Just what teams are better than England? I'll list them! Germany, Spain, and Belgium although that team has yet to deliver on the English stage. That is about it. England are as good as and better than the rest. Thank you for pointing out my error!!
The list is too long in all probability! But as you have moved the goalposts slightly and refer to Europe only (or else you have serious national team glasses on; I refer to world football, as per my reference), I would add France, Italy and Netherlands to your list, though the latter clearly struggling with cohesion at the moment, as do all teams at stages. Italy we all know are tactically light years ahead of us at even their lowest ebb. So that is five teams at least in a tournament of 24, plus Wales I am sure have it in them to gain a point
at minimum against this England team, given their collective superior overall international experience, lower expectation on their shoulders, and tons more of the stuff (cliches like heart, fight etc.)t hat made England traditionally so good
Let me tell you where I stand - and I'm not drawn at all into hype post the friendly. I am very happy with the England team picks - I have always been pro picking raw, young talent, plus clearing out the old. I am excited on that front, and applaud Hodgson there - even though some of his picks are forced by injury. I am disheartened by tendencies of the national team to injure players for clubs, seemingly every time; and also of the national setup's tendency to strip rawness and character out of players very quickly. Even Clive Tyldesley said he wanted to preach caution to (game's best player) Alli about some aspects of his game - thanks **** he doesn't get to do that, but it sums up the approach washed/dyed into the England national setup's approach to raw talent.
I can see we don't have the defensive solidity required to compete in a tournament, when teams like Germany can ramp up effortlessly to a level above what we can. It stands that there may be some exciting individual performances and moments, but I don't expect us to get anywhere. That is what I was saying in my post. It really does show how important a player like Wayne Rooney is for us, despite having any edge ironed out of his England game too. I also prefer to see a team go out there without him, or at least not being so reliant on him, so allowing new blood through. As for your error you say I pointed out, I'm not sure what you're getting at...
