Drew against USA and Algeria, then snuck a 1-0 win against Slovenia. That was a group we should have blitzed. In the end we just scraped through. Negative play, a toxic dressing room, and Fabio in charge. Sounds eerily familiar to us under Tango and Cash. No - in 2010 we had a terribly negative style of play - this side is better, and has played better. But Italy and Uruguay are far better opponents than Algeria and Slovenia. Try looking at the performances against the opposition, instead of picking the one stat that backs your position...
Mmm, there seems to be more than one problem, in fact. The manager seems to be getting off lightly. How about his being uninventive and uninspiring? Lucky that we are plucky in adversity!
Were talking different shades of ****, which generation has been worse than this one? What will your excuse be if they lose to the mighty Costa Rica?
Flyer, I can't believe that your posting this. You have spent all season, correctly so, bemoaning how Queens Park Rangers have not played & that the wins belied our true disability. Yet, you now state that England in 2010 are better because they qualified! Even last night we played better than at any time in South Africa, or the Euro's in 2012, & the game against Italy was the best I've seen England play for many a year. As for your comments about Costa Rica. They played far better against Uruquay than any side we have faced since Germany in 2010.
jeez - do you always have to be so defensive? This isn't about making excuses, this is about the 2010 team being worse than the 2014 team in the way they played. Stop all this crap about thinking anybody who thinks differently to you is on the attack, or is an apologist. I answered your question with an opinion, which Bigchaz and terryb agreed with. That doesn't make me England 2014's PR man. Get a grip for pity's sake....
We were pooh in last nights game and not a hell of a lot better v Italy. Ironically, I still think we might sneak in to the knock out stages and improve as we go. I'm putting £10k on us to win. And then I'm off to Hartlepool to buy some exploding trousers. Wibble!!!
James < hart Terry = Cahill Upson => jagielka Cole > baines Gerrard > 34yo Gerrard Milner = wellbeck Lampard > henderson Barry < stirling Rooney = rooney Defoe > sturridge I still think today's players are worse even thought the attacking play is better but not course the results are worse now.
e=mc2. The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. Wibble!!!
And of course, because it's your opinion, it's always right? 2010 team was a disaster, we had no team, just a bunch of individuals playing poorly, negatively, and who couldn't even beat Algeria. We didn't deserve to progress from a group we should have annihilated, and saying 'Lampard > Henderson' doesn't change that. I don't expect you to listen, just to post another so-called 'back-up stat' but you're wrong if you reckon we had a better team in 2010 than we do now.
Guys, the 2014 is no better than 2010 but it will be better in 2018. In 2010 we had a discordant camp, players who were better with their clubs as individuals and this time we have inexperience. Simples.
The 2010 was a better group of players held back by a dull negative manager, hmmm, where have I seen that before. This group is so bad that people aren't even blaming the manager. I think we are now seeing that sky have killed the game, about 20 years ago, they took it off FTA TV so now we have much less talent coming through plus the money has meant less time is spent on bringing up British players. I'm sure the same will happen to English cricket in the next decade.
I'll go with this, a **** as i think we were in parts of last nights game some of our younger members got some great experience, i sort of hope Italy slip up tonight so our last game is a dead rubber and the likes of Barkley, Shaw, lallana, Wilshire and the Ox get some more game time, hope we can bring back in Townsend, Walcott, Walker and Carroll for the future, we really need some decent young centre backs as well. The point of the cathartic thread was really just to try and vent my spleen after last nights massive disappointment, the hang over has worn off a bit now.
People aren't blaming the manager, because he has given the younger players a chance. what happens to him afterwards is a different question we shouldn't be asking just yet. People are only blaming specific players if they don't personally rate them. You love blaming everything and praising nothing. You're not happy unless you can point the finger at someone and complain, are you? We knew that throughout the season, but I didn't think that would extend to the national side as well. 2010 had 'better' players that massively underperformed and were fighting each other. Give me this squad over that one every day.
You expect anyone to praise a side that's played two and lost two? Its on!y going to get worse too, we are now on the same level as Norway and Sweden. The likes of belgium, Chile etc are now better than England.
So much wrong in this thread that I literally don't know where to start. OP calling Sturridge not international class seems like a good place. Clueless.
What you havn't mentioned is that SWP & Heskey played! I think most would agree that we hhve better subs this year. Also swap the comparison of the centre halves over & that would be a score of one all & Johnson (not mentioned) played in both. I would also go with Sturridge over Defoe every day. It is totally subjective, but imo we have performed far better in these two defeats than in 2010 & 2012. More importantly, we look as though we may be developing a team that will be better than anything we have had in this century. Of course, it is also possible that our youngsters will be no better than the previous "golden generations". A squad that included Greene, Dawson, Lennon, Crouch, J Cole, Warnock, SWP, King & Heskey. Do you really think that is better?
I just took the starting line ups from the last 2 games. So what are the excuses now? CR qualify with a game to spare so the hard group excuse is frankly bollocks. We are out with a game to spare and have lost against both teams that CR beat.
We don't have enough good players of any age and we have even fewer good managers/coaches. Still, there are plenty of good teams left in the tournament for us to enjoy.
And now the enjoyment can begin. When england are eliminated we lose all the non football supporters & us regulars can watch without interference & with impartiality! There is only Germany, or perhaps Holland, that can take the cup out of South America. I'm hoping that Chile can go a long way.
I've enjoyed it from the start, I never thought England would get through. Overall the football has been great and the only drawbacks has been the diving and the refs falling for them. But I think this is the most entertaining WC I've seen by far.
