Can someone explain to me what the deal is with England. How can a team with such talented players have such a poor showing? Or maybe they are not as talented as I think they are? There are 50+ players in the World Cup that are playing in the Premiership. I believe that is the most players from one League. That means there a lot of players good players that the English players have to play against. But, what we saw this WC has pathetic.
Could it be a coaching problem? I do think that having only 4 strikers and 2 of them coming off major injuries and one being 17 years old without any experience is strange. I don’t have a problem with putting a future star on the roster and letting him experience the WC so that when the next WC comes along, he will have already experiences it and he can concentrate on his playing. The Brazilians often do this. But, only taking 4 strikers and one being Crouch (Please explain to me why people think he is so great), I don’t know. Also, I am a big Lampard and Gerrard fan, but I don’t think they work well together. They both have the same role on their club. Sometimes, you have to leave good players on the bench in order to put a better team on the field. If you look at Germany, Borowski does not get to play that much because of Ballack. He starts when Ballack can’t play and comes on as a sub in the latter part of the game to help out. This is something that England might look at. But, I believe a lot of England players where picked because of their name. Why is Sol Cambell on the team? He had so many problems before the WC which had started at the beginning of the game. And if you remember in the England vs Sweden game, he was fault of one of the goals when he allowed the ball to bounce in front of him in the box. Come on, that is a school boy error. You make sure that the ball gets out of the box at all cost and don’t let it bounce in the box.
Back to the bigger problem, what is England’s problem? If it was only a coaching problem, then they would have shown more in previous World Cups. Could it be something in the FA setup and how they approach WC? The season is way to long and the players don’t get a Christmas break like everyone else in Europe. At times, I felt that the players were just tired.
Maybe England need to find a manager who is English but is not currently involved in England. Just to get them to think out of the box. Look at what Klinsmann did in Germany. He brought in new ideas and modernised how the game was being approached. I don’t know. What do you think?
A bunch of cicies, that’s what’s wrong with them. They had so many chances during the game. Yes, I do think that Erikson is the wrong coach. They need Scolari – somebody with a killer instinct. I also agree with you about the Stevie-G/Lampard question. Both were not effective enough. The other question to ask is if these two are so good at their teams only because they’re surrounded by international stars, rather than Englishmen. And why is Bekham on the team, only for the set pieces? Because otherwise he does nothing. A waste of a player. And after all said and done, two larger questions remain:
1. Why do they have the same type of show in every tournament? Why do we always expect so much of them and they never deliver? I think it has to do something with the basic English character, rather than this team or that team. Which brings me to…
2. Why do they ***ALWAYS*** lose in PK’s? Just before the PK’s started I said to my partner at the table “England is losing this one because they’re too emotional….the Portugese are tough mentally….” I know because I’m half English. Did you see Bekham cry on the bench after his injury? That’s what the trouble is. In their minds they already lost.
I sat in a bar full of English people. In the first half they all “explained” why Tim Henman lost to Federer in Wimbldon. They were already preparing mentally for another dissapointment. In the 2nd half they were mourning Roony’s ejection and Bekham injury, rather than look at the so many missed opportunities. It never should have come to PK’s. It’s ironic that this was England’s best game in the WC and they lost it.
BTW, the same question can be asked about Spain. They exit every WC at about the same stage. Thet pass the ball, they hold possession, they look ok (not great, just ok), they build expectations, they’re not getting close enough to the goal, and then they go home.
Hey man
BTW, pretty cool story.
