England desperately need their red shirt

England 1 - 0 Belgium - international friendly - June 2nd, 2012

back.

The classic England red away shirt has been consigned to history, for the moment, as England use their standard white shirts for all game except where there’s a clash and the new blue away kit is used. But the red kit is desperately needed.

After all if England are going to play like Switzerland they should at least look like Switzerland.

I see Roy’s plan and it looks just like the one the Swiss came up at the last World Cup. Don’t concede and maybe you’ll nick a winner. It worked for his former side in the first game of that tournament when they beat the eventual winners Spain. After that it came slightly unstuck, as they failed to score another goal, so going out with one win, draw and loss. Could really see England doing this, except in reverse, lose the first, draw second win the last, though I see Sweden and the Ukraine as tougher opposition that Switzerland’s Chile and Honduras.

And could just see them scoring one goal, those companies that have offered cash back deals, tenner for each England goal, won’t exactly be crapping themselves after this last week and Saturday’s one-nil victory over Belgium.

The best team not at the Euros, or so we were told, the Belgiques were worth a few quid even without Citeh captain Kompany in the side. Well they played some nice stuff but then they were just handed the ball most of the time and had pretty much the freedom of the park up until England’s 8 yard box, where things clammed up and Belgium disappointed.

Like so many teams it seems all fin and dandy until you find there’s no really cutting edge.

It’s funny because with his brilliantly taken goal Welbeck showed that England maybe do have it to clear that final hurdle, it’s just with them getting to that last obstacle is the main problem. Shown by the fact Welbeck got bugger all service for the rest of the 50 odd minutes he was on the park.

Everyone said after the last World Cup debacle that England couldn’t play 4-4-2. Well Roy has taken that on board so has gone for a more 4-4————-2. So with the wide men having to cover for the fullbacks deficiencies and a huge gap between the central midfield pairing and the strikers, to with the central pairs inability to actually pass the ball and provide any decent service, it’s imperative that any slight chance has to be taken.

Oh Captain Marvel was being lauded again for his performance, better than against Norway, defensively magnificent. Well if you class not going over the top with a red card worthy challenge success then yes it was better than the previous outing. His passing percentage of 65.5%, I don’t know if that was better than before, it seems about right for him. I wonder what his new manager at Liverpool thought watching that. Any road up it was enough for him to be named man of the match by TV pundit Andy Townsend.

Who said ITV can’t do comedy.

Ah but there’s also worries over Parker, he’s looking off the pace, getting caught the wrong side, diving in, fouls that will see cards in the tournament. So in the real world – i.e. that one not occupied by “media types” – just playing as he usually does.

Oxlade-Chamberlain, had an iffy game, he tried things they just didn’t come off. But at least he tried, he was the only one that even attempted to run at the Belgians and they had to foul him to stop him. It’s a hell of a lot better than just passing the ball away like his elders and betters.

So another nothing display that’ll inspire no confidence other than to those that are completely delusional – keep talking about Greece and Denmark lads…

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