A bit disappointed with the latest matches. yes, they were just friendlies and the objective was to identify players for the final squad for Brazil. But still 2 defeats at Wembley cannot be good for morale. I wonder whether he is making the best use of "talent" at his disposal. May be no manager in the world could do better if the talent is not there...? No shots on target the whole match against Germany reserves? I dread to think what would have happened against their first team.
I was pissed up at a German market. Didn't see the starting lineups. Did lallana and Rodriguez get another chance? £45 to watch a shower of ****e is a off.
A better decision! and yeah Lallana played for most of the game but came off, Rodriguez didn't however.
It's never nice to lose but what you learn from a friendly is the most important thing. It is not going to affect morale imo. These friendlies have as much bearing on tournaments as preseason games have on the PL, which is none. The german's just have a better side and remember that was literally their b team too.
Feel a little sorry for Hodgson really in that I think he has taken over at a tricky time. The likes of Cole, Lampard and Gerrard are not the players they were, Rio and Terry no longer on the scene. He has some promising younger players like Sturridge and Wilshire but they are not at the top class level that the aforementioned players were say 5 years ago. If Sven and Capello etc couldn't get a team any where near winning a tournament with Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Rio, Terry, Cole etc in their prime, what chance does Roy have with the likes of Cleverly and Jagielka? You can only play with what you have. How many world class players does England actually have, Rooney aside? and he's been ****e in his last 2 tournaments as well. Id' be shocked if we make quarters in Brazil.
I love how every England manager always gets the blame. Maybe, just maybe its because England simply aren't any good?
These are just my observations (i.e there are not FACKTS ) Players playing for England are (or used to be) also key players for their team and many of these teams are top teams. Rooney, Gerrard, Wilshere, Sturridge, Lampard, Cole etc. Scholes in the past. However they seem diminished when they play for their country. Example Gerrard and Lampard have never played for England the way they play for their clubs. The reverse seems true for other countries. Look at Ronaldo. He plays well for Madrid but he plays even better for Portugal. I am sure there are loads of examples of players in the premiership too. So it must be something to do with the management at England level. The players just cannot play at their full potential. I remember an England manager trying to fit Scholes on the (left?) wing. FFS any idiot could have predicted that this could never work and that led to Scholes finishing his international career. The Germans seem to be better at making a team and their team is better than the sum of its parts. Mertersacker seems to play better for his country than for Arsenal. And I could say the same for many Germany players...
I think Hodgson is doing a good job. He's integrating younger players while gradually phasing out the older ones. It would have been a very big call for him to drop the likes of Gerrard, Lampard and Cole for the world cup, we will need some experience even though we have no chance of winning. Going there and being humiliated wouldn't help anything so he naturally keeps some experiance before hopefully discarding them after the world cup to go with a really good youthful squad, some of which now have qualification/tournament experience for the next Euro's.
That makes sense. However, even if the young players are good that does not mean we will have a good national team in the future. Many of these young players fall by the wayside. Only 26% of the premiership players are English. Incredible. I still do not get why our players do not consistently play well for England. These players seem to be crucial for their teams. You could argue that their club teams have better players around them but this cannot be the only reason. Tactics not right? motivation? Player for player: Are Germany that much better than England?
I think the problem is, at that at club level, these players are surrounded by technically gifted players that coupled with the English players good attributes, add up to excellent club sides. However when all the England players are together there just isn't enough variation and quality to sustain a decent international team. Take the midfield for instance. Lampard, Carrick and Gerrard (even Barry to an extent) have consistently performed at the highest level in the C.L but had players like Makalele, Essien, Alonso, Ronaldo around them as well. Those 3 are just too similar to all play in an English midfield and it becomes pedestrian. I've always said, Lampard and Gerrard would have worked well had they had a Makalele behind them (not a sub standard version like Parker) and more creative/better players in front/out wide. In fact when Hargreaves was at his peak, England's midfield was probably the best it has been. Also it is verging on criminal to think you can win playing 442 nowadays which was our biggest problem in South Africa.
