England v Spain - Half time view

Its approximately 18:01 and I've just finished watching the first half on England v Spain and all in all its gone a bit better than I would have expected. To be honest I had been meaning to a post about the game all week but just never go round to it...to sum up what my thoughts were going to be, basically if you look at the squads the England squad is looking a bit second rate, and this should be a routine victory for the Spaniards.

The possession stats will probably tell the same story, but having watched the first half, England have done remarkably well at being patient and restricting the Spanish chances.

Obviously its only half time, so I'm not going to start banging on about how well we may or may not have played, but at the moment the English midfield are looking fairly solid and disciplined.  The deployment of Phil Jones and Scott Parker in the  middle of the park has given the team a bit of steel, but Jones has also been one of the more promising attacking options, creating space in the middle of the park which is looking otherwise congested.

However, that shouldn't be his job...and at the risk of jumping on bandwagon about Frank Lampard, that should be the job of the attacking player in the midfield trio.  Darren Bent has been so isolated, and he needs a link man breaking out from the midfield when (eventually) England get the ball, someone with young legs and a good engine to keep going as a box-to-box player (how many cliches in a sentence!?) to get around him and provide support.  James Milner could do this job, but so far he has been ineffectual wide on the left, and this has led to Ashley Cole losing the ball on multiple occasions.

As an attacking force, England haven't turned up and seeing Downing coming on for Walcott at half-time doesn't seem like changing that.

Spain have done what Spain do...despite what the pundits and commentary team think, they've not been amazing, they've moved the ball sideways well, but have looked troubled when the English line pushes up and pressurises the team...and as ever, they have been masters of the "dark arts", tactical fouls, rolling around etc.

So, to summarise before the second half kicks off.  England as a defensive unit have done well and have resisted the temptation to over commit when they have the ball which would leave us open at the back.  But lets at least take a few chances, these are international standard players, professional athletes and should be able to get themselves back in position before Spain have passed them to death...we'll see...GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL....1-0 England, cracking set piece from "ineffectual" James Milner and scored by "not doing his job" Lampard...I'll just keep quiet next time...