!! her interview with Welbeck was a disgrace, her monologue on how fabulous Walcott was was a disgrace considering the lad in front of her got the winner in spectacular style   
Hanson I can tolerate  and lee Dixon (just about)  but that's it 
The British media and in particular  the so called experts are bitter pills   
 
 
 

I love how when the BBC team need to eat up time during HT, Lineker always asks Shearer the questions. He never fails to come up with something painstakingly obvious. I sometimes think they just do it to him to take the piss.

[stevehawkinslidingtackle]

Dont be forgetting Ray Lewington, Mr Fulham. Great start & hope it all works out for them. Avoid defeat in the next game, make it to 1/4 finals then its up for grabs, and there's no way he can get slated. Id hate to see his reputation tarnished by our media, and for him to prove to the scousers they were too quick to pull the trigger.

  As much as it gets my goat, but if Chelsea can do it ??   000en.gif

[WHITEwitch]

Knowing I would get a better organized team and some good football I actually started to bring 'Country' up a bit closer to 'Club' in my priorities.  (and of course it is silly season anyway).

I've really enjoyed all the matches so far and can see something forming which was patently missing in the past few years.  Even Terry seems to be integrated.  Finally the FA get it right.

Perhaps I could admit on here that I also feel a wee bit smug when all the other punters are talking about Roy.  Was well ahead of most of the pundits on what to expect alongside all the other Whites.

What I find amazing is that, in all the coverage I have viewed about Roys appointment, nobody mentions Man City when we were relegated half way through the match, Fulham4Juve1 or the fact that he took us to the final.  Surely all of these are relevant - can't just be the poor pundit research can it?

Just because we're paranoid.............................

[The Doctor]

Finally the FA get it right.

Give them a chance, I'm sure they'll manage to botch everything up in spectacular style.

[HatterDon]

You guys and your sour grapes attitude. If England don't progress far, it won't be because of coaching, attitude, organization or vision -- it'll be because of talent or lack thereof.

Roy is getting the very best out of his squad. I can't imagine what else England have to do to get some support on here. If I were English, I'd be loud and proud about how the lads are playing up to their capabilities. Then again, I don't have the "Either trophy or abject failure syndrome" about football -- or the Olympics.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

You guys and your sour grapes attitude. If England don't progress far, it won't be because of coaching, attitude, organization or vision -- it'll be because of talent or lack thereof.

Roy is getting the very best out of his squad. I can't imagine what else England have to do to get some support on here. If I were English, I'd be loud and proud about how the lads are playing up to their capabilities. Then again, I don't have the "Either trophy or abject failure syndrome" about football -- or the Olympics.

Huuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm !!! the last time 'sour graps' was wheeled out it was Rome away  yee-haw!

[Bassey the warrior]

You guys and your sour grapes attitude. If England don't progress far, it won't be because of coaching, attitude, organization or vision -- it'll be because of talent or lack thereof.

Roy is getting the very best out of his squad. I can't imagine what else England have to do to get some support on here. If I were English, I'd be loud and proud about how the lads are playing up to their capabilities. Then again, I don't have the "Either trophy or abject failure syndrome" about football -- or the Olympics.

Agree with this. I just hope we don't get Spain. We need to beat Ukraine, handsomely if possible. Can see France hammering Sweden.

[Bassey the warrior]

I hope he keeps winning if only to shut up the giggling Linker , the unprepared and  smamy Shearer and that p****  Lawreson. Listening to them, you would think Carrol and Gerrard won the game all on their own.
   
And that Gabby Logan!!!! her interview with Welbeck was a disgrace, her monologue on how fabulous Walcott was was a disgrace considering the lad in front of her got the winner in spectacular style   
Hanson I can tolerate  and lee Dixon (just about)  but that's it 
The British media and in particular  the so called experts are bitter pills   
 
 
 

I love how when the BBC team need to eat up time during HT, Lineker always asks Shearer the questions. He never fails to come up with something painstakingly obvious. I sometimes think they just do it to him to take the piss.

