The Three Lions

Free stream of the match Switzerland - England at http://www.sfvplay.ch/de/SFV-Play-Live.aspx

Is it better than ITV?

Depends if Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are on it

@Jay: Depends on the country you are in. Not everybody who wants to watch the match lives in England

Oh, and do you think it is a good idea to play a narrow formation against Switzerland with their great fullbacks and wingers?

Probably not, but this is Hodgson we're talking about. I wouldn't be too surprised if, after a somewhat successful 20 minute showing, he uses a diamond.

Thinking about it, we may not necessarily play with two strikers. Hodgson does have previous with playing Welbeck on the left, and if he's worried about Lichsteiner and Shaqiri/Stocker doubling up on Baines, he may play him there again.

Would depend on who has the ball more and how disciplined the players in the roles of Wilshere and Oxlade in that formation are.

They always make or break the formation in my opinion.

Hart; Stones, Jones, Cahill, Baines; Henderson, Delph, Wilshere, Sterling; Rooney, Welbeck

Either a diamond or 4-3-3 with Welbeck on the left, by the looks of things.

Is it worth getting a bit excited?

RealGunner wrote:Is it worth getting a bit excited?

Spoiler:

RealGunner wrote:Is it worth getting a bit excited?

It  depends on what you'd like to be excited for. I for one am excited about this match for sure

The toughest game of the group negotiated well, in the end. Rode our luck at times and had to rely on Hart to make some good stops and Cahill to make a last-ditch clearance, but decent performance overall, I think. Certainly something to gain confidence from.

This diamond shape - how do we all feel about? The big perk is that we can get two of Rooney, Sturridge and Welbeck in their preferred position without having to sacrifice one of our creative or flair players, but I'm not convinced we have enough quality central midfielders to play it long-term. We've got the AMs - Sterling, Barkley, Lallana - to play it, but beyond Wilshere, Henderson and Chamberlain for CM we've not got a lot of depth. Not sure Delph and Colback are good enough.

I worry about it against better sides, too. It could be potent on the counter but against any side that can keep the ball we'll be asking the DM and two CMs to cover a lot of ground.

So I'd like to see a 4-2-3-1 be used at times, too.

I watched the game in a bar so my view wasnt the best and I was quite distracted but I felt like it went okay.

I think the defended well enough considering the lack of quality defensive players in the team and werent the Swiss 2 best chances both actually offsides not given?

Again, gotta take my view with the fact in mind I didnt really see the game in the proper way.

I thought we played much better than we have in quite some time. I don't know if Switzerland were this poor or we made them look poor but it was a much easier game than I expected. We could have scored more.

However defensive balance isn't there. I liked the diamond. Thought it suits some of the players really well and we can at least play Rooney upfront and not as a 10. Sterling is also quite good and will suit him in the future.

I think we can try out more players in the midfield trio. Wilshere looked good with the ball but he isn't a DM as much as people want him to be. He would never go for aerial ball and he prefers to go forward than backwards. Maybe we can try switch him and Henderson around.

Delph isn't suited for Internationals. Don't think he will play either once the other players come back. Possible that Sterling plays at LM while Walcott at RM.


-----------------Hart------------------
Jones------Cahill-----CB in form----Gibbs please ffs
---------------Wilshere/Henderson--------
---Oxlade/Walcott----------------------Sterling/Lallana/Oxlade
--------------------Lallana/Sterling----------
--------Sturridge---------------Rooney-------


Also I must say Rooney tired hard tonight. Not seen that from him much but if Rooney is performing this well then no one would be asking him to retire.

Encouragingly enough, most of the Swiss chances came from either offside positions or individual errors, and I don't think those errors were caused by the system. The player that gave us the most trouble was Shaqiri since we couldn't seem to to get a grip on his movement.

We won't face any players of his quality in the remaining group games, but I do worry that any half-decent playmaker would have some joy against us. Something to be mindful of, I guess.

It's actually difficult to see where Walcott fits in if we keep the diamond shape. Only place he could play would be up front but with Rooney as captain and Welbeck/Sturridge as the other option, does he get a starting spot?

In the diamond probably not but I mean if Roy was clever, he would figure out which games are best suited to playing the diamond (thus not Walcott), a more traditional set up (4231 for example) and which games you start with one and move towards the other depending on the situation.

I agree, a great play maker could cause alot of problems. But I feel that's England not having anyone in defensive midfield rather than anything tactical.

I've said it before and Ill say it again, it totally baffles me how a nation which prides itself on grit, hard tackles and work rate cant produce a single holding midfield player.

Even the last one was Canadian.

The last actual English holding mid was? Dave Batty? Old man version of Paul Ince? Dennis Wise?

RealGunner wrote:I don't know if Switzerland were this poor or we made them look poor but it was a much easier game than I expected. We could have scored more.

Well, it was the first match ever that Switzerland played in a 4-3-3 formation, and they only had about a week to get used to it. Petkovic only met his players for the first time for training on Sep 1st, so they did considerably well if you look at the short time they had for the new ideas of their new coach.

Swiss CBs are a major issue tbh, they just flat out suck

Midfield is inconsistent but passable. Full backs and wide players are fine

Striker situation is crap but the same can be said for many international squads.

Well, Vladimir Petkovic has Fabian Schär or Philippe Senderos who would be a way better option than Johan Djourou (and possibly Gökhan Inler, but then, Inler is the designated captain of the Swiss NT and dropping him might be difficult - sounds familiar?), and there is Fabian Frei for CM, who wasn't considered either. Sometimes the ways of coaches are mysterious, but I guess I don't have to tell that to England supporters...

Some interesting names in the U21 squad:

Keepers: Jonathan Bond, Jack Butland, Sam Johnstone

Defenders: Eric Dier, Michael Keane, Jamaal Lascelles, Liam Moore, Ben Gibson, Calum Chambers, Carl Jenkinson, Luke Shaw, Luke Garbutt

Midfielders: Will Hughes, Lewis Baker, Tom Carroll, Jake Forster-Caskey, Tom Ince, Alex Pritchard, Nathan Redmond

Forwards: Saido Berahino, Harry Kane, Cauley Woodrow, Patrick Bamford

Shaw being in this squad may imply that Gibbs will be in the England squad.

Baker and Bamford

England squad to play San Marino and Estonia:

Keepers: Joe Hart, Fraser Forster, Ben Foster

Defenders: Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, John Stones, Nathaniel Clyne, Leighton Baines, Kieran Gibbs

Midfielders: Fabian Delph, Jordan Henderson, Jack Wilshere, Jonjo Shelvey, James Milner, Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Raheem Sterling, Andros Townsend

Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Rickie Lambert

Good that Clyne is getting a chance and that Gibbs is back. Not sure what Shelvey is doing there, though.

Wonder if we'll play a diamond again or if 4-2-3-1 will get a go this time. Something like:

Would like to see the diamond with Sterling behind Rooney and Welbz.

Hendo and Ox as the shuttlers. Shame there is no pivot player, because they would really make the formation come to life.

This is the team tonight, apparently:

Hart; Chambers, Cahill, Jagielka, Gibbs; Wilshere, Henderson, Milner, Sterling; Rooney, Welbeck

Raheem has played way too much football so far this season. Should be rested ffs.

I'll email Roy

he's 19, pls go with this to much football