So a toothless, lacklustre and boring England disappoint once again – this time drawing against Israel.
There are so many problems with the whole England setup at the moment it’s just pathetic.
Firstly the manager. The fact is Steve McClaren is completely average manager – and I cannot emphasise that enough. He is more of a PR man than a football manager and his only real achievement to date was being Alex Ferguson’s right hand man when Manchester United won the treble in 1999. And wasn’t he England’s 7th choice anyway?
Then onto the players who actually wear the shirt and represent us on the pitch. Because we now have one of the best leagues in the world, we have a situation in this country where we totally overhype our own players beyond belief. The problem is because the game is so big the players actually believe their own hype and think they are world class. But even on a technical level, were are a million miles away from the Brazilians, Italians, French and even the Germans of this world.
And this is made even more depressing when you compare our ‘progress’ – and I use that term lightly – against the neighbouring nations in the qualifiers.
Scotland currently still on top of Group B with 12 points, in a group that includes France, Ukraine and Italy.
In Group D, The Republic of Ireland are currently in 3rd position with 10 points – the same total as the Czech Republic. Only Germany are above them with 13 points.
And onto Northern Ireland. After trouncing Leichtenstein 4-1 last night they sit in 2nd place with 10 points, only 2 behind the leaders Sweden. And that’s in a group also contains Denmark and Spain!
It beggars belief how we are stuggling in such an easy group.
Now I’m sure there will be numerous excuses including fixture congestion in England, and injuries to key players like Michael Owen. But if we can’t find 11 decent players to field and beat Israel then something is wrong.
And surely other national teams have their own problems as well. We need to stop looking for excuses all the time!
God, why the hell do I waste time watching International football?
the funniest thing in my opinion is that the players, management and the press all seem to think that the reason is because the players, though individually utterly brilliant, are collectively not as good as the sum of their parts!
i keep reading comments such as “how is it possible that a team with the best players in the world got knocked out of the WC by portugal?”
its ridiculous and amazing how blind and stupid these people are. Its just basic logic, the most obvious possibility is the most likely reason ie. englands players are rubbish, not just collectively, but individually!
hooray andy johnson has lightening pace (huh?) too bad he has no skills. Wayne rooney is a world beater.hmm not without ronaldo and giggs he’s not.
as for gerrard, and lampard, sorry but just cos you get paid a lot to advertise stuff doesnt mean your any good!
The dude (manager) cannot see with his eyes that Gerrard never went near the right hand site therefore we could have had Lennon there and also play Defoe up front as AJ is terrible!!!!
International fotball is pathetic.I watched the Spain V Denmark and France V lithuania game and it was awful.Football so bad you thought you were watching a re-run of pub games,no flair,no passing ability,petulence in abundance and the worst first and fourth referee.Luis Aragones must be the biggest waste since Peter Reid turned manager he has got all the talent in the world and look at what the produce.International managers are second rate…would Mourinho,Ferguson or our Arsene take and international job ?
We agree with most of what you say. But do you think that lampard and Gerrard can play in the same line up without unbalancing the team?