It is a huge problem, over inflating a players value just because he's English, but the difference is with English players that thy play a different style of football compared to Spain, I would compare the English style more to that of Germany or Holland, but for some reason when we come up against their likes, they seem to stop doing what they can & go to trying to stop the opposition, this seems to be the orders of the manager. RH had a short time before the Euros & for me did better than I expected. I think he'll do alright next year.
You say all this about England and then claim Germany are massively overrated? Germany who reached the Semis of Euro â12 and the final of Euro â08? Germany who easily beat us in S.A and reached the Semis that year? Germany who qualify without breaking sweat competition after competition. No wonder people think the English are deluded. But back to the discussion in hand: Iâm saying regardless of what is or what is not a la mode (which concerns me not as I find football fashion ****ing childish and odious frankly), I generally dislike the players: Stevie ****ing G, Lampard et al. I suppose I also see them as another clubâs players, rather than of mine/my national team. Iâm not saying anyone is ****; just saying these players donât stack up against their grade a international peers and certainly donât as a team. This is all opinion of course but how can you adequately and reliably measure how good they are? Perhaps the best measure is their achievements. Results wise, itâd suggest England are a top 20/ top 15 national team at best.
RE Germany, they were comprehensively beaten by the same Italy side who put 0 goals past us. They got one round further but only because they played Italy a round later than we did. A year or so ago I had this argument with someone on here and I said Lukas Podolski, moving to Arsenal at that time, wouldn't be any better for them than Walcott was. Podolski being German is much more popular and quite frankly bummed so it of course laughed off but Walcott was miles better. There's no doubting that English players are for some reason over-valued price wise but in terms of fans rating I think the hype for German football the last couple of years (since they beat us in South Africa in fact) has been way over the top whereas we play our own players down. The only one we give any respect to is Rooney and he probably deserves a bit of stick for his England performances more than the likes of Gerrard or Lampard do. Results wise we're a consistent side who always qualify, always get out of the group stage but rarely go further than the final 8 in a tournament. Realistically that's all we should expect. Like the other top nations, we should really get a bit further than that every now and then but we can't expect to make the semis of every tournament. Only four teams can do that. I think our squad is a bit better than our results suggest. The likes of Gerrard and Lampard are easy to moan about in an England shirt but when they tear City a new arsehole we remember how bloody good they actually are.
We don’t always qualify. Ok, I’m too young to remember ’78 but I remember ’84, ’94 and ‘08 well enough. Germany ALWAYS qualify. Also, what have we achieved in those years compared to Germany? We could beat Germany in a one off game but to suggest that somehow (in contrary to evidence such as results/performance) that they’re overrated compared to us is unfounded by all realistic indicators that I know of.
I'm not comparing Germany to us. I just think they're over-rated. Some people seem to think they're better than Spain. Germany have achieved more than us in recent years yes. I'd be delighted if we got to a few semi finals and beat some good sides in competitive games like they have done. I don't think our squad is far behind theirs though, if at all. Ozil is an excellent player but I don't think overall their players are any better than ours. I don't know why they're doing better in recent years but I think pressure has something to do with it. I don't know what German culture is like with regards to football and the national team but in this country everyone can't wait for England to fail so they can have a good moan about it. Hodgson is doing a good job of turning it around in some ways but it's slow progress. Reminds me of us under NP in a way. We're plodding along but being held back a little bit by not being adventurous enough. Hopefully in time we might get stronger and more fluent going forward and start scoring more goals against meaningful teams.
“I'm not comparing Germany to us.” You compared our performances at Euro ’12 and a German player to an English player. Look at this sentence: “I think the hype for German football the last couple of years (since they beat us in South Africa in fact) has been way over the top whereas we play our own players down” Definitely comparative.
If think in order to change the English Game all clubs should be named after an animal, reptile or bird. Hull City Alligators Vs Chelsea Cheaters (sic)
