It's the Big One, finally, for Paul Watson in Portugal.

 Day 17: Saturday 26 June 2004

I am disappointed, because we have the players to win it, but we tried to play them all at the same time and inevitably out of position.  English players are also unable to shut up shop and hold onto a lead, because we can't really keep the ball well enough; we should keep on attacking.  Create but not take chances, try to defend a lead, don't kill off a team when you are on top, everybody back at corners, allow teams back into the game in the last ten minutes, rely too much on an 18 year old, no outlet up front.  Could be talking about Everton.

Sven does a good job in making the players believe in themselves and gives them confidence.  But he plays them out of position and his substitutions don't work.  England have got a lot of good players, amongst them six regular international goal scorers in Rooney, Lampard, Vassell, Owen, Scholes, Beckham.  We scored 10 goals, enough to win it.  We have really good players, but you can't play them all at once, we did. 

You must pick the best player for each position, a player that can do a job in each position.  We played without a proper left sided midfielder, a holding midfielder and didn't replace Rooney properly when he came off.  It nearly worked, but it didn't; we were too negative, it left us exposed. 

We conceded 6 goals, 4 at the death.  That isn't the sign of a good defence.  Play players in their proper positions, play the game our way, try and kill off teams because we have the goalscorers to do it. 

First day back, I don't do much: sign-on.  Maybe a job in Chester or a contract in Glasgow, July until November.  Bent has signed, Heinz maybe on the way — he will give us a bit of variety.  Rooney injured, perhaps that will stop him signing for anyone else. 

France are out, along with England, Germany, Spain and Italy.  Unbelievable.  Greeks deserved their win, again.  They seem limited, but they play to their strengths. They have had a bit of luck, but their progress has been no fluke, they have deserved their victories.  They try to win games.  They have taken their chances and defended superbly.  Good luck to them.  Maybe the Greek coach should be on £4M a year like Sven.

Tonight, come on Tobi, stop Ruud scoring.

Paul Watson