Thursday 8 September 2011

European Football: England's dismal performance against Wales

England managed a win over Wales at Wembley on Tuesday evening despite a dull and dismal display in front of their supporters. A crucial easy miss by Earnshaw denied Wales a deserved draw.  The Welsh had a lot of possession on English soil, which surprised many pundits.  But England's failure to maintain possession and dominate in midfield must worry the manager and his staff. The midfield failed to feed Rooney and create enough goal scoring chances.

England's current high world ranking (currently fourth according to FIFA) flatters them and on this latest performance they will fail to maintain it.  We have world class defenders, but our midfield looked very mediocre, far from world class. We completely lacked authority in midfield.  The Welsh midfield were often much better. At times they outshone the England team, particularly in the second half.  Spain, Germany and Holland are way ahead in quality, midfield skill and general performance. Other sides ranked in the top ten have much better midfield balance and quality.  They hold the ball well and look comfortable in possession. We cannot seem to do that in so many games.  Don't expect England to do well when they come up against international class players. Our midfield mediocrity will let us down again. Our midfield does not gel at Wembley in recent matches there.  It has been found wanting. It is high time that we had a convincing win at Wembley.

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