FIFA World Cup group stages

[shankycricket]

I believe we should bestow captaincy the way the Italians or Germans do it....the player who has the most caps is captain, regardless of who it is. I mean, what exactly does a captain do in football? Aside from shake hands while the coin is being spun....

we? I thought you were supporting the South American teams?

[budgetmeansbudget]

The morning after the night before and we are still in the tournament with an Italy victory today prolonging the agony, but still an Italy win does give us some hope going into Tuesday.

Mildly disappointed after last night as I think we showed glimpses to suggest we are good enough to get out of this group but sadly there isn't enough there to suggest we would have progressed much further.

Not much more to be said that hasn't already been said after we've exited previous tournaments, change the way kids are brought up, get more English players playing regularly in the premier league, get more English players playing abroad, have more managers like Brendan Rogers in the top flight etc... but will it ever make any difference. Perhaps we just aren't good enough at this game that we invented and never will be.

[shankycricket]

The morning after the night before and we are still in the tournament with an Italy victory today prolonging the agony, but still an Italy win does give us some hope going into Tuesday.

Mildly disappointed after last night as I think we showed glimpses to suggest we are good enough to get out of this group but sadly there isn't enough there to suggest we would have progressed much further.

Not much more to be said that hasn't already been said after we've exited previous tournaments, change the way kids are brought up, get more English players playing regularly in the premier league, get more English players playing abroad, have more managers like Brendan Rogers in the top flight etc... but will it ever make any difference. Perhaps we just aren't good enough at this game that we invented and never will be.

I thought we were very poor yesterday. Rooney was probably our best player and even he missed a couple of very easy chances before finally netting one in. The defence was shockingly bad. A far cry from the days of G Neville, Terry, Ferdinand and Cole. We don't have a single natural holding midfielder in the squad. And an average goalkeeper. Seriously short on defensive talent.

[Gingerfinch]

That's the thing. Not enough quality. In the areas that matter most, their last third, and ours, we were not good enough. The crossing was mostly poor, as was the finishing, when we did create chances.

C'mon Italy. If they can win by a couple then who know's? Still, will we beat Costa Rica?

After this world cup, Lampard, and Gerrard will surely retire, which isn't a bad thing, and we may have a new manager who gets us motivated, cos, Roy doesn't seem to. Not sure who this man will be, mind?

[shankycricket]

Apparently, Uruguay had only 37% of the possession and only 2 shots on target. Its what you do with it that matters though. Not like cricket where a team that dominates for the best part ends up winning more often than not. We just didn't have that killer instinct. Let the ball slip too easily and poor finishing.

[shankycricket]

That's the thing. Not enough quality. In the areas that matter most, their last third, and ours, we were not good enough. The crossing was mostly poor, as was the finishing, when we did create chances.

C'mon Italy. If they can win by a couple then who know's? Still, will we beat Costa Rica?

After this world cup, Lampard, and Gerrard will surely retire, which isn't a bad thing, and we may have a new manager who gets us motivated, cos, Roy doesn't seem to. Not sure who this man will be, mind?

Definitely not 'Arry. Please no.

[budgetmeansbudget]

That's the thing. Not enough quality. In the areas that matter most, their last third, and ours, we were not good enough. The crossing was mostly poor, as was the finishing, when we did create chances.

C'mon Italy. If they can win by a couple then who know's? Still, will we beat Costa Rica?

After this world cup, Lampard, and Gerrard will surely retire, which isn't a bad thing, and we may have a new manager who gets us motivated, cos, Roy doesn't seem to. Not sure who this man will be, mind?

Who would want the job anyway? It ranks below any job offer in the premier league these days so you aren't going to get top quality candidates. The fa piled money into getting Capello and he didn't do the business so I can't see them doing that again. Then they went for the safe bet yes man Hodgson who no one ever thought would do much, and probably getting England to the World Cup finals was as much as we could have hoped for.

[budgetmeansbudget]

That's the thing. Not enough quality. In the areas that matter most, their last third, and ours, we were not good enough. The crossing was mostly poor, as was the finishing, when we did create chances.

C'mon Italy. If they can win by a couple then who know's? Still, will we beat Costa Rica?

After this world cup, Lampard, and Gerrard will surely retire, which isn't a bad thing, and we may have a new manager who gets us motivated, cos, Roy doesn't seem to. Not sure who this man will be, mind?

Definitely not 'Arry. Please no.

As a man who is biased in that regard I would still have to agree with you, but is there any top manager out there who would want the job?

