I thought England were much, much better today. They moved the ball about with a lot of zip and crucially they had two fullbacks willing to get forward. This meant we effectively had a 2 - 4 - 4 formation when we had the ball. That lineup and formation would have destroyed Algeria. Upson performed well and Gerrard, Rooney and Defoe played well. Milner was the man of the match by a long way, constantly troubling them and throwing quality balls in with both feet from the right. Tonight should shut up the Joe Cole fans as he was simply dreadful when he came on.
Having said that I still we're out next round. We still don't have the quality and defensive discipline the top teams in the world have, we're just not that good. Rooney on top form might help, but he's totally unfit, lacking sharpness and fitness. There are too many aimless balls, too many missed placed passes and not ruthless enough defensively. We would have conceded very early on tonight through Terry's mis placed pass.
