Well, 2012 was a lesson in trying not to lose. If we'd won the penalties (ha!) It would go down at a great tournament
The world cup we clearly thought we'd cracked it and it was an utter shambles. But... Despite out piss easy group I think England could actually play without fear and express themselves Ok we aren't good, but it'll be nice not to be embarrassed for a change
The England team has always been a joke. If you play for one of the big 4 you are almost guaranteed to play for England even if you are not first choice at your club. Form has never come into it. It's great to see Shelvey play and play well but would he have been picked if others had been fit, despite deserving it.
Sven looked outside the biggest clubs, that's why the tabloids had it in for him.
That and *gasp* he wasn't English. I'm glad hysteria about the England team in the media has died down in recent years
I think the media like the rest of us have gradually accepted how poor we've become. Last year's WC was a low even for us. Masked by 70 mins of competing against Italy. That 70 mins was quickly followed by a typical abject performance against Uruguay, where Suarez showed us what 'world class' really is. The Costa Rica game went under the radar given we were already out.
Combine this with 2012's QF against Italy where we sat so deep we could've been watching the game in our living rooms with the England team, and the 2010 WC, missing out on Euro 2008, it's been shit.
I accept now we're miles behind in terms of technical ability, so I would rather see us adopt the attitude of the Irish teams around the turn of the millennium. Those boys really played for their shirts. That's all I ask from England now.
Unfortunately, and not for this thread, bigger questions have to be asked about how we are changing the game for the future generations to compete
But we're not that bad though. We consistently qualify for major tournaments, and are usually in or just outside the FIFA top 10, we are always top seeds in the qualifying groups. WC 94 and Euro 08 are the only qualification failures in the last 25 years.
Does that mean we are good enough to expect to win? No. Does that mean we should be doing better in tournaments? Yes. Whether it's tactics, tiredness, apathy or penalty shootouts, we've underperformed in too many recent tournaments. Under Eriksson we consistently got to the QF stage, which is about our level.
Agree with both - just ask for a fearless performance/positivity/playing for the shirt, whatever you deem it.
Shelvey was decent enough against a pub team, you can only beat whats in front of you I guess. Look forward to seeing him against a team that will put a bit of pressure on.
Didnt really notice Barkley - not sure he's quite the player he was promising to be a season or two ago.
Shelvey was decent enough against a pub team, you can only beat whats in front of you I guess. Look forward to seeing him against a team that will put a bit of pressure on.
Didnt really notice Barkley - not sure he's quite the player he was promising to be a season or two ago.
He really looked like a bloke of the same name who has played over 100 Premier League games against top class players from all over the world, but if you say he plays for the Dog and Duck in the Woolwich Sunday league, who am I to argue? .
Whatever people say about the quality of the group etc, qualifying with 7 straight wins is impressive.
Let's hope we can take it into a major tournament for once.
This. We have to see something next year though. If we get another abject tournament display I'll cry. I'm desperate for us to just turn up and play for that shirt. All I want is positivity and commitment. We're not of the skill level of the top teams, that's obvious.
Just be positive
Just want us to play the likes of Spain Germany italy France in the friendlies. If we get beat we get beat but it is only way to improve
Well, of course that is not always possible to play those teams, but we do on a reasonably regular basis. We have played all the above in the past five years, Italy twice in fact. Plus Brazil (twice), Holland and Belgium. Before World Cups friendlies tend to be against opposition from different continents, for obvious reasons. Our next two announced friendlies are against France and Germany...
Those outside those parameters are Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Scotland, twice each, Hungary and Ghana. I would argue that of that list, the only one that had no value was Hungary?
So by the start of the next major tournament, 11 matches against top quality opposition and 12 against supposedly less challenging opponents. I don't think that is a bad ratio?
Big teams like Spain Italy France etc don't treat friendlies like england do. We play our best team and give maybe one or two a little run out. The big teams often play completely random squads to give others a chance to shine. It's in tournaments when these teams become lethal.
I was responding to MOL's point Diz, what you say may well be true, but it has nothing to do with what I was pointing out.
Shelvey was decent enough against a pub team, you can only beat whats in front of you I guess. Look forward to seeing him against a team that will put a bit of pressure on.
Didnt really notice Barkley - not sure he's quite the player he was promising to be a season or two ago.
He really looked like a bloke of the same name who has played over 100 Premier League games against top class players from all over the world, but if you say he plays for the Dog and Duck in the Woolwich Sunday league, who am I to argue? .
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Didnt really notice Barkley - not sure he's quite the player he was promising to be a season or two ago.