[shankycricket]

That's the thing. Not enough quality. In the areas that matter most, their last third, and ours, we were not good enough. The crossing was mostly poor, as was the finishing, when we did create chances.

C'mon Italy. If they can win by a couple then who know's? Still, will we beat Costa Rica?

After this world cup, Lampard, and Gerrard will surely retire, which isn't a bad thing, and we may have a new manager who gets us motivated, cos, Roy doesn't seem to. Not sure who this man will be, mind?

Definitely not 'Arry. Please no.

As a man who is biased in that regard I would still have to agree with you, but is there any top manager out there who would want the job?

Del Bosque could be available if he is sacked by Spain.......

[Gingerfinch]

Maybe we should ask an ex player to mange (not Pearce). We've tried other options like the successful overseas manager (Capello, Sven), the up and coming entertainer (keegan), the old man, who was good 15 years ago (Roy). Difficult one.

[Aidan11]

Last night summed up everything that is wrong with English football.

Get rid of those suits at the FA and replace ALL of them with football men such as Bobby Charlton.

Learn from the rest of the world how coaching works properly.

Don't be afraid to get rid of players who are only in on reputation.

I could go on and on but the test match starts in just over 2 hours.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Last night summed up everything that is wrong with English football.

Get rid of those suits at the FA and replace ALL of them with football men such as Bobby Charlton.

Learn from the rest of the world how coaching works properly.

Don't be afraid to get rid of players who are only in on reputation.

I could go on and on but the test match starts in just over 2 hours.

Yes thank goodness we're good at cricket.

[sussexpob]

Quite ironic, some idiotic suggestions coming from everywhere today, the blame game is in full swing.... No one seems to realise though that its actually the "blame game" that causes most of this.

No manager had the balls to ever stamp their authority on a team because they simply cant win.... had Hodgson dropped Rooney and lost, people with revisionist tendencies would have been moaning we left out a bloke with 40 international goals for a 32 year old who hardly played.... so he picks him, and he gets it the other way.

Sacking Hodgson? Brilliant, who do we get in? An ex-player I see suggested? Who then? Worked brilliantly for Argentina and Maradona??? Do we get Shearer and his arrogant, pompous, "couldnt write enough to fill an A5 piece of paper on tactics" type??? Yeah cause what we need is bulldog spirit right?? (Did you see Jags at the end? Or the effort they put in?? POPPYCOCK!!)....

Oh, and when we played with Capello people asked for attacking football, so Hodgson attacks and gets criticised for conceding sloppy goals....

Stop talking *modded*..... England played two top 10 ranked teams and deserved at least a point from both games, arguably to win at least one of them.

They did well, the idiotic suggestions that we should revamp the whole footballing structure are stupid.

[Gingerfinch]

sussex.

What has Roy done to keep his job? We crawled through qualification, and have now lost two in a row, while he sits there, head in hands. He doesn't deserve another crack. he's had his chance and fluffed it. As for an ex-player. Klinsmann done ok. They're not all going to be ' Maradona's.

[Aidan11]

Quite ironic, some idiotic suggestions coming from everywhere today, the blame game is in full swing.... No one seems to realise though that its actually the "blame game" that causes most of this.

No manager had the balls to ever stamp their authority on a team because they simply cant win.... had Hodgson dropped Rooney and lost, people with revisionist tendencies would have been moaning we left out a bloke with 40 international goals for a 32 year old who hardly played.... so he picks him, and he gets it the other way.

Sacking Hodgson? Brilliant, who do we get in? An ex-player I see suggested? Who then? Worked brilliantly for Argentina and Maradona??? Do we get Shearer and his arrogant, pompous, "couldnt write enough to fill an A5 piece of paper on tactics" type??? Yeah cause what we need is bulldog spirit right?? (Did you see Jags at the end? Or the effort they put in?? POPPYCOCK!!)....

Oh, and when we played with Capello people asked for attacking football, so Hodgson attacks and gets criticised for conceding sloppy goals....

Stop talking *modded*..... England played two top 10 ranked teams and deserved at least a point from both games, arguably to win at least one of them.

They did well, the idiotic suggestions that we should revamp the whole footballing structure are stupid.

Do you really believe there is nothing wrong with English football?

Since we won the WC in 66 our best achievemets in nearly 50 years have been -

European Championships - Semis 1968, 1996
WC - Semis 1990

Look at Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Spain. They reach semi finals and finals without breaking sweat.

Until something drastically changes we will dine out forever on Geoff Hurst#s hat trick.