England

Plusses

Carroll in general. Thought he was superb, capped a top performance with a super goal. Will would like to know if it's possible to have 10 heading in CF

Lescott - solid. Have reviewed my opinion of him from 'absolute dross'... To 'international centre half'


Negatives

Milner - just wasn't involved.


Discuss

I felt the team was very functional not spectacular. But i was suprised we had 3 goals in us. But if I'm honest the defence isn't as solid as I thought it would be under Roy.

Carroll and welbeck were perfect up front. Always defending from the front.

Milner had a poor show. Walcott superb and Chamberlain nearly got a goal but Gerrard wanted headlines.

Come on England!!!!

day early i know but im getting the buzz prematurely

Pirlo!

Pirlo only came to the fire after Welbeck had gone off, nobody harassing him then.

Thought he started to dictate the tempo from about the half hour mark onwards to be honest

Our passing was sloppy as best , worked hard and put everything in but pirlo gave a masterclass on how to use the ball

Have to say thought he was different class. Unfortunately there isn't anyone able to pass the ball like him in England. The Italian defence looked pretty untroubled too which was disappointing (except for the Johnson chance).

Thought Pirlo was good and he can pass the ball well, but we didn't half give him some room. There were quite a few wasted passes over the top in the first half when he was more squeezed.

Would fancy my chances of picking a pass or two if I had the room he did in the second half.

Rob@Inter wrote:

Have to say thought he was different class. Unfortunately there isn't anyone able to pass the ball like him in England. The Italian defence looked pretty untroubled too which was disappointing (except for the Johnson chance).

There is, unfortunately he was taken for granted by this country and retired from international football.

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Thought Pirlo was good and he can pass the ball well, but we didn't half give him some room. There were quite a few wasted passes over the top in the first half when he was more squeezed.

Would fancy my chances of picking a pass or two if I had the room he did in the second half.

Fair enough on the space. For the Balotelli chance he had a 25/30 yard stroll (he didn't need to run) before clipping it through. England's pressing game needs the forwards to work as well closing down the ball from the back. Pirlo picked it up off the CB's and was free until he got to Gerrard and Parker. The fullbacks for Italy also seemed to be too much for England's wide players to deal with. I'm just disappointed with it all.