England Team Thread

[Marmotta]

I think a pre-qualifying round for the minnow nations would be a good idea. Just about every other competition have preliminary rounds for the smallest clubs (FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, etc.) before the bigger teams join in, so there's no reason it couldn't be done for international football too.

Southgate (I think) made a good point last night, that teams like San Marino are playing virtually every match with the attitude of "Let's try to lose by five or less" so they'll never attempt to play football and they'll never improve. If they have matches against similar sized teams much more often, they'll be playing matches to actually try and win, and thus you may get a little bit of improvement among those small nations and the one or two that make it into full qualifying would be better prepared.

San Marino will never improve because they have a population roughly the same as Dover and I think it would be safe to assume that if they did have any seriously good footballers, they would take up Italian nationality. ITV in particular bang on about having some type of preliminary competition while hailing the magic of minnows in the FA Cup, but when would you suggest it would be held, as Euro and WC qualification starts pretty much after the previous tournament. Knock-out preliminary rounds would restrict a country like San Marino to an average of one competitive international a year (assuming home and away ties), which seems pretty unfair and would hardly improve the quality of football.

[nakamura]

Anyone who plays San Marino should play rush goalie.

[Kit]

Maybe equal the playing field by allowing rampant steroid use for San Marino internationals.

Over to you Blatter.

[Kieran76]

San Marino will never improve because they have a population roughly the same as Dover and I think it would be safe to assume that if they did have any seriously good footballers, they would take up Italian nationality. ITV in particular bang on about having some type of preliminary competition while hailing the magic of minnows in the FA Cup, but when would you suggest it would be held, as Euro and WC qualification starts pretty much after the previous tournament. Knock-out preliminary rounds would restrict a country like San Marino to an average of one competitive international a year (assuming home and away ties), which seems pretty unfair and would hardly improve the quality of football.

The last qualifying game of any major tournament is in October, and the next tournament qualifying usually starts in August/September time. Seeing as these lesser teams have no matches to play during the World Cup/Euros then during the tournament would be the ideal time. As for the FA Cup, the minnows involved have gone through several qualifying rounds to even get to the first round proper and even then they get one shot to go through. San Marino and the like get 12 matches or so to get beaten by other teams.

[sj33]

One good point that I've heard is that the likes of San Marino might not actually support a pre-qualifying round due to the amount of money they receive when a big nation comes to play there. For example, when England went there this week, it was a sell-out attendance and there's also the international TV rights to take into account. Given that all nations have equal voting rights, many of the 'minnows' might see it as a financial step backwards, given that they're still unlikely to qualify even if they do make it through pre-qualifying.

But in terms of improving their game and generally changing the mindset of how they play, it seems like a good idea. But it sounds like the numbers might not add up for those who make those kinds of decisions.

[EJG1980]

Ah well, if it comes down to making less money then it surely won't happen

I suppose that if you look at it from the perspective of a nation like San Marino, they would say that they have every right to form a team and compete at international level the same as everyone else does, and how good or bad they are is irrelevant. It's hard to argue with that.

You also have the "romantic" aspect that you usually only get with football, where you have multi-millionaires playing on the same pitch as a team of bus drivers, accountants and shop assistants. It would be a shame to lessen or lose that aspect of the sport.

It's a tough one though as the gulf in class is SO big that you do sometimes wonder if the match is worthwhile. The average conference team would put up more of a fight against a Premier League side than the likes of San Marino do against the big nations.

[Kieran76]

I don't think this was as much as issue before the break up of the old Soviet Union. There are now so many teams in Europe that the size of the qualifying groups is just too much. The whole qualifying process is messed up, too many games against teams where the gulf in class miles apart.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Roy Hodgson has won 5 out of 10 competitive games as England manager. Three of those wins have come against Moldova and San Marino (twice).

When will people wake up to Hodgson? EASILY the most overrated manager to come out of this country, bar none.

[nakamura]

I think we are well organised under him but he isn't reacting to the flow of play fast enough. We badly needed to change it up in the second half today and he just didn't do it.

[PaTaito]

Cannot believe the slow reaction from hodgson tonight, and the change was utterly ineffective.

Have to say though, wtf was that thing on the loudspeaker grunting like he's auditioning for fear factory...

[parkinho]

Roy Hodgson has won 5 out of 10 competitive games as England manager. Three of those wins have come against Moldova and San Marino (twice).

When will people wake up to Hodgson? EASILY the most overrated manager to come out of this country, bar none.

I dunno, he did pretty well in the Premier League, taking some of the smaller teams (Fulham, WBA, Liverpool) to mid-table safety.

[sj33]

The bottom line is that England need to qualify, though. If he doesn't, his position will become untenable. Not overreacting to the loss, I just suspect that this will be the case.

[parkinho]

We didn't lose.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I dunno, he did pretty well in the Premier League, taking some of the smaller teams (Fulham, WBA, Liverpool) to mid-table safety.

Your Team Andromeda-style trolling is duly noted.

Might want to get your facts a little more correct, though - only thing that Hodgson succeeded in doing at Liverpool was pushing the team into a relegation battle whilst claiming that beating League Two teams in cup competition (something that was beyond him) would somehow be "Utopia".

We didn't lose.

We haven't managed a victory against any of the better sides in our group so far (Poland, Montenegro & Ukraine). 3 wins this campaign - two of which have been against San Marino.

The guy is a fraud.

[nakamura]

He isn't a fraud, he is a pretty good manager. Nothing amazing but solid enough. He needs to show improvement to situations though and quickly. We are very well setup at the start of a game but less so as it drags on.