Gary Neville added to the England coaching staff on a 4 year deal

Good appointment and well deserved IMO

Tactically aware, could improve the younger players.

 

Fantastic decision I have to say. Did Fergie not want to retain him at Man U? I'm surprised because he is clearly knowledgable and understands the game. Maybe the offer from Sky was a little too tempting! Whatever I'm really pleased with this. In terms of helping players to improve by analysing performances, I can't think of anyone better. Best pundit on TV.

 

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

 

My opinion of Neville has sky rocketed since hes been appearing on TV, I used to hate his guts, seems a decent bloke and is the best pundit I've ever seen on SKY, which to be fair isn't that hard, but he definitely knows his stuff.

 

Aye, only one who doesn't just recycle the same 4 or 5 "insights" every game, regardless of what's happened.

Also, cares deeply about the England team.

Sensible Roy as manager. Sensible Gary as coach. All they need to do is adopt a policy of not picking anyone over 26 and in 4 years we may be actually able to field a decent squad

 

That and picking Perch and making him captain of course.

 

Question is whether the FA will let Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, etc. be dropped. Sadly they probably won't.

 

Why would you want to drop our most talented player (unless Scholes comes out of retirement)? Strange.

 

He's good mates with Simpson isn't he? At least that's the impression I got from Twitter. Reckon we could see him called up anytime soon?

 

Because for most of his career he's failed to perform for England - And when he's not performing he's just a liability and a waste of space.

 

We should be forward thinking in our approach - Get rid of the deadwood who live on reputation. Promote the young players and let them have a go. They can't do much worse than the current lot. It's not like we're expecting England to win the tournament so we have nothing to lose.

Neville is a brilliant appointment. I'll echo what's been said in that my estimation of him has gone right up since he went to Sky. He knows his stuff and will analyse performances. Hodgson is also a brilliant appointment.

 

There is a big difference between being able to examine and understand tactics and stuff when you're analyzing it on TV and actually applying it to coaching a team though - Hopefully he'll be able to make the transition.

 

I'm not sure about that. He has been our most influential player in our two most recent qualification campaigns, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012. Indeed was he not our top scorer and one of the top scorers in the World 2010 qualifiers? Fair enough he flopped badly at the tournment due to off field issues and looking paggered but he has done well for England overall. He lit up Euro 2004 before his injury, and to be fair he was never fit enough for World Cup 2006.

I wouldn't say he has been amazing given his high standards, but he has still performed better than most.

 

He was great at Euro 2004 - Then was largely anonymous for about 4 years, with the exception of getting stupidly sent off at WC '06 (which I'll admit he wasn't fit enough for).
He did well for the WC2010 qualifying, but then was probably the worst England player in the actual tournament. I don't think he did that well in the 2012 qualifying, but regardless he ended up getting himself suspended for it anyway.

In the times that he's really playing well he's great, but I don't think they come regularly enough (for England) to rely on him anymore. When he's not playing well he's giving away free kicks, or penalties, like the one against Russia that arguably cost us qualification for Euro 2008.

I'm not saying freeze him out of the squad entirely, but we need to move on from this mentality where if he's fit he plays, or really if he's even half fit he plays. Let's give some other strikers a chance.

 

Who though? Carroll is just as much of a liability if not more. He has yet to prove himself worthy of a go. Defoe is half decent but no great shakes. Bent is one dimensional and top international defences will just play with him (he did do well in qualification). He is ****ed aswell for this tourno. Sturridge has it all to prove and looks to have gone backwards this year.

Welbeck is one I would use but I'm struggling after that.

 

That's a valid point.

I think Carroll will come good, and has been showing something closer to his true quality in recent weeks. The move to Liverpool obviously set him back a bit, but I hope and think he will recover.
As much as I loath Bent I think he is an option, maybe the top defences will keep him out but I think the same is true of all of our players. The alternative strikers don't necessarily need to be better than Rooney, but maybe if they were given a chance he'd feel his place in the team was under pressure and that might motivate him and get more consistent performances. Ideally, at least.

 

Can you imagine an italian or german defence dealing with Bent? He knows one thing, channel running. They'll just sit deep and watch his awful touch let him down under pressure in front of them. I don't wanna be too harsh on the lad but he has too few strings to his bow. Carroll is one you can utilise but as I say I wouldn't want to put too much trust in him at this stage. My worry for this summer is the same as at every major tournament. Will the english players have anything left in the tank after another demanding season? Based on past evidence you'd have to say no.

 

Oh well expect a team full of Man United reserves

Who will sky get? Steve Bruce?

 

Oh I'm sure an Italian or German defence would make him look like an amateur, but I also think they'd do that to every other player we have available. The FIFA rankings may say otherwise, but England are not a top team anymore. I'm more thinking in terms of performances against middle quality teams, and with Bent he at least seems to be consistently average whereas Rooney is a very off or on player.

 

I only ever take notice of Tash's rankings.