The problem lies in the fact that players learn how to play negatively once they get into the England squad. Milner and Downing were excellent players when they were younger but quite frankly have gone backwards and I would not swap Lallana for either of them. Let's hope Lallana stays away from the England squad for a few more years. I'd hate to see him go the same way.
Well indeed. That's my default position too. Occasionally though, if there has been a long enough interval since my last go, and if I'm bored enough, I will watch the international prima donnas. Inevitably, I end up feeling even more appreciative of the lower echelons of football.
Main problem as others have said is we are over-rated, we have some decent talent but we are lightyears behind the likes of Spain, Germany and Holland. Our best chance in recent years of winning a tournament was Euro 2004 n we mucked that up by trying to defend a 1 nil lead for 87 minutes or so...
The thing is it really dosn't matter if you have a team full of stars or not. The team needs to work together, needs to have passion for the shirt. I haven't seen a player play with passion since beckam. If our team was full of beckhams and played with pride i wouldn't mind so much when we eventually lost. To many england players know their get picked whatever happens because of their name. We need a tough manager who will drop the so called big names and play people that actually give a damn about england.
As for germany their walk their way to the cup, a midfield of khedira schweinsteiner ozil gotze schurrle to name a few. Plus hummels lahm in defence.
I'm probably talking out of my backside here but i feel the reason players like Rooney and Lampard for example seem to well for their clubs is that a lot of Ref's bottle it in the prem and tend to give them dicisions because of who they are and who they play for fear of making a mistake. When they play for England the Refs don't give a toss who they are or who they play for. Anyway i have not had much time for England since they treated Matty so badly.
A big problem is still youth development. The practice of preferring big and fast kids over ones with technique and skill still happens. It makes sense as the leagues are fast and physical, but surely every other country must be the same? I.e. defenders using their strength. After all, no team in their right mind sets out to stand off attackers and let them play. Fan mentality is another problem. How often do we write a player off, parrticularly a young one, as being 'lightweight'? We like our defenders big, our midfielders tough, our wingers quick and our forwards strong.
Whenever we play a side I don't know, I always look for the little fellow (like Connolly). If an ankle-biter has made it into the team, he's going to be good and dangerous.
Parker didn't play as he was 1 yellow card away from a suspension; which would mean missing England's final qualifier away in Montenegro ..
