13 September 2007
England 3 - 0 Russia; Ratings
Player and manager ratings for the England - Russia match.
Paul Robinson - 7/10
Two unsighted shots and two effective saves, he looked confident and his enormously underrated passing was in evidence in the second half. Way too early to say he is back on form since his ‘dip’ in form dates back almost two seasons but two clean sheets and the best defensive record in the competition cannot fail to help his confidence.
Ashley Cole - 5/10
The only defender not to make a mistake in the first half, quickly made amends in the second. It could have been a deliberate ploy by Hiddink to attack his flank but as one of the world’s best left backs he should have handled it. It should also now be accepted that the attacking flair which was fading at Arsenal has now almost totally disappeared.
Micah Richards - 6/10
Looked slightly suspect in defence again and was more circumspect going forward however he combined well with Wright-Phillips to form an effective flank. It has to be questioned whether his defensive abilities at right back will ever improve while he plays centre back for his club which again raises the question of the long term successor to Gary Neville.
Rio Ferdinand - 7/10
Made a rare mistake in the first half but got it out of the way early to be the only solid defender in the second. Finished his goal well after a cheeky feint.
John Terry - 6/10
Drew two defenders for the first goal but looked characteristically shaky in defence. One day, his lack of international quality is going to cost this team.
Joe Cole - 6/10
Slightly improved over his Israel performance, Joe was more disciplined and defended well (horrendously unlucky to be booked). Still failed to beat his opposite number and showed limited creativity. With Aaron Lennon’s return imminent and Cole’s position on the Chelsea bench unlikely to change, his place must come under threat.
Shaun Wright-Phillips - 6.5/10
For the second match in a row failed to beat his opposite number even once. The fore-mentioned Lennon attacks and beats his man time and again yet the one or two times SWP tried it, he lost the ball. Most of the time he simply did not try. Still, he worked well with Richards and was part of a cohesive team but if he is to be a regular creative weapon for England he will have to commit players more and shoot whenever he has the chance.
Gareth Barry - 9.5/10 MoTM
Two fouls and no goals. If either of those were not the case this performance would have been a 10. England dominated the first half primarily because they dominated the midfield but that is not wholly accurate; Barry dominated the midfield. He tackled, intercepted, played positional defence, passed, crossed - he quite literally did everything a midfielder can possibly do (except score). In a sense his left-footedness if off-putting; with the paucity of left footers we automatically assume that he should play wide left. Barry is nothing of the sort however, he is a central midfielder through and through.
Against Israel he looked like Michael Carrick with effort. Against Russia he looked like a left-footed Patrick Vieira. Another assist and a wide array of passes (only one of which did not find its mark) shows he is capable of performing as that rarest of all footballing types; the complete defensive midfielder (think Keane, Vieira, Davids).
The best midfielder and defender on display. Absolutely must play in the centre in the next match.
Steven Gerrard - 6/10
Made a couple of good tackles in the second half but again was largely anonymous. Given he was playing in front of a left-footed Vieira you would hope that one of the world’s best attacking midfielders would have had the time, space and license to express himself - something he comprehensively failed to do. A few first half shots wildly off target and one good pass via a deflection was the sum of his attacking efforts. I often found myself wishing that Frank Lampard was in the attacking positions Gerrard found himself in.
Emile Heskey - 8/10
Object demonstration of the art of aerial support. Against Israel he used his chest and feet but against Russia he needed only his head. I would love to see the official statistics on this performance but I will bet that he won at least twenty aerial challenges of which at least 50% fell to a team mate; with Heskey there is no easy forward ball to defend. I can recall a single headed challenge he failed to win. Unlucky with his one shot but his contribution to the team and the team’s variety of play must not be over looked. A Heskey/Owen or Rooney partnership has to be more effective than Owen/Rooney…
Michael Owen - 8/10
His pace went a long time ago - he was still at Liverpool when that happened - but no one should ever have doubted his one, permanent, world class asset; finishing. Three chances, one slip, two goals. While his goal against Israel was an instinctual effort the two against Russia required time to think - time that is always well spent when he is fit. Best of all he delivered a performance as he always does; when it matters most. With Heskey next to him he has more touches of the ball and spends less of the game out of touch with the play which keeps him sharp when the chances arise. What is more, having a no upper limit striker in a team creating chances for him means that Heskey’s lack of goalscoring is less relevant.
