Originally Posted by
scientificred
John Barnes on Sky said that the performances of both Phillips and Rice in protecting the defence had been the biggest factor in England's progress to the final.
Oh John, he seriously said that after watching that game last night, when that pair were absolutely destroyed by Denmark's front fours pressing and movement and the defence bailed them out
Mancini and the Italian players must have been rubbing their hands in glee watching how desperately inept that pair and any of England's defenders were in their pressing, being in the right positions to press and keeping the ball and being able to work it out of tight areas under pressure from a very average press from just four players
Culminatively Rice and Phillips got done, in really bad really dangerous areas that needed the defence to bail them out through getting the ball robbed off them in tight areas, not reading the game at all well so not being in good positions to press, then quickly sprinting to players to try and make up for it and getting done or from getting too tight to a player at least 6 times each
Neither offered any form of constructive forward passing, there were four occasions when they supported an advanced player on England's right, the ball was played back to them, with England having a 3 v 2 overload on their left begging for a first time quality Hendo cross and what did they do, took a touch then played the ball backwards
This was Denmark for fucks sake, that pair have looked ok to an extent because England haven't played a single top side yet, Denmark were the best side they've played so far and had they had forward like Chiesa or Insigne to release when Rice and Phillips got done so frequently, they'd have likely scored at least 4
On Sunday, rather than playing against a decent press from well organised workmen like players and a team without the top quality forwards to capitalise on errors and loss of possession caused by them folding against the press, these players will be up against Insigne, Chiesa, Veratti, Barella and Jorginho
"If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”
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