When did we lose our national side?

[JH]

Rooney can't handle the pressure

 

He acts like he's the best thing since sliced fucking bread. Every notch of expectation he brought on himself.

[Neil]

I think we were right to stick with Rooney throughout the tournament. Despite his poor decisions, poor first touch and frustrations, he has shown for one of the best sides in the world he can produce something from nothing. Too bad he then went to Man Utd.

 

 

 

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

I agree with Niel.

 

I can't agree that he can't handle pressure, I think he's usually better for it. It just didn't happen for him. Can't really drop him though, If we'd started Defoe in his place and he didn't score we'd all be saying we shouldn't have dropped Rooney.

[quayside]

If Rooney has an issue with huge expectations, one thing he might want to consider is doing fewer Nike (and similar) tv ads which make him out to be the nation's saviour.

 

I'm picturing rows of babies having 'WAYNE' wristbands stapled on them whilst I write this.

 

Spot on.

 

quayside, I think you are a good poster, but I think you are talking utter s*** about England - I have never read a string of posts I disagree with more. Sorry.

 

FFS any reference to the advertising situation is irrelevant. Check out that Pringles advert with Anelka (the face of the French World Cup?) , it means nothing and the players do whatever they are told to by their agents. I'm just passing an opinion on why we screwed up on the pitch.

[Pilko]

If Rooney has an issue with huge expectations, one thing he might want to consider is doing fewer Nike (and similar) tv ads which make him out to be the nation's saviour.

 

I'm picturing rows of babies having 'WAYNE' wristbands stapled on them whilst I write this.

 

Spot on.

 

quayside, I think you are a good poster, but I think you are talking utter s*** about England - I have never read a string of posts I disagree with more. Sorry.

 

FFS any reference to the advertising situation is irrelevant. Check out that Pringles advert with Anelka (the face of the French World Cup?) , it means nothing and the players do whatever they are told to by their agents. I'm just passing an opinion on why we screwed up on the pitch.

 

As I said - a string of posts. Your stuff about Rooney and how it's not his fault - sorry, don't work for me. At all.

[Dokko]

We need to seriously think about having foreign player limits at the clubs and regulate how many must be on the pitch at the same time, you know what I mean. 5 English players in the starting line up or only 8 foreign based players in the squad.

 

We also need some ringers in like Germany.

 

 

[quayside]

If Rooney has an issue with huge expectations, one thing he might want to consider is doing fewer Nike (and similar) tv ads which make him out to be the nation's saviour.

 

I'm picturing rows of babies having 'WAYNE' wristbands stapled on them whilst I write this.

 

Spot on.

 

quayside, I think you are a good poster, but I think you are talking utter s*** about England - I have never read a string of posts I disagree with more. Sorry.

 

FFS any reference to the advertising situation is irrelevant. Check out that Pringles advert with Anelka (the face of the French World Cup?) , it means nothing and the players do whatever they are told to by their agents. I'm just passing an opinion on why we screwed up on the pitch.

 

As I said - a string of posts. Your stuff about Rooney and how it's not his fault - sorry, don't work for me. At all.

 

Fair enough - but I think he cares,

Stick the whole pressure of the nation on any one player who is part of a 23 man squad (and a management team) and most players will under perform imo.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

If Rooney has an issue with huge expectations, one thing he might want to consider is doing fewer Nike (and similar) tv ads which make him out to be the nation's saviour.

 

I'm picturing rows of babies having 'WAYNE' wristbands stapled on them whilst I write this.

 

Spot on.

 

quayside, I think you are a good poster, but I think you are talking utter s*** about England - I have never read a string of posts I disagree with more. Sorry.

 

FFS any reference to the advertising situation is irrelevant. Check out that Pringles advert with Anelka (the face of the French World Cup?) , it means nothing and the players do whatever they are told to by their agents. I'm just passing an opinion on why we screwed up on the pitch.

 

As I said - a string of posts. Your stuff about Rooney and how it's not his fault - sorry, don't work for me. At all.

 

I'd kind of agree with a lot of what was said.

It certainly wasn't Rooney's fault we went out of the World Cup. Obviously it was his job to score goals. The way we set up from the start with Heskey was a failed attempt at getting the best from Rooney and therefore him scoring. But if you're going to put that much pressure on someone you've got to back him up with service, which just wasn't any where near god enough. Pretty much none existent for the full 4 hours of football in fact. You could have put anyone else up there and they'd have been as unproductive.

