[Archived] England Decline Must End

[Audax]

At Brit's Pub in Minneapolis, for these big matches, though we hear "club before country" often, from wherever they hail from, you see people turn out for England often wearing the shirt, what a cross-section of people! I was also there when Croatia eliminated England a few years back from that 2008 Euro. Probably a lot worse what you read on the net than it was there.

That will be interesting versus Ukraine, I have no idea whatsoever how this will go, a draw or loss, doubts we'll see England win.

[Guest Norbert]

Even if we lost 5-0, the FA would not act to sort out the complete lack of coaching talent, as Brooking et al will continue to rob the FA of his wages, and get his mates in the important jobs and do nothing.

[speeeeeeedie]

I hate to shoot you down on this one.. but are some of the best players in the world from Brazil.. since when do they have great coaching and wonderful pitches, these kids learn on the streets.

Brazil has enough grass to keep everyone happy. That, plus a good climate means that they get less wear and tear.

Here is an example of what I mean; http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/10665567.Action_group_formed_to_deal_with_the_state_of_Blackburn_s_council_football_pitches/

[DanLad]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but if people are interested in this subject they should read 'Soccernomics'

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soccernomics-Simon-Kuper/dp/0007457847/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Very interesting stuff.

Once you've finished reading this then read 'Inverting the pyramid'*

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-Tactics/dp/1409102041/ref=pd_sim_b_1

* During the course of which you will learn that an East Lancs chap was potentially the most important person ever in relation to the development of football and football tactics throughout the world. Unfortunately he was a dingle! (And he defo was a dingle as he sounds like he was a bit idiosyncratic!)

[Majiball]

Two very good books.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Bloody hell, how bad was that ? It was like watching Rovers on a really bad day. We had next to nothing out there tonight. Too many players out of their depth. We played at walking pace,no tempo at all. Apart from the goalie and the two centre backs we didn't look interested. We'd been playing 25 minutes into the second half before I realised Lampard and Gerrard had come out of the changing rooms.

Their no10 had more skill than all our midfield put together.

[Derbyshire Blue]

Fortunately Great British Bake Off was on 2

[Baz]

Turgid performance.

How poor is Walcott, he's so frustrating to watch. Lays it off when he has space, runs into brick walls when theres no space, doesnt pass when he should, or just passes it to no-one. Reminds me so much of Rochina.

[Amo]

I would love it if they fail to qualify. Love it!

[DE.]

England are undoubtedly one of the most boring international teams to watch. Absolutely dire.

I love how afterwards it's "job done", "would have taken that at the start", etc. Any truly world class team would have buried that Ukrainian side tonight. Spain, Brazil, Italy, Holland, Argentina, Germany would have put 2 or 3 past them easily. For England a 0-0 without a single meaningful chance (that I can recall, anyway) is good.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

I'm a bit of a England apologist, and with the team we had went to the most difficult away game in the group and got the result we needed....yes it was crap, but an exciting 4-3 defeat would have been a waste. Whatever, we need to be in Brazil, just so we have even more to moan about!

[thenodrog]

Lack of talent in important areas as I have said before. Graphically displayed tonight too. God only knows how Ashley Young even gets in the squad. He's another useless, gutless fecker cast in the same mould as Dyer and Jenas.

[K-Hod]

Nobody can pass the ball or hold possession. Walcott runs into blind alleys most of the time. Our lack of depth up top and in the middle of the park is alarming.

[RevidgeBlue]

Dire stuff from both sides but a decent result in the context of the group.

However Kyle Walker is another of those players who'd never get near the England set up if he was at a less fashionable Club imo.

And even if we get to Brazil we'll do nothing with Hodgson in charge in my view.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Too much potential never actually shown on a football pitch.

Can't make my mind up whether our players are just over hyped - or don't step up at international level - most likely a combination of the two. As was mentioned frequently - we were missing several key player tonight - problem is I am not convinced they would make that much difference.

[Josh]

Absolute pants. Milner is awful, Lambert should not be anywhere near the starting line-up for an international team. Hodgson's tactics are non-existent and Kyle Walker is developing into the Gerrard and Lamard's of the team by playing so far off their PL level of performance it isn't even funny.

[West Yorks Rover]

Jack Wilshere ' the next big thing ' do me a favour, I know he's only young but talk about overated.

I'm afraid England are a very average country when it comes to football, in fact we're a very average country.

Most of those players are more interested in their cars and tattoos than playing football !

Oh for a Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Alan Ball or Gordon Banks, IMO, we've never had anybody come close to just those 4 from '66' and '70'

in forty odd years, and we probably never will, there just is'nt the dedication these days, too much else to do.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I'm a bit of a England apologist, and with the team we had went to the most difficult away game in the group and got the result we needed....yes it was crap, but an exciting 4-3 defeat would have been a waste. Whatever, we need to be in Brazil, just so we have even more to moan about!

It's going to be even more embarrassing in Brazil. This is the worst England team I've ever seen and I've been watching a long while.

[Batman.]

If there's one reason to be optimistic with the National Team, it's the manager. However it is to watch, he knows how to get the correct results at this level, and has done with even worse sets of players than these.

[Audax]

The story before this was England could not afford to lose, go in and get the draw. That's what they were aiming for. In this case, it might have worked.

October 10 and 14, Montenegro and Poland will tell.

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Though it would be difficult to compare to the '66 winners, the '90 team and to me, the '04 Euro team were awfully good.

[Audax]

That '74 Dutch team that went to the finals of the World Cup was lucky to go, in fact, that book "Brilliant Orange" tells the story that their qualifying was a bit flukey at that.

Argentina I repeat hasn't gone to the semis since '90 as well.

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Though from Europe, again, I think it's set for Belgium to do very well, semis, quarters at least.

[speeeeeeedie]

I like this article from Soccernet; http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/9376?cc=5901

Are facilities and training methods great? Or is nature the ultimate development tool?

[joey_big_nose]

When you look across the side there is no doubt that we look very weak. Rooney and maybe Hart are the only players in the entire team who would get a sniff in the top sides in Europe. Gerrard, Lampard and Cole are just too old these days while Wiltshire looks well off the boil this season.

We are in a rebuilding phase at the moment. The worrying thing is no young players have come out and stamped their authority on the team like Rooney, Terry, Fedinand, Gerrard etc. did. Ross Barkley looks a talent. Oxlaide Chamberlaine has quality, Phil Jones is very good as we know. But it definitely feels as if England have declined significantly while quality in other nations and perhaps across the game as a whole, has improved significantly.

[thenodrog]

When you look across the side there is no doubt that we look very weak. Rooney and maybe Hart are the only players in the entire team who would get a sniff in the top sides in Europe. Gerrard, Lampard and Cole are just too old these days while Wiltshire looks well off the boil this season.

We are in a rebuilding phase at the moment. The worrying thing is no young players have come out and stamped their authority on the team like Rooney, Terry, Fedinand, Gerrard etc. did. Ross Barkley looks a talent. Oxlaide Chamberlaine has quality, Phil Jones is very good as we know. But it definitely feels as if England have declined significantly while quality in other nations and perhaps across the game as a whole, has improved significantly.

We can either come back with a vengeance or do a Scotland and become minor nation forever.

btw disagree about Hart. He looked distinctly dodgy on Tuesday night for the first 30mins at least.

[Audax]

Goalkeepers, they all have nightmare moments,

Green vs. USA, that one, and Carson vs. Croatia, not making excuses but it happens to virtually everyone.