madras

if we are going to spend wads on players i want to see good football. chelsea under jose done it for about 4 month

I don't buy in to that. England have plenty of spirit. One of our problems is that we seem to think that spirit is enough (witness the clueless Pearce as both player and manager - sums England up, bellicose, witless mediocrity). Our problems go much deeper. We're nowhere near as good as we think we are, technically we were bummed in the face ( © you) tonight, and if we'd made it to the finals, we'd only have got bummed in the face by some other supposedly second rate side in the quarter finals. croatia are no second rate side and pearce was not clueless as a player

every tournament throws up minnows who play above themselves. iceland a few years back, eire,finland have all had good runs in their time.

He's not a motivator. Over the course of a season (or qualification) he could get it right. But in terms of getting players fired up for the big game he was hopeless (see Chelsea vs. Man City) yet many in the england camp said he could motivate, i'll counter your chelsea v citeh with germany b v england,. ok . you may believe that in order to try and prove something I thought it was a common opinion. Was a good result but Germany were terrible and were missing some players. But alright, even giving you that one... how many times did England just bend over and take it under Sven? England v. Portugal 2006.... we weren't beaten by a better team, the whole team (bar Hargreaves) just gave up. France v. England 2004.... went ahead, then just sat back, lost 2-1. England v. Brazil 2002.... We never looked like getting back into the game. I'm cherry-picking results... we didn't lose that many games. We could see-off the dross for the most part but when it comes to the big game we've rarely stepped up. on each occasion we were beaten by temas with better players...it's not so very hard to understand (portugal maybe hard to call but they were at home etc) England don't have the best team in the world. We need a manager who can get the players to play above themselves. The original point I was making. Italy aren't the best team in the word really, are they? Greece weren't the best team in Europe in 2004. South Korea got results against better teams in 2002. If we are going to win something, or at least challenge in a major tournament, we need a manager who can take an England team with all their weaknesses and get the best out of them and then some. Sven wasn't that guy even if he is a good manager. McClaren definitely wasn't that guy. italians have a system that works, greece proved that europe wasn't strong at the time (denmark's euro champs win was better)korea just proved that most host nations get further than they should

He's not a motivator. Over the course of a season (or qualification) he could get it right. But in terms of getting players fired up for the big game he was hopeless (see Chelsea vs. Man City) yet many in the england camp said he could motivate, i'll counter your chelsea v citeh with germany b v england,. ok . you may believe that in order to try and prove something I thought it was a common opinion. Was a good result but Germany were terrible and were missing some players. But alright, even giving you that one... how many times did England just bend over and take it under Sven? England v. Portugal 2006.... we weren't beaten by a better team, the whole team (bar Hargreaves) just gave up. France v. England 2004.... went ahead, then just sat back, lost 2-1. England v. Brazil 2002.... We never looked like getting back into the game. I'm cherry-picking results... we didn't lose that many games. We could see-off the dross for the most part but when it comes to the big game we've rarely stepped up. on each occasion we were beaten by temas with better players...it's not so very hard to understand (portugal maybe hard to call but they were at home etc)

obviuosly a "u" but an "a" is apt

He's not a motivator. Over the course of a season (or qualification) he could get it right. But in terms of getting players fired up for the big game he was hopeless (see Chelsea vs. Man City) yet many in the england camp said he could motivate, i'll counter your chelsea v citeh with germany b v england,. ok . you may believe that in order to try and prove something

He's not a motivator. Over the course of a season (or qualification) he could get it right. But in terms of getting players fired up for the big game he was hopeless (see Chelsea vs. Man City) yet many in the england camp said he could motivate, i'll counter your chelsea v citeh with germany v england,.

"systems" are basically bullshit. They are used by people who make excuses for losing. Problems with English football are far deeper than this too bullshit. if he didnt have a system he'd put out the best 10 outfield players, guess what he plays specialist defenders,one or two players who are crap at right back but good at creating chances....how does he get round this...he uses a system. too much can be made of systems but you are right about the problems being deeper than that

I was taking a look through the Wayne Bridge thread to see how many actually wanted us to sign him and came across this: I.. don't know what to say.. just say "bridge had a mare today but he is better in all respects than baines"

And rightly so. The English media is a cancer to the national team. a general chat thing but the english media is a cancer to the nation

well i still don't think he is as good as is made out by some

I think this is part of the reason Rafa wanted to stick him on the wing and at least have him whip in crosses instead of thumping long balls out of the reach of his teamates all game! Rafa recognized that Alonso and Mascherano were actually real central midfielders and not Gerrard. possibly but neither alonso or mascherano are midfielders who can arrive late into the box and score. also the idea of whipping crosses in isn't really the continental style is it ?

