I've said it for ages now that football in this country is broken at grass roots level with some of the ******s we have managing good youth teams. Until that changes then England will never get better. Useless **(*** of *****.
Your idiotic favouring of Messi tax evasion verses Carr tax avoidance has already been shown up for the childish fanboy nonsense it is. We aren't revisiting it as it's beyond basic. If you are now suggesting Argentina are not a team who favours a bit of cynicism then you are making yourself out to be an even bigger clown.
Incredible. Are the English players simply not mentally strong enough to deal with pressure and expectation? The media will destroy them with relish.
I have previously defended Rooney during this tournament when he was (I thought) unfairly criticised on here. Rest assured, there will be no such protestations from me tonight. Cthulhu, over to you....
Whatever the shortcomings of the manager, it says plenty about this squad of so-called young (and not so young - yes Mr Rooney, I'm glaring at you!) and talented squad that more than half of them couldn't pass the ball 5 yards in the second half. No matter about formations and shape, if the players can't make short passes or control the ball properly then it means naff all who the manager is. Can someone also point out where the Spurs player Deli Alli is please because the bloke never turned up for the past couple of weeks. Must've been on a beach somewhere with Harry Kane and that Raheem Stirling fella from 2 or 3 years ago. They were ably joined by that decent keeper we used to have and someone who looks like Shrek. And many others too. I despair. Now let's all practice that Icelandic slow clap and 'HUH!' chant.
No, but it's down to the manager to make changes when players are having absolute nightmares and doing what you say above. Kane and Rooney were the worst offenders. Kane has been the same all tournament and shouldn't have started tonight. He was left on until the final whistle. Rooney has been OK this tournament, but from early on in the first half it was clear he was having a stinker and he was left on until the 88th minute. At half time Hodgson took Dier off instead because he didn't have the balls to sub Rooney. I've never seen anything quite like that from a player from Rooney tonight. Hodgson should have put him out of his misery after 60 minutes at the latest. He didn't. Because he's a coward.
Looking at the quick and prepared resignation, the strange absence of Gary Neville (that I saw) from the touchline, the strange look on Sturridge's face before the game, I'm thinking all wasn't well in the camp before tonight.
Players will not perform if they don't understand or believe in the system that they are being told to use. A strong manager weeds out these players and can actually identify these things. We play strikers on the wing, play no crosses, leave the PL top scorer on the bench, leave out a PL winning midfielder for one that'd played an hour for his club, take an 18 year old kid because he played a few games for Man Utd and most criminally, shoehorn in Wayne Rooney as a midfielder, because he's ****ing Wayne Rooney. But yeah, it's the players that are at fault.
The fact that the idiot even thought of started Stirling in this game was a complete joke, let alone actually doing it. The idiot lost his job on that decision alone.
At ANY level of football, organisation and strategy is fundamental. When you don't have these things in place, everything invariably turns to s***. The players were making ridiculous errors because we've spent the entire tournament repeatedly running into brick walls, with the man in charge of them unwilling to problem solve the situation. Honestly, I feel a bit for the players because Woy has set them up for failure.
Put a decent manager in charge of that group of players and we'd be looking forward to a quarter final against Belgium right now having topped the group, might even have made the semis. Decent managers make their teams more than the sum of their parts, crap managers make them less. Can anyone here honestly say they think they'd be inspired by Roy? There is nothing about him, just a bumbling nice old uncle aura. I want my national manager to have a bit of edge, make the players want to run through brick walls because they believe in the system you're playing and you as a leader. We have had no plan, no identity and no leaders on the pitch throughout this tournament. Reminded me of the last days of Zola, everyone hiding, no-one taking responsibility and a coach without the first idea how to change things.
I wasn't defending Hodgson but I do think the modern day footballer and especially those who pull on an England shirt are, by and large, vastly overrated. The fees paid and wages pocketed are not any where near a true reflection of their playing ability but adds to media and supporter hype every two years. They just ain't that good and when the pressure is really on, they tend to bottle it. With that in mind I'd just like to give a special mention to the many Spurs players in the England squad who managed to balls-up an end of season run-in in the Premier League and other than one Walker and Dier performance each, disappear in the four matches in France. Give 'em all new improved long term contracts with a 25% loyalty bonus just for signing the bloody thing.