Steve McLaren - 7/10
What team would we have seen had Hargreaves and Lampard been fit? We will never know thankfully but McLaren had his team motivated and tactically prepared so the team he put out (which was the right one) performed as a single, determined, cohesive unit. The performance was all the more impressive that if you analyse it, it comprised a poor defensive display and contained only three notable (extremely notable) performances yet it still felt very much like a team performance.
The defence should give some concern - it has been a while since an England defence has looked this poor (bearing mind that we were in full control and under no pressure otherwise). Perhaps the captain’s lack of ability at this level is beginning to tell?
The biggest test for McLaren will come in the next match though. Hargreaves and Rooney fit; who does he play?
If he chooses Barry and Heskey he may just make a believer out of me yet.
I often found myself wishing that Frank Lampard was in the attacking positions Gerrard found himself in.- - Are you actually joking!! It is a widely accepted fact that Lampard is half the player Gerrard is, when was the last time Frank put in a quality performance for England? I distinctly remember him getting booed in his last outing. Im not saying that Gerrard was sublime, but he looked solid and penetrative. As for Micah Richards, he did not at all look suspect in defence, i think his natural pace allowed him to cut out a number of dangerous diagonals against pacy and skilful opposition. Gareth Barry was also a good performer, but to rate him at 9.5/10 is ludicrous, Owen got 2 goals, coupled with an excellent involved all-round game, and isnt man of the match?!? A Villa fan obviously getting carried away. However, i completely agree with you on the comment …. ‘If he chooses Barry and Heskey he may just make a believer out of me yet.’ Heskey seems to be extremely effective and i cannot seem to think of a scenario where he wouldnt cause defences problems.
Each to their own Jonny
Gerrard had done little for england for some time - Lampard even less - but I believe it is a symptom of playing two attacking midfielders in the centre and asking them both to be attacking and defensive (complete midfielders) which ultimately hamstrings both of them. Gerrard, being the more complete player looks slightly better in this role than Lampard but neither should ever be asked to play as anything other than an attacking midfielder.
For the last two games Gerrard has had that freedom and has done nothing with it. These were important games and he was playing in his favoured position. Ergo, I think it only fair to give another attacking midfielder that opportunity (why not Lampard who always has to defend?).
The defence was poor, there cannot be an argument there. I watched that match through twice with the remote in one hand and a notepad in the other
They were ALL suspect.
Barry put in the best defensive midfielder (better to say “complete” midfielder) performance I have seen in an england shirt. As good defensively as Batty circa 2001/2 and as good attacking as Paul Scholes minus the shooting. He really was that good, mate.
And I can assure you I am not a Villa fan
No arguments this time! For me, there were four people who did their job yesterday: Robinson, Barry, Cole, and Heskey. Out of this quartet, Barry was by and far the best. I remember looking at the clock on the 35th minute and thinking Barry should be given the man-of-the-match now! Definitely a 9+ performance from him. That was one of the best performances from any England player since … well, a very long time.
The team still played well, and nobody really made any bad mistakes, but there were a few players who just didn’t do their primary job in the team. Ashley Cole lacked any defensive abilities and was ineffectual in attack: Mourinho has stifled the only thing that made him stand out. Micah was Ok, and Ferdinand and Terry were shaky at times, but there was no major incident. Ferdinand always worries me though. He’s a good defender, but he still makes too many bad decisions for me: at times when he should just header the ball away, he tries to control it and subsequently loses possession, etc. If he can improve this, he could be a great defender.
SWP lacked penetration, and his “header” was awful (if you could call running into the ball and having it ricochet off your head a “header”). His job (as I see it) was to get past his man and pose problems to the defence. This he didn’t do.
The same was true for JC. He just didn’t do his primary job and cause serious concern to the Russian right back. His defending was Ok, but I *think* it was his fault Zhyrianov put the ball in the England net. From the brevity of the replays, I think it was JC who was tracking his run, but then just stopped to ball watch at the 18 yard line. I also remember screaming at him to mark an open player on the 18 yard line during a Russian attack on the flank, whilst he was just standing about, probably thinking that just standing around in the box = good defending.
