The Three Lions

god I hope wales get beat bad in the next game

Sports saying Dier was poor this season. Just proved you haven't watched a minute of Spurs. Has been a revelation st the DM position and been one of England's best players.

I think that we shouldn't forget though how young this English team is. They'll have years to play together, hopefully in a consistent fashion. I look forward to seeing them in Russia.

It's difficult to predict who will be available two years in the future but a look at the current U21 squad suggests the squad for 2018 isn't going to be strong at all.

Taking England's Toulon Tournament winning side, for example:

Pickford; Iorfa, Chambers, Hause, Targett; Chalobah, Ward-Prowse, Baker, Loftus-Cheek; Redmond, Whatmore

Very few of them will be playing regularly in the PL next season. Chalobah, Baker and Loftus-Cheek are actually technical midfielders but are in no-man's land at Chelsea. Chambers could be a ball-playing CB but likewise is in limbo at Arsenal.

Ward-Prowse isn't anything special but he's one I hope comes into the England squad soon. If nothing else he could actually take a good set-piece Apart from him though I can't think of any English players who could come into the squad to replace the likes of Cahill, Rooney and Milner.

England will be regretting letting Alex Iwobi play for Nigeria because he's the exact type of player this squad needs.

Tbf they did try to convince him but he had a strong connection with Nigeria due to Okocha.

But yea the talent pool seems to be a bit shit atm. There are quite few talented players in U18s though. Won't be surprised if few of them fast track to the NT instead of U21

But let's not forget that the talent itself is half the factor. A coach like Simeone would have gone past Iceland even if we had a midfield of Milner, Henderson and Delph.

https://twitter.com/OldburyAnus/status/747828471871770624

Southgate not interested in becoming England manager and may even refuse interim role:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/29/gareth-southgate-not-interested-in-succeeding-roy-hodgson-with-england?CMP=share_btn_tw

Bit surprised but good of him. He still needs to learn.

Tim sherwood must have jumped up the list now

Who told him he can take set pieces?

Reports suggest it was this man.

That's fair enough then, hope he takes them in 2018

If Harry Kane can't learn from this man, there is no hope for him.

If Arsene becomes the manager for England then he will instantly be the greatest england manager since Sir Alf Ramsey

sportsczy wrote:I think you need to look at how your players perform in Europe during CL and Europa... the best players on the EPL teams that are in Europe are not from the UK.  So when the players on NT aren't used to performing well on the big European stages at club level, you can't expect them to do it on the NT level.  Sure, the manager isn't great.  But in the end, the players individually failed.

I listened to the iTV post game talk...  it was rubbish.  It's not about England having a set system.  It's about putting players in positions that they are used to.  I didn't see players being played out of position except a couple.  

But when you look at it...  Sturridge and Sterling were poor at club this season.  Dier, Cahill and Rooney were also poor.  Hart, Walker, Rose and Smalling were ok.  The truly in-from players were Vardy, Kane and Ali.  But none of these guys showed it in European club competition.  So what level were they really?

Making general comments is lazy imo.  Need to look at the detail and then you see that this team was more about a hope and a prayer rather than any real quality that you can count on.

worst comment ever. IMO the two teams that notably punched above their weight this season were Spurs and Leicester. Both did so with a strong core of English players who performed well all season.

This idea that England supporters expect too much from the NT is pure myth. England supporters do not and should not expect to lose to Iceland. England supporters expect to and should expect to challenge for the QF's at every major tournament. Or bow out to strong opposition in R16 if the draw is unfavourable.

Those expectations are perfectly realistic.

There is no doubt a problem though - I think the most worrying part of this calamity is that noone was truly surprised to lose to Iceland. No one expected it but who can say they were shocked.

I disagree...  the talent level on England is being grossly overrated.  I feel that Smalling, Ali, Vardy and Kane are legit.  Those guys have bonafide talent.  I also like Lallana although his final product is crap... improving though.  Other than that, they're all overhyped, out of form and/or untalented players in relation to the expectations for England.

Either you lower the expectations and then the the squad fits...  or you continue to delude yourselves and you're going to be eternally disappointed until talent comes around, which it hasn't for decades.

For example, I thought the England team with prime Lampard, Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, Terry, etc. was a top 8 NT in the world.  That means a QF level team.  More than that depended on luck and managing.  So making the QF stage of WC 2002 and 2006 was neither disappointing nor overachieving for me...  they basically hit the level I thought they would.  Yet in England, people felt that the team had underachieved and disappointed.

As far as a personal example... I thought France in 2014 was a QF team and that's when they lost.  So i was disappointed as a fan, but didn't fell they had underachieved.  In this Euro, I feel that they are a SF team.  I'd be disappointed if they lost in the SF, but not because they had underachieved.  Even if we lose to Iceland in the QF, i think it would be ok.  The amount of injuries we had coming into the tournament was always going to make it difficult for the team to play in sync and we have clear flaws.  That's how I look at it.

Yet England...  who got a draw against Russia, a draw against Slovakia and barely beat Wales...  was supposed to easily beat Iceland who is a very tough team.  I thought it was 50/50.  I hoped for England because I like the English style of play far more than Iceland's.  But realistically, it was going to be tough.

What I didn't like was how nervous and, frankly, scared the English players looked in the 2nd half against Iceland. That showed me that the players believed in their own hype and were arrogant coming in... and couldn't react once they got punched in the mouth. Is that the fault of the players, the media, the fans or the manager? It's a combo. But it needs to change. The attitude towards England NT at all levels doesn't fit reality imo.

RealGunner wrote:If Arsene becomes the manager for England then he will instantly be the greatest england manager since Sir Alf Ramsey

If he became manager 10 years ago sure.

There are people who legitimately want Jurgen Klinsmann

Carlo Ancelotti: Dier was best English player at the cup

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/euro2016/tottenhams-eric-dier-was-one-of-the-best-players-at-euro-2016-says-carlo-ancelotti-a3284586.html

But Sport knows best

Hodgson and his coaching team fell out during the tournament:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/02/england-euro-2016-friction-roy-hodgson-gary-neville

Got a good chuckle from this bit though:

Hodgson’s training methods – questioned by Steven Gerrard after the last World Cup – were one source of the disagreements. Neville had a close ally in Dave Watson, the goalkeeping coach. Players have complained of mixed messages and the general sense of confusion is not eased by the revelation that one turned to the dugout during the Iceland defeat and asked where a team-mate was supposed to be playing.

lmaooooo that was probably someone asking Rooney

"While the players were generally supportive of Hodgson and angered by reports that they questioned Raheem Sterling’s selection in the Iceland game, the fact they took it upon themselves to remove Harry Kane from corner-taking duties indicates they were not always happy with the manager’s tactics."

unbelievable

RealGunner wrote:"While the players were generally supportive of Hodgson and angered by reports that they questioned Raheem Sterling’s selection in the Iceland game, the fact they took it upon themselves to remove Harry Kane from corner-taking duties indicates they were not always happy with the manager’s tactics."

unbelievable

that cant be true

(click to enlarge)

Pardew is 8/1 to replace Roy

Would be amazing if it happened

rwo power wrote:

Spoiler:

lmao @ nos 2 "won't somebody think of the children"...don't know why, but that really got me laughing

titosantill wrote:

rwo power wrote:

Spoiler:

lmao @ nos 2 "won't somebody think of the children"...don't know why, but that really got me laughing

LMAO at a young player is "anointed future national scapegoat". So true. This time around was Sterling turn.