Realised tonight that I don't even care that much. Was more disappointed when Saints went out of the Europa League.
Will that solve the problem? When Arsene Wenger looks at a player he looks at many things, his technical ability, attitude and footballing intelligence. Now is the time to start instilling footballing intelligence into players.
The biggest factor in the second half was fear, our players were **** scared. Instead of puffing their chests out and recognising that they were the superior players they started pondering on the ball and making bad choices. I've seen it before at major tournaments, but not quite on this scale. I think that this would change if we ever happen to win a tournament as the "50 years" monkey would be off of their backs.
Now is not the time for knee jerk reactions. Let's at least wait until they are back on English soil and knee jerk them in the b0ll0cks.
Not even pissed off in the slightest , it's just laughable! My passion for saints is 100 times what it will ever be for the national side. Fair play Iceland , good performance,not that they had to try all that hard. As for Woy, well I'm lost for words, he can go an jump in tar pits along with all the other ****ing dinosaurs!!
As many of you will know I am hugely passionate about England. I am so so angry. Most of it is at certain players and some at Hodgson. But first my thoughts on individual player before I rant. Hart - Must be finished at International level. Far too many mistakes far too often. Not much more to say about him there Rose - Has no ideas and runs into blind alleys. How he is ahead of Clyne I just cannot fathom. There is night and day between these 2 players Cahill & Smalling - I have listed these 2 together because they didn't really do anything wrong and there aren't many more options. Yes we were bad defensively for the goals but defending is a team thing. Walker - Again this guy has absolutley no idea how to defend. That is fine if you are world beaters and you are Cafu but we are not and Walker isn't. We need full backs that know positioning and can defend Dier - Dier is one for the future and has done OK in recent games but he got lost in the moment tonight. Unfortunate for him but he will be good Alli - Similar to Dier but the trouble is he reminds me of Gerrard. Lots of running, huge stamina but in the end of the day this is not Premier league football and the blood and thunder box to box and side to side achieves nothing in this arena. Rooney - What can I say. He has played his last game for England. You cannot fault his effort but he is now at that age where it is time to blood someone new. Sturridge and Kane. These guys need to be told that they will never ever wear the England shirt again unless they understand that this is a team game and that it isn;t all about their own personal glory. I have said this for a decade now about some players for England and still we have players that get to this level and think it is all about them. Sterling - You cannot keep talking about rawness and pace. The guy is just not good enough. Vardy - showed that he is hungry, should have been on from the start. He wanted it more, he wanted it for the team. Rashford - 5 mins Roy? He immediately did what Sterling is incapable of. Not pace because Sterling also has pace but the decision making and ball control. Wilshere - Gets the ball lose the ball, gets the ball loses the ball. There is a reason why he is an Arsenal reserve. Roy Hodgson - If any manager that has the squad that we had, that continually has players that are selfish and not team players continues to put them in the team without setting the straight I will be amazed. He has either not told them and thinks it is OK to have a few players that do everything for their own gain and hope that it works out or he is telling them after every game yet carries on regardless when they ignore him. I can understand moving Rooney back from the striker role and I agree with it however that means he should be behind the striker /strikers and not where Dier should be. Why he went from striker to the deepest midfielder bar Dier I cannot fathom. Was that the tactic or was that Rooney? Why is our record goalscorer playing deeper than 7 of the team for most of the game? I don't buy the "Roy Hodgson has no ideas" lines of many. I think it is more that he is not strong enough to drop star names. The past few managers have had the same problem in that no matter what formation they try and play the players cannot play within it. It must be the players discipline that is called into question and it does matter. When Roy changes from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 it lasts for a few minutes before it is back to everybody all over the place again. It is pure and simple certain players (and there are more than just played tonight) that are more concerned with covering themselves with glory than they are concerned about England winning. I am not calling into question their passion or love for England. I am merely pointing out that like Ronaldo for Portugal they feel that they must be the one. They must be the hero. They need to watch Wales and see that their 2 star players play for the team. They don't try to do it all by themselves although of course they often do end up with the glory moments it is a team effort. Going forward we need a manager that is not afraid to drop players that are not team players. Doesn't matter how big a star they are. If they think it is all about them then they are out. Not just from the starting line up. Dropped from the squad. Also a manager that is not afraid to stand up to these big egos and tell them to their face that if they don't they will not play for England for a long long time. Gareth Southgate was the suggestion from The ITV panel who for some reason did not want to call out the players. Do you really think he is the man to stand up to these egos? If he is then fine but I would prefer England to look at who is available now, any Nationality. This is a big pay cheque job. It can attract anyone. Ideally they would go now and get pocchetino. Pay Tottenham their £20m to buy him out or whatever he will cost, Go and get him. If not another option is to just give Gareth Southgate / Gary Neville a year as caretaker in the knowledge that we will go for Wenger or someone else at the end of their contract next year. I am so pissed off with England and how players that come into this squad think it is all about him and I will not be that bothered if Sturridge, Wilshere and Sterling never play for England again EVER. I am so annoyed.
How about this.? please log in to view this image EDIT: When all the hoo-haa dies down I might even select it myself. But no. I think for the next few days at least I'll go with the one on the left. If they lose against Germany [Germans are poohing themselves apparently because they never win] then it's back to the bike, minus the stripes.
Be realistic. Hart and Rooney will be guaranteed starters until they retire. It's why England will never amount to anything
Oh Gary, you wit. EDIT: Gary said on the opening of tonight's MOTD, Oh, you've tuned in, you must be suckers for punishment.!
Southgate gets the job, breeze through qualifying for 2018, people cautiously optimistic, lose in the first knockout stage to, oh I don't know, Mali. Rinse and repeat. England aren't that good, the players are generally decent but not top level and there is such ingrained pressure of playing for England that the majority just crack when it gets to crunch time. I've been predicting an Iceland win all day at work when chatting to England fans, just wish I had put some money on it.
Also I'm very disappointed that none of the headlines have used the word "meltdown" when referring to Iceland, perhaps Saints have copy righted it?
Just getting to watch the highlights, including the first half. Jeez, how many more errors must Joe Hart make.?
