I didn't watch the game.
Have never been particularly enamoured with football since I started playing rugby.

I wish there was more rugby on freeview! :(

why was the minutes silence about 20 seconds long?

We like Bentley.

Yeah.

hearing Lawrenson crying after 20 minutes. Waah waah. But yeah, England still looked crap and good at the same time. At the very least they won the game (for a change).

there is still loads of work to be done, however it was good that england didnt panic after conceding. bentley looked a bit good, full-backs were shite, wouldve been better to see abit more ashley young...gerrard was abit deep at times

there was a real lack of movement in the last 3rd for the most part, it's telling that both goals came when the midfield actually broke forward with some pace. even then the first goal came from a moment of individual skill from Joe Cole.

England still rely far too much on those individual moments, it's rare that they create anything from basic passing and movement.

but won comfortably. Can't say I thought Bentley was that impressive. Was also pleased with the lack of long balls.

the first half was awful, typical England. The second half was better but i thought subsitituting the better players broke up the game. Bently was good first-half, Barry again played well, Joe Cole was probably our best player, Rooney had a good half an hour in the second, Gerrard did nothing bar a good last fifteen minutes, how did he get MoTM? Overall you can't be too harsh on them, it's a whole new setup, and there are some points gained, although i'm completely against international friendlies now. I also thought that England's play was much more expansive with Crouch on, so as much as i'm not really a fan of a big lump upfront we should probably play to our strengths and put him or Heskey in. My strongest XI when fit would be as below, but i'd like to see more of Young, Agbonlahor, Upson & Michael Johnson:

Hart
Richards
Ferdinand
Terry
Lescott
Bentley
Gerrard
Barry
Joe Cole
Crouch
Rooney

i have a feeling the possession only looked better because this was a friendly, and switzerland werent really pressuring england. the second half commentary on the tv was laughably optimistic, even by their usual standards. i can only assume the first half must be have truly awful for the second half to be seen as a good performance.

It was a friendly, and you could tell: both sides were rubbish.

I thought the position rooney playing in the second half was interesting. I'd always thought if you were going to play a 4-5-1 with england, then you'd have trouble fitting rooney or owen in anywhere...

is Titus Bramble in disguise. He was abysmal in the first half. Didn't see the ball in the second, which was quite fortunate.

Gerrard wasn't on the pitch in the first half, and wasn't in the game for a lot of the second either. He got involved in a few key plays, and somehow got man of the match - they were obviously watching a different match to me!

Rooney was man of the match. Ran nonstop and did some good stuff.

There's definitely a lot of positives to be taken from the game, however as I'm English I'll focus on the negatives..... Brown, Ashley Cole, Barry, and for the first half Gerrard were poor.

It's like they had a script that they were going to stick to regardless.
One good cross in the first half, but aside from that he dwelt on the ball too long and put a couple of crosses straight out of play. He was completely anonymous in the second half, I kept on thinking he's been subbed.
They put together a package of Cole highlights at half time, but for all their words, could not find one decent piece of footage featuring Bentley.

looks like hes having small panic attacks every time england lose the ball. I saw he included Lescott in the squad though. McClarens still got his finger in the pie.

the ball was played along the ground for pretty much 99% of the first half, and most of the second too. this is 1) progression tactically, and 2) progression insofar as english footballers can be made to do as they're told

Joe Hart

Micah Richards
Ashley Cole
Rio Ferdinand
John Terry

Owen Hargreaves
Steven Gerrard

David Bentley
Ashley Young
Joe Cole

Wayne Rooney

Especially the bit about the players being positionally disciplined and that we played a bit more of an Italian style.

2. Brown Bad
3. Rooney isn't a striker
4. Upson not quite up to international standard yet
5. We need a non-Chelsea left-back
6. David James will always make things interesting

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAL.

Fuck me Wes Brown surpassed even MY low expectations of him last night.

Really isn't too much pulling it apart just yet

motson and lawrenson blaming us GEEKS for awarding Gerrard player of the year.

bar one missed chance, played very well I thought, I was happy for him. I'm no convinced Bentley was any better than he was.

biggest positive was that we limited them to two chances whilst we had numerous. the header they missed was probably easier than the one they scored (which was mainly due to the substitutions just happening)

i thought it was a solid and encouraging performance but we still need to sort out the left side of the park