I do too, but we won’t. England have been good in 3 tournaments in my lifetime. The last one was a fluke.
I just can’t get my hopes up as we’re tactically inept and can’t work out how to play our best players.
I’ll be cockahoop if Henderson, Rashford and Sterling are dropped for more progressive players.
90, 96 and 2018?
England went far in all three but were pretty garbage in them as well. All three were pretty flukey.
1990 - piss poor in the groups, fluked Belgium and were lucky against Cameroon.
1996 - Fluked Spain on pens who battered England. One great performance against Holland. Probably the best chance to win a tournament as squad wise Spain, Italy and France were the three best teams. Shit Germany team ground it out and had their own luck.
2018 - first good (not great) team faced, outplayed and out against Croatia. lost to Belgium in the group and and third place play off and beat Tunisia in added time. Scraped past Colombia and beat a tripe Sweden….
So is that what one decent team beat convincingly since 90? Oh and maybe Argentina in 98 as well.
For me the problem with England is two fold the majority of the time. The problem is the FA and often having a shite manager.
The FA ensure certain players are picked by popularity. This is why Clough was never the England manager. He would not be told who to pick or how to play. However, often even when the players are talented enough despite the FA instructions, the squad is let down by shite managers. The importance of a manager can’t be understated in international tournament football.
Players wise I think 2000-2006 has been the best back to front for England and Sven has probably been the best manager tactically.
I think this squad is the most exciting attacking wise but lacks a good goalie and depth in defence and central midfield.
Manager wise….I’d say Southgate is on par with Hodgson. Average. Uninspiring. A yes man. A good manager could really make a difference to this squad.
