By The Rouge
June 16 2004

The Rouge reviews the England vs. France game in Euro 2004 and looks ahead to hopefully better things in the tournament starting with a win of the Swiss on Thursday.

The Rouge View on England

 

A few days on and I have successfully rewired my mouth shut after the jaw dropping last two minutes of the England v France game.  Whilst hugely disappointing, I did get the feeling that after the Wembley 95 game and the Rougier o.g. at Cardiff, I was slightly better prepared for extreme unbelievable disappointment than many fans around me.  Anyway, on to the game....

 

Well, the first thing to say is that we saw two good teams on show.  Over the whole game you would have to say that England were marginally the better team, but also that 1-1 would have been a fairer result.  One of the most noticeable things was the way England quickly regained their two banks of four after conceding possession.  It may not be very eye-catching but it was a pleasure to see a well-disciplined England team, which is no mean feat considering the short amount of time available to the England coaching staff and one of our players playing out of their normal position.  Scholes was drifting all over the pitch when we had possession but running back to cover in front of Ashley Cole when we lost it.  There has been a lot of hype about a possible diamond formation and a lack of balance but positionally, the way Scholes played was very similar to Zidane in his current role.  The newspapers have made a lot of the fact that we should be playing a natural left sided player like Bridge, Barry or Thompson but I am a big believer that you should play your best players.  I believe we had players that were not technically good enough to come up against 11 good Brazilian footballers and for me I was happy with the Scholes decision, even if he may be absent against Switzerland. 

 

Regardless of formations, I am sure many top coaches will tell you there are two things you have to get right:

 

-         Your shape when you have the ball.

-         Your shape when you haven’t got the ball.

 

Getting these two elements right are very important, especially the latter.  When in possession, players drift around the pitch looking for space.  England’s movement was good and Scholes, Lampard and Gerrard did what they have been doing all season by laying off balls and then looking for a gap on the pitch.  We coped well with France’s magnificent players until the last few minutes of the game, where mistakes by James and Gerrard did cost us dear, but they still had to be executed by the best footballer on the pitch, Zinedine Zidane.  In the cold light of day it was a magnificent free-kick and a sublime penalty.

 

I think the game told us that man for man we are as good as France.  Ledley King and Sol Campbell were outstanding at the back, the midfield shared honours with France’s quartet and Wayne Rooney was fantastic.  What a great talent with amazing confidence and his run for the penalty was poetry in motion.

 

If you are going to be critical of the England display then perhaps mentally we were slightly negative in the second half and although we nearly got the second goal on the counter attack, we had to soak up an awful amount of French pressure.  Owen’s comment about the heat does not bode well for Thursday’s 5pm game and unless we get an early goal, breaking down a stubborn Swiss defence could prove hard.  At least Switzerland will be as affected by the heat as we will and barring a sending off and losing an early goal we should be able to beat them.

 

With Terry looking set to get the nod over the unfortunate King, Sven’s main headache is who to play instead of Scholes, assuming he is not fit.  Many fans will be calling for the flair of Cole or Dyer, whereas I think Sven will opt for Owen Hargreaves.  Hargeaves did well when he came on and slotted seamlessly into the system we were playing.  It would be nice to have the energy of Dyer on what is going to be a tiring game for the England players, but Hargreaves probably has the second highest energy levels after Dyer and would probably be my selection for the game.  You could make a case for all but if things are not going are way it will be nice to introduce a fresh Dyer or Cole after 60 minutes, rather than having our flair players wilting on the pitch and fewer options on the bench.

 

Regardless of this selection, England have the ability to beat Switzerland and go on to beat Croatia but this task is not easy and any lack of discipline could see us out of the competition.  Another factor that is worth bearing in mind is the potential importance of goal difference.  France have already mentioned that they will rest their best players for the third game if already qualified and a two goal win over Switzerland could be crucial.  This would ensure a draw against Croatia in the last game will be enough, providing they do not beat France.