Cheer up boys. You're the only home Nation that can win the odd game. The others are a farce. The Sweaty's haven't been this bad since international football began, I reckon.
They sure don't. There's two main reasons why we're so sh*t IMO. One: The emergence of all these eastern Countries, with good powerful teams, has knocked us down a peg or two. And Two: I disagree with COL. I think our players - across these Islands - are substandard. They haven't anywhere near the same technical ability of those on the Continent and South America. We're 15 years behind the rest of 'em. We're still in "huff and puff" mode whereas other Countries have focused on ball skills from an early age. COL's right in that sense, in that the coaching has been very backward and out of date. Too much emphasis on hit and chase and not enough on individual ball control. I still hear "get rid of it" roared at young lads by their coaches in underage leagues. Don't dare dwell on the ball, just hack it up the field as soon as it comes to you. Its all wrong I think and it will take some time to change it.
I think England will top the group and qualify. Ukraine are nothing special. I haven't seen enough yet under Hodgson to suggest that he can get anything more out of this group of players than any of the last few managers could. Would love to see a good young manager/coach (perhaps somebody like Gary Neville) working under a good Director of football like Venables or Hoddle.
Your point about the coaching of youth players is spot on - and I mean amongst boys sunday teams etc. I sometimes take my nephew to his footy practice and the drills they do are so antiquated - all about power and endurance. Basically, the sames things we did as kinds twenty years ago - one-twos and having shot. It's the not the coaches fault, they're very passionate and committed in giving up their own time - they needs to be more guidance from the FA.
We (including me) have been moaning about coaches, foreign players etc etc, but something in the Sunday Times helpfully reminded me that we didn't even qualify for international tournaments through the 70s, my favourite era of football. We went from 1970 to 1982 without getting to a World Cup. Coaches may have been to blame but the league was virtually 100% British, and I'd guess at least 70% English back then.
We've thrashed the minnows and drawn with the rest. If we follow that pattern in the next few games we won't get to Brazil.
That's correct Husky. Its antiquated coaching. I don't want to keep having a go at COL but I always find myself disagreeing with him. I couldn't disagree more with this either: They're not. Ask yourself this question. Why is it that they shine for their Clubs but look extremely ordinary for their Country? The answer is simple. Because they're surrounded by foreign talent at their Clubs. These guys have a very particular skill-set which is complimented by technically efficient, skillful foreigners. Every team needs a bit of what they have: Powerful, athletic, never say die, good attitudes etc. But when you throw a load of them together, their deficiencies become apparent very quickly, as is the case when they come together to play for England. They're good players alright, no doubt about it. But they haven't got the same technical ability as the Spanish, Brazilians, Italians, Argentinians, Dutch etc. And that's the reason England are mediocre (and Irl, Scot, Wal etc are proper sh*t). Their players are mediocre on the World stage and until the philosophy changes at grassroots level, they will continue to be mediocre.
I think good non - British players players in the UK have the effect of improving the standard of British players, their technical skill excite younger players and they want to learn to be as good. English players can play in the PL if they are that good, or get good training in the Championship or lower Leagues, and the rest of Europe is close by. I think wrong coaching foucus has left British players behind technically, same here in Norway.
Another factor is that many of our top club's academies are full of foreign youngsters, these actually count as home-grown players in their squads but are not English. Add to that the fact that any up and coming young English player will be snapped up by Champions League teams and never get a sniff of first team football and it's not difficult to see why we're in such a poor state numbers-wise...
I think you'll find that that's because I know quite a bit about the game and you know very little! The top England players also shine against top European players in the Champions League. Gerrard, Cole, Rooney and Wilshire are every bit as good technically as the top foreign players. Paul Scholes was as good or better than most of them too, but he was betrayed by poor coaches and coaching methods. There are many other examples. England are far from mediocre. However our coaching methods and many of our coaches are stuck in the past. I know I've said this before but my lad was let go by Reading for being too small and for getting out-muscled too much. They retained all the big, fast, but technically less gifted players. Thankfully he's at a good youth team of a Southern League side now and he is getting coached the right way. England are still paying for the Howard Wilkinson era and will do for some time. The senior side can, however, beat or match anyone on their day as they showed versus Brazil in their last two encounters, winning one and drawing the other. Lots of people love to knock England and they would do even if we were ranked No1 in the World. Mind you the FIFA World ranking table is a farce..........it currently has England at 14 with Columbia at 3, Portugal and Croatia at 7 & 8, Greece at 11 and Bosnia-Herzegovina at 13!! England are a better side than all of them. One of the other big problems for the England side is that the Premier League takes precedence and so players are often injured when they're needed for their Country. Look at the injury problems we have right now and we're still beating sides 4-0!!
Some good points Col. Very interested in the point that you made about the Prem taking precedence. I think you can add the fact that too many young players are paid too much by their clubs and then you find that often the club scene becomes more important than the country. The influx of foreign players especially youngsters into English youth academies has IMO also hurt. It has definitely hurt us over here as not as many young Irish lads are being picked up. My overriding feeling though is that the FA have made poor choices when appointing managers. Just my opinion of course. The fortunes of the English national team has always been inextricably linked to the other home nations. I always thought that England played their best football under Hoddle. Mentioned earlier that I would like to see a Neville - Venables combination.
I was on the phone to my mother today and she mentioned that only 30% of players in the whole of the FL (not just the PL) are English. Thats is why we are going backwards. Also theres no point in just playing big physical players when the easiest way to win is to run into the penalty area, find the nearest defender, initiate contact and throw yourself to the ground. Strength has totally been eliminated from the game except in England.
Another major issue is the buying, selling and loaning of young players. Too many are bought then become lost in the system or fail to play regularly - Wickham seems like a good example. Powell at Utd is another. On loan to Wigan now but what's he been doing in the meantime? QPR are guilty of it too. He's not a world-beater or anything but I can't help feel sorry for Troy Hewitt. We set him back a few seasons, I think. On the whole, I look back on the late 90s as the high-point of my England supporting years.
My interest peaked in 1990, mainly because I was at all of the games. Believe me we were dire against Ireland, Egypt and Cameroon in that tournament too, but one thing we didn't lack was commitment and camaraderie. And the imagination and intelligence to change tack when plan A wasn't working. The high spot of recent times has to be the demolition of Holland in '96 though. Argentina in Japan was fun as well, but since then I'm struggling to remember a really stirring performance in tournament play.
Hard to argue with any of that mate. I'd love to see a Venables/Neville combination, but we all know this FA would never do anything like that.
A progressive move would have been for Neville to take over the U21s. That should be the testing ground for young English coaches.
I think its more to do with the fact that your rose-tinted spectacles are blinding you from reality. You say England are far from mediocre but if that's the case then why have the team been mediocre for the last, I dunno, 20-odd years? And I don't know what you're talking about knocking England. All people are doing is going by the results and the Stats speak for themselves. Lots of England fans still believe England to be a World power at international level even though that's not been the case for decades. What I'm saying is, if the media and fans adjusted their expectations to fit the reality, it would be far more beneficial in the long term. England are the Leeds of international football; they believe they're still massive when the truth is, they're an average side that should be happy with reaching Quarter finals of tournaments and maybe during a special year, making the Semi's. As for the rankings, they are ridiculous. But they were equally ridiculous last year after the Euro's when England were still ranked 4 in the World or something. The rankings aren't anti-England, they're anti-football. Every Country is in a false position most of the time. There's nowte personal to it. There'd be no-one happier than I to see old Blighty go and win a tournament. I'd be cheering them all the way. Alas, its just never going to happen. At least not in the next 20 years anyway.
