Quote:
Originally Posted by thenry
Thats not true. Ditching Gerrard so late would have caused issues. Sadly for England Wilshere wasn't fit. And neither was Theo fit. As a DM England have little choice but to convert a CB.
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Therein lies the problem. Roy is not playing with a defensive midfielder. He's trying to deploy Gerrard as a "regista". Unfortunately, a regista he is not and neer will be: Gerrards passing range spans from abysmal to Hollywood with an alarming rate of randomness. To do that job you have to be consistent and have the decision making ability to choose the right pass 99% of the time. England have neither a defensive midfielder or regista type player.
The other problem in the way that England lined up is the gaping chasm behind Baines and Johnson when they attack. If you're going to play like that then you do need a defensive midfielder, a mobile one who can drop back to cover the full-back position as Mascherano used to do for Liverpool to great effect.
While Welbeck and Sterling do a reasonable job of defending in advanced positions, as wide men they are far too advanced to be of any defensive use in a transition of possession. In fact England line up more like a 4-2-1-3 than a 4-2-3-1 with and without the ball.