Second Round (Last 16) Discussion

[Drakefyre]

Germany have been excellent all game at possessing the ball and playing it along the floor, just skipping past and around English challenges.

[Silencio]

G Time for a root and branch overhaul of English football - starting with strictly limiting the number of foreigners in the Premier League. In every team in the Prem the best player is a foreigner - what does that say?

It says we should start coaching our own youngsters properly. There are some poor foreign players in the league but it's not their fault our players need 3 touches to get the ball trapped...

If we had youngsters of the quality of Ozil and Muller, they WOULD get game time in the Premier League.

[koi]

We've been utter crap since day one. The team has been abysmal; we've had one decent defender in Cole and totally ineffective midfield and one shinned goal from our strikers. I've not got a clue what has gone wrong but I suspect Terry isn't too far away from the epicentre.

I'm presuming Fabio will go after this??

[DanLad]

We just look soo slow and lethargic.

We're also soo predictable.

[sambo]

Hope a few of these players get a good hammering in August when the season starts. Pretty cynical, but wouldn't mind seeing a few of these spineless barstewards get crunched. How can they look England fans in the eye? All the talk, then this. Too much dicking about with that fat tw@t James Corden. Rovers til I die.

[Guest Kamy100]

Euro 2000, Germany crashed out. They decided then that it was time to look at the whole of their structure. 2010 fruits of that labour coming through, time for England to do the same.

[G Somerset Rover]

Deffo Kamy. Disgrace doesn't sum it up. I said before the game that Barry was crucial to this game and his sole job was to stop Ozil and he has been bleddy awful. As you say Kamy an overhaul is required now. 90 minutes of okay-ish football against Slovenia isn't enough. Thew worrying thing is I don't think the manager could have done much more (besides his awful substitutions). Dreaful.

[sam_rovers]

I can't understand why England switched formation right before the world cup. 4-5-1 was working... then they switched to 4-4-2.. when you don't have a good strong central midfield or a good second striker switching to a more open formation is ridiculous.

[Gav]

An absolute national disgrace – Every singe one of them should hold there heads in shame.

I’ve spent thousands following the national side over the years and I feel so sorry for the thousands of England fans that have scrimped and saved for years to attend this world cup.

Simply the players don’t care enough, that’s not in dispute in my mind and that’s disgusting.

Capello will probably get sacked, but its not his fault, the buck stops with the players.

DISGUSTING - To much money, not eneough pride

[Guest Kamy100]

So Rooney is destined to live in a caravan after all, beard and pot belly and all... I love truth in advertising!

[Silencio]

We've been utter crap since day one. The team has been abysmal; we've had one decent defender in Cole and totally ineffective midfield and one shinned goal from our strikers. I've not got a clue what has gone wrong but I suspect Terry isn't too far away from the epicentre.

I'm presuming Fabio will go after this??

I presume he will, and he will probably go and win some more medals.

These lot will continue as they always have done.

What I hope will happen is that the FA will get their act together and sort out youth football and coaching. They should put all investment in that area and lower expectations at the first team level for the foreseeable.

Gerrard and Barry are well short of the basic technique that the Krauts have. Gerrard suits the English league but that's the limit of his capabilities. Barry was never any good...

[koi]

Euro 2000, Germany crashed out. They decided then that it was time to look at the whole of their structure. 2010 fruits of that labour coming through, time for England to do the same.

That keeps being said after every tournament. Time to face facts; we have footballers who are paid so much and have so much smoke blown up their backsides that they have no relevance to our country. We would have been better taking those who are didn't make the squad at least they'd have something to prove. I'm getting fed-up with football and fast

[Silencio]

I said before the game that Barry was crucial to this game

Says it all really, doesn't it?

[MarkBRFC71]

It says we should start coaching our own youngsters properly. There are some poor foreign players in the league but it's not their fault our players need 3 touches to get the ball trapped...

Fair point. I know from experience that the English coaching system is far more interested in finding athletes and trying to make them into footballers, rather than getting players with genuine talent and trying to make them more athletic. There's little interest in players who are more slightly built but with bags of technique, guile and skill. Would Messi have go through the English system? No chance, we wouldn't have done what Barca did in terms of nurturing him.

We should clear out all the old guard in the FA, and get a delegation over to Barcelona for as long as it takes for their methods to become the norm in this country. Something needs to be done about the money distribution in the Prem too - it promotes teams to be defensive, and promotes kick and rush football, the kind that Rovers are unfortunately one of the key proponents of. That kind of play needs big, athletic players, and leaves little room for skilful, tricky players.

We will never do anything internationally without massive, massive changes throughout the whole English game.

Oh, and I would force the whole squad to travel back to England on a fooking minibus.

[FourLaneBlue]

That is our worst humiliation at a World Cup finals in 60 years. They completely owned us.

Don't really blame Capello though. We are talking about a Champions League-winning, Serie A winning (with three different clubs), La Liga-winning (in 2 separate stints) manager.

The players have to be blamed for this.

I also have no clue as to why we changed from 4-5-1, which was working, to 4-4-2 just before the start.

