How you can rise to the position of national coach and believe it's a good idea to play Daniel Sturridge out on the wing; bring Jack Wilshere to the tournament in the first place, witness how out of form an ineffective he is during the 0-0 draw with Slovakia, and still bring him on for the second half of such a crucial game; play Wayne Rooney as a holding midfield player as he did for much of the second half; and watch Harry Kane fail to deliver a single set piece of any quality what so ever, visually witness the confidence drain out of him, but continue to have him take every free kick and corner. I'm not making any excuses for the players, many of whom failed to deliver, some spectacularly so, but it's rare you see a coach get it so wrong. According to the commentary team yesterday, England have beaten just two teams in the knock out stages of tournament football since Italia 1990: Denmark at the 2002 World Cup and Ecuador in 2006. I guess they didn't count the victory on penalties over Spain at Euro 96. Maybe they got it wrong, but I can't think of another. Difficult to argue that we're anything other than a 3rd class international team when you consider that record and maybe the Iceland result wasn't the shock it has been made out to be.
It's interesting Jay. Woy is your typical FA establishment man, but I feel the game is moving more in the way of younger, better trained head coaches (see Danny Mark 2 v Johnson/Hecky, at our level). Our performance has been all too predictable, following on from the limp showing at the Brazil World Cup - - and South Africa before it. And we have Gary Neville assisting, who bombed at Valencia, and Ray Lewington (nice enough chap, but what's he ever done?). Thank God John Stones didn't get a start this tournament.
More stark perhaps is the stat that I heard on the radio late last night which was that we have only won six knockout games in tournament football since 1966.
Wonder when it'll start to sink in that our International standard players for the main part look good week in week out because of the foreign players in their respective teams ?
"According to the commentary team yesterday, England have beaten just two teams in the knock out stages of tournament football since Italia 1990" That's right and you need look no further. England losing a knock out game is the safest bet in the world to place with Ladbrooks. In that time we have had numerous managers/players/tactics and the result is the same. We need to look at the quality of the raw material - more particularly the abject mental state of those who pull on the white jersey and who play with utter fear. The bigger the occasion - the more they shrink. After followed England since 1970 - I have no answers.
Beat Spain in 1996 after pens - so you are right. Mind you, Spain were the better on the day back and then and were unlucky.
The thing that really needs to change is the set up surrounding the England team. Why do we have a bunch of middle aged business men appointing our managers? These are men that ruined our greatest, and IMO the greatest international first 11 ever, side by appointing one inept manager after another is SVE, McLaren and Capello. Why not have a panel of say 3-5 ex players, managers etc who know what its all about, people like Brooking, Neville, Venables or whoever to select our managers and generally run the set up Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We needed someone to take the pressure off Rooney. A creative player from deep who can control the tempo of games. Step forward Michael Carrick. But no, Milner, and unfit Henderson and Wilshere on the plane instead. Carrick has to be one of the most underrated and under-appreciated players of his generation.
Same Carrick that refused to be in one of the England squads? Great player. But his international career should have been over from that moment onwards.
We would do better if some of our players got out of the comfort zone and plied their trade in foreign leagues. Not so much to improve their technique, but to strengthen their character and durability. More intelligent players would not go amiss either. In the absence of that we need a strong manager who is going to pick a fluent team, not necessarily the best players.
most Sunday league defences would have defended the 2 Iceland goals better than that lot yesterday. You can't call it amateurish defending because that would be an insult to amateurs. Also time to start picking teams that are based on form not reputations
