What do you think the problem with England is?

For me it's a lack of technical players. Most of the teams dominate England. There's no Ozil, Pirlo, Xavi etc in the side.

roy hodgson

they suck, thats the problem. you cant do anything with this team, reorganise federation, football schools, youth development, coach system, media, etc

Lack of quality players. You don't see any players replacing old talent like Gerrard. They need some more quality in the mid.

its obviously the coach, that players get too much money and that FIFA/UEFA hates them. Its never the football

juveman17 wrote:Lack of quality players. You don't see any players replacing old talent like Gerrard. They need some more quality in the mid.

Wilshere would usually be in the midfield.

Well their lack of a really great midfielder and creator is their biggest problem. Their defense can play with anyone. But If they had anyone even half as good at creating as Pirlo they would be much better.

Their lack of midfield kind of ruins rooney as well. He has to drop deep too often. Sure he can do it fine but he is a lot better when he just plays striker and doesn't have to worry about creating anything.

Injuries.

Their players aren't that good. Simple as that. They have a lot of energy but lack any type of technical skill. They could barely string a of couple passes together against Italy.

Youth training. They aren't taught to appreciate space and work off the ball. Everything is on the ball. Similar problem to Brazil actually. There is a reason Wilshere is the most technically astute player in England atm (bar Sxholes) and that is diue to Raenal's training methods and infrastructure.

they need to ship youngsters out of the kingdom


it paid out with the likes of Hargreaves (even though hes Canadian)

Grande_Milano wrote:

Hahahahahaha!

Cookie Monster wrote:Their players aren't that good. Simple as that. They have a lot of energy but lack any type of technical skill. They could barely string a of couple passes together against Italy.

Blame EPL. They import all the talent.

The problem is deep, its in their football culture, and their opinion of how football should be played. Its a tradition that the players should be mostly headless chickens hoofing the ball and scoring headers, running around the park all day long. In Southern Europe, you get complimented more for technical brilliance and tactical sense(Specially Italy) Luckily, this view of football seems to be giving the teams playing this way more glory than not, overall.

Not hating here, I respect all ways of playing football, but I think the English picture of how a footballer should be is still perhaps a bit old fashioned, and is still taking a toll on them.

arrogance.. thats the biggest problem with england. especially with English FA, especially with english media.

with media are the biggest big mouth ever, honestly, they butcher everyone who they are playing against thinking they are always miles better than anyone thinking they are going to come out a winner, boasting all the time.

and more arrogant these media and journalist become, the more pressure and expectation they pile on the squad to perform.

unfortunately for england they never admit their own mistake and learn from it, and same thing repeat.

english FA are another biggest loser, they have all kinds of controversy with players, and the coach selection was their biggest mistake. hodgson i like him because he is humble and kind person, but unfortunately i have a feeling that surely he watched that chelsea-bayern game thinking we could play like that and survive the tournament, this wasnt even english like team-performance england didnt even play well in the group stage... france were better ukrain were better..., he was suppose to let the team express in the way they are good at, attacking from the wings, with gerrard making bursting runs in the italian defense as AM like he does at liverpool to provide some attacking threat from middle, gerrard playing soley as DM was just wasted.

i feel sorry for guys like hart, stevie g, who played with their heart. especially joe hart he is hell of a gk...

anyway its the english media arrogance and boasting that always would make me hate english football, and im glad italians won and shoved humble pie in their big mouth and buried them with their own words.

sorry for my fellow posters here who supported england though...

Yeh hopefully all that changes. I think at the end of the day England do want to play better football.

They nearly got through with their limited technicality, at one stage it was 60/40 their favour through the shootout.

Very hard to beat, but they rely on penalties to win, which is anybodies game. I don't think anything is wrong with them, they are just very tough opposition!

Italy for all the possession they had wasn't scoring in open play, they were doing something right.

Lack of technical players and by far the worst youth system.

Said it before and I'll say it again McEachran and Wilshere are England's only hope.

Jibers, was Scholes approached by Hodgson to play in the Euros?

Not Pirlo level at this stage of his career of course but he still would have been a much better option that the other scrubs we had playing for us in midfield.

Between Wilshere, McEachran, Cleverly, Johnson, and AOC I think there is creativity to look forward to in England's future. Roy's tactics weren't exactly designed to beat technical teams at their own game though.

For me it has to start with the league. An English player no matter how technically gifted can't have a career in England unless he's strong enough physically. That pretty much sums it up for me.

Things are changing in England, just so you guys know. It's a gradual process that'll take a while, but changes are being made.

Contrary to popular belief, these players can pass a football, if they play in a system that allows them to. Hodgson's rigid and defensive 4-4-2 really doesn't lend itself to a passing, attacking style of football, does it?

In the immediate future, Hodgson has to switch to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Wilshere needs to be reintroduced into the set-up, as he is absolutely vital to this shift in emphasis. Cleverly and Lampard should also come in, as they actually know how to keep the ball and don't always attempt Hollywood passes.

In attack, the future is pace and dynamism, not technique, in England. Guys like Milner and Downing have no business being in an England team. In my opinion, we should go with Rooney as the lone striker and have flanked by Walcott/Young/A. Johnson/Welbeck/Sturridge/Chamberlain.

Hopefully, we'll have a team like this for the World Cup qualifiers and beyond:

GK: Hart
CB: Terry/Lescott/Smalling/Cahill/Jones
LB: Cole/Baines/Gibbs
RB: G. Johnson/Richards/Walker
CM: Wilshere/Cleverly/Lampard/Gerrard/Parker
WF: Walcott/Young/Sturridge/A.Johnson/Chamberlain
CF: Rooney/Webeck/Carroll

Not perfect by any means, but it'd be an improvement.

English approach is pretty much all wrong. I used to play for a small local side when I was young, as a defender once I won the ball orders were to hoof it long, not look for a pass and play it out from the back, training was more about running laps, headering practice and situps than passing triangles, shooting practice and practice matches...

Its true that in England more Technical players are needed, in overall quality and number, but it's also true that the chances that Pirlo in particular would have ever even made it pro in England are slim in my opinion.

At the top changes are being made, EPL clubs are trying to improve their approach at youth level...but at grassroots really in England we are still decades behind.

One of the biggest problems with our setup is how players are nailed down to a position at a early age, coaches aren't necessarily finding the right positions for players to really grow. Chiellini was once a CM, Marchisio once a AM/SS, Del Piero once a GK...Then we know about the transformations of players like Pirlo from CAM to DLP and Abate to RB.

There are some decent players coming through. Ox, Wilshere, McEchran etc...But is 4-4-2/4-5-1 ever going to do them justice?