Re: Euro 2012
 

And Italy aren't even one of the top nations, I think Germany may well be ending their hoodoo against them soon

Re: Euro 2012
 

It didn't take the Euros to prove that. For years everyone has known that England are a sub-standard team made up of world-class players.

Re: Euro 2012
 

If England have so many world-class players, why do they give the ball away so much? Surely keeping the ball is a basic skill

Re: Euro 2012
 

Agree. Came up short but did better than I expected and the best team won last night. There was some terrific commitment in defence which was nice to see and - very different from the famous Germany game which saw our defence so badly exposed. So well done England on that score! :tu:

There certainly is a big problem holding onto the ball and giving away possession and this so often puts the team under pressure unnecessarily and leads to conceding goals. I have no idea why this is, do the likes of Spain, Portugal, Germany etc. get more time together at a national level? Is it some sort of collective psychological shortcoming? If England are ever going to progress further then they need to address this because IMHO it's their main problem and if the could sort it they'd not need to suffer the inevitable penalty shoot out agony. lol

Re: Euro 2012
 

We don't have the technical skill. What with technique being so often overlooked for so long in favour of physical strength, size, and speed across all levels of English football.

The need to win at every level has meant that at the younger ages, where the differences between sizes is much more evident, the stronger players get to play a lot more football and get a headstart. The fact they are stronger, taller and/or faster means they can depend on these skills to win games and 'play well' and this is at a cost to their technical development. This is really quite evident at international youth level where the younger the age group the better England do because we placed winning over development even at that age.

Then of course they reach late teens and suddenly their advantage is gone. All the nations where their players are picked on technical ability rather than 'heart' or physical strength can suddenly move better than us, pass better than us and control the ball better than us. They spent their development playing on smaller pitches, more time on the ball, with a focus on getting better rather than winning the under-9s league or what have you.

So then England are left to hoofing the ball up to the 'big man' up front, maybe hoping to expose their full backs with pace, and our defenders throwing themselves in front of the ball rather than anticipating the play to avoid the need to do that in the first place.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Better than expected???!!!!

Come on guys, whether its Jose Morinho, Capello, Hodgson or my mum managing the team, getting out of that group would have been a given.

Hodgeson didn't do anything radically differerent - remeber if Lampard hadn't been injured he would have played Gerrard and Lamps together.

I thinking Rooney's inclusion was a turning point. Bowing to public pressure and picking a striker who was unfit and out of form didn't contribute to the team in my opinion.

Same old England, same old result.

Come on Portugal!

Re: Euro 2012
 

^^

Yes. Beating Sweden and Ukraine isn't enough to warrant us saying there is an improvement over our World Cup campaign. We were hard to beat and put in better defence performances against France and Italy but only because we gave up any ambition in attack.

Re: Euro 2012
 

With all the foreigners in the Premier League, do they get a chance to find out how to play the 'English' way and who can't keep it up for a full match? As none of the English talent goes abroad, they never learn anything different

Re: Euro 2012
 

l agree bowing to public pressure is no way to run any football side and every time we do that it gets us nowhere and with regards to Rooney when was the last time he ever performed for England as to me he is the most vastly over-rated player l have seen for the last 20 years.

Re: Euro 2012
 

This is another issue. Although I think it's less about 'playing another way', there is only so much an already established player can do about their game, it's more about a lack of playing talent.

Fabregas couldn't break into the Barcelona squad when he was young. He could have sat at Barcelona getting cameo roles when Xavi or Iniesta were injured and awaited his turn until 24/25 to replace them. He didn't. Instead to went to Arsenal were he played in the first team for years and years and became a better player as a result of actually playing football.

This is the thing with European footballers. They, as a whole, take it seriously and don't sit and whine about 'foreigners' they compete for their place and if they can't get into the side they don't want to sit on the bench collecting their salaries, going to clubs, and living the life. They go where they can to play football.

Here the vast majority of English players don't leave the country. There was not a single man in that 23 man squad who didn't play in England. Problem with this is there are only so many top teams in England and even fewer that play in the Champions League.

In summary: It's not so much a different way of playing but being more motivated in playing at all. You get the feeling a lot of English players don't actually like football sometimes.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Well there is one thing they actually learn and that is the celebrity football lifestyle without actually doing anything to justify their huge wages.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Maybe there is a need to bring back 'B' internationals to try and find some England players who can play international football. I now footballers play a lot of games but it would still give them a chance to play for their country, though it might need to make sure that the opposition is of sufficient calibre

Re: Euro 2012
 

Your biggest problem there Chris is even though its a good idea that old chestnut of fixture congestion is likely to rear its ugly head again and l suspect many clubs would pull their players out.

Re: Euro 2012
 

That was the main downer I saw as well but if they were played on similar dates then it might make it possible either that or next time just put out a squad of Championship players just to compare the quality level

Re: Euro 2012
 

Only 3 of the Italian squad play outside Italy.

As much as I hate the whole “everyone is a winner no one loses” mentality, you simply have to stop having young kids playing in competitive leagues.