I think I am saying that Woy has been caught in a web of contradictions of his own making + damning unspoken truths. A classic case of having the answer first, and then working backwards to generate the question that can only produce that answer. With my suggested scheme, Woy and the FA would never get the answer they have no matter how hard they tried.
It reminded me of some of our poor performances under Villas-Boas. Lots of possession and never looked like conceding, but all rather boring with no end product. It's all pretty standard for England in a major tournament over the past couple of decades. Fine getting there, then a desperate attempt to cram everyone that the tabloids like into a mess of a side with no real system. I'd love to get a look at the contract that those managers have to sign. I find it hard to believe that they all keep picking unfit players that please the sponsors if they don't have to.
I think there's also a kind of mass hysteria / compliance that means that nobody is prepared to go out on a limb because of what will happen to them. Just look at all the pundits picking last season's champions, sure its not surprising that nobody picked Leicester, but they almost all went for Chelsea. Did every single one of them really believe that? Or were they reluctant to mention the signs that the Chelsea performance actually fell off half way the season before - surely someone noticed? Perhaps the reason they still went with the crowd is more psychological than anything else. A succession of managers and pundits all seem to have a higher opinion of Rooney than the football watching public, and even when there were suggestions that he should not be an automatic starter some were astonished that people could have that opinion. A succession of managers and pundits thought Gerard and Lampard could play in the same team, when plenty of evidence suggested the contrary. But nobody would take the hard decision. In fact I think the last hard decision made by an England manager might be when Hoddle left Gasgcoine at home (quite rightly) and there was quite a stink about it in the media. Do managers have the balls to make those hard choices?
Basically then, we have cowards as managers. We under-perform at tournaments no matter what so it seems that pretty much every manager since Hoddle has picked what they/the media/Joe Public consider to be the "best" 23 players based on some undefinable time period. These players then get chucked onto the pitch in something resembling a formation (as with the 'Gerrard/Lampard Problem'™ which saw Gerrard frequently playing on the left so as to accommodate them both) and given some instructions which always seem to boil down to "just pass it aimlessly to the nearest player in the same colour shirt or if we are behind hoof it to Owen/Heskey/Rooney/Defoe/Crouch* (*Delete depending on manager)". We go out at the group stage/lose on penalties to Germany and the media slam the players. Manager gets new contract as obviously the players are to blame 'cos the Sun said so (or find nearest scapegoat e.g. Beckham/Rooney/Ronaldo). Rinse and repeat. Not once has any manager come close to building a team with a consistent system. They seem to watch the games but have no idea what they are seeing. Picking the "best" 23 players is the easy option that they all go with rather than taking the time to build a coherent team because they know they would have to ride the wave of the media bashing them until, if it ever did, work.
I can't blame the pundits for picking Chelsea, as I think that I did that myself, to be honest. Nobody else appeared to make any substantial improvements and they didn't seem to lose anyone of any importance. They were undone from within by behind-the-scenes nonsense that nobody knew about. Mourinho certainly became more defensive after the game at WHL, but that's par for the course for him, anyway. Picking the best players is the easy way out and deflects media criticism, but it's a temporary fix, as it'll come in droves when the team goes out. Gerrard and Lampard could've worked, maybe with Scholes in the side too, but not as a central pairing in a four-man midfield. Both of them were better in an advanced midfield role, so successive managers played neither in that position. Stick Gerrard out wide, as Benitez did for a period at Liverpool, Lampard further forward and Scholes deep in a five-man midfield. Might actually have a chance, then. Never happened though, obviously.
Wow. This BBC article says Rooney has been our best player so far http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36580159 Good grief. He was absolutely terrible last night, and OK in previous games (but I still think he gets marked up considering who he is). The scores for the last game rightly gave Dier the highest mark but Rooney certainly didn't deserve a 6, I can't think of one good thing he did. Dier and Walker have been our best players of the tournament so far surely?
Rooney has been better than I anticipated and was excellent first 2 games. Tried to get involved further forward when he came on last night, but ran into walls most of the time - but was by no means the worst out there. I also thought that Clyne did well, especially first half, and is real competition for Walker. However you have to measure that against the fact that he basically had no one to mark, cover, or indeed have anyone even trying to cover his runs. I think that Kyle has been superb throughout and deserves the plaudits.
Germany are trying to stroll through this. They may well get away with it, but I'd thoroughly enjoy a goal from Northern Ireland.
Never really looked like equalising, but there's still a vague chance of progress. Better goal difference than Albania, at least.
I say Northern Ireland are in! One of the five other third place finishers is determined, and they're two goals worse on GD. They only need one out of the four remaining teams to finish with three points and a -1 GD or worse. It's not a mathematical certainty but it's such a high probability you can count on it--unless you're a Northern Ireland fan, in which case you'll be gnawing your fingernails.
Norn Iron fans will be reassured by the position in Group E where one of Sweden or Rep of Ireland would have to beat Belgium or Italy to better them. That is their best hope
Anyway let's try and forget England for now as at least we're through. Spain - Croatia should be a good one. The Croats have some great players (Brozovic and Peresic are very underrated - and I'm guilty of jumping on their bandwagon a little here!) even without Modric in the team.
Silva went looking for that and though the Croat keeper got off the line a bit early I think it's justice that he saved it. Peresic and Badelj have been excellent for Croatia so far.
How is that penalty save allowed to stand. The keeper was almost closer to the penalty spot when he saved it than the taker was.
Format is a joke. Italy win group and play Spain who finish 2nd. England finish second and play a 3rd place team prob hungary
