Sven was first rate compared to Mclaren. But it wasn´t just the Russian game which cost us the qualification, these results didn´t help either.
England 0 - 0 F.Y.R. Macedonia
Croatia 2 - 0 England
Israel 0 - 0 England
Its simply really, the what used to be "small countries" are now much better and no longer go down 7:0. The playing field is more equal apart from the odd exception.
And England basically arn´t good at football simply as that, the Premier league may have developed but the national team still has the "welly the ball upfield" mentality instead of holding the ball and frustrating the opponent like top teams do.
if england keep failing to beat smaller nations away from home, like Israel then the new wembley will be struggle to be full. 90,000 fans wont turn up for games against Macedonia if its a 0-0.
The FA will take that as a factor if and when they get rid of Mclaren.
I just dont know what it is with England nowadays, when I used to watch them with the likes of Shearer, Mcmanaman and Paul Ince they just slaughtered teams.
Are national managers at the helm of England using careful tactics when they should be going all out? Russia didnt seem to have caused too many troubles at the front against englands defence until nearer the end, thats why I think THEY should have had a 3rd striker on to start with, peter crouch roony and owen with Gerrard in midfield.
With such an amazing amount of talent, and young talent I might add, its hard to see why this aint paying off most of the time, SWP, Joe Cole, Lennon at the wings are unstopable when they want to. Is the the forwards being too short? I think Owen should have been benched for Crouch to start with if england were going to humff it up the park all night.
I must make this point tho, I didnt see what the fuss was about prematch about that astro-turf but what a speed the ball travels at, very hard for defenders and keepers to stop balls dead if they wanted to.
My very honest opinion is that if that was on normal grass then I think Rio Ferdenand would have caught the ball and (i doubt it though) clipped it out of the goal line....HOWEVER we are talking about lazy bastard rio ferdinand so NYAH 😛
Discos - If Russia beat Israel, I think England will side a "weaker" side against Croatia and that "weaker" side will show fans they want that shirt on their backs full time.
^^ totally agree with ya, Croatia have been a force in Euro football for a decade, they came 3rd at the 1998 World Cup and I enjoyed watching their progress.
as for the slaughterings, I didnt mean the fact it was 5-0 - i meant they ran the park and had a good game to see off opponents.
Discos - rosey tinted specs? cheeky 😛
Originally posted by Smasandian
People complained that England lost because of what type of field the game was played on?And was it astroturf, or synthetic grass?
They are just making excuses. These are experienced footballers who have played on all sorts of surfaces. The new artificial pitches are not as bad as they are made out to be, they are no longer the "running track" bouncy rubber like they used to be. This grass on the Russia pitch is long with little rubber round bits below, Ive seen and even played on this sort of new pitch and its no problem at all. Ok the ball goes faster than normal if its wet which is good for long distance shots apart from that no problem.
Englands main problem was the "long ball to Owen" tactic. Owen is one of the smallest players need I say more.
Who still thinks Rooney and Tevez can play together as well as everyone hyped them to?
You know, Man U now being untouchable as a result of such a partnership.
I just love the forgetfulness of commentators; "You cannot stop Rooney from scoring!". This being why he didn't score for England for three years.
Oh well.
-AC
all i heard was negative criticism, i guess its different in the uk. everything i saw about it was "it wont work, they're too alike, blah blah".
i thought it worked really well, although i still think the saha and tevez or saha and rooney type partnership works better. its just good to have a big guy up there collect some of the longer balls.
whats the big problem with rooney? everyone always has something to say about him, its weird. my sister has this deep hate for him that i just dont understand.