one step forwards and two back by roy

[fulhamben]

as feared, one nil down. smalling and cahill trying to hold the line. poor poor poor

Ever the doom merchant.

well if predicting glaring weaknesses in a line up before the game kicks makes me a doom merchant then so be it. I wish Roy was a doom merchant so he would stop messing with our back four

[fulhamben]

The fault is with Gary Cahill with the goal, he can see the whole situation, he can see Novakovic running in behind Chris Smalling. As the sides' experienced defender, he should know so much better than trying to play the offside trap (appallingly) when he can see everything in front of him. Gary Cahill's attempted trap gave Novakovic the 5ish yards he needed to break through and score. Disappointing from supposedly our best centre back.

Jack Wilshere was excellent today, this 433 suits him down to the ground. Great to see him show his ability to find the back of the net too, two impressive strikes of which we've never really seen from him before. Hopefully he can have a full season and be 100% for us going into the Euros. I like Fabian Delph, he's got the ability to have the same impact as Wilshere, running from deep and playing quickly. Adam Lallana was very promising when he came on, he's had a mixed year with mostly negatives and showed his talent in an attacking light.

Wayne was wasteful, as he has been in the England shirt in recent games, but scored the all important third. Looks like he needs the record weight to come off of his shoulders - we could do with him scoring a load this next season too! I know he has a mixed game, but Wayne hasn't scored over 20 in a season for three seasons. Raheem Sterling also showed a lack of ruthlessness when it comes to scoring, I thought he was bright and always dangerous, but never an *actual* threat.

All in all, I'm happy with what I saw despite some uncharacteristically (for Roy) poor defending. Though worrying to hear that we're looking to imitate the Spanish and the Germans rather than being what we are are stepping our own way. I think it was Walt Disney that once spoke about how he can innovate and create faster than others can imitate.

so it's Cahill fault that he should of known smelling would stop retreating, and not have a clue where the man was. Cahil takes some blame but smalling was ball watching.

[fulhamben]

iPad smalling not smelling

[Jack Fulham]

Decent game once that first goal went in. Should of won by a greater margin but nice to England pressing high up the pitch and attacking with pace and aggression.

[HatterDon]

So, is the consensus that England did well to win on the road? Or is the consensus that England's result was a step backwards? Or is there a consensus?

[Max Headroom]

I thought England won.....

Maybe Wales need to improve too as they only had 35% possession against Belgium..... Sack Coleman!

[Northern Cottager]

England played some good first time passing movements. Defence worries me, but going forward at a high tempo England looked good.

Agreed. They played some nice stuff against a packed defense. Think Sterling looked pretty impotent but Delph, Wilshere and Henderson looked good going forward.