If I said England play long ball I would have been talking bollocks, but what I said was that the ball doesn't touch the grass. This was intended as an exaggeration but the truth is that for a long time England have played a lofted passing game. Even if two players are only a few yards apart they still pass the ball at chest height and that's why we can't string more than four passes together without losing possession. Good teams (like the one Nick is trying to build here) keep the ball on the ground because that's how you keep possession. If you don't believe me try doing an experiment while watching England - say the word 'pass' for every pass on the ground and 'loft' for every pass above the waist. I've done this before and against half decent opposition the pattern is something like'pass - loft - loft - lose possession - then about ten passes by the opposition - lose possession - pass - loft - pass - loft - lose possession' etc.
Do you also say tackle, head, shoot etc? If you did you'd sound a bit mental. Anyone walking in on you watching an England game would probably think you had special needs.
Have you been spying on me at the asylum. No seriously you obviously don't say the words aloud and you probably only need to do it for a few minutes before the pattern becomes obvious.
Not Pearce please. He scored a penalty and did a big celebration. Well, I remember when he was a manager in the Premier League, and was clueless. Let's not base an appointment on 'passion'. We'll be back to not qualifying for tournaments. I know there's not many options out there, but Pearce ain't cut out for it. IMO
I don't want to go on about it forever but if some people compared the way they view their club to the radical things they say about the England team, they'd notice they have completely different standards. Everyone is really rational about their club and if someone gets carried away after one City loss on here they get shot down and rightly told they need to be more patient. But when it's England a great win is completely overlooked and in fact ignored but any draw or loss is the end of the world; the manager is ****, the best players are **** and we need to play the reserves instead, every key player is a **** because they don't treat their girlfriends nicely enough and all because the media tell them this is how to think. Seriously lads listen to yourselves, it's red-top bollocks this.
If you wanted to pigeon-hole England you could probably say we were a category B team in with the likes of Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, etc and in order to move up to category A with teams like Germany, Spain, Portugal we need to adapt our style so we can compete with equal possession against those teams. With more possession England can 'build' goals instead of always searching for the rare killer pass.
I think Capello was getting us playing decent football, he always picked the likes of Bent over Carroll and built his team around talented midfielders like Wilshere. Whoever the new manager is, I can't see him forcing long ball upon us. We simply don't have the players for hoofball.
Cahill was signed to replace Luiz as Terry's partner, because Luiz has had a poor season. That's two English CBs rated above Brazil's first choice one. If Terry is **** then Brazil's defence must be terrible. This is the kind of thing I mean when I keep saying England fans will make themselves see everything in the most negative way possible. I did wonder about this. Certainly if they can't get the right man in now this would be an option.
thats all they are. just listening to the LIVE press conference with the FA muppets and the FA say that they shall meet on friday to draw up the list of possible managers. they wont mention names except that STUART PEARCE is the manager for the Holland game on the 29th Feb @ Wembley. as Sham 69 sang.......Hurry Up 'Arry Come On.
Phil Brown with Brian Laws as his assistant. The country could do with a laugh. But if we are being serious about England then there is only one man who can get the best out of the players we have and that is HARRY REDKNAPP.
The current odds... Harry Redknapp 2/7 S Pearce 6/1 Guus Hiddink 9/1 Jose Mourinho 16/1 Roy Hodgson 18/1 Rafa Benitez 22/1 Arsene Wenger 33/1 Carlo Ancelotti 40/1 Sam Allardyce 40/1 Nigel Adkins 40/1
Well Stuart Pearce is in charge of England for the Holland game on Feb 29th @ Wembley. Bets are off on Harry then.
This is correct I think. The few class players we have need to be blended with the other good players we have and then a system and Manager who can get that extra bit out of them to compete at the highest level. That has not been happening and in some way we seems the total output never seems to "add up to the sum of the parts". Don't believe a foreign manager can get that extra bit out of them. We only have a pool of four PL England Managers so it may have to be a Championship Manager if we are to go "English"........ a definite dilemma, but possible.
Ha Ha.... Would be a laugh... Can imagine the interviews now... "got to do it for the speckies" "We have a great bunch of committed lads" etc etc. Would be the exact same scouse drivel we heard when he was at Scun7horpe. 'Arry for me. He will have done nothing but think about it last night contrary to what he tells the press. Bet he even got his missus to draw up a team sheet for the game against Holland. (After all he can't do it himself, according to his trial).
I did think it was funny he made the top ten on the list I copied, though to be fair, there were about twenty managers at 40/1. Brownies on 100/1...............along with Paul Jewell.