England Team Thread

[rmoxon]

While mclarean obviously messed up, yet again with the formation,you do have to take into account that our 4 most important players(IMO anyway) were missing tonight. The first half was terrible but we did fight back.

But then all that just signals that Mclarean does have alot to learn which is somthing that makes no sense for an international manager, to be honest I think most people on the forum could have managed the team better than he did tonight.

[prinnysquad]

Bottom line:

England won only one of the four games against the 'big' two in the group. They knew these were the important ones, and totally blew it. They don't deserve anything but a very harsh post-mortem in the managerial, structural, tactical, technical and motivational departments.

[Drogin]

I don't think the number of foreign players really matters, nearly all the big English clubs have academies. If those academies aren't producing, then that's either because the quality isn't there or the coaches aren't getting the best of the youth. Never mind the fact that English players are all ridiculously overpriced. Bent - £17 mill. LOL.

England definitely had the quality tonight, just not the drive to win it. They got back in the game and immediately seemed to sit back and relax. They got what they deserve and I hope a good few of those players never put on an England shirt again. You think Wenger, Mourinho and all would stand the constant **** performances from certain players? Sometimes you have to take a gamble on a few outsiders who could perform.

[saturn-gamer]

Its a shame England is not present, its one of those countries that should always be there (along with Italy, Holland, France etc). But then again, they blew up and had all of it for the taking... just winning a home game was enough.

From the way I see it, the English squad are never really playing their best tactical game. Its all a bit predictable, not that much creativity. They need a tactician and/or builder for a coach, someone like Mourinho, Wenger, Van Gaal... I'm sure those can build a solid team out of this material.

[ShadowDancer]

Well, thats the nail on the head, a decent manager. (NOT sarcasm)

[jezzace]

Whilst its exactly what england deserve, I'm still gutted that england won't be there next summer. What am I supposed to do all summer now? Work i suppose...

On a side note, for englands home ground what the hell was wrong with wembley pitch? I don't think it made a difference because both teams played on it, but it is shocking when you consider the great premiership pitches. England will never host a world cup with this current pitch.

[Fireproofradiator]

Did anyone really think the FA would have sacked Maclaren if he'd/Israel'd got us through to the finals? Mad.

Glad it's over though. A manager who only made decent decisions when they were forced on him (playing Gerard with Barry in the middle when Lampard was injured, notably), never really displayed any tactical nouse, and never seemed able to motivate the team.

But I don't see how we're going to get a decent manager to come in considering he's gonna be kicking his heels for the next 12 months...

I guess we'll just see how Venables does now he's on his own. I fully expect him to massively distance himself from Maclaren in the papers and start positioning himself as an interim solution. We could do worse.

[MarioMark]

On a side note, for englands home ground what the hell was wrong with wembley pitch?

The NFL did it.

[Team Andromeda]

On a side note, for englands home ground what the hell was wrong with wembley pitch? I don't think it made a difference because both teams played on it, but it is shocking when you consider the great premiership pitches. England will never host a world cup with this current pitch.

Well it might help if they closed the roof now and again, but its the pallets system that to blame . Anyway it' s a shame England won't be there , but it doesn't change the fact that England simply aren't good enough , and haven't got many worldclass players or strengh in depth , no matter how much the press may like to kid them self's.

[Kieran76]

The sad fact is that being the English manager is not half as prestigious as it was 20 years ago. When big club sides come-a-calling, managers would prefer the giant pay packet, media recogntion and attention they get there. I could never see any of the names mentioned in this thread just droping everything to come and manage a national side that hasn't a competitive match for nearly a year.

[glazza]

Not much else for me to add to this thread as you boys have said it all.

[EJG1980]

I don't think the number of foreign players in the game has too much to do with it, it's just a useful scapegoat. As many people have pointed out in recent days, we had virtually no foreign players here in the 70's and we qualified for one world cup in that decade.

We really need a big change at many levels of the game. The top people in the FA aren't (from what I've read) people from within the game, so they need changing.

If we want a large number of good English players, we need to do what a lot of the foreign nations do and develop the skills of our youngsters from day one. I read that we have our kids playing competitive matches almost straight away, whereas other nations just concentrate purely on skills, keeping the ball, etc., and don't start competitive matches until they're much older.

[Red Hogg]

Sackings shouldn't end with Grinning Red Bastard's. The FA brass should go. 80% of the players should go, and by that I mean apart from the ones who will be miles too old come 2010 World Cup - LOL!! IF WE QUALIFY!! LOL!!! - the "quality players" who should never wear an England shirt again.

I was despondent last night but with the promising news that GRB is about to get sacked off it a source of comfort to me.

[Pilotwings]

I passed out on my sofa at 6 o'clock last night and only woke up at 7 this morning Full coma

Im not an england fan anyway so no big deal but I was looking forward to watching it.

[VR46]

****e performance all round, front page of the Sun today is excellent and sums things up.