Agree with this. Alan Shearer is the comic relief.

[White Noise]

http://www.people.co.uk/sport/columnists/dave-kidd/2012/06/17/why-euro-2012-suggests-roy-hodgson-could-be-england-s-flexible-friend-102039-23897269/


Why Euro 2012 suggests Roy Hodgson could be England's flexible friend


Jun 17 2012 By Dave Kidd

FOR a while it looked like Swedes 2 Turnips 1 all over again.

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Yet just as Roy Hodgson was staring into the vegetable patch, facing his first proper coating as England manager, we ended up with Swedes 2 Turn-ups 3. For the manner of England's victory was a shock to all, not least Hodgson himself.

This arch-planner had Friday night's game marked down as another 'one-nil to the Ing-er-lund' - and by half-time everything was going according to the script, just as it had during his first three games in charge.

The shambles which unfolded in the first 15 minutes of the second half will have horrified Hodgson.

There may have been joy and relief that England had beaten Sweden in a competitive match for the first time and put themselves in the box seat for a quarter-final place.

Contentious But do not be fooled by Hodgson's public positivity. England's players will have got it in the neck for the way they threatened to unravel, conceding to setpieces, losing their shape and discipline, and resembling something from the depths of Graham Taylor's reign.

That England pulled off victory says much for their team spirit.

It also suggests that the manager is a far more flexible tactician than he is given credit for - and that he has a happy knack of getting the big calls right.

First by starting with Andy Carroll, then by introducing Theo Walcott - both contentious moves which turned out to be masterstrokes.

Now, most startling of all for a manager often written off as a purveyor of rigid negativity, is the idea that Wayne Rooney could play behind a front two of Carroll and Danny Welbeck.

He will not unleash such a gung-ho line-up from the start against Ukraine on Tuesday - Carroll will make way for Rooney with England needing only a draw - but an attacking Plan B has certainly been hatched.

After a second-half performance in Kiev which was riddled with basic errors, Hodgson's best-laid plans may be obsolete. Now it could turn out better to be man than a mouse. With England's forward players in form, attack looks like the best form of defence.

It's often the quiet ones you have to watch out for in life and Hodgson really is an old sly-boots. Those who know him well have always spoken of a ruth-less ambition, a man with no little ego although far too intelligent and decent to be brazen about it.

He is used to being misrepresented. The idea that his training sessions are too regimented, that he couldn't cope with the media glare, that he can't handle star players.

Before his England appointment, he told me: "They tar you with a brush, then everyone jumps on the bandwagon and slap some more tar on," mixing metaphors in a manner out of keeping with the great American novelists he reads, but making his point loud and clear.

One by one, those misconceptions are falling.

Now Hodgson might just be ready to demolish the idea that he is a predictable and cautious coach - with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's selection against France and Walcott's introduction against Sweden already going some way to doing so.

Hodgson did not resort to touchline histrionics when England were collapsing in Kiev. He thought on his feet. He learned from his team's mistakes and he made things right. Which is exactly what he was appointed for.

Nobody is getting carried away here. Sweden are possibly the worst team at Euro 2012, Friday's match resembled a thrills-and-spills Championship match, high on drama, low on class.

Hostile The most likely outcome will be a second-place finish and a quarter-final against Spain on Saturday night.

Most assumed that, if faced with Spain, England would have to park the bus like Chelsea against Barcelona.

Yet Hodgson will now be thinking his squad are not capable of showing such intense discipline.

If they play as they did for long spells against Sweden, the result could be carnage, whatever the tactics.

A respectable showing and a narrow defeat against the Spanish would be considered perfectly acceptable.

Yet first, defeat against Ukraine must be avoided. That's in a hostile environment, with England's midfield options horribly limited, putting an intolerable strain on Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker and with Glen Johnson a liability at right-back.

Perhaps Rooney really could be employed as an attacking midfielder behind a front two at some point. The prospect is intriguing.

And whatever you previously thought of Hodgson, turn-ups are in fashion. Predictability is out.