An important difference I've seen when living in England is English boys hardly play football in their free time, and when they play it's institutionalised and on full size grass pitches. In the cities in Holland the culture is completely different. I live in Rotterdam, where there is hardly any space for full size football pitches in the city centre, so youngsters very often play football every day after school and in their free time on small, concrete pitches.. The objectives are completely different too, as it´s not about scoring goals, but about trickery. A goal without beautiful passing, movement and/or skill will be laughed at and possibly not even counted. It´s not until these boys are in their early to mid teens that they get picked up by scouts and start to work on the tactical and physical aspects of the game. In this way in Rotterdam alone in recent years talents such as Van Persie and Drenthe have surfaced. If a player is intelligent and motivated enough playing more effective football, tactics and physical strength can be learned/trained. The extraordinary levels of skill that many players possess are self-thought, and often these players will say they actually played with far more talented players out on the concrete pitches, but these other youngster didn´t have the desire to make it out in the professional world of football.. so why is the dutch league, outside the top 4 or 5 horrible and of a very poor standard ? what happened to the likes of ajax picking up kids at about 8yrs and schooling them ? probably cos the netherlands is a small country and the best players move abroad. 93 dutch players playing outside netherlands at the moment. how many england players are plying their trade abroad? one or two obscure players probably, like colin kazim richards, and he's half turkish. english players arent playing abroad as they don't need to finacially

An important difference I've seen when living in England is English boys hardly play football in their free time, and when they play it's institutionalised and on full size grass pitches. In the cities in Holland the culture is completely different. I live in Rotterdam, where there is hardly any space for full size football pitches in the city centre, so youngsters very often play football every day after school and in their free time on small, concrete pitches.. The objectives are completely different too, as it´s not about scoring goals, but about trickery. A goal without beautiful passing, movement and/or skill will be laughed at and possibly not even counted. It´s not until these boys are in their early to mid teens that they get picked up by scouts and start to work on the tactical and physical aspects of the game. In this way in Rotterdam alone in recent years talents such as Van Persie and Drenthe have surfaced. If a player is intelligent and motivated enough playing more effective football, tactics and physical strength can be learned/trained. The extraordinary levels of skill that many players possess are self-thought, and often these players will say they actually played with far more talented players out on the concrete pitches, but these other youngster didn´t have the desire to make it out in the professional world of football.. so why is the dutch league, outside the top 4 or 5 horrible and of a very poor standard ? what happened to the likes of ajax picking up kids at about 8yrs and schooling them ? I don´t think it´s of a horrible standard. The Premiership would be worse without the money and having to rely mainly on homegrown players, as is the case in Holland. Clubs like Ajax and Feyenoord pick up youngsters at a young age and train them for a couple of hours a week, but that won´t stop them playing their own game in their own spare time.. on the other hand the dutch can have the pick of african and south american youth because of more lax employment laws.

An important difference I've seen when living in England is English boys hardly play football in their free time, and when they play it's institutionalised and on full size grass pitches. In the cities in Holland the culture is completely different. I live in Rotterdam, where there is hardly any space for full size football pitches in the city centre, so youngsters very often play football every day after school and in their free time on small, concrete pitches.. The objectives are completely different too, as it´s not about scoring goals, but about trickery. A goal without beautiful passing, movement and/or skill will be laughed at and possibly not even counted. It´s not until these boys are in their early to mid teens that they get picked up by scouts and start to work on the tactical and physical aspects of the game. In this way in Rotterdam alone in recent years talents such as Van Persie and Drenthe have surfaced. If a player is intelligent and motivated enough playing more effective football, tactics and physical strength can be learned/trained. The extraordinary levels of skill that many players possess are self-thought, and often these players will say they actually played with far more talented players out on the concrete pitches, but these other youngster didn´t have the desire to make it out in the professional world of football.. so why is the dutch league, outside the top 4 or 5 horrible and of a very poor standard ? what happened to the likes of ajax picking up kids at about 8yrs and schooling them ?

for all that i don't think he'll be asked.

Tomorrow 8:30. Listening to 5live. Apparently Capello wants the job. they have to let a certain amount of time go by, enough to let mclaren think he's gonna keep his job.

never mind,could see the return of the home internationals

Aye, his Russian shirts will be selling like hot cakes now. doesn't he run a travel agency specialising in selling luxury hols to footballers....well a few now have an extra few weeks to kill next summer

warren barton will now be the happiest man in england

aye, you say that now that mourinho is no longer in the country

What those hoofs and little floaters down the middle? and the crosses not getting past the first man, the defence playing like strangers,the feeling that you have a squad good enough bit everything you see screams "not". To be quite honest how many of those out there would get in the Barca or Real or Milan sides? if richards,gerrard,lampard became available barca and real would be interested.

What those hoofs and little floaters down the middle? and the crosses not getting past the first man, the defence playing like strangers,the feeling that you have a squad good enough bit everything you see screams "not".

no-one else think it was like watching nufc over the last few weeks ?