Next England Manager

Living over here, I have grown tiresome of the England team BS! So perhaps big Sam, will pick players on their ability, and form, NOT who they play for!
As for Eddie Howe, yeah why not?

 

Steve Bruce has been interviewed as well. Hoping the FA go for Big Sam, I think he is tough enough for that position now, he could be what England need. I don't really care what they do, as far as I'm concerned there's no world cup in 2018, but the turmoil it will cause Sunderland will be amusing!

 

Defenders that hoof it. a load of speedy forwards and a barrel load of ****e midfielders. Hmmm. Unfortunately I think Sam is the man for us. Perfect fit.

 

Bielsa, he's still out of work....more interesting than Fat Sam

 

I don't want Sam as England manager. I want us to appoint someone who will help change England over the long term and help development all through football.

Be brave FA.

 

Surely that isn't the role of the England manager? There should be a person or team who should work on developing grass roots football and the youth levels around the country. It would be a bit of a waste of time for the England manager to be getting involved in helping change how 8-12 year olds are coached across the country in my view, although I agree something needs to change.

 

Yep, no quick fix will make England good. Even another talented crop wouldn't equal success, so much needs to change. But what a fantastic time to do it. The next two W/C's are just joke venues, lets just use it as a training tournaments.

 

Yes of course. This is my mind jumping deeper and wanting the FA to make the bottom the focus for now and stop saying we're going to win something in four years time. They should tell the media that they aren't worried about the next 4 tournaments.

Sam Allardyce would go unbeaten through a qualification group, a la Hodgson and then we'd be a mess in a tournament again.

 

Oh so much this!!

 

I can understand that FLT, but like football clubs, there has to be an element of success now with England. The previous manager was appointed as someone who would help change England over the long term, and that didn't work. If anything, Hodgson would have been better employed as a football director. The current crop of players are actually very skilful individuals who play like a team of donkeys when it comes to tournament time. Truthfully, they are hardly ever the sum of their parts, out of tournaments, either, but they play well enough against poorer opposition. We can't yet again be waiting for the development of players over the long term when they will undoubtedly play the same way when it comes to representing their country. That mentality runs right through the England setup and it has to change, and can change almost immediately given the right person doing the job. If you want England to be brave then they need to appoint two people, not one. A knowledgeable football director, who can oversee the long term strategy, and a manager who can finally take the current crop and mould them into a team, and do it his own pragmatic results based way. It wouldn't matter what style they played providing they discovered and maintained a winning mentality when it comes to achieving in tournaments. You could call it The German Way, or perhaps, given the sign of the times, The Portuguese Way.

 

Bielsa changed Chilean football and got them playing a style of play that the other subsequent coaches have followed to great success

And this is not some golden generation, sure they have Sanchez, but players such as Vargas or Isla have failed at most clubs around Europe.

A good coach would make a world of difference to this England side.
I'm sick of reading people knocking the standard of players in this country. They're more than capable of being competitive, but they need a coach with a clear style of play and vision.

 

I disagree with that very first point and I believe that is fundamental to our problem. Success now. You can't just get it, you have to build to it. I am absolutely serious when I say that if I was head of the FA, I'd call a press conference and tell the media to back right off and forget the next few tournaments while we put a structure in place and tell them it will take several years to filter though. Anything that happens is a bonus. You may even see players in the current time of that decision perform better with no expectations and less pressure. The German did it (which is laughable because they had had years of better performances than us anyway) and it worked.

I have said for years, that the longer we demand success now, the longer we will wait. We need to make wholesale changes at the bottom.

 

Surely the main issue to deal with in the short term is how to make the overpaid, self-interested English players in the Premier League actually want to play for their country? The passion shown by just about every other nation in the Euro's completely eclipsed the lazy, gutless show most of the England team displayed. A manager is required who can out a bit of fire in their bellies and get them playing with the drive and determination the England rugby boys did in Australia recently. Big Sam might not be everyone's cup of tea, he certainly isn't mine, but he definitely got Sunderland playing with passion last season. A good short-term fix while the grass-roots is put in order, I would say.

 

You'll be sick of me then, because our players are not developed properly. I agree they need a clear style of play too, but I believe we do not "coach" players properly. There has been some change and attempt to improve, but not enough.

