But that is just it there is no strength and depth, players like Smalling who have barely played would not get in most squads, it is just pace and power are in such demand in the Premier League, being able to pass is less important - look at Jones. Lallana can move the ball in tight spaces which was brilliant and why he should have started other games yet he was replaced by Sterling who has pace but gave the ball away constantly. Yes, you want creative players, like Barkley, but you cannot afford to have three players in midfield who cannot keep possession. Look at the number of strikers, centre backs, defensive midfielders and goalkeepers we have to chose from, very few.
As far as I know, you only need 14 players per game. And we had 23 to choose from. Are we saying that those weren't the best 23. By all means pick holes in the squad. I would. What I'm saying is, is that less capable teams have done better. Yes, the average strength in depth isn't as good as it should be. But do you think Costa Rica have better strength in depth..? Or Ivory Coast, Or Greece, USA, Uruguay..? You can pick huge holes in the English game. But while England were never going to win the tournament [some people got taken by the usual unfortunate hype], one would have expected them to get out of the group, if they had played in any way to their potential. Or if not, at least to have given each rival a spirited game of skill and thrills. But there were very few. This has been a very entertaining World Cup so far, but England have been so boring it has been embarrassing, because none of the significant players have played anywhere near their potential [Shaw had his usual pretty good LB performance today]. That's the worrying thing. What is happening to them from club to country..? EDIT: BTW, Italy haven't been that brilliant either, so I'm adopting Chile at the moment.
I am sure a lot of people can add several players to a possible list. Wilsher has 20 caps FFS. How the **** has he managed to earn 20 caps?
But you need a squad of players that at least play regularly, Colombia lost Falcao and look who they replaced them with, Costa Rica lost their best striker too. We haven't been clinical, but I think that we struggled to break down Italy and Uruguay as they sat deep and new we could not penetrate them, there is no good deploying Sterling's pace if you have no one to get behind - you need players who are comfortable on the ball and have good close control which a lot of these so-called lesser players from these smaller countries have.
Exactly. They need regular games so this BS about needing champions league experience has got to be dropped. English players are not playing all over europe like all the other european nations players are so there is only a small fraction of English players that get CL experience. We have also got to stop hyping players from nowhere to future star on the back of short runs of form. Sterling and Barkley have played well in spells this season but have played poorly as well. Not consistent enough yet. Wilshere has not looked fit all season and has not looked that great for much of the season either. We have got to stop insisting on youth coming through and looking at ages all the time. I would have taken Carrick and Barry. Who cares how old Barry is, he had a great season and we are short of DMs. On the flip side Gerrard is not a DM, select him further up the pitch or leave him at home. TBH I think the red tops select the squad these days. It is a really hard jon managing England and is very tempting to play to their whims and flvaour of the months rather than risking their wrath if a different choice fails. Can nobody think of any English defenders that would have done better or at least good enough to make the squad? Other than Chambers and Clyne Are all good CBs and full backs in England foreign players? Are all English DMs too old to play for England?? Is there really noone better that was left out of the 23?
Lack of talent is why England was not a threat to win the World Cup or really come that close. Lack of tactics, organization, squad selection and general managerial nous is why England didn't make it out of the group stage. Lack of desire is why they did not even win a game.
What is that supposed to mean..? Don't England players play regularly then..? It's all excuses, I'm afraid. Let's blame the next thing that we can identify. I'm sorry, but it is more about mindset that anything else. Are you seriously telling me that Costa Rica have better players than England..? That Greece have better players..? You want more examples..? Come on. Look, I have been watching England play pathetically since post 1970. Despite some excellent players, playing against some no-hopers, they've continued to be mediocre. Believe me, this is nothing new, and it isn't a new excuse. Actually, I can't believe I've actually generated the enthusiasm to debate this. Must be the Saints contingent in the England side. I always said I'd never get involved in any England interest when they overlooked the most talented player in the English game. Yes, it was you-know-who. But, I have no doubt that the FA will go on some particular waste of time getting the ground roots game better. And so they should. But it won't help the England team one jot while they still adopt the traditional England attitude, whatever that is. Unfortunately, nobody has the bottle to go in and tear it up. And the FA wouldn't employ that person anyway.
Agree with TSS here - another major problem isn't the other construct of 'too many foreigners', it's the fact that English players, for some reason, don't/won't go and play abroad.
I think, after Russia, we have the most domestic players in our squad with 22 - the other being from, err, Scotland.
The FA gave Hodgson the green light to **** off this world cup and he did just that. Waddle made a great point that England managers consistently pick who they consider the best 11 players and try and force them into a team. Hodgson tried to get so many attacking midfielders that the balance of the squad was wrong from the start and so the balance of the team was wrong. All the successful teams at this world cup have selected a system and then got the right players for that system (Square pegs, round holes) If you're going to play Gerrard in midfield then you either need a proper defensive midfielder next to him (Barry, Carrick, Cork, Noble) or two more disciplined such as Milner and Henderson. He tried to win it with youngsters who have around 50 appearances and guess what? They were inconsistent and naive. All trying to be the hero
I agree with most of the comments here. I was saying the same last night to my missus as she her minded drifted elsewhere. I feel from the top we have been naive and the media I think frustrate me the most. Saying we have played well!?! Like Sven said, if Hodgson was foreign he'd be a gonner. Hodgson's post match interview was as embarrassing as ever. A good result drawing to Costa Rica? Sturridge should have had a hat trick. We seemed to go into the game without any tactics what so ever. We'll pass the ball around and hope for an opening. Costa Rica aren't the best side defensively, we should have had lambert on and crossing the ball. No one apart from Shaw, Lallana and Milner were willing to cross.
I don`t know what all the fuss is about. England will win the World Cup in 8 years time. Greg Dyke said so.
Eloquently and succinctly put Also agree with this. I'm not sure why footballers have an aversion for playing abroad, whether it's language-based or whatever. Maybe the FA should subsidise language courses for English players so they can have the opportunity to play abroad as I think it'd definitely be beneficial. I mean, how many English players have played abroad? And English full stop, not just England team. I can think of Beckham, Owen, McMannaman, Matt Derbyshire, Joey Barton, Matt Jervis, Woodgate, er.... running low now.
In Qatar? The first two may be fair enough but I really don't think you can accuse them of a lack of desire.
I think the England players wanted to win against France, desperately wanted to win against Uruguay, and definitely wanted to win the last game to give something back to the fans. Lack of desire has nothing to do with it...in fact, sometimes too much desire results in mistakes being made.
The lack of desire is a lazy view that fans just churn out, the English players are passionate and care about playing for their country and its easier for smaller nations like Costa Rica to be viewed as being more passionate as they have zero expectations placed on them to achieve so smaller nations (and clubs) always get called more passionate or showing more spirit but in reality English players are as passionate as any other nation. Yet we no longer have the talent to produce. Bobby Robson's England struggled out of the group in Italia 90 with two draws and a lucky win over Egypt, yet Robson had world class players like Linekar, Gazza and players in great form like Platt, Waddle, Pearce etc. Thats the difference. Hodgson may well be a dour and average manager but give him Gazza & Linekar and we would have gone through and in the games against Italy & Uruguay, the difference was the opposition had players who performed in key moments, we never. Rooney had two chances, scored one with a world class finish but failed with the other. Suarez had two chances, scored both. They are fine details but we can't overlook the fact in terms of the size of our nation (and expectations) we don't have the talent and the best we could have hoped for is to sneak out the group and then go home so finishing where we are may look tragic (and it is) but England are no longer a nation that produces top players and we need to be realistic about what we're capable of.
