by sussexpob » Thu Mar 12, 2020 12:12 pm
If England's women team want to start to compete with the best, then they have to remove the bubble wrapped environment they operate in. The English media essentially allow the team way too much leeway, and there is never any critique of the team; rewatch that USA WC match, the fitness on show in the last third of the game was shocking. The ladies should be better professionals than to tire out so badly, a lot of them play at top clubs like Man City, where they share and have access to the most expensive training facilities ever built in football. They need to look at themselves and strive to get better. There are no excuses.
When France failed, the media went for the jugular. They dont over hype wins against teams with far less facilities either; when England beat Norway, people were proclaiming it as some wonder victory when in actual fact regardless of historical achievements, Norways top players cant be ar*ed with international football and dont bother to turn up, and whats left is playing games in rural stadiums to 10 people, and heavily amateur setups. Its hardly the David v Goliath rubbish the English media played it up to be, in fact it was more the giant kicking the life out of a midget.
Other teams like Spain seem to be very focused in improving, England seem stuck in the mud. But why would you look to improve that much when the message is always "hard lines". No one lays the boot in or demands better.
Just look at how professional the American ladies are, and how much pressure there is for them to perform. They dont have a free pass on failure or are allowed to float out terrible excuses, when England won the last tournament in the USA (by drawing with USA, I think they won on GD) the Americans got a pounding. They are fitter,stronger, more mentally prepared. They dont win all these trophies by fluke.... England need to create the same environment that does not accept failure.
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And a hat and bra to you too, my good sirs!