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2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010. Five consecutive failures. We’ve blamed Mclaren, Eriksson, referees, Ronaldo and now its Cappello’s fault.
This time, I want the blame to fall where it really belongs. On the players. Today they showed no invention, no imagination, no awareness of what is going on around them, no creativity and defensively, no positional intelligence whatsoever.
I don’t want to hear any more about the Premier League, about burnout or any of the rest of it. Time to accept it. They aren’t good enough to win a World Cup and they probably never were.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being not good enough Andrew, remember, most of the time it’s the media that builds up the England team to be something that they’re not.
The buck, as in club football, should always stop with the manager. True, these England players were never good enough to win a competition of this magnitude, but they would have faired much better if Capello’s tactics were correct.
I simply can’t stop shaking my head at Capello’s insistance that Gerrard plays out wide. Name me another international manager in the world who would have played Gerrard wide left, or Wright-Phillips wide left (as he did against the USA)? Completely baffling.
In fact, name me another international manager in the world (apart from Sven) who wouldn’t have changed tactics or formations when 2-1 down and needing a goal to stay in the World Cup
Oh I agree entirely, this is a media thing, they are hyped too much and when they fail to win every competition they play, the witchhunt begins.
Listening to Chris Waddle again at the moment, the only pundit who tries to take a long view. He is spot on. The Germans were better than us in every department. They are four years younger on average than our superstars, they are barely known, yet they played with more nous, more intelligence and more awareness.
After Germany flopped in 2000, apparently they overhauled their coaching system and they are reaping the rewards now. Meanwhile, we cancel the Burton facility, spend all our cash on an enormous stadium and bang on about the Premier League and a golden generation.
We need to produce better players and more of them. It’s as simple as that.
This generation is, and never was, good enough.
The structure of the sport in this country has to change. That is the major problem.
Kick and rush. Pace and power.
This does not win you International tournaments.
I thought the commentator today touched on something very important. He was talking about Klose when saying that he’d had an awful season as club level but in a Germany shirt he is transformed.
How many players can we say that about when in an England shirt? NONE unfortunately.
The thoughts of an outsider who looked in this afternoon and wished he hadn’t bothered…
…a more unprofessional, tactically naiive, lazy and plain piss-poor performance from a supposed ‘premier’ international football team I find difficult to envisage
I’m in no position to discuss the nuances of post-circa 1975 strategy and tactics but defence has always been defence hasn’t it? And the basic premises of marking your man, maintaining back-five formation in adversity and not letting your opponent get goalside are surely carved in stone
What I’ve seen of England this tournament strikes me as the culmination of a 40 year (post 1970) insidious deterioration in ability (obviously) but primarily and unforgiveably a corrosive loss of spirit, verve, courage and good old pride at playing for your country
In a nutshell the players don’t appear to enjoy playing for England or with each other. And as a generalisation this has been the case for years in my opinion
Anyone accepting the position of England Manager does so knowing they are being offered a deep draught from the most poisonous of chalices
Therefore Capello and the legion of ‘names’ scattered like so much flotsam and jetsam in his wake are quite right to ask for x million quid for the dubious honour of taking the job
Those with an insight into the modern game may feel that Capello has been lacking in various areas, but he like all those before is really no more than a convenient scapegoat
Take the money and run Fabio
Players hang your heads in shame
I would have paid them
[FA]
to play for England
– Nat Lofthouse
The thoughts of an outsider who looked in this afternoon and wished he hadn’t bothered…
…a more unprofessional, tactically naiive, lazy and plain piss-poor performance from a supposed ‘premier’ international football team I find difficult to envisage
I’m in no position to discuss the nuances of post-circa 1975 strategy and tactics but defence has always been defence hasn’t it? And the basic premises of marking your man, maintaining back-five formation in adversity and not letting your opponent get goalside are surely carved in stone
What I’ve seen of England this tournament strikes me as the culmination of a 40 year (post 1970) insidious deterioration in ability (obviously) but primarily and unforgiveably a corrosive loss of spirit, verve, courage and good old pride at playing for your country
In a nutshell the players don’t appear to enjoy playing for England or with each other. And as a generalisation this has been the case for years in my opinion
Anyone accepting the position of England Manager does so knowing they are being offered a deep draught from the most poisonous of chalices
Therefore Capello and the legion of ‘names’ scattered like so much flotsam and jetsam in his wake are quite right to ask for x million quid for the dubious honour of taking the job
Those with an insight into the modern game may feel that Capello has been lacking in various areas, but he like all those before is really no more than a convenient scapegoat
Take the money and run Fabio
Players hang your heads in shame
I would have paid them
[FA]
to play for England
– Nat Lofthouse
Good shout Drone
surely "golden generation" just refers to their bank balances ?
not so much take-the-money-and-run, as take-the-money- and-amble, if not waddle in some cases:- they looked slow of thought and even slower of foot.
just as well it happened today – the Argies might have wanted the oil-rich Malvinas as side-bet in the next round
Weren’t Beckham, Scholes, Neville, etc, the ‘golden generation’ too?
It’s not just England. I think Portugal had three consecutive ‘golden generations’ one after the other.
England’s problem is that Cole, Gerrard and Rooney are their only three world class players and when they are not on song the game is up.
Weren’t Beckham, Scholes, Neville, etc, the ‘golden generation’ too?
It’s not just England. I think Portugal had three consecutive ‘golden generations’ one after the other.
England’s problem is that Cole, Gerrard and Rooney are their only three world class players and when they are not on song the game is up.
England have no world class players IMHO………They have very good players but there is a world of difference beween Very good and world class.
I agree it’s very difficult to make a case for calling any of our players "world class" on the evidence we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks.
I have a theory that we only see the best of these players when they’re surrounded by the superior technical skills of the foreign players within their own club sides and, unfortunately, when they all then get together and pull on an England shirt, those technical deficiences are cruelly exposed.
Cannot believe how naive we were today … summed up for me in Germany’s third goal … everyone in the ground knows that Lampard is going to blast the free kick … so why have 9 players in and around the box ? … tactical madness … why were the coaches not screaming at Upson or Terry to stay back and defend ? … unless the players themselves weren’t sure whether Lampard was crossing or shooting … quite bizarre for a team playing at that level and, for me, suggests something within the camp was very, very wrong.
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