The England thread

[DavidMarrio]

46 minutes ago, MDK said:

It's not just the manager, maybe a lot of people in the FA need to be replaced. And a change of style. I mean, why is continental competition experience deemed so necessary for players to play for England? Look at Ireland, N.Ireland, Wales, Iceland etc. Just pick the players that can play in a certain style. Its just a pity that style is shite.

Anyway, I've heard Wenger being touted as a possible England manager.

That's my argument.  The whole system needs looking into and I wouldn't be bothered what league are players are from as long as they fit the system that the manager is looking to play. They could all be playing for FC United rather than Man Utd  

[Gazz]

I take it none of you have read the FA's startlingly in-depth and comprehensive model for youth player development have you? If you've got an afternoon or three to sit down and give it a read, here it is...

[Benji]

I like the fact they put so much effort into it that bullet points were forgotten on sections three and four.

Also, section one's points sound like the plans of a sexual deviant.

[Just Joe]

37 minutes ago, Lineker said:

Gareth Southgate being favourite to succeed Roy Hodgson as England manager is "scary", says Harry Redknapp.

Sherwood and Bruce  I'm glad Sam isn't being mentioned by the media in all honesty. Shearer saying Hoddle, jesus, he's been out of management Ten Years! Does the manager have to be English like? 

[MDK]

They could try thinking about the box a bit. I dunno how, they are the ones that should come up with that shit. Sending youth players abroad for a season to get a different experience, less money being thrown about (pay them whatever wage but they can only spend a percentage of that, so it grounds them and also means if it goes tits up, they aren't broke), getting them to complete GCSE's or NVQ's and stuff, I dunno, just try something different. There isn't a short term solution.

Just now, Davidmarrio said:

That's my argument.  The whole system needs looking into and I wouldn't be bothered what league are players are from as long as they fit the system that the manager is looking to play. They could all be playing for FC United rather than Man Utd  

Exactly. Fitting Rooney in just because he is captain is plain stupid. But then again, we don't know what is going on behind the scenes. Maybe Wilshire was picked not because he fits into a certain system but because he is good for squad morale? We don't really know. Wasn't Pedro in the Spain squad because he was a lucky charm? It helped that he was decent, too.

[Gazz]

Top 8 favourites for next manager according to Oddschecker.

Southgate, Hoddle, Howe, Shearer, Pardew, Redknapp, Allardyce, G. Neville.

What a murderer's row of managerial talent that is.

[Benji]

I think an international talent exchange between clubs would be really interesting and produce a wider variety of players for the international teams.

[The Lusophone]

28 minutes ago, Just Joe said:

Sherwood and Bruce  I'm glad Sam isn't being mentioned by the media in all honesty. Shearer saying Hoddle, jesus, he's been out of management Ten Years! Does the manager have to be English like? 

Blanc's available. >_>

[Adam]

The candidates being touted for the job already are frankly laughable. Is this how bad it has got?

Glenn Hoddle is winning a BBC poll at the moment. Glenn Hoddle! A man who hasn't managed a team in 10 years, did nothing as England manager almost 20 years ago and got sacked for essentially saying that disabled people deserved it.

Then if it isn't him, it appears people want it to be Gareth Southgate, Alan Shearer, Harry Redknapp or, from the mouth of old Harry himself...Tim Sherwood. Laughable.

There is nobody from this island who is good enough to manage the national team right now in my opinion. We need somebody who will ignore the media and the country's bias towards certain 'name' players, and build a team that actually works as a cohesive unit, plays to its' strengths and isn't chopped and changed every single time a game comes around.

[Benji]

2 minutes ago, Adam said:

There is nobody from this island who is good enough to manage the national team right now in my opinion. We need somebody who will ignore the media and the country's bias towards certain 'name' players, and build a team that actually works as a cohesive unit, plays to its' strengths and isn't chopped and changed every single time a game comes around.

Interesting point. I prefer the idea of an England manager on principle (it's one of few times I actually agree with the "England for the English" morons), but I'm not at all averse to a foreign manager, and if it means they would ignore that shitty bias and actually pick the best form players then I'll take them all day every day over someone born in this country.

[DavidMarrio]

Let's just resurrect Alf Ramsay, he'll lead us to glory again!!

[Gazz]

We need a radical change in philosophy, every time we underperform at a tournament, the FA comes out and says we're changing philosophy and then nothing happens and all the 'experts' start banging on about pace and/or passion, but all passion really means is 'running around like a headless chicken'.

