Some really good points raised today on TalkSport ref England

First of all - Germany are grinding through the competition motivated by the fact that they haven't won a major international honour since 1996. We haven't won since 1966, and we have seen no material improvement or urgency from the FA. Could you imagine Germany going 48 years without a tournament victory?

Second point raised was about so many smaller footballing nations making progress and giving exceptional performances 'punching above their weight' and being greater than the sum of their parts. How they play for each other, defend as a whole, attack as a whole, and show collective passion and commitment. I can't remember an England team greater than the individuals within it. The two good England teams I recall are 1990 and 1996 - neither won anything obviously, but both made good use of talented players. Generally though, it always feels hastily constructed, a group of good players arranged without great coherence or familiarity, punching below their collective ability. How are we going to address that?

Final point was, looking at the efforts of Nigeria, Algeria, USA, and tonight Switzerland - how can the England team and the FA escape severe criticism, because we have done so badly in comparison?

 

What a good post, I agree totally with what you say...I am usually the first to defend England but it comes down to organisation and the finger has to point at Roy Hodgson...I'd like to see Hoddle involved again.

 

have to disagree a little

Roy has not that much time to really get to grips with it for this world cup IMHO.. I get the impression he is indeed looking at the next generation of players for England... hopefully our very own John Stones too. I would like to see him given the time to make an attempt on EURO 2016, then after that make a decision on his future.

 

Re: have to disagree a little

But he had a full 2 year qualifying campaign. BTW I don't really advocate sacking him, but your point above is just not true.

 

point taken Pete

seems we are kinda on the same page in some ways though.

 

Re: have to disagree a little

He's had two years, yet still played players out of position.

 

Re: have to disagree a little

Sold our soul to the Premier League. The national team set up is well down the FA's agenda.

To add insult, the Prem. trains so called lesser nations' players at the expense of talented English laikers. Whereas La Liga / Bundesliga, etc. hone their talent.

The final insult...Despite all the bluster...The Prem is no better than the majority of European leagues.

 

Re: have to disagree a little

I think we need to adopt a playing style at all levels of the England set-up and stick to it. We should encourage all the academies to play in this same style and develop the technical aspects of all players (defenders, midfielders and forwards). I don't advocate tika-taka but we need defenders who are not afraid of the ball and midfielders who can pick a pass. These are attributes that need to be instilled at an early age.

 

cannot argue with that at all

sad innit :frown:

 

This^^^^^^^^^^^



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The greed of current players is never ending.
When a player is getting to the back end of a career off they go searching riches abroad.
Why not put something back by playing in the lower leagues and bring on the young players. Lampard, Cole etc
How long before the bigger wage is in the USA?

 

Spot on. You could argue that the FA's problem is more a case of it having allowed the Premier League to effectively control the whole game. Tail wagging the dog etc.