England v Uruguay

[Ray78]

Gerard has been our Achilles heel for a number of years now. He’s not disciplined nor is he technically efficient enough for International football.

Sure he’ll look good against teams like Macedonia and San Marino but when coming up against a quality midfield he’s useless. He mastered the art of running around a lot and striking a ball very, very hard. That is it. He is not an intelligent enough footballer to play possession based football.

The less said about Rooney the better, we can no longer afford to accommodate him.

Welbeck will soon be sold to Sunderland or Hull and then we’ll never see him wear an England top again, that day can’t come quick enough. Henderson, who had a fairly decent season is back to looking distinctly average.

Our defence is woeful but then so many of the teams at this tournament suffer from the same thing. We lack a world class player, Italy and Uruguay have at least 1 each.

We’re just not good enough, haven’t been for a long time and it won’t get better until a manager is appointed who has the balls to pick players on merit and who fit into a team and not pick players on past reputations or the fact they play for a certain club and manage to shift a few more shirts.

Trouble is there are no better coaches or managers,

 

[Mdr]

This is what really pisses me off with football in this country and the average 'England' football fan.

The argument that 'this is what happens when the premier league is so full of foreign players' is just utter bollocks.

There is absolutely no way that if city as a team had an option on a player that was better than silva, better than toure, better than aguero; THAT WAS ENGLISH, that they wouldn't be playing for us. The fact is that we haven't got players like that and as a result we won't be signing them and playing them. The fact that we don't have good enough english players is not a consequence of foreign players in our league, it merely stands to highlight the point that we don't have high enough standards in this country.

There is a certain xenophobia when it comes to other ways of going about producing fine players. A suspicion of anything that isn't English. Well trust me the gap between England and Holland, France, Spain and Germany will only continue to get bigger. The argument that Spain have had an awful tournament too is moot. They have just come to the end of what was perhaps the most dominating international team ever.

I'm seeing comments here making light of statements such as 'we don't prioritise skill and technique as much as power and height and work rate'. It's this attitude that will keep us from ever winning anything ever again. I've said it before and I will say it again, England winning the World Cup in 1966 was the worst thing to ever happen to English football.

I'm sick of it. And the sad thing is, if even if they do manage to qualify somehow (and they definitely don't deserve to) all of this will be forgotten. I'm just bored of it.

Right now, English football in general accepts the fact that we've chosen foreign players and the quality of our league over developing English ones, and the quality of the national side, and that's something everybody knows and that's fine.
We won the league, yet we've only two players in the squad, one being the keeper. We'd have English players in there if they were good enough, but they're not. The fact that the Man City representation was Hart and Milner says it all really.

English players, typically, have always been the hardworking type. It's the foreign players that would be the more creative, good finisher, type of player. So while Sterling or whoever, may benefit playing alongside Suarez at Liverpool, there's nobody with the ability to do what Suarez can do. There's hardworking players there, but as always the final touch and the final delivery isn't good enough, and that's where the foreign players dominate. There's not one player in that English side, with the exception of maybe Rooney, that people expect something special to happen. Nobody expects "magic" from Welbeck, Hederson etc.
Like I said earlier, the expectation needs to be lowered until the development of the game in England changes.

 

[BlueHammer85]

So much bullshit and in depth nonsense written on here every time we lose. The fact is the World Cup is a fucking lucky dip. Spain the reigning champions , amazing team played two games and lost so there out, we played well both games - Uruguay should have been down to 10 men, Rooney hit bar and Gerrard was unlucky where the ball bounced off his head near the half way line ! The majority of these games are just decided on luck. Brazil first game v Croatia, disallowed goal shouldn't of been and a joke penalty decision. How many times have we been knocked out on penalty's over the years. Again luck. Were a decent side on par with about 20 other teams. It's a lucky dip.

 

[Mdr]

Gerard has been our Achilles heel for a number of years now. He’s not disciplined nor is he technically efficient enough for International football.

Sure he’ll look good against teams like Macedonia and San Marino but when coming up against a quality midfield he’s useless. He mastered the art of running around a lot and striking a ball very, very hard. That is it. He is not an intelligent enough footballer to play possession based football.

The less said about Rooney the better, we can no longer afford to accommodate him.

Welbeck will soon be sold to Sunderland or Hull and then we’ll never see him wear an England top again, that day can’t come quick enough. Henderson, who had a fairly decent season is back to looking distinctly average.

Our defence is woeful but then so many of the teams at this tournament suffer from the same thing. We lack a world class player, Italy and Uruguay have at least 1 each.

We’re just not good enough, haven’t been for a long time and it won’t get better until a manager is appointed who has the balls to pick players on merit and who fit into a team and not pick players on past reputations or the fact they play for a certain club and manage to shift a few more shirts.

I agree about Gerrard. Past it, but I can see why it would have been difficult to drop him, however I think in midfield is where England collapsed and lost the game.
I think it's a bit harsh on Rooney (though ridiculously overhyped) because he was the best England had to offer, he wasn't his best, but who was there that would have done better than him? I'm all for it, but there's not much on an option there.
Welbeck is just horrendous, I fail to think of any other team he'd make, he's just plain awful and it really is a sad state of affairs that there's nothing better to offer than him apparently.
Our defence is a backline of Everton, not exactly world beaters.
At what point were England good enough? Any time England had any semblance of a top player/good team, they crumbled under the relentless pressure and criticism.
Who should have been picked? What world class player got left out? With the size of the playing pool in England it's laughable that there isn't one top class player among them.
So, in all seriousness, who should have made the team/squad, that didn't. Who would have been England's saviour?

