England 1-2 Uruguay

*Written before Italy vs Costa Rica.

Since the draw was made months ago, it was always going to be tough to get through the 'Group of death'. We were the third highest ranked team in the group behind Uruguay and Italy, who lay 7th and 9th in the world rankings respectively. We all knew what Italy could do; they had most recently inflicted penalty heart break on England in their Euro 2012 quarter final clash. Having lost to Italy last Friday, we desperately needed to get a result against Uruguay or we would all but be knocked out. But they always looked a tough opponent due to one man. Luis Suarez. 

The whole of England has become accustomed to watching him in week in week out in the Premier League. This season he notched 31 goals in 33 games to propel his club side Liverpool into the title race, where they were narrowly outlasted by Manchester City. Many have said he's indisputably the best player in the Premier League. Some have said he's up there with the best in the world. What's sure though, is that he was always going to cause England's defence a problem.

Luis Suarez celebrates scoring against England

Player Performance

I think for large parts Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka dealt with Uruguay's huge threat up front well. However the defence switched off at crucial points in the game, and that proved to be England's downfall. First goal, fair enough it was a great ball by Cavani and a great run and finish by Suarez, but Jagielka was a little bit too static. Against those two you can't give them a yard of space or they'll take advantage, and Suarez did just that.

As for the second goal, that was just diabolical defending by England. In fact, it was footballing suicide. Buoyed on by their goal, England were on the front foot and had the momentum in the game. But again, lapses in concentration were crucial. Obviously it was Gerrard's mistake as he misjudged the flight of the ball, but Jagielka and Cahill have got to be tighter both to Suarez and eachother. This means that if one makes a mistake, the other can cover and rectify the situation. As soon as the ball glanced off the back of Gerrard's head and fell to Suarez, there was only one outcome. To concede a goal directly from the oppositions goal kick is school boy defending. England don't deserve to go through if they defend like that.

That wasn't the first time England have been exposed in such easy fashion. 4 years ago in their last 16 clash with Germany, England conceded a goal that was almost an exact replica of that of Suarez's on Thursday night. We should be learning from those mistakes. It's such a stupid error to make, and one that has all but sealed our fate yet again.

We looked better against Italy, because they play very similar football to us. They back off, don't pressure as much and form a solid back line to prevent their opponents from breaking them down. Sadly for us, Uruguay played the exact opposite. They were a lot more aggressive when England had the ball, closing us down within seconds and hassling our players at every opportunity. It clearly rattled a couple of our players. Welbeck and Sterling lost the ball multiple times until both were hauled off, and Rooney too was pick pocketed on the ball for being too lethargic in the first half. England have to learn to pass and move quicker in order to be effective against a team that is playing high pressure. England's play was too much like that of Spain's in their clash against Chile, and they too paid the price.

Personally I think the best player in a white shirt was Daniel Sturridge. He may not have had the greatest time in front of goal, but he looked the only player that was capable of threatening the Uruguayan defence. Uruguay had a tough time getting the ball off Sturridge, he turned with pace and time and time again menacingly ran at the opposition defence. If only he could generate enough power in his late effort to trouble Muslera in the Uruguay goal, we may well be celebrating an England win.

Rooney - A problem?

It was visibly a huge improvement from Rooney. He worked his socks off for his team in his favoured number 9 role, and went close on 3 occasions before his goal. It was a sign of things to come after his 15th minute free kick that grazed the post; in fact it almost summed up his night perfectly. So close, yet so far. 10 minutes later he managed to hit the bar/post from a yard out, and he also smashed the ball straight at the keeper with a large proportion of the goal gaping. His goal answered his critics partially, but if he was completely on his game he could have had a hat trick.

Nevertheless, Rooney clearly relished playing in his most effective position. He was everywhere on the pitch, and his effort was second to none. A clear indication of his passion and determination was directly after Suarez's winner. Bare in mind this is in the 86th minute, he picked up the ball and drove at the Uruguayan back line, picking up and winning a free kick on the edge of the box. Sadly it came to nothing, but it was a terrific run from a terrific player enduring a troubled time. That run was a sign that the old Rooney is starting to show himself once more. He played well.

