After an extremely heated argument with my brother-in-law, I was wondering whether there is anyone else out there who'd rather England didn't win the Euros playing this style of football? Personally, I think we've been out-played for the majority of the games and play an incredibly turgid, even dire, brand of footy; however, surely the end justifies the means and I don't care if we carry on winning. So, then, win or entertain? I, for one, prefer the former. Thoughts?
It's all about the result - and if it attracts criticism, largely driven by sour grapes, from across Europe then that just makes it even better.
I like to see good football but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't go mental if we won the thing, regardless of the manner we won. That said for all the overpaid, self-important ponces in the squad I think it would really grate after awhile if they weren't playing good football even if they were winning.
I am less bothered by 'entertaining' as such, but I must confess I am starting to think England are lacking professionalism at vital times that could have cost them dearly. They seam pathologically incapable of keeping hold of a football as a team. Last two games they have been 1 goal ahead going into the dying minutes and it was crying out for them to keep hold of the thing and kill the tempo and they kept giving it away and inviting pressure onto themselves. I think being more 'entertaining' would come arm in arm with improving ball retention. I must confess victories will start to feel a bit tainted if they arent achieved in at least a slightly more entertaining manner soon.... Yes what England are doing is effective but crikey Id take the odd 2-0 win every now and again!
I don't think it's a choice between winning or entertaining. It's a choice between going down with a whimper or going down kicking and screaming (metaphorically obviously, but you never know with Rooney). We're **** and we know it. If we had the quality that Germany or Spain have, winning ugly would be worth thinking about. Both of those play to their strengths and whether that's pretty or not is irrelevant. Our chances of winning the tournament is comparable to the chances of Stoke winning the FA Cup - remote but not impossible. We can be effective, but winning ugly when we don't have quality requires a lot of luck, which we can't always count on. "Effective" is what we unanimously agree we need to be. We should build to encourage it.
The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive - as some have said - but if I had to choose, I would go for results all day long. The fact is that when supporting a team, one doesn't tend to really notice the style of play. A titanic defensive performance or a crunching tackle can be just as satisfying as a goal.
Winning, obviously. However we make it more difficult for ourselves rather than easier by playing such **** football. We need vast improvements, and a couple of fluky wins against poor teams doesn't change that.
If we bothered teaching kids how to control and pass rather than just win then maybe we'd have a chance at doing both.
Blame the grass roots coaching for letting under 11's and under 12's playing on awful, wet, uneven adult pitches!
Winning is sweet but I'm losing interest in England because of the **** football they play. They never look convincing and I think the comparison with Stoke winning the FA Cup is a good one. England do have players that like to play free flowing attack, defence is not the strong point to this England side yet Hodgson is trying to play that way. I think in this particular case (its not always) a more entertaining England is a better England in terms of winning things
Win Win Win! If we somehow win Euro 2012, no one is going to give a s*** about how we did it, in 50 years time results will be in the history books, not how well we played...
I don't give a crap about us playing "entertaining football". Leave that to the top teams with buckets of technical skill who can afford to do it. If we're not here to make up the numbers, we need to play to win, even if it means playing "boring" football.
If only it was that easy. Any kids coach will tell you that parent pressure is one of the biggest problems in kids football. The parents feel validated by their kid winning something shiny and you can bet that the coach will get a dressing down from a parent when encouraging good football goes tits up. There are parents who move their kids from club to club just to win stuff (pot hunters). It's taken parents and coaches a fair while to realise what is best and change their ways accordingly.
Winning this is more important than entertaining us on this occasion. Purely because I want to see the hatred in the faces of the rest of Europe IF we were to win the trophy, plus we can go on about it for another 40 odd years - lol
Stick with this hideous football until the tournaments over. Then bin it and anyone associated with it.
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