 

Agreed, Bielsa was a revelation, probably a revolution, in tactical coaching once the historic dust settles. But we don't have an English manager who plays that way from their DNA. Well, not yet. The ultra pressing, winning the ball back high up the pitch style, with fast forward passing, is something that was pretty much introduced in the UK by Pochettino, and, even though he's a direct disciple of Bielsa, his form of it is diluted compared to his master. The basic DNA in English managers is still 4-4-2, and whilst there's absolutely nothing wrong with that style it is not perceived as the system to have. Which is kind of funny, because Leicester played 4-4-2 more often than not, coming up from the Championship with Pearson, and Ranieri [Italian] only tweaked it here and there, to win the PL title.

I don't believe the problem is tactical. The players at England's disposal should all be capable of doing themselves justice, whatever that is, instead of embarrassing themselves. That comes down to man management. England have a playing/tournament disease and managers like Roy Hodgson could play their quaint little tactical nuances [his DNA is still 4-4-2], which incidentally would appear to baffle his players all day, and still they would underachieve individually and collectively. He didn't ever look like a manager who could galvanise a performance out of an underperforming team. He was not a man manager. Time to try that. Even if it is played as 4-4-2. Personally, I prefer a 4-3-3 [albeit with pressing], and most English managers are familiar enough with that, as it is the other formation they grew up with.

Don't think there are any 2-3-5 guys left .

 

I am all for putting the correct structure in place FLT, like the German Way, but I don't see why we can't make the best of the current playing group. The Germans didn't abandon their national expectations while they rebuilt. Which is why I'm suggesting a manager for the players of now, and a football director for the long term. You can't expect a whole group to suddenly emerge from the seed roots, take the wrapping off and play brilliantly. They have to learn too. But they have to do it in a structure that gradually phases out the older players and the older structure. By the way, this has all been done before. When Alf Ramsey was appointed, the England setup underwent a fundamental change. Indeed, his demand for taking the job was that he was to be allowed to change the system to his way, or he wasn't interested. And England were not a bad team before his appointment. They at least played to the sum of their parts. Ramsey's teams over achieved and eventually underachieved, and that's more or less what we've had to the present day, apart from Bobby Robson's 1990's WC semi-final. The present one clearly doesn't play to the sum of their parts, so it is not unreasonable that there should be some proper attention spent there. But I agree, let's revamp the FA system, because it isn't working well enough.

 

Agreed on the good, short-term fix, while the grass roots are put in order.

On the present England players and their attitude. I think they've been playing frightened. They've told us time and again what it means to them as England players. So we can look at it two ways. We believe them or we don't. Well I been through the cynical mindset and thought the players didn't care, but a whole succession of players have come and gone from the England setup, and they can't all not care. And if you watch England teams, they all look as if they are trying hard enough, but their individual efforts are uncoordinated within the team, often from being played out of position, or being played out of form, which is even worse. Or simply selecting a player who isn't good enough. This leads to a lack of confidence within the group and you end up with a collection of isolated talented individuals who can't trust each other to put in a great performance and who go back to their clubs and fit right back into their well known club structure, but are poisoned at international level.

And this is why England need a great man manager. Anyone can be a great manager of kids and professional youngsters with little egos, but the senior England players think they know a thing or two and they need someone who can turn them on at international level, and provide them with the tools to win matches. I suspect they will be a cynical bunch too.

 

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a psychologist and he said that he reckons that it is an inherent fear of playing for England. Even though the media have backed off from their "WE'VE GOT THE GOLDEN GENERATION **** THE WORLD" type hyping up the national team, that players are just scared and play within themselves. He likened it to when you go to secondary school and certain buildings/areas of the school have a nickname that has been there for generations as the older kids use it so the new year 7s pick the phrase up and use it and it just gets passed on down.

I've always said that if I was ever good enough to be an international level footballer I'd retire from international duty as soon as I received my first call up.

 

I think the best thing going, for an Allardyce selection, is that he won't fartarse around the players' egos.
I think he will tell a few home truths, and if the poor little lambs don't like it, he'd take them outside and give them a good kicking.
I don't want a manager who just panders to the whims of the players, or the players' clubs.
I want a manager who, when picking a team for a friendly, picks his best team and plays it for the entire match, using just three substitutes, maximum.
If the big club managers don't like it, then tough.
If the players don't like it, then tough. If they don't want to represent their country, in all matches (and I don't mean turning up for a cameo role) then they should retire from international football.
I am really so fed up with the fact that my interest, in my international football team has dwindled to such an extent that I frequently don't bother to watch friendly games, because of the merry-go-round attitude to using so many substitutes. It is also an insult to those that pay to watch, what winds down to nothing more than a kick around.