English football - the Inquest.

[sasguru]

Any of you that watch football week in week out would know that on another day a few of those chances would have gone in and maybe some of the Germans wouldn't and all would be rosy in media land despite the obvious cracks. .

That seems to ignore the huge gulf in class and talent between the teams that was shown yesterday.
England played like a naive pub team and paid the price. It was a shambles and lets say the Germans were unlucky and we had won, we would only have been exposed by the Argies.

We need to start again. Its not about star names - a well drilled unit is more important. Look at the Greeks in Euro 2004 and the tradiotional German teams of old.

[billybiro]

Really?

Losing the captain just a couple of weeks before the start was a huge psychological blow

I think the rest of the German squad has coped admirably without Michael Ballack.

[gingerjedi]

That seems to ignore the huge gulf in class and talent between the teams that was shown yesterday.
England played like a naive pub team and paid the price. It was a shambles and lets say the Germans were unlucky and we had won, we would only have been exposed by the Argies.

We need to start again. Its not about star names - a well drilled unit is more important. Look at the Greeks in Euro 2004 and the tradiotional German teams of old.

I still maintain we have the talent but not the mentality, we play too many domestic games and the clubs always come before country.

How often has SAF, AV or RB withdrawn a player from selection with a mystery injury because they have an important CL game coming up?

Mexico played 10 warm up matches in the lead up to the WC, that could never happen under the English regime.

[Clippy]

That seems to ignore the huge gulf in class and talent between the teams that was shown yesterday.
England played like a naive pub team and paid the price. It was a shambles and lets say the Germans were unlucky and we had won, we would only have been exposed by the Argies.

We need to start again. Its not about star names - a well drilled unit is more important. Look at the Greeks in Euro 2004 and the tradiotional German teams of old.

We were exposed by a young, hungry and fit German squad who beat us on pace and exposed our leaky defence.

The English defenders played as if they were on a first date.

Looking deeper, the Premiership is also to blame - there is no longer any need for a talented player to go overseas because they are paid so much in the domestic league.

The fact it would improve and broaden their footballing experience is irrelevant to them nowadays as its all about the money.

This is why I rate Beckham - he's passionate about the game, still puts in the hours and money isn't his primary factor.
(Let's ignore his US mis-adventure as it's obvious that was done to help 'Poshs career').

Because he's good at what he does, the money comes anyway.

We need more players with his mentality.

[minestrone]

I still maintain we have the talent but not the mentality, we play too many domestic games and the clubs always come before country.

You do not have the talent, look at your goalkeepers, you got them from Birmingham City, West Ham & Portsmouth, a combined goal difference of -60 last season. Capello then decides that the best one is the (probably injured) James who's team just got relegated. You do not have an English Keeper in the top 10 keepers in the Premiership, probably more. As I said all along, and have been proven right, your players are simply are not good enough. Your defence was a laughing stock, Algeria gave you a going over for long spell in that match, I will say again, Algeria gave you a going over.

The Sky money focused your teams on the short term "why train a goalkeeper, we can outbid any other country in the world". Your own teams fight it out for 17 year olds from the Ivory Coast. The drop down to the championship makes teams desperate and they pay millions for dross like a losing gambler chucks in his car keys.

You have to do what Germany did and force teams to stay out for debt, then you will start to train players again.

But I think it is too late, it will get worse before it gets better, your best players are all about to retire and your clubs are not so heavily in debt it will take decades to get out of the mess.

[sasguru]

You do not have the talent, look at your goalkeepers, you got them from Birmingham City, West Ham & Portsmouth, a combined goal difference of -60 last season. Capello then decides that the best one is the (probably injured) James who's team just got relegated. You do not have an English Keeper in the top 10 keepers in the Premiership, probably more. As I said all along, and have been proven right, your players are simply are not good enough. Your defence was a laughing stock, Algeria gave you a going over for long spell in that match, I will say again, Algeria gave you a going over.

The Sky money focused your teams on the short term "why train a goalkeeper, we can outbid any other country in the world". Your own teams fight it out for 17 year olds from the Ivory Coast. The drop down to the championship makes teams desperate and they pay millions for dross like a losing gambler chucks in his car keys.

You have to do what Germany did and force teams to stay out for debt, then you will start to train players again.

But I think it is too late, it will get worse before it gets better, your best players are all about to retire and your clubs are not so heavily in debt it will take decades to get out of the mess.

I quite agree. Apart from a short period in the 30s and 40s, the Krauts ahve demonstrated consistent long-sightedness whether it be the way they organise their footy or their economy.
The short termist English way leads to disaster.

[MarillionFan]

News conference is 10 minutes late to start. Bet Fabio has quit!

[doodab]

Perhaps we should have seen it coming: 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personally I think the death of English football is being slightly overstated.

Yes, we did defend awfully. John Terry looked and played like my Grandad (who's been dead a while) and there is no doubt we missed Rio. We lack the strength in depth to cope with one or two of our main guys being out of sorts (never mind 10 of them), we looked too tired to run in midfield (although perhaps that was due to bad preparation i.e. the altitude training camp?), and the number of times one of players just stood there with the ball and waited for a German to take if off him was staggering.

Despite all that, lets not forget that even with half the team playing like donkeys, if Frank Lampard had been a bit luckier we would have gone in 2-2 at half time and been 3-2 up shortly after the restart, rather than chasing the game and being vulnerable to the quick counters that put the result beyond doubt. So it's not all gloom and doom.

I am going to wait and see how this German side do against top class opposition in Argentina before I pass final judgement. They may be young but the core of the German team made it to the Champions League final and for all we know we may have been steamrollered by the next world champions.

[minestrone]

Apparently (I read it so it must be true) the Germans have the best teams in the world at all levels of youth football.

[MarillionFan]

Apparently (I read it so it must be true) the Germans have the best teams in the world at all levels of youth football.

So what? We still produce the best cars in the world.