Stanley Jones:

tommythecat:

Sephiroth Rising:

Every major tournament where rooney fails to deliver on the big stage, the excuses begin to get trotted out by us united fans. Last time it was he wasn't fit because he was allegedly rushed back from injury even though he was only out for 2 weeks. Euro 2006 the same thing the injury excuse and now euro 2012 he doesn;t start the first two games because of his own stupidity and we're meant to believe that's the reason why he can't pass accurately, control the ball or take on any players and run out of puff after an hour. I think we should be honest with ourselves instead of being like deluded liverpool supporters and say rooney isn't as good as he;'s made out to be. Before his return for the Ukraine game the media was calling him pele, the only pictures of the camp where of him and he couldn't deliever once again. The pressure got to him. He's not on Ronaldo's level. Look at how Ronaldo responded to the critiscism leveled towards him after the denmark game. The next game he came out all guns blazing and delievered. When has rooney ever lived up to the hype or proved his critics wrong when the heat started to turn up on him in a big tournament? I tell you, never.

He goes alright for us. How many English players played to their club standards?

Spot on. Gerrard was widely recognised as Englands player of the tournament yet he spent most of the time trying to hit Hollywood balls which invariably went astray. Hodgson is wrong to single out Rooney for comment. The negativity and lack of creativity was the problem. Why Downing was in ans a potential match winner in Johnson was left out, beats me. Why start with Milner? Why not substitute Young when he was havng a mare? Hodgson is the problem.

tommythecat:

Sephiroth Rising:

Every major tournament where rooney fails to deliver on the big stage, the excuses begin to get trotted out by us united fans. Last time it was he wasn't fit because he was allegedly rushed back from injury even though he was only out for 2 weeks. Euro 2006 the same thing the injury excuse and now euro 2012 he doesn;t start the first two games because of his own stupidity and we're meant to believe that's the reason why he can't pass accurately, control the ball or take on any players and run out of puff after an hour. I think we should be honest with ourselves instead of being like deluded liverpool supporters and say rooney isn't as good as he;'s made out to be. Before his return for the Ukraine game the media was calling him pele, the only pictures of the camp where of him and he couldn't deliever once again. The pressure got to him. He's not on Ronaldo's level. Look at how Ronaldo responded to the critiscism leveled towards him after the denmark game. The next game he came out all guns blazing and delievered. When has rooney ever lived up to the hype or proved his critics wrong when the heat started to turn up on him in a big tournament? I tell you, never.

He goes alright for us. How many English players played to their club standards?

Michael Ballard.:

It wasn't just the Euros that he played like this in. The last couple of months of last season he was playing the way he did in the Euros. In my opinion it all comes down to him being played so deep.

Nope. In the last couple of months, Rooney played with a foot injury. After the season ended, he had to recover from that. Then, he only got a few international minutes against Belgium in a month. After that, he was thrown into the deep end when he wasn't fully fit and not provided much service.

Some people say C. Ronaldo does well with an average Portugal side. Seriously? He's always provided service. Always. The central midfielders, full backs, and wingers always target C. Ronaldo. He's not in the same boat as Rooney and Welbeck who aren't provided much service due to the long-ball game England often played in the tournament. England were at their best when they were passing the ball around and settled in possession. However, they were horrible once they went for the long ball as they couldn't sustain possession. Even an unfit Rooney did better when he wasn't facing 4 opposition players with only Welbeck or Carroll as support.

And to those people who are lambasting Young, he was the victim of a system he couldn't fit in. He was not provided the freedom to play the way he does. He wasn't provided much support and was often isolated. He was often double/treble-teamed without an outlet to give the ball to. He was trying to go on the attack when Cole and the midfielders didn't support him and isolated him. Young was at his best when he had attacking support and not just isolated in a 3 vs. 4/5 situation.

Playing Andy Caroll is just taking it back to typical England,have the big man upfront & hope he can out muscle the opposition,but can do nothing when the opposition can out pass you,and thats exactly what Italy done last night,The fact that rival fan's blame Rooney every tournament is just an excuse to hide behind the fact that their expectations on England are unrealistic the fact that the majority of good players in England come from a different country speaks volumes. For Example:-

Valencia v Milner? Young?

Nani v Theo?

Silva,Van Der Vart, Yaya Toure,Modric v Gerrard, Parker>Henderson

Sergio Aguero & Van Persie v Andy Caroll?

England lack the quality that they have at club level due to the fact that England can not go out and buy players from a different country,and have to depend on their own product which in recent times has not produced much,it is only now England have started to produce some new English talent,and until they are given a chance with their clubs then what chance are they going to have for Engalnd?

Sir Kones:

Ummmm, how about the fact that he scored the only goal against Ukraine, otherwise they wouldn't have even gotten out of the group? Rooney and Welbeck were pretty much England's best players yesterday, not by bias, but by evaluating what did they do to keep possesion AND move the ball toward goal.

mark.k.:

Is it not plain to see that Hodgson was trying to prove a point to Liverpool by bringing lots of their players to the Euros? You shouldn't have fired me!

The reason England did not do better was due to a core of mediocre Liverpool and City players who were not able to retain possession. I feel sorry for Rooney or anyone else playing with them.

80% of the blame lies with Woy Hodgson trying to play the Italian way. Once England lost the ball, which was a lot instead of pressuring the Italians the England players took up their defensive positions, it was more army manouvres than a game of football. Absolute dribble.

People were saying that the Spanish way of playing was boring , well i'd rather watch them 100 times than watch England play like that again.

And i'm not anti English, far from it.

No need for excuses. Rooney missed his chances during the game yesterday, but in general his overall play wasn't good yesterday.

The excuses for having poor players around him does not work for yesterdays game

England played poorly and Rooney was no better

The only players that gave a good account for themselves were perhaps Lescott, Terry (shoot me!!) and Joe Hart that were constantly clearing and blocking the Italians

They might not be brilliant but your own touches and chances have to be taken as well and yesterday apart from the penalty Rooney did not do that.

Mujtaba:

rooney can't play well for england because of the rubbish he plays with. walcott, gerard, barry, milner, carroll? wtf! Even messi on nandralone would struggle

Christiano however can do this even with all the fair amount of rubbish around him. His class is still appparent. Rooney is unable to inspire a team because he can't beat his man or thread good passes. The point is, he's not as world class as we make him out to be. It helps that he has better players around him at United to look good. That said, he's still the main man at United which is the problem with this United team, Rooney as the main man. We could have a better, more consistent main man, hope Kagawa will become that player for us, or any player we bring in.

Sir Kones:

Rooney and Welbeck were pretty much England's best players yesterday, not by bias, but by evaluating what did they do to keep possesion AND move the ball toward g

If they had of had more support from Young and in particular Milner, they would have been able to influence the game more with their movement and touch, nobody looked like joining them. The middle of the park was woeful and gave no support to either of the front men when they wanted to head forward. Should have taken a Carrick or Scholes and let Gerrard move further up the pitch to aid in the link up.

Can't help but think what Engalnd would be like after a tournament with SAF lol!!

"RUTHLESS-REDS":

if SIR had of been there,you'd see a different team