http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11701_6742081,00.html? Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen believes that England should be causing more ripples on the international stage with their quality and pool of talent. The Premier League is regarded as one of the best leagues in the world and there are some world class players in Fabio Capello's current England squad. However, England always seem to qualify for major tournaments with relative ease, something Sorensen has noted, only to fall flat on their faces on the big stage. The Three Lions were tipped to impress in South Africa, but they limped through the group stages before being put to the sword by nemesis Germany in the second round. Never deliver "England have always had really good players - absolutely world class," said Sorensen, whose Denmark side face England on Wednesday. "As a team, you look at them player by player and they are only behind Spain and Brazil, and England belong to a group of eight to 10 countries capable of winning the World Cupnext time. "England always go through easily in the qualifying stages but maybe the players are tired when they get to the World Cup and European Championships in the summer after the long and very hard English season. "They just never seem to deliver what people - and themselves - expect." Gruelling season Sorensen has been in England for the past 13 years having joined Sunderland in 1998 and he feels that perhaps the long and tough Premier League campaign takes it toll on the players. "I always follow England. I've lived there a long time, for 13 years, watch them on TV, follow them and wish them the best - England has become a bit of a second country," he continued. "It's always difficult to analyse from the outside, I wasn't close to it but there's been a lot of talk about the long English season and maybe a few players were burnt out a bit. "You can't really tell though and I'll let Capello analyse it. It ends up being a long season but I still feel that the World Cup is such a big thing that you can gather resources to get through it. But it didn't seem to gel. "We had our problems with injuries and a lot of players not being on form, but on paper that shouldn't have been the case with England."
One of these days they'll get it right - not sure that all this uncertainty about the captain is much good. Not sure that Capello is much good either, in fact not sure that Terry is much good, time for the next generation
I blame two things: 1. The media. The famous expectation, which gets whipped up every time, the build 'em up of their M.O., only so the media luvvies can knock 'em down as soon as the tournament starts. Would an Argentinian or Italian journalist sneak a fan into the dressing room for a story? Pth, as if. Michael Ballack said when a German takes a penalty he's thinking of national glory but when an Englishman takes a penalty he's worrying about tabloid headlines. And don't get me started on the media flipfloppery over the armband. It started with Wayne Bridge being an immature little boy, possessive over an ex, and he let his son's mother get savaged and portrayed as some kind of hooker by the blokey media. Great parenting, that. No problem with Ashley Cole getting the armband, though, so it's not actually cheating on your wife the media luvvies moralise about. And maybe it's just me but I get a little irked when phone-tapping, bin-raking peeping toms start moralising to others. 2. British sense of fair play. We'd never have a Hand of God. Terry Butcher still won't shake Maradona's hand. So we'd never do whatever it takes, as Italians, Argentinians and Germans will. Even the silky Spanish don't see it as cheating if you don't get caught. We won the first Fair Play award, though.
