Well saidThe unintended consequence of the ridiculous homegrown rules is that we now have a generation of extremely mediocre English players earning an absolute fortune in the Premier League. This inflates their egos to stratospheric levels, ably assisted by a fawning, sycophantic media who laud anything an Englishman does way ahead of the numerous foreign players who enabled him to do it.
There is not a single one of those England players that I would want City to buy, and that includes Hart and Sterling if they didn't already play for us! Yet apart from Rashford, I imagine every single one of them pockets at least something in the region of 100k a week.
Somehow, a manager has then got to wade through this overwhelming sense of entitlement and get these walking-talking egos to adhere to a strict system. Because, let's face it, that is what international football is all about. It's not about 6 players all trying to be the hero at once, it's about building a coherent system with players who are willing to take everything on board and work selflessly to make it happen.
Of course, it doesn't help when the manager is as piss poor as Roy Hodgson, but I think anyone would struggle with this lot because they're all in it for themselves and seem to think they know better. I really don't know where the England national team goes from here, because until the players themselves accept that they are nowhere near as good as they think they are, we are going to struggle to become a team that is stronger than the sum of its parts.
The fact that we went the whole way through qualifying and the warm up games without knowing our best lineup or formation says it all.
Everyone knew England didn't have the best players, but Iceland and Italy have proven that tactics, organisation, workrate and passion can overcome that.
Whoever takes over as England manager, they need to get the basics right. Pick a formation that plays to our strengths (whatever the hell they are these days) and select the players best suited for that system.
Hodgson did well to make such a mess of this tournament though, by English standards we had no expectations and we're still disappointed!
Shearer should get it just so he can badly fail. He is an awful pundit and boring to listen to.It is but it's a problem that has been there for a long time. It's a problem that exists within the FA as well. We're incapable of coming up with our own ideas on how the game should be played. We liked the passing game of the Spanish so we decided that would be our youth model. We then liked how the Germans did it and had a conveyor belt of talent through youth level to senior, and did the same with coaching. That's now what we want to copy with Gareth Southgate.
There aren't enough of these know-it-all pundits getting involved. Shearer can fuck right off. Says how he offered himself when Capello got sacked but they said he didn't have enough experience. Now he's saying he'll offer himself again. If you want the job Alan fucking work for it. At least Southgate is getting involved and trying to do something. You can't fault that. I'd rather that than Shearer sit in his studio getting paid fuck loads to slag people off and then get the big job.
We need someone with experience, and outside of the FA's thinking in my opinion. Eddie Howe might not have a huge CV of success but I truly believe he knows the game and has an excellent philosophy of how it should be played. The success of teams like Costa Rica at the World Cup, Italy in these Euro's and indeed Iceland show that a team with a gameplan is much more important than a team with star names. It's if you've got both that you're most dangerous - like the Germans. They were lacking a central target and their whole game was impacted. Gomez comes in and they're instantly back to the Germany we expect to see. A system. Great players. Sensible manager. It's not rocket science.
I think the problem was we had 3 excellent strikers in Sturridge, Kane and Vardy. All 3 of them are central strikers. Tried to play all 3 like messi, Suarez and Neymar at Barcelona.
Hodgson tried it and it's understandable that he tried it given how good they are.
Kane and Vardy were the best strikers in the Premier league last season. Sturridge barely played but scored almost every game he played.That's the thing. Vardy, Kane ad Sturridge are not good at all. They think they are, helped by the media who gather Rashford is the new Messi after one decent game. Not one single player in the England squad is the main player within a team that s European top. So either you acknowledge your limitations and fight like a team i.e Iceland, or accept humiliation.
Kane and Vardy were the best strikers in the Premier league last season. Sturridge barely played but scored almost every game he played.
I think the problem was we had 3 excellent strikers in Sturridge, Kane and Vardy. All 3 of them are central strikers. Tried to play all 3 like messi, Suarez and Neymar at Barcelona.
Hodgson tried it and it's understandable that he tried it given how good they are.