Friday 3 September 2010

Flattering to decieve?

A good result for England tonight, as they eventually overcome the Bulgarians by a 4-0 scoreline. But, it would be foolish to get carried away, despite the ITV commentators wanting to tell us it was a brilliant performance. It was adequate, with too many square balls, against a team that gave the ball away even more than we did.

I was pleased to see Jermaine Defoe do so well, and he looked dangerous all evening. Most of the other players had good spells, but then others when they were anonymous, James Milner, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry in the main. Apart from defoe the players who came out best were, in my opinion;

Joe Hart - always alert, and saved England from a number of embarrassing situations, not least Glen Johnson.
Jermaine Defoe - for obvious reasons.
Ashley Cole - always looked to get forward, and set up the first goal very well.
Matt Dawson and Phil Jagielka - worked well together, and put the foot in to make a number of important blocks.

England deserved to win, but 2-0 would probably have been a fairer reflection of the balance of play. Capello has got away with 4-4-2 in a qualifier, but on Tuesday the swiss will provide a stiffer test. Will he have the imagination to change if necessary?

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