bluedave

I'm not sure what Van Persie is supposed to be doing wrong, if I had the EPL winners (and probably others) chasing after me I wouldn't stick around at Arsenal just to win f**k all. In no way is that comparable to Tevez's disgraceful antics last year.

I think he's got his eye on a big money contract at City so can't see him joining us, but 37 goals in 48 games last season, we could do a lot worse.

One more to add to the collection. Next, the olympics. After that, I can't wait to find out.

Torres gifting that goal to Mata was the highlight of the tournament to me. Gutted for Italy, they were making a good game of it for the first hour until that cruel injury to Motta. No way did they deserve to lose 4-0.

I have been waiting for us to move him on for years, but now I feel like a bad person. Hope he get a lot more games at his new club wherever it may be.

10:30ish train from Canterbury East into Victoria, a couple of beers outside the station before getting the District/Circle line to Fulham Broadway. Usually end up in the Goose for a few more beers before grabbing a burger/KFC for lunch and heading back to the Bridge. I guess the total travelling time would be a bit under 2 hours if we did it in one go.

Best player in England by miles at his peak. Not being able to head the ball, dribble, or tackle doesn't change that, nor does having an annoying wife. As he was the player who's job it was to provide crosses to others, his poor heading wasn't often a problem. He didn't need to be able to dribble past players due to his crossing and long range passing being second to none. His tackling was poor but no worse than most other wide players. It's a shame he's not going to the Olympics, all the younger and less experience players would have benefited a lot from having him around even if he hasn't played a proper competitive match for years.

Had to cringe at Lawrenson just now: The camera zooms in on a crying German girl in the crowd, Mowbury: "poor girl! Lawro: "might be rich...." Mowbury: ".........." Balotelli actually looks motivated, awful German defending, Italy are dangerous going forward, what is going on? Great game for the neutrals, can't wait for the second half! Edit: I never realised how nice Vialli's voice is. Good to see him in the studio.

What a pile of poo that was. Most notable for the shameless theatrics and cheating from certain players. Big improvement by Spain in extra time and they probably deserved to go through on balance but I really hope they get their arses handed to them by Germany in the final.

Mary Ellis is ok but we need better than ok. I'd like to see us sell him and Essien and bring in somebody like Fellaini, and give Romeu and McEachran more opportunities next season.

The same thing happens every couple of years when England are inevitably dumped out of a major championship by a better football team and will no doubt happen again in 2014. To be fair, we do actually have players who are good on the ball, but dues to injuries and the manager's bizarre Liverpool bias we ended up with the make-shift team we did.

The game went pretty much as I thought it would. Italy are a good football team and England are... not. Disappointed (but not surprised) with England's performance but the result was entirely justified. I hope Italy win it. If Italy had a more dependable CF then I think they'd have a decent chance. With Balotelli up front I think they still have an outside chance but will need to be a lot more clinical in front of goal against Germany and Spain.

JT, Glen Johnson and the rest of the defense were awesome tonight. It's the whole of the rest of the team that let us down (except for maybe Parker who ran himself into the ground). Also, I want to add, that England played better in the first two games while Rooney was suspended. And that in Buffon and Pirlo, Italy have two of the coolest f**kers in football.

Trick question, the only answer to "Drogba or Zola?" is Drogba AND Zola. Anyway, everybody knows Zola is the best ;)

I think you wrote Spain when you meant France but I agree (with SydneyChelsea as well) that Torres has only started the two 'lesser' games, and was replaced in the Croatia game by the only goalscorer, so is probably seen by Del Bosque as a Plan B. I definitely get the impression that Del Bosque has slightly more confidence in his midfielders than his centre forwards right now (entirely understandable given the quality of players he has), and I suspect his persistence with the 'false 9' formation reflects this rather than some grand scheme to revolutionise the way football is played. That's how I see it anyway, only the man himself can know for sure. It does seem to be effective for them, if not particularly entertaining.

I'm surprised how England are suddenly considered favourites (in England anyway) to knock out Italy. I really hope we do, but I can't understand how England's performances so far have managed to cause such a change in expectations. Our 'impressive' draw against France was put into perspective tonight after their woeful performance against Spain, and we were very lucky to win against Ukraine.

I find it frustrating when Spain play their 'progressive' 4-6-0 formation mainly because I'm very curious to see how Torres plays and if he's able to continue the improvement in form we saw towards the end of last season. At the moment I honestly have no idea; in the first couple of games he looked quite good, but when he came on tonight he got caught offside twice quickly and could never quite get into the game. I also don't like the Spanish tactics but I'm not sure how relevant that is here. This thread is supposed to be about Torres, right?

I'm relatively new around here and have never heard the term 'hollywood pass' before, but that sums up perfectly how I feel about Gerrard and why I've never liked him much in CM for England. Unfortunately this current England squad really doesn't have any better options.

He made me cringe tonight, apart from the clumsy political references he couldn't even tell the difference between Khedira and Ozil much of the time, and kept calling Gomez as 'Klose' as well. Embarrassing. Well done to the Germans, by far the most well-balanced football team in the Championship and they showed how strong their squad is tonight.

My first time seeing Schurrle (and Reus), wouldn't mind seeing either of them at the Bridge. Shame Reus is off the market at the moment.

I also thought Mereiles played well. The slating he received from Hansen after the game was mildly surprising, to say the least.

Slightly disappointed with Cech there, punching the ball with such force when Christiano Ronaldo's face is just a few inches to the left. Apart from that he really is on top form tonight.

I'd go with Torres at first, rotating with Sturridge as form/injuries/fatigue dictates. The question could be worded better tbh, it's a long season and I expect both players will get plenty of chances to lead the line next season regardless of who is picked for the first game in August. I haven't considered Lukaku because I just haven't seen enough of him.

We already know Robbie isn't a one trick pony from his time at WBA. I think he's good enough to know the best tactics to play in the circumstances, and for Chelsea against Barcelona and Bayern the best approach was defensive and it worked out pretty well. Next season the attack should be stronger so I would expect him to make good use of that strength. I believe we have a genuine title chance next season, and if it wasn't for AVB we would have been challenging last season as well.

That's great to hear but very surprising to me, you would assume that the bigger the club the less 'nice' it would be. As a kid in the Ken Bates era I tried to get a response out of the club for a school project I was working on and was ignored, so things seem to have changed a bit since then.