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

For me it was when Beckham was dropped. Not because I think he shouldn't have been, but because that was a clear sign that the sun was setting on these players, that could and should have done something with their undoubted collective talent. Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, J.Cole, Terry, Ferdinand, Neville, Owen. Like them or not, they're all England players who were/are part of a generation of footballers who have played at the highest level. When they start winding down, and the replacements are players like Walcott, Johnson, Lennon, Milner (who didn't let us down tbf), not one of which has, or imo will play at the highest level, you know there's something seriously fucking wrong. I just hope players like Adam Johnson, Jack Wiltshire, and Carlton Cole can really push on, but tbh there is a chasm in their potential compared to Beckham, Scholes/Lampard/Gerrard etc.

[mrmojorisin75]

I think the foreign players thing is important but I also think, having watched the same shit again, that England have no style nor pattern of play and never really have done.  It's a lurch from one game of kick and rush to the next. 

 

Less foreign players in your league isn't going to solve that.  Continental sides are simply far superior technically and tactically so England either accept this and continue in the same vein, i.e. hoping pace & power can overcome better technique as it sometimes does, or someone needs to take a long view and sit down and think about it.

 

Not sure what the answer is myself but one thing that would certainly help us is to send more of our players abroad to play.  Had the nucleus of the team including Gerrard/Lampard/Rooney (bit early for him mind) et al been playing in Europe week in week out we'd have seen a very different England if you ask me.

 

Our national team epitomises our country in many senses, parochial and self-involved, sure of our own importance and destiny.  It's a shame we actually have to play against other teams really.

 

EDIT: forgot to say that some of the most promising football I remember with England was when Hargreaves was a mainstay, he added something different, an air of thought and intelligence if you like...the idea that keeping possession should be held in high regard.  Such a shame he's a cripple, even one player like him could have made a huge difference imo

[Exiled in Texas]

The American sports might have a clue to how this could be managed.  American Football has a fixed roster, so does NHL. Baseball has some sort of limit on players-home grown young players have more options to float up/down to first team than veterans.

 

So perhaps some sort of fixed roster size would help distribute the players.....something like a 23 man roster (picked as WC roster size but could be anything) and only allow clubs to register that number of players for the competition.  Allow them to have a second Reserves roster but limit the flow between the two rosters.

 

Want to bring in a new player? - then one has to go.  Either released as a free agent or has to pass through a "claim" system to get put onto reservers where other teams can claim them for their own team if they want to (and have roster room).

 

Injured players?.....Short term, just make do from your roster. Long term, then allow players to be assigned to Injured Reserve status (temporary placement say max 6 weeks) where playing roster can be increased temporarily (with cap of number of temporary players.

 

Why do I think this would be good?  Take the example of Sturridge.....went to Chelsea with dreams of playing in Blue, but realistically went for the paycheck.  But would he have gone there if he knew that he would not get one of the First Team roster spots and might be frozen out into the reserves permanently?? What if Chelsea decide that they just have to have some young startlet from the WC.  Well, perhaps that puts Sturridge into the "Claim" system and some lower team can claim him (and his contract) for their roster.

 

It seems to work well across the pond in keeping teams from stockpiling talent and making teams think twice before taking player A in case they must release player B, and makes players be realistic about where they can sign.

[NG32]

Totally agree mate.

[NG32]

May also drive wages down.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Surely we've gone too far down the road for anything like that to ever happen? We're talking hundreds of players of huge value to their clubs, on 5-year contracts worth millions.

 

Not sure we really have any major systemic problems that cause the England team to fail. We just need to work out how to organise and select our team, and how to impose our Premier League style of play on international games.

[mrmojorisin75]

Surely we've gone too far down the road for anything like that to ever happen? We're talking hundreds of players of huge value to their clubs, on 5-year contracts worth millions.

 

Not sure we really have any major systemic problems that cause the England team to fail. We just need to work out how to organise and select our team, and how to impose our Premier League style of play on international games.

 

this is the key isn't it, and despite increasingly competent managers at increasingly ridiculous cost it appears a very difficult thing to do once every 2 years (inc. Euros) when they come up against better technical and tactical opponents

 

the small amount of quality gets us through most times in qualifying and groups but explains why we lose against continental/south american teams...they're just fuckin better than us in all departments