 

[Blue Is the Opposite of Blue]

.............................Hart..........................
Johnson....Cahill....Jagielka....Baines
........................Gerrard..........................
........Henderson.......Barkley............
.........................Sterling........................
.................Rooney...Sturridge.........

Imagine that team with Brendan Rodgers in charge. It'd probably make the semi-finals.

 

[Mdr]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NsMGs52I3Y[/video]

Neville's take on foreign players from last year.

 

[AltrinchamBlue]

This is what really pisses me off with football in this country and the average 'England' football fan.

The argument that 'this is what happens when the premier league is so full of foreign players' is just utter bollocks.

There is absolutely no way that if city as a team had an option on a player that was better than silva, better than toure, better than aguero; THAT WAS ENGLISH, that they wouldn't be playing for us. The fact is that we haven't got players like that and as a result we won't be signing them and playing them. The fact that we don't have good enough english players is not a consequence of foreign players in our league, it merely stands to highlight the point that we don't have high enough standards in this country.

There is a certain xenophobia when it comes to other ways of going about producing fine players. A suspicion of anything that isn't English. Well trust me the gap between England and Holland, France, Spain and Germany will only continue to get bigger. The argument that Spain have had an awful tournament too is moot. They have just come to the end of what was perhaps the most dominating international team ever.

I'm seeing comments here making light of statements such as 'we don't prioritise skill and technique as much as power and height and work rate'. It's this attitude that will keep us from ever winning anything ever again. I've said it before and I will say it again, England winning the World Cup in 1966 was the worst thing to ever happen to English football.

I'm sick of it. And the sad thing is, if even if they do manage to qualify somehow (and they definitely don't deserve to) all of this will be forgotten. I'm just bored of it.

Right now, English football in general accepts the fact that we've chosen foreign players and the quality of our league over developing English ones, and the quality of the national side, and that's something everybody knows and that's fine.
We won the league, yet we've only two players in the squad, one being the keeper. We'd have English players in there if they were good enough, but they're not. The fact that the Man City representation was Hart and Milner says it all really.

English players, typically, have always been the hardworking type. It's the foreign players that would be the more creative, good finisher, type of player. So while Sterling or whoever, may benefit playing alongside Suarez at Liverpool, there's nobody with the ability to do what Suarez can do. There's hardworking players there, but as always the final touch and the final delivery isn't good enough, and that's where the foreign players dominate. There's not one player in that English side, with the exception of maybe Rooney, that people expect something special to happen. Nobody expects "magic" from Welbeck, Hederson etc.
Like I said earlier, the expectation needs to be lowered until the development of the game in England changes.

Definitely agree with that but it's like I've said, there is definite suspicion and resentment towards anyone who would attempt to change the system as it is. It just seems like jobs for the boys.. I mean it clearly is but the whole thing about needing to appoint an English manager to 'properly understand the English way' is utter shit. It's football. The England manager is a puppet in the same way a leader of a government is. They are there to take the plaudits and the abuse but really, roy Hodgson never had a change tonight, a complete 20 year overhaul is needed from the very bottom upwards and it will not happen when people like Greg fucking dyke and Trevor fucking brooking are involved in this process.

 

[malg]

So much bullshit and in depth nonsense written on here every time we lose. The fact is the World Cup is a fucking lucky dip. Spain the reigning champions , amazing team played two games and lost so there out, we played well both games - Uruguay should have been down to 10 men, Rooney hit bar and Gerrard was unlucky where the ball bounced off his head near the half way line ! The majority of these games are just decided on luck. Brazil first game v Croatia, disallowed goal shouldn't of been and a joke penalty decision. How many times have we been knocked out on penalty's over the years. Again luck. Were a decent side on par with about 20 other teams. It's a lucky dip.

Utter shite, and on a monumental scale. England are a team with average players, and not one single world class player - that's why they're where they are.

 

[AltrinchamBlue]

So much bullshit and in depth nonsense written on here every time we lose. The fact is the World Cup is a fucking lucky dip. Spain the reigning champions , amazing team played two games and lost so there out, we played well both games - Uruguay should have been down to 10 men, Rooney hit bar and Gerrard was unlucky where the ball bounced off his head near the half way line ! The majority of these games are just decided on luck. Brazil first game v Croatia, disallowed goal shouldn't of been and a joke penalty decision. How many times have we been knocked out on penalty's over the years. Again luck. Were a decent side on par with about 20 other teams. It's a lucky dip.

This attitude right here is the problem. It's a lucky dip in respect to a lucky bounce or a questionable refereeing decision. I understand that. What isn't a lucky dip is Spain's complete and utter domination of club and world football for the past 6 years. Granted it seems to have run it's course in it's current format but the spanish will reinvent themselves. Part of the philosophy they have used to be so successful is a willingness to change and adapt and as a result I know who my money would be on for who would win a World Cup next between Spain and England

 

[TonyM]

Welbeck was shocking...again.

I think England need a foreign manager.