Under-21 Review: Ugly Display From England, Chelsea Youths
by Graham MacAree on Jun 13, 2011 12:21 PM BST
in England Internationals
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After Danny Sturridge's coming-out party in the last half of the 2010/11 season with Bolton, many would have tipped him to shine at the under-21 European Championships in Denmark. Ok, maybe they wouldn't have expected him to shine against Spain, but still. Instead, we got a gruesome performance from one of England and Chelsea's brightest young stars (the rest of the team wasn't really any better).
No, England didn't lose, but they certainly deserved to. Two Chelsea players started for the Young Lions, with Sturridge as the centre forward in a 4-3-3 and Ryan Bertrand the left back. Neither would have played if England had been able to field all of their eligible players (a team which would have looked like this: Fielding; Gibbs, Jones, Smalling, Richards; Rodwell, Henderson, Wilshere; Welbeck, Carroll, Walcott), but play they did and neither impressed, with Sturridge particularly poor.
When Sturridge was being used as a last-ditch substitute striker by Carlo Ancelotti, he had a bad habit of displaying a first touch so poor you could reasonably have concluded that his foot exploded upon contact with the ball. So too was it here, with Spain's technical wizards flatly embarrassing the 21-year-old by being able to touch the ball without it bobbling off five foot in a random direction.
Bertrand wasn't nearly as big a disappointment as Sturridge, but that's mainly because my expectations of him were so much lower. He did an adequate job of defending down the left, but unlike Kyle Walker was never able to provide any sort of attacking threat. Part of that isn't his fault, of course, as England's midfield was in no way able to cover for him if he did choose to take off the shackles and bomb forwards, but it's an important reminder that the most important part of modern fullback play is the transition between attack and defence, and right now Bertrand can't do this (the same applies for Patrick van Aanholt, incidentally).
It's not like we were really expecting miracles from the Chelsea boys here, but yeah, this wasn't such a good start to the tournament.
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The thing with Sturridge...
…is that he doesn’t really look comfortable as a centre-forward. He has seemed much more threatening when he cuts in from the right.
I’m starting to think that it might not be unreasonable to ask of Chelsea next season to line-up in a 4-3-3 with Sturridge on the right and Torres on the left (see his game against us while he was still at Liverpool for his ability to cut inside from a wide position). Combine that with a false 9 in the centre (don’t know if someone like Neymar would be able to do it, but I expect Anelka could) and we’ve got a front 3 in a similar style to Barca.
Not entirely convinced that this would work, but it would certainly play to Sturridge’s strengths
Bertrand is the U-21's starting LB ahead of Kieran Gibbs,
Sturridge would probably start ahead of Welbeck (especially considering how well he played alongside a typical Centre Forward type! But I think Sturridge plays a lot better from the right-wing at times, however I thought that the midfield was abysmal! Henderson was especially poor, Mancienne did his job somewhat adequately and Cleverley looked average at best! They provided nothing for Sturridge or Welbeck (until the last minutes) and Danny Rose was very average, which didn’t really allow Bertrand to push forward!
I couldn’t help but grin as Henderson and Phil Jones were both pretty appauling, I mean I always want England to do well, but my emotional instincts are what they are ;D!
The saviour for the game was when Pearce brought on Rodwell, he actually provided some support to the attackers!
Bertrand is not starting over Gibbs
Gibbs is injured
by Graham MacAree on Jun 13, 2011 4:15 PM BST up reply actions
Sturridge may NOT be our savior??
SHOCK
GASP
Half a season of success makes not a player. Unless you’re English, of course, then you command a 35m fee.
(Note, I’m not saying he won’t be useful or even successful next season for us. But it’s important to keep expectations in check. He looked great at Bolton but was barely adequate for us and downright abysmal for England. The jury’s definitely still out.)
I agree with the 4-3-3 idea
But Neymar can play on the left. He does it for brazil sometimes. This creates opportunities and chances for Torres as they can switch round and confuse the defenders. But I totally agree with putting Sturridge on the right.
by AbhayGNair on Jun 13, 2011 10:46 PM BST via mobile reply actions
If anyone is watching the England Ukraine U21 game,
this is why either Wilshere or McEachran should be there! McEachran has so much composure on the ball, and makes the right pass on the floor! Henderson just loves to boot 40 yard balls towards Welbeck who is isolated because Bertrand and Walker are struggling to defend their wingers and need Rose and Sturridge to help em out! It really needs composure!
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