No matter though, we just were very, very poor.

[CrazyIvan]

Fair point. I know from experience that the English coaching system is far more interested in finding athletes and trying to make them into footballers, rather than getting players with genuine talent and trying to make them more athletic. There's little interest in players who are more slightly built but with bags of technique, guile and skill. Would Messi have go through the English system? No chance, we wouldn't have done what Barca did in terms of nurturing him.

We should clear out all the old guard in the FA, and get a delegation over to Barcelona for as long as it takes for their methods to become the norm in this country. Something needs to be done about the money distribution in the Prem too - it promotes teams to be defensive, and promotes kick and rush football, the kind that Rovers are unfortunately one of the key proponents of. That kind of play needs big, athletic players, and leaves little room for skilful, tricky players.

We will never do anything internationally without massive, massive changes throughout the whole English game.

Oh, and I would force the whole squad to travel back to England on a fooking minibus.

I completely agree.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Is it the players, or the manager? I firmly believe it is the players...

This so called 'golden generation' has failed in numerous competitions in a row, so i don't think you can blame the manager this time. England need to scrap pretty much all of them even though some may have time on their side to play more tournaments, they just simply aren't good enough.

Germany could have easily had 7 or 8, 5 or 6 in the first half alone. I would take pretty much all of those German players over England ones.

Scheweinstieger was absolutely immense, Lampard, Barry, Gerrard over him? No chance.

I can't see the Germans winning this tournament, Neuer looks dodgy and defensively they looks shaky. 2 years time come the Euros i think they will be a real force, loads of young talent there to build on.

[Mr. E]

well, all in all, I can't say I'm too surprised.

Many experts and analysts will now go on about how overrated England's players are, how they lacked commitment, how there's too many foreign players in the league, how the game would have been different had the goal stood, how they wore the wrong colored socks etc. etc.

But this will be akin to these experts looking at a world map in bewilderment trying to figure out where Russia is. It really is that bleeding obvious, but the truth will be ignored by most.

The answer is Capello and his tactics. I do not have the energy or the heart to go over his endless mistakes again, but I've been saying it before the start of each game. When you play the wrong formation, with the wrong players, and with the right players in wrong positions...you're going to get embarrassed. It's as simple as that. If Capello was in charge of Argentina or Brazil, you'd get the same results.

People will try to find a different answer because of his titles in Italy, but there is no excuse.

[Eddie]

Really terrible second half performance, not that the first half was much better. We started with a good tempo and really got at them, but the defending for the third and fourth goals was simply unacceptable. Just a shambles.

The goal that wasn't given is always going to be a tough pill to swallow, it would have been a very different game had it gone to 2-2, but that still doesn't excuse an England team that has played terribly for the vast majority of this tournament.

The manager needs to really be looked at. He's had the formation wrong all tournament, the team selection wrong all tournament and then followed it up with ridiculous substitutions in this game.

[Guest Kamy100]

I can't believe that Fabio has just said on national TV that "WE PLAYED WELL". He is trying to use the disallowed goal as a excuse. The fact is that we were poor throughout the game and lucky to escape with just conceding 4 goals.

[FourLaneBlue]

The answer is Capello and his tactics.

That's right.

What has Capello ever done in the game? What the hell does he know?

Must be down to him.

[MarkBRFC71]

well, all in all, I can't say I'm too surprised.

Many experts and analysts will now go on about how overrated England's players are, how they lacked commitment, how there's too many foreign players in the league, how the game would have been different had the goal stood, how they wore the wrong colored socks etc. etc.

But this will be akin to these experts looking at a world map in bewilderment trying to figure out where Russia is. It really is that bleeding obvious, but the truth will be ignored by most.

The answer is Capello and his tactics. I do not have the energy or the heart to go over his endless mistakes again, but I've been saying it before the start of each game. When you play the wrong formation, with the wrong players, and with the right players in wrong positions...you're going to get embarrassed. It's as simple as that. If Capello was in charge of Argentina or Brazil, you'd get the same results.

People will try to find a different answer because of his titles in Italy, but there is no excuse.

As much as the tactics left something to be desired on occasion, the players are vastly overrated on a world stage - that's the major reason for our failure.

[Eddie]

I can't believe that Fabio has just said on national TV that "WE PLAYED WELL". He is trying to use the disallowed goal as a excuse. The fact is that we were poor throughout the game and lucky to escape with just conceding 4 goals.

The most sickening part for me is that for a good 20 minutes or so we completely outplayed them. The defending was a joke throughout, but for a while when we actually played with pace and moved the ball around we were totally on top.

[Roberto Policano]

I can't wait for the media aftermath... this is gonna be great.

That's half the problem the English media are totally clueless and a laughing stock to the rest of the world.They always put too much pressure on an average team.99% of them need a footballing education.

[Mr. E]

Here we go, some of the experts in this thread are already jumping with their nonesence.

I hope next season then we are expected to trash crap sides like Manchester United and Chelsea. Just look at their players - Rooney, Terry, Lampard .....absolute crap eh?