As always the usual deluded press and former players coming out saying that we could win it. What planet are they on? Are they blind? We are miles behind the likes of Germany, Spain, Italy and Holland. I am not really that upset that we lost, Italy deserved to win.
TBH I'm glad I don't have to waste another 2 hours of my life watching that ****, although if my insomnia comes back I might get a copy.
We have to be realistic - we are approx 8th best team in the world - we have several young players coming through so future may not be too bad The side gave their all - surely that's all we can ask of them??
we have been close to being one of the top four teams in Europe or The World, which is how good we would have to be to expect to get into the last four of a tournament and not be considered delusional. we haven't been for years, so we haven't got past the quarter finals !
You know what................... Years gone by I would have been pissed with the manager but now I see that the players are just not good enough. It was plain to see. We let a 33 year old dictate play all game and our forwards are useless, we are playing an outdated formation and do not have the players to change it. I don't see the future as being that bright personally, hats off to you if you do. Roy took mostly the same old names and ended up with the same old result. shocker.
Oh yes we are miles away from teams like Holland -.-.. The one thing I hate about this country is the amount of people in our country who belittle everything just because of a result. If England won the penalty shootout (by chance) i bet 90% of you would be applauding the English performance as you have done throughout the competition. We played Hodgsons system today; and if chances were slightly more clinical we could of been looking at a completely different game, it so happens that both sides couldn't finish tonight and thus were just as bad as each other hence it went in to penalties. Possession and individual attacking performance do not mean anything when we have Hodgson as manager due to his negative defensive style of play. In terms of the bewildering statement that I always have to put up with: "we are miles behind (Insert name here)". HOW CAN THIS BE SO. The premier league is one of the best leagues in the world and we have the champions league winning side in our league! Our entire attack was made up of Manchester United players tonight and they are not ****! They just bottled it and did poorly due to our midfield formation set out to defend well. We normally bottle it.. This is why we normally lost in these stages. We lost this time simply down to luck and the fact that two systems canceled each other out. The worst news is that we as fans have to put up with this boring style of football for some years to come due to Hodgsons involvement (as a Liverpool fan I did not like Hodgson from day one by the way; so make of this as you will). TO SUM UP We lost and could of done better; some individuals bottled and it was frustrating for everyone. But we are not miles behind anyone.
Although I think Roy Hodgson is the man for the job because he has made these players proud to play for England again he needs to improve. He needs to realise we are not Switzerland and we have players capable of dictating the game themselves rather than 11 men behind the ball being an organised "hard team to beat". We have a player capable of doing that Michael Carrick, and a wildcard but Leon Britton too who can make themselves available and keep the ball. I do not understand why Carrick wasn't picked in the squad. I think the difference between this tournament to previous tournaments is it's obvious the players actually care this time around.
If Italy had actually scored any of the zillions of chances that they created, they would have won in 90 minutes, if I was Germany I would be happily dreaming of that final right now!
These points you have bought up are in my opinion incorrect. 1) We have struggled throughout the competition, see Sweden, Ukraine and the second half against France. 2) The 2 systems did not cancel each other out! We were played off the park! I think we had 38% posession. 3) There were also a fair amount of Liverpool players there as well.................................................. not just Man U. In regards to Holland, they have better players than us. They had a bad tournament. It happens, they have less bad tournaments than us, world cup finalists. Every game we have played I have felt that we were lucky to win, not once have I felt that we controlled a game like Italy have done. We would get torn to shreds by Spain or Germany and if you think otherwise you are also totally deluded. Some players from Man u and Liverpool were shocking tonight. Didn't notice that Wellbeck was on the pitch, Ashley Young was terrible and even though Gerrard has been the one standout player in the tournament he went missing tonight. We were completely out played in midfield and totally over run.
1) We finished top of out group beating Sweden and the Ukraine. Obviously meaning we are better than France on paper. I wouldn't say we struggled but I haven't been a fan of how we have won either. 2) Italy in my opinion played the game better; however they Hardly played us out of the park due to the game ending 0-0. 3) You are missing the point; I am saying we have players in our team who play day in and out for the top level.
Did you watch the game? Because if you did you cannot seriously think that this is right. We had 4 shots on target all game! Italy had 18! Also, we had 8 off target they had 31! Pirlo had 131 passes completed our top player had 44. In fact their all of their outfield players had more passes than out top passer which was Cole at 44. Passed of the park, we were. You are quick to slate Man u players, all was not rosy in the Liverpool garden either mate.
Im afraid to say, this can be so because we havent beaten a top nation in a knock out game of football in a major tournament in god know's how long. The simple fact is technically, our footballers are no where near the level of the top tier of nations in world football. We simply cannot compete in midfield. I personally can have no criticism of the performance of england tonight or thoroughout the tournament, in the same way I wouldnt be able to criticise championship team if they defended for their lives against a premier league team. Our biggest problem is we seem to think england are a 'premier league' national team. This simply isnt true, and until the fa accept it isnt true the same thing will happen again, and again, and again, and again. Be honest - if we had scraped through this game against italy, what would your prediction for the germany game be? Mine - it would be as bad as bloemfontein, if not worse. England's squad is made of extremely good players, but none of the players out there tonight are technically[/B] extremely good. And it showed - when the chips were down they couldnt keep hold of that damn ball for more than 4 passes. Doesnt matter how much you run, doesnt matter how much of a lionheart you are, if you cant keep hold of the friggin ball it will tell. Italy could have scored 3 or 4 tonight. If they had been more clinical they would have had the game sown up in the 90. They kept on creating chances because they were given england the run around, and england kept giving them the ball back time after time after time. Im not doom mongering (believe it or not) - i think roy hodgson has done a fantastic job in the time available and i dont really think many england players underperformed as such. They just arent as good as everybody thinks they are...
Holland would have snapped off our little finger to have been in the position we were in, 2 penalties away from a semi-final!
Where Germany have over 30,000 top UEFA grade coaches, England has only over 2000. How very very sad. The FA are a disgrace to the national game.
