That's a one off. Spain have won 3 tournaments back to back. Two Euros and a World Cup, despite the poor showing from them this time, you know that they will be back. The Spanish club sides have dominated European cup competitions again this season, I'd say that will stand them in good stead going forwards.
Ok I don't like his defenders choices but cmon, that team showed what they were capable of against Italy. Was like watching a completely different team last night. Bruce Jnr managed to keep Suarez out of a game ffs, and he was 100% fit in that. Continuously blaming the manager is just bollocks. Gerrard needs to **** off and he needs to take Rooney with him, whatever the lad manages in club football, he has had too many chances, and is clearly not up for tournaments. Gerrard is too old and slow, he might have the odd killer pass but he's a passenger. He is not Pirlo. The rest of the players need to take long good looks at themselves. All they had to do was play like they did in that first game for 3 games, then 1 more game, then one more than a final one. Not too much to ask. Other countries manage it. Even "lesser" footballing countries. Hodgson played the best players he had with him, and they basically were ****e, not because they ARE ****e, but because they looked like they couldn't be that arsed. Typical England mind, first game I think "oh finally, passion, commitment, intensity, youth, this is the basis for a good cup run then be serious challengers in the next Euros". Second game its back to "oh yeah, cant be arsed, ****ers".
The current world champions and both of the last 2 Euros? Failed? The Spaniards I know have taken the view "Oh well, old team, we've had a brilliant run, its over now, but we'll rebuild and be back". They're right. They're an excellent example of what we should be trying to achieve, even if only mentally.
Yeh it must be horrendous being a Spanish fan ehh. Winning 3 tournaments in a row. Just to get to aEuro final would send this country into delirium. It just happens that a few country have gone in front of them at the moment but they've got a pretty good chance of challenging in 2 years time. Can you seriously say we will
Upto 2008 Spain had worse international record then us. I don't agree we should copy Spain. We take bits from all over the world and adapt it and make it work us.
That's because up until 2008 - Spain had not seen the emergence of the players that elevated them to 2 Euro Wins and 1 World Cup win, this was due to a shake up of the coaching system in Spain. You can guarantee the next wave of talented Spanish players will be coming through shortly. Most things are cyclical France dominated, Spain dominated, we on the other hand have done nothing. I'd take any of the success that Spain or France have had in recent years - because we've had **** all. I can't honestly see that changing anytime soon either.
Our time to win it again was in the 90s - 00s. We had the team then to win it at various times but we went on a run of **** luck at tournaments leading to us being knocked out. Now we obviously aren't as good as the top nations but like you say it's cyclical, we'll be back. We're already miles better than we were at 2012 even if results don't reflect it.
Seen a lot of Rooney bashing, thought he was the best player on the park last night. Certainly in an England shirt. Sturridge was the **** up at the top, couldn't make it stick, couldn't play a pass, just utterly wasteful every time he got the ball.
Rooney bashing has become flavour of the month, it's a little pathetic, we only scored two goals this world cup and he created one and scored the other.
It won't matter who becomes Englands next manager as the players we have are simply are not good enough on an international level. They won't be for the next few years. It goes back to the grass roots level. We don't keep the ball well, we don't pass the ball well, it's all about who is the fastest/strongest now. The kids aren't taught how to keep the ball, play to feet and read the game well enough. Till this is addressed it won't get any better. We are an average team and till the FA grow some it won't change. Too many of them old duffers more concerned being on the gravy train than actually doing the right thing.
Fat Sam should be next - in those dying minutes he'd have sent on a worthless squad player (smalling) to purposefully injure Suarez and put him out of the Italy game, giving us as good a chance as possible. And if he didn't see red for it he'd have sent him after Cavani too.
The problem is he should be scoring with the same abandon as Suarez did last night. At club level he's comparable to the best strikers in the world. At world level he's a lazy moody ****er who under performs massively. He should have scored more than 1 last night. He should have scored against Italy. He had chances, he missed them. His peers do not. Christs sake, he should be able to take a corner that doesn't go out immediately. He's judged by his performances as a striker and for England, he falls well short.
And who else in the England squad has even looked like scoring in the last two games? Who else would have had the chances to miss? Who else would have played that ball to Sturrudge on their weaker foot? Rooney is the best player we have and it certainly shows. One man doesn't make a team, Rooney can't do it all on his own.
Rooney is our best player but he's not as good as Suarez or Balotelli at finishing although he's a much better all round player. We, with maybe two or three exceptions, had our best players selected. We could certainly work on defence as a unit and set pieces more. The other problem is the players we have. I thought it was a good idea to choose the best 20-odd players each year and have them study and train together. We should do that again.
We won't. We're light years behind other European countries, let alone the South American sides. Hell, we can't even pass the ball accurately to team mates. The state of the current national side is a symptom of piss poor management at grass roots level.
Some of those Baines crosses where crying out for Lambert to get on the end of. Not the best player we've ever had but think he'd have bust a gut to get on the end of them