Roy Hodgson

Going with an unchanged team was a good choice for me. Given how well the team had played against Italy it was perhaps wise that Hodgson stuck with the same line up. It was not a winning formula but against 'lesser' opposition in Uruguay it was definitely a wise move.

The main question that Hodgson had to answer was what do with Rooney: play him in his natural position, stick him on the left wing again or bench him. He went with the first option. For me, that was the right decision. You've got to build the team around your best players, rather than neglecting their talent by playing them in an unfamiliar position. Hodgson identified this, and put Sterling on the wing and Rooney in the centre just behind Sturridge. For me It was a smart move.

I can't help but think deploying Rooney in a central position was counter productive when it came to the performance of Sterling. Sterling relished playing behind the striker in the first game against Italy, but it was clearly the opposite against Uruguay. Yes he was pressured a lot more and yes he had very little time and space in which to operate, but would he have emulated his performance against Italy in the middle? Maybe. And if he had done so we probably would've won.

Sadly, I think Hodgson is just too conservative. Hodgson prefers to build around a solid defence rather than a solid attack, and that philosophy proved to be counter productive yesterday. He didn't want to take a risk, and he waited far too long to put on his subs. Henderson He should have sacrificed a holding midfielder for a more attacking one in the mould of Adam Lallana sooner than he did. Gerrard was having a stinker and Henderson didn't off too much of an attacking threat, so why wait? Sterling and Welbeck were clearly having very poor games too; and he should have changed this before he finally made the subs.

But the game was crying out for an alternative up front. And that alternative was Rickie Lambert. I think I touched on this in my review of the first game too, but I need to cover it again. Yes, he was ineffectual when he came on, but it was far too late bringing him on in the 86th minute. Bringing him in on the 60th minute would've allowed us to cross the ball in the air, utilising Baines' world class delivery. Half a chance both in the air and on the ground and he would've buried it, but he didn't get that chance because he was thrown on too late. Quite frankly, I think Hodgson bottled it.

 

Overview

So we've lost 2 games out of 2. It doesn't look good for England. But the signs were already there. We scraped through in qualifying, having to get some crucial results away to Ukraine, Montenegro and Poland in order to seal qualification. We've lost practically all our warm up games; including around 6 months ago when we lost to Chile and Germany in quick succession without scoring a goal. I saw the game against Chile live and he we truly awful. We have since improved, but against the same calibre teams in Italy and Uruguay we have shown we are just not good enough.

We've also been very poor in recent warm up games. We played Honduras and Ecuador in Miami,  both of which are considered no hopers in this World Cup. But we failed to win. The reason being we aren't good enough.

Why we're not good enough? That's a completely different debate. But in a nut shell, I believe it's partly down to the foreign imports into the Premier League. Yes it's made the league the most exciting in the world, but the National Team has suffered dramatically as a result.

We weren't outplayed yesterday anyway. Again, we should've picked up a result, but sadly it wasn't to be. Honestly, England have had little to no luck. Against Italy there were two clear shouts for a penalty, both of which the appeals were turned off. Yesterday Godin should've been sent off with the game tightly poised at 0-0. It was a cynical foul on Sturridge and he should've seen a second yellow card, but it wasn't given. However, There's no point dwelling on these refereeing decisions. The cream always rises to the top, and if we were good enough we would've won.

But in the end we were beaten by Luis Suarez. The defence coped for large periods, but sadly 2 fatal lapses of concentration at the back were England's undoing. We probably edged proceedings, but a draw probably would've been a fair result. Nonetheless, what's done is done. We are on the brink of going home, but it's not over yet. We need a miracle. We've ha no luck yet, but surely we have to get some at this some stage in this competition. We could still go through..... But it's extremely unlikely. Come on Italy!