Bus-Conductor
SC Supporter
- Oct 19, 2004
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- 50,713
Who'd have thought when I said this at half time that it could actually get worse.
I'm seeing a lot of venom towards Hodgson, and though I've never been a real fan of his, I think a lot of it is pretty unfair. Half that team was Spurs players. It's hardly Hodgson's fault when players can't fucking pass a ball 3 yards to each other, control simple passes or make simple decisions or show the vaguest hint of composure. And there were times when watching Spurs this drove me nuts too (though of course it wasn't just the Spurs players tonight). I wouldn't have had Rooney in midfield and have said that all along, but that wasn't (and shouldn't) cost England to lose to a team like Iceland.
Things will not change for England until they actually start to prioritise intelligence, cognitive ability & technique above pace, speed, physique and fucking gung ho-ness.
Better managers than Hodgson (Capello eg) have also failed to get England playing any kind of cohesive football. I still have some hope that the change in attitude at youth coaching level may start to bare some fruit in the coming years, but when you look at how difficult it still is for those kids to get chances at EPL level, and the attitude to playing our most talented kids in our first teams compared to Germany, France etc, and the increased money coming into the EPL not helping that at all, I do fear for some of the most talented kids.
It wasn't embarrassing to go out to a team like Iceland, the underdog will often win football matches, what is embarrassing is when you watch the other major nations, even when they haven't got their strongest teams (Italy), or are also going through slight transition, they still at least perform the basics competently, technique, movement, passing, composure, they invariably tend to lose cohesively. Iceland didn't really beat England tonight, England really beat themselves because for all their bluster they were utterly devoid in intelligence, guile, craft, composure, cohesion & even basic technique under pressure.