But, the real under-performer was Gerrard. What a performance! Did we time warp back to the World Cup, and he change his name to Lampard? Not only did he not do his job in the team, he didn’t do *any* job. Without doubt, he was not an attacking threat. So maybe he was told to sure up the midfield: to distribute the balls to the wingers and forwards? But, for the 15 or so minutes after the break when the Russians were hounding us, what the team needed was for the midfielders to take control of the game: to keep possession and starve the Russians of any attacking opportunity. What was Gerrard doing? He was trying to play the attackers in and losing possession. To me, that was stupid. At that point in the game, the defence was just outside the box, and all possession (for them and us) was in our half: the forwards were too isolated for any real good attacking opportunity. By all means, if you see a good counter attack, use it. But there were none. We were 2-0 up, what would have been the smart thing to do: help Barry and retake the game by keeping the possession (bearing in mid that we were still two goals up), or play for the third goal and risk conceding one? From a technical point of view, Gerrard was reckless.
Now, what’s interesting is that in the pre-match interview with McLaren, when asked a bout Barry’s inclusion in the team, McLaren also mentioned Gerrard and talked about them both being required to distribute the ball (or something similar). From this (and I know it’s not much), it appears that McLaren didn’t ask Gerrard to play the attacking role. Certainly, whether he was asked to play that role or not, he didn’t do it. If McLaren doesn’t want to play Gerrard as an attacker, then he should just play Hargreaves and Barry (or someone similar): players who can sure up the midfield and feed the balls to out-and-out attackers. If he did ask Gerrard to play as an attacker, he has to be dropped. Lampard has been terrible in recent international appearances, but that was playing alongside Gerrard: I’d at least give him a go as the sole attacking midfielder.
Based on my above assessment, you’d think we lost, or even drew, the game. But, we generally played well, and I think the reason for that was that McLaren played players who were hungry to play well. Replace Barry with Lampard, Heskey with Rooney, even SWP with Beckham and there would have been no difference between yesterday’s performance and the games against Andorra, Croatia etc. It was the “new” players in the team that raised our game. Should we keep the same team for Estonia? Definitely not! McLaren needs to finish the job that he and fate half put before him now.
lo; King of the long comment!
You make some good points as always; I didn’t mention Robinson as one of the top performers because even though his saves were good I still think it is way to early to pronounce him as ‘back’. I worry about a particular fault in his game that dates back for about two seasons (and it’s nothing to do with his kicking) and having watched every Spurs and England match it is clear that the fault is still there.
The defence really surprised me. Admittedly none of the mistakes mattered but they ALL made mistakes. Normally, defence is our strongest area so to see so many errors in an important match was a little worrying. As for Ferdinand, I’ll maintain that he never makes mistakes that actually matter… Ashley Cole has the ability to defend even the best winger out of the game - he neutralises C. Ronaldo when they have played against each other and I feel his defensive ability far outweighs his attacking now.
Gerrard… well I can’t add any more to what you said other than to emphasise that these two matches were extremely important and he got to play his favoured position. If that is how he performs under those circumstances, someone else deserves a chance.
I’ll make this short then!
I agree that it’s too early to say Robinson is ‘back’, but all I’m saying is that he had a job to do yesterday and he did it well. I’m looking at Foster as the future though, and I hope his development continues.
It’s actually quite odd that Ferdinand hasn’t made a mistake that he’s had to pay for, but he needs to cut them all out if he wants to be considered a great defender (at least equal to his predecessor at United — Stam — in my opinion).
All three remaining games are crucial because we need 7pts to qualify outright even if the worst case scenario occurs with respect to the other teams. Even if Russia drop two points against Israel, we’ll still need 6pts to qualify without having to worry about other results and goal difference. Having goal difference on our side will give us breathing space (it will mean we could qualify with a win against Estonia and only draws against Russia and Croatia). Thus, we need a good win over Estonia: we can’t let up.
“we need a good win over Estonia: we can’t let up”. no argument there.
Though with the last two performances the team should be thinking about beating Estonia, beating Russia in Russia then getting revenge over Croatia and topping the group… after all, before McLaren would you not normally expect to beat all of these teams, home and away?
Lo- Ferdinand always worries you?? On that scale John Terry must give you palpiatitions cos he has never been international class an won’t be for a while to come. 100% agree with cwoff about his lack of international class costing England one of these days.