Undoubtedly the single worst performance I have seen from an England side in my lifetime. Pathetic on every level. The players are ballsless and overrated and Hodgson is so far beyond clueless it's not even funny. We looked like a non-league team. Couldn't string two passes together, ball running under their feet, absolutely no movement, zero intensity and attacking intent and Harry Kane continuing to show that he is the undisputed worst set-piece taker of all time. The players and Hodgson should take equal blame for that utter shower of sh*t in my opinion. Yes the players were appalling but Hodgson is an absolutely abysmal manager who picked the wrong squad, the wrong team and has the tactical nous of a dinosaur, which is exactly what he is. We also need to stop overhyping this "new generation" because they are nothing like as special as they're being made out to be. I know they're young but the likes of Kane, Dier and Alli - whilst all decent players - will never be world class footballers and perform better for a team like Spurs because they have an excellent manager and some very good players around them. Put them in a side with players of an equal standard and an utter clown like Hodgson in charge and they aren't half as good. Also talk of Southgate coming in next because he's the "natural successor" and "knows the FA set up". Yes, that's f**king fantastic, that's exactly what we need, another yes man to come in, change very little and slot right in to the deeply ingrained mediocrity and mindset that continues to bring such failure. We need someone with a pair of f**king stones to come in and give the likes of Rooney, Wilshire and Sterling the boot and start picking players based on their performance throughout the season rather than the size of the club they pay for and the unwarranted "big" reputations they've built.
England team should have championship players in it. They would play for the shirt and give everything. The overpaid premiership ones only care about their clubs.
Young players as well. Players who are going to have to carry this failure around like a weight around their neck for the next 10-15 years of their England careers.
I don't feel for any of them, at all. If they're old enough to earn £50,000+ a week, play Premier League football, live in 6 bedroom houses and roll around in prestige brand cars they're old enough to play international football and be held accountable for their performance, or lack there of. The pressure they're under is absolutely nothing compared to hundreds of other far, far less well paid, more difficult jobs.
I expected England to fail at this tournament but not quite this badly. I genuinely don't think there is much between ROI, NI, Wales and England which is crazy considering how big the gulf in class has been previously. England seem to be somehow getting worse as each tournament goes by.
No one will be shedding tears for them, but how much they're paid is irrelevant. So is comparing them to other jobs. We have several players that have been tearing up the Premier League, yet have looked like lost children during these past few weeks in France. Coincidence? I think not. We could have had Messi in there tonight and he would have been jogging around looking clueless like the rest.
Just got in from the match, hats off to Iceland but that was bloody embarrassing, I have defended Roy for all of his time as Engalnd manager, top bloke, but there is no way we should have lost to Iceland, what is more worrying is that we deserved to lose, really don't know who is going to replace Roy, good luck Iceland against the French, you are the best fans I have ever met, and your women wow
I don't agree with any of that. People do make excuses for these players and talk about "pressure" and personally I find it ridiculous, and the wage they earn and the relative actual job pressure they're under does have relevance. They're paid incredibly well to do the job they do and they should be able to handle the "pressure" of playing a game of football against f**king Iceland. Messi would have p*ssed all over Iceland because he is head and shoulders above anything we have in terms of talent, aptitude and application.
Congratulations to Iceland. I watched the game tonight in a proper English pub, full of English fans. No one really took the game seriously, and were actually laughing and mocking the players. It was pretty sad to see, but I can see this type of performance year after year leads you to this.....laugh or cry. I can never quite put my finger on it. England quite clearly have good players, but when it comes to tournaments they just freeze and play like amateurs. It must be extremely frustrating. I like watching England, and they are my second team behind Spain......so you can guess tonight has not been one that will stick in the memory for too long for me.
Sources at Westminster have tonight confirmed that David Cameron is set to try and persuade Roy Hodgson to replace him as Prime Minister. Speaking from No. 10 Cameron said "It is clear that the ideal candidate with a coherent strategy to take us out of Europe has emerged". * * * * * * Hodgson SHOULD have been appointed England manager in 1999 when Hoddle was forced out after opening his gob to spout his religious *******s all over the place, not four years ago when he was past it. Hodgson will now always be seen as another "failed England manager", which is a bit of a shame as his previous achievements, most notably his incredible record at Fulham, will tend to be overlooked.
