This is a bit surprising to me...
The most well connected teammates passing wise on England the other night were Hart to Carroll. In other words England had no midfield worth mentioning. I have no idea why Rooney is getting stick when the entire England team can not keep possession of the ball. Pirlo who had an off night still completed more passes than the entire English midfield. As long as England ignores players like Scholes and to a lesser extent Carrick, they will not compete. I mean seriously Spain and Germany have TWO... 2... dos... Mids whose whole job is to keep the front 4 running... and England has a bunch of stiffs.
Blame Rooney, sure, jump on the band wagon. He certainly had an off night, but how is that surprising when the entire England squad was dire... here look at some numbers...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/25/euro-2012-statistics-damn-england
30 Cristiano Ronaldo has had more shots in his first four games at Euro 2012 than the entire England squad (29) had at the tournament
20 Italy had more shots on target in their quarter-final match than England had in total in their four matches in Ukraine
88 England conceded more than twice as many shots to France, Sweden, Ukraine and Italy than they had against those teams
39 England had on average 39% of the possession in their four games, their lowest figure at a tournament since Euro 1980
29 Ashley Young and James Milner put in 29 crosses in the four games. Only three reached an England team-mate
300 England averaged 300 passes per match. The four semi-finalists have averaged 479
15 England completed only 15 passes in the 15 minutes of the second period of extra-time against Italy
18 England's most successful passing combination against Italy was the goalkeeper Joe Hart to the substitute striker Andy Carroll
115 Andrea Pirlo had more passes against England than England's four starting midfielders had against Italy
18 Mesut Ozil has created 18 chances in Germany's four games. Steven Gerrard, England's most prolific chance creator, has made six
102 England ran on average 102km in their four matches. Italy ran 7.5km further on average per match
86 England have had the most tackles in the tournament, with Steven Gerrard's 18 the most of any player
29 England have blocked the most shots at Euro 2012, 17 more than Italy, 19 more than Germany, 21 more than Portugal and 24 more than Spain