They say you can't teach tactical awareness before 13 because kids don't understand and I think that's a massive disadvantage in how we develop players. My lot are 7 years old, they know what the basic roles are for each position. We play a 1-1-2, the defender knows his job and where he should be on the pitch, the midfielder knows his job is to get the ball to the forwards and drop in alongside the defender when we don't have the ball and the attackers (left footer on the right, right footer on the left) know to start wide and cut in towards goal. We're not the only team to do it and you can tell when we play 'just go out there and play' teams because we're miles better organised than them as a team and spank them.

[Benji]

I'd say Gazz for England manager but @stokeriño has a better resume :/

[stokeriño]

I would also know better than to take that damned job.  

[Gazz]

Fuck that, poisoned chalice etc.

[Benji]

29 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

I would also know better than to take that damned job.  

24 minutes ago, Gazz said:

Fuck that, poisoned chalice etc.

Once again, Stok beat you to it

[Lineker]

Sky reporting the line that senior players lost faith in Hodgson's decision making during the Euros and questioned the selection of Raheem Sterling against Iceland.

 

aka like the rest of the country.

[DavidMarrio]

There's a quote from an unnamed former player of Woy's that says he's good at making bad players average but also making good players average. 

I know people say Liverpool fans are unfair on him but he is literally the worst manager I've ever seen at Liverpool, we played some of the worst football I have ever seen and he said some of the most ridiculous stuff I've heard a Liverpool manager say. And in a way I'm glad that his shit tenure as England manager has proven that.  

[Nerf]

Honestly, England should throw everything they have at AVB.

[therockbox]

2 hours ago, Gazz said:

We need a radical change in philosophy, every time we underperform at a tournament, the FA comes out and says we're changing philosophy and then nothing happens and all the 'experts' start banging on about pace and/or passion, but all passion really means is 'running around like a headless chicken'.

They say you can't teach tactical awareness before 13 because kids don't understand and I think that's a massive disadvantage in how we develop players. My lot are 7 years old, they know what the basic roles are for each position. We play a 1-1-2, the defender knows his job and where he should be on the pitch, the midfielder knows his job is to get the ball to the forwards and drop in alongside the defender when we don't have the ball and the attackers (left footer on the right, right footer on the left) know to start wide and cut in towards goal. We're not the only team to do it and you can tell when we play 'just go out there and play' teams because we're miles better organised than them as a team and spank them.

It all stems from a lack of qualified coaches. The ratio of coaches to players in this country compared to others speaks volumes; we're basically relying on enthusiastic parents to do it. What was most concerning last night was the way the basic functions of the team completely broke down. The fullbacks stopped overlapping, there was absolutely no movement amongst the front six and everyone seemed to lose the most basic ability to control the ball.

For me, Rooney's decision to drop back to midfield and the way he has been indulged by the media and the manager sums up everything wrong with our footballing culture. Exactly the same thing happened with Gerrard and Lampard, and we even had a bizarre period of trying that quarterback nonsense with Beckham because nobody could bring themselves to admit that he wasn't up to it anymore. It shows how little regard we have for the team compared to individuals - taken on their own Rooney's performances in the first two games might have been ok, but it forced everyone around him into roles they're not comfortable with. We went into the second half last night with a midfield three comprised of two number ten's and a striker, and out wide - in a game where we were crying out for width - we had a one footed striker playing on the right who only wants to cut in and on the left we had Sterling, who is completely bereft of confidence and, again, whose first instinct is to come inside.

I said after the group games that I thought we were deluding ourselves over the quality of our performances, particularly against Russia. I watched so many people talking that up as our 'best performance in years.' The sad thing is our actualy best performance in years came not too long ago against Germany when we beat them 3-2. Everyone played in roles they understood, we didn't panic when we went behind and showed a lot of heart and quality to come back from two goals down. Then at the first opportunity Rooney comes back, gets shoehorned into the squad and we've not looked even remotely capable of reaching that level since.

I don't know who the next manager should be. I like Howe but I worry he's not got the stature to really stand up to the media/FA and do what needs to be done in terms of refusing to pander to the 'names' and instead settling on a system and picking the players that best suit that. Even Capello eventually backed down and reverted to the usual nonsense when he got to a tournament. Inevitably though it's going to be Southgate, another 'safe' choice who won't rock to the boat, won't cause any controversy, who'll breeze through an easy qualifying group and never endanger the place of the commercial breadwinners.

It could be worse, though. A few years ago the FA were grooming Stuart Pearce for the role.