Look, I'm not a football type of person at all, but damn, why does it always go to penalty shootouts and we lose :beat:
To be fair, nobody expected England to win and the fact it came down to Penalties speaks either badly of Italy or good for Englands future plans.. And I think the latter! We can build on this and grow, we have the talent, we just lack some guts and leadership.
I think Roy has a lot of work to do and some hard decisions to make. He needs to think about his future plans for a new team and get them implemented soonest. The World Cup qualifiers are looming. I agree there is some talent, but there are too many non-performers. He needs to quickly develop a team-thinking culture.
They all looked knackered to me, maybe it's the prem taking it out of them, balotelli even looked knackered. Should be a decent semi between Italy-Germany and the other semi also.
What little I managed to see, and replays, it seemed that the english players weren't too bothered to chase the ball if they lost it during a pass... Which made me think all along that as they spent long hours practicing taking penalties, (roy whatshisface, did stress the point in a couple of interviews...) this was what they were aiming for from the start.... And they came unstuck................
So anyone want to risk a prediction about what'll happen for 2014? How about we get a bit of luck in the group stages, scrape through, and then get humiliated in the first knockout stage? It's all very much deja vu, and has been (with the odd exception either way) since the 1970 WC, when we had the best side we've ever had, in my opinion. We should have started changing the football culture here 30 years ago if the (sweet) FA were at all serious about us being big-time players on the international stage. Yes, we do have talent - even in the remnants of the "golden generation". But until they can get a grip on the basic essentials of ball retention and being able to pass to a team mate, there is no hope. This is not a management issue: it's been the same for 30+ years, and is an endemic attitude amongst English players. I saw someone recently describe our players as "thick", and that's something I've felt for years. OK, I'm not suggesting that we draft Stephen Hawking into the team (yet...), but they do not seem to show any "footballing intelligence" once they pull on an England shirt. Pirlo was a one-man show against us the other night, and showed the sort of intelligence that our midfield lacks. And what do we come out with? "The boys put in a lot of effort". Headless chickens can put in a lot of effort! Ideally, we would do what the Germans did when one (one!) of their teams failed to live up to expectation i.e. put some serious effort into youth development and be prepared to wait for it to bear fruit. But so long as we demand instant success, we will get instant failure. So, until we are prepared to do something radical, we're stuck with the same old same old. Since that's not going to happen overnight, all I can hope is that we ditch Terry, Cole, Gerrard, Milner, Barry and Lampard, stop making Rooney indispensable, be able to play something other than the antediluvian 4-4-2, and use these players as the core of a team for 2014: GK: Joe Hart, Jack Butland Defence: Kyle Walker, Micah Richards, Gary Cahill, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Leighton Baines, Kieran Gibbs Midfield: Tom Cleverley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Jack Rodwell Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Jermain Defoe (+ Andy Carroll for when things get really desperate) And, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should Ashley Young be allowed anywhere near an England shirt again. Ever.
