The English Football Team Thread

good thing no one, aside from a few overexcited pundits, say so, eh?

fact is we've lowered our expectations and no one is under any illusions that we'd beat france, germany or spain, but we've done pretty well in perhaps the weakest groups of all, but you know many england sides would managed to make a mess out of that group, and this one has won 10 out of 10. Its sort of impressive.. for an england side

until we dont get a proper world class midfield we wont stand a chance against the better sides. We also need to change our mindset in favour of a more technical, thoughtful style, less naive, but this will take decades, perhaps a generation. Football has moved on and we didnt, still some catch up to do, we're where spain was in the 90s

that doesnt mean we can't get happy with our NT when we win 10 out of 10 games, hopefully this is allowed. With our miserable sporting record at least let us celebrate these small victories, its not like weve got the cricket or the rugby or any other team to cheer on

 

You'd have a chance against Spain.

Infact right now there's not really any nation that's at the top of their game except England. No doubt that will change once the Euros start though.

 

the gulf in individual quality is staggering between us and spain. I mean we play with vardy, lallana and milner, they play with silva, cesc and iniesta. Ive always thought gerrard was overrated but he looks like antognoni, socrates and platini rolled into one compared to the dross we've got now. plus we rarely beat spain, be it our clubs or the NT, their style doenst suit us at all, they grab the ball and we're let chasing shadows for ninety minutes

our next three games are against spain, france and germany. after those no one will hold any hopes for england, and that'd be the best we can hope before the tournament. At best we'll reach quarters as always, but that'd feel like an enjoyable tournament, instead of a frustrating experience when you think you can actually win the thing

if you saw our game against estonia and lithuania you can see we're trying to play a different style, more of a passing game. its still at its infancy and we dont have the quality to pull it off yet, but its the right path. In a few generations we'll have the players to play this system, by then we'll only be like 5 WC behind germany and italy, and like 2 behind spain and france, we'll only beat holland (coz we know holland wont win their first WC until 5.000 of the new era of taurus). In fact we'll possibly need of an alien invasion to kidnap the worlds best players to go and play in the venusian premier league, since we all know england doesnt have any world class players, they wont kidnap the great grandson of jamie vardy, who'll go on and become the best footballer of all time, since messi anyway

 

I'm not saying you have a chance against Spain because how good you are, just because Spain seem to be their own worst enemy at the moment. Look very toothless, Costa looks shoehorned into the team, dropping him was a big move and it looks like it's worked with Alcacar coming in.

It'll be interesting to see your next 3 games, I think while lacking individual quality you do have a chance of punching above your weight. Something I've not thought about England in a long time because the players with 'star power' seemed to think they were better than everycunt else when in reality they weren't.

This seems a more hardworking team, with a spirit to them.

Obviously, I hope they fail miserably but I think there's a slight chance you can get to even the semi's and from there, it's anyones guess. The Dutch have made a world cup final and a Euro final lately and they were distinctly average, with a couple of cracking players like Robben and Van Persie, it was the spirit that got them through

 

we dont have anyone near robben or even van persie, and tactically we're as inept as they come. Our manager is a bit of an idiot, and so are our players. I think was anelka who said as soon as you stepped into a football pitch in england no one used their brains, and hes right, we're brought up to run and run and kick and kick, never to think on the pitch

plus as a country we distrust flair, we actively combat it, in anything we do, thats why our sportsmen are at best fighters and not really talented, imaginative like the french, portuguese italians, balkans or lately spaniards are

 

I agree with that mate, just seems to be something about England just now, something better than the sum of their parts.

What you described is Scotland's problem on a far greater scale, WGS is trying to change that but it would take a long time that I don't think he's sticking about for.

 

scotland has had superb players though throughout their history, particularly for your size. I actually think the moment england changes its style would benefit the other nearby nations because so many scottish and irish and welsh players play in the PL, and whether we like it or not (i actually like it) we're neighbours :icon_mrgreen:

but as a whole we're a bit confused about what football really is. We still think its a chance to prove how brave and fair we're, instead of how talented we are like other nations do. Scotland also consider football more a game of fight and aggression than a game of skill. The germans used to think so too, but they understood the bar had been raised and they adapted. Now they're little girls, mentally very fragile compared to previous german sides, but technically they've climbed several levels.

You dont need to be tall or brave or physically strong to win these days, barcelona and spain dispelled those myths forever, but we still think football is a substitute for war, like orwell used to say

 

The annoying thing about that is you're right, our football was never based on aggression or the fight in us, it was always wee skillful technicians if you look through our history. Obviously littered with hardmen because this was old school football but the likes of Lennox, Jinky and co...

We changed and changed drastically, I'm hoping to see a resurgance though, the players that are coming through are all leaning towards technical rather than cluggers. Will take a long time to do so though.

 

I wouldnt say that, I mean you never were quite portugal :icon_mrgreen: but you did have some very skilful players, comparatively mroe than the english, but your style I wouldnt say was never particularly sophisticated or subtle. You did have some brilliant teams like in 78 that played great football, but holland you werent

 

I think that's what's dangerous this time, the media aren't rating them despite a great qualification campaign and the players themselves seem more grounded than the guys before them.

I don't think there's much hype their that they can buy into, they're just focusing on football.

No doubt they'll implode though, hope so anyway.

 

Unless you go way, way back. We were the original passing team :icon_mrgreen:

And Total Football was inspired by 11 Scottish Men, just wasn't the national team, it was the Lions :icon_mrgreen:

 

I remember hearing folk say the exact same before the last World Cup.

 

It was a load of * before the last world cup though, it was all the 'Golden Generations' last chance to do anything etc etc.

Everything I've seen from English media is self-depreciating even though they are doing well. It's not like them

 

I hope we take things with humour, like ireland usually do in big tournaments, its a great attitude to have and makes football more enjoyable

plus we do have great humour, we're the nation that gave to the world mike bassett, we know deep down we're a bit *, and this'll make anything we achieve more fun and rewarding

 

Mario just scored for Spain, cracking goal

 

Some * goal that

Absolute cracker

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHD-nLaKUho[/ame]

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyVVQ0Iw_t0[/ame]

 

Genius from Gaspar that wow