When England crashed out of the world cup, the performances were criticised. My point is england did not even qualify for euro 2008. Therefore making it to the 2010 world should have been seen as an achievement and making it through the group stage should have been seen as a good performance, as they improved on the euro performance. If any other country made it through the world cup group stage, when they did not qualify for euro 2008 there performance would be praised but England get criticised. Do we as fans expect more than we should from our team? You don't become a world cup winning team overnight it takes time, but whenever a major event comes along we expect that england should win it.
The fans are fickle as usual and everyone always expects England to win every tournament. The fact of the matter is that our team is average and sides like Brazil, Germany, Spain etc. would dominate us.
A bit of both, not quite enough class but never peform to their best abilities either. Not helped by poor managers with dodgy tactics who cannot seem to get away from the lampards and barry's of this world. Italy messed up in the last world cup, brought in a new younger manager who has for the most part got rid of the older players and been brave enough to use the form players no matter which club they come from.
No they don't, maybe Ian Wright does. We think we might be in with a chance with a bit of luck, the right squad and tactics and the players giving it their all.
Looking at the talent in the team, they're definite underachievers, yet they should not be winning major trophies as they're not the same calibre as Spain, Brazil etc and realistically cannot pose the threat that we all believe possible
England are actually amazingly consistent middling achievers--they haven't either been eliminated from the World Cup by a lower-ranked team or eliminated a higher-ranked team since '66. England's gone downhill rather badly since 2002, I think, when they could fairly be called one of the top 2 or 3 sides at the world cup. The 2010 team, on the other hand, was surely not one of the top 10. So for the moment, England will be lucky to get as far as the quarters, where a few years ago, the semifinals were a reasonable (if unattained) goal. I tend to think this will turn around, as it's a country with a big talent pool, and there's a general consensus as to what needs to be done to get better. It also looks like Capello is beginning to do more to take advantage of the one thing England has on most other teams, which is speed, so results may even improve a bit in the short-term.
Not good enough, really England should be reaching the quarters and that's it. If they fail to do that then they've underachieved - though at times they have been victim of some terrible refereeign. Everybody hates us.
not good enough, they were playing like this against a swiss team with players walking across the pitch for most of the time.. shame..
No creativity without rooney, just go to show how england are almost now a one man team, the quicker capello F's off the better, out with John terry too whos never captained any tournament where england have even finished where expected. I dont care about the next euro's and nor should the FA after the debacle of the world cup, we should be priming these youngsters and the talent of the future but not under cappello because when he goes we have got to do it all again with a new manager........ its a mess!
All comes down to technique. A technically good England side would be more relaxed on the pitch, and consequently less tired. As it is, they always make it look like hard work.
yet again an under achieving team struggling against a poor swiss side ....the sooner that Italian jogs on the better....
The fruckin Swiss people, at home, International football is pointless..... Just keep buying the Worlds best and play them in England..... Spain have 2 teams, just like Glasgow with talent and i wouldn t swap our lg..
Not good enough. Many are too old and set in their ways - Terry, Lampard, Ferdinand, Gerrard etc etc.
England - have never been good enough, with non-English managers and English managers, clearly - the players they have and produce have been not good enough and this is has proved as fact ever since 1966, 45 years?
I have always felt that ENgland players have for a few decades played with an innate inhibition. England players probably want to play just as much for England as fans, but it seems to me that when they experience the turbulence of expectation of fans, proessure from the toxic press, aggro from their club, and having to play in different positions/roles to what they do for their clubs it just withers their confidence and enthusiasm. In most games against lesser opposition and during qulaifying their latent skill, competiveness and professionalism is enough to see them through but in the high pressure coooker of tournaments they just clam up. They also seem to lack the ability to make subtle tactical changes themselves whilst in play. This indicates a fear of stepping away from whatthe manager has demanded. In military world there is a saying the "no battleplan survives contact with the enemy", and the same is true of football tactics. Our players seem intent to trying to stick rigidly to teh game plan when having someone with teh nous and authority on the field to govern tactical adjustments would help. Upto about 10 years ago what we had were teams with a constistently good defence, great strikers, but a midfield that lacked creativity. These days we seem to have deficiencis in all departments. It's difficult to see the way forward because, apart from appointment of McClaren, each England manager appointment has met with general approvement and initial enthusiasm. No one saw things turning out the way they did under Capello. It seems the problems in South Africa were behind the scenes, which affected the performance. The last English manager to win a league title was howard wilkinson at leeds in 91, and the closest an englishman has copme since then was keegan at NUFC. There really isn't much to choose from. It's still a great roller coaster ride following ENgland, and the more we fail the sweeter will be the taste of victory when it comes.
Not good enough mainly. the players don't work together, and never seem up for it. They're all talk, and no fight it seems. Letting 2 in against Switzerland, that famous footballing nation, and then when Bent skyed that chance to win it, just says it all really, bottling it when it counts
