almasi:

Rooney scored a very vital goal for the team, for himself and for Roy who selected him ahead of Carrol who did very well against Sweeden. Otherwise apart from the goal Rooney was poor because as usual rhe ushed his passes, several of his passes did not reach his team mets, lost possession easily and not to forget the clear miss in the in the first half. Rooney was just average may be as some people have already come to his defence that he was rusty and the game will help him get into shape. Carrol and Rooney each played one game and each scored one goal, but Carrol looked much better and more effective because apart from his goal he tracked back and won a lot of balls successfully.

thecorkman:

To be fair, Wazza didnt exactly get good service. Englands midfield was dominated by an average Ukrainian side who shouldve scored 3/4 if they had their shooting boots on. England have been average in all games to be fair,but then , when were Roy Hodgson's team's ever entertaining? I can see England doing a ''Greece'' and going far by a large chunk of luck and 1-0's....

shlongconnery:

So, after all the dust has settled and the talking has stopped, I reviewed Wayne's performance last night as I had the game recorded and from watching it back this morning and concentrating on him solely, I noticed something that I hadn't notice last night.

Wayne Rooney's Starting Position ;
This is what got me confused to start off with, the way it looked like England were set up it was a very, very strict 4-4-2, not 4-4-1-1 it was a 4-4-2, Welbeck and Rooney for the majority were in line with each other, it seems to me the way Hodgson set up was he had Rooney and Welbeck left up top and left Gerrard and Parker to deal with everything, everytime Rooney looked like he wanted to come back and help out, he stopped himself and strolled back to his starting position that was just in between the midfield and defence, now, to me, this seemed very unusual, Roy Hodgson had effectively an extra player on the pitch with Rooney as without the ball, he would slip in between Gerrard and Parker and make a midfield 5, but Hodson looks to have made him stay up top from the outset, if you looked carefully as well, out of the two of Rooney and Welbeck, Rooney was always the top man as well, if anyone was coming back slightly it was Welbeck, this definitely shocked me a bit.

Wayne's Performance ;
Ok, only playing 27 minutes of football in 37 days is hard enough but coming in to an international match and starting is even harder especially when he was getting man marked by 3 players as soon as he touched the ball, he got swamped, you could tell his touch and positioning weren't exactly 100% but it was slowly coming back as the game went on, I think Wayne took a lot of pressure off the likes of Welbeck, Young, Gerrard and Parker last night at the right time as this was effectively a must win if we wanted any hope of avoiding Spain, I think in terms of overall performance, I'd give Wayne a 6, had he started the game how he finished, it would have been a solid 7 but the minutes he got were very important and I think he'll be all guns blazing against Italy, the counter attack involving Young, Welbeck and Rooney from our own 18 yard box was sublime.

Overall ;
I think to come back in at that time under the circumstances and the pressure, think he had a decent game and I think he will have a lot better game on Sunday, it speaks volumes when Gerrard and others are hailing his return and Rooney this time is being very humble. I personally wouldn't have started him against Ukraine simply because I hate to say it but Carroll did himself justice against Sweden and think he deserved a start, then, if it wasn't working, bring on Rooney but, glad England got the result and Rooney got the winner. More of the same please.

mazhar08:

Ruben Frankish:

We need to quicken up our play a little and maybe use Walcott of Oxe to have more technical ability and speed.

I feel that Hodgson is making a good selection in starting with Milner. This is because Glen Johnson is a very attack-minded full back. He is best at going forward, whilst defensively, he is weak. This is why he plays Milner. Milner doesn't often bomb forward, and he'll cover for Glen Johnson when he often goes forward. He's better at covering for Johnson than Walcott or Ox. Same reason as to why Young plays on the left rather than Ox: he can cover for and support Cole as shown against Ukraine.

My only concern is the zonal defending Hodgson puts out when the team doesn't always sit back deep when defending. Opposition players often find space behind the central midfielders as a result of this as shown many times against Ukraine. Zonal defending works well if the defence and midfield are both sitting back deep: otherwise, don't use zonal defending with a 4-4-2.

mazhar08:

Ruben Frankish:

We need to quicken up our play a little and maybe use Walcott of Oxe to have more technical ability and speed.

I feel that Hodgson is making a good selection in starting with Milner. This is because Glen Johnson is a very attack-minded full back. He is best at going forward, whilst defensively, he is weak. This is why he plays Milner. Milner doesn't often bomb forward, and he'll cover for Glen Johnson when he often goes forward. He's better at covering for Johnson than Walcott or Ox. Same reason as to why Young plays on the left rather than Ox: he can cover for and support Cole as shown against Ukraine.

My only concern is the zonal defending Hodgson puts out when the team doesn't always sit back deep when defending. Opposition players often find space behind the central midfielders as a result of this as shown many times against Ukraine. Zonal defending works well if the defence and midfield are both sitting back deep: otherwise, don't use zonal defending with a 4-4-2.

mazhar08:

Ruben Frankish:

We need to quicken up our play a little and maybe use Walcott of Oxe to have more technical ability and speed.

I feel that Hodgson is making a good selection in starting with Milner. This is because Glen Johnson is a very attack-minded full back. He is best at going forward, whilst defensively, he is weak. This is why he plays Milner. Milner doesn't often bomb forward, and he'll cover for Glen Johnson when he often goes forward. He's better at covering for Johnson than Walcott or Ox. Same reason as to why Young plays on the left rather than Ox: he can cover for and support Cole as shown against Ukraine.

My only concern is the zonal defending Hodgson puts out when the team doesn't always sit back deep when defending. Opposition players often find space behind the central midfielders as a result of this as shown many times against Ukraine. Zonal defending works well if the defence and midfield are both sitting back deep: otherwise, don't use zonal defending with a 4-4-2.

aaronmufc3:

long story short, he had a really poor game and if it wasnt for his goal him and roy would have been slated by everyone but on the positive side hes had 85mins game time which will help him in the italy game and hopefully he will play better

stretford77:

Agree with the reason, except Johnson doesn't offer a great deal going forward either, I'd give Jones a go myself. Ox didn't do a bad job when he was on the left against France, thought he handled himself well, he isn't a natural tackler but he has the discipline so again an option on the right.