England -v- Croatia

[kishman]

I can't believe that. That was dreadful. The first half was just appalling. Carson has to get his body behind the ball, that just terrible keeping. Playing 4-5-1 was stupid. changing the tactics from 4-4-2 to 5-3-2 in Croatia didn't and so why on earth did Mclaren bother to change the tactics to 4-5-1. Second half started better and we got back to 2-2 when he changed it back to 4-4-2. But at 2-2 England were way to casual and they sat back and were not showing any urgency to get that 3rd goal which cost us as Croatia got their 3rd. Bent was unlucky not to score.

Next summer is going to be weird. Euro 2008 won't be the same without England. Maybe a good thing, we can't even manage a draw against Croatia so i'd guess we've saved ourselves from getting embarrassed by the likes of Italy, France, Portugal etc.
Hopefully this is the kick up the backside English football needed. Surely now Mclaren will go and we won't bother getting another English manager because there aren't any good ones out there. Jol for England.

 

[DanDigsSpurs]

Hate to say it but as an Englishman I'm glad we are out, I'm bored shitless with everybody blaming the manager, yes, granted he's not the greatest and his tactics leave alot to be desired, but where are these brilliant eleven English players that are not being picked? He's by and large playing the best players available to us, they are simply nowhere near good enough, no technique no geniune footballing ability.

Our league is very good, but this is due to the foreign quality players, I hope this obsession some have of wanting us to buy quality young English players is stopped, where not good enough and unless the F.A do something dramatic we'll have a very long wait for a decent national side. Not one British isle side represented at the Euros and we invented the sport, what a joke.

Summed up perfectly

 

[fazza]

Well that speaks volumes, David Beckham is the man that comes out to face the cameras, why not our so called captain Steven Gerrard, surely he shoudl be the one facing the camera's tonight. Beckham should have started and should have been captain tonight.

 

[snake1]

You say that Zap, but for the majority of the game we just lumped the ball into the area. It is what England have done for years now and it is so easy to defend against. Yes of course Crouch is going to get on the end of the balls, but the angle they are coming from it doesn't really help and decent defenders are just waiting for it. We may have had more posession than Croatia, but they definately had the better quality possession. We could have lost by more than we did and I don't really remember many clear cut chances we created.

The formation was wrong, the majority of the players (while not necessarily playing badly) didn't step up and be counted when it was really on the line, and we were completely tactically out mastered. It was a deserved victory for Bilic and Croatia who came to Wembley with nothing to play for and left with lots of pride and confidence ahead of Euro 2008. England on the other hand have to rebuild from the bottom and prepare for 2010. Seems a long way off but it may just give us a chance to catch up with international football and learn that we have to build the play patiently and control the game through quality possession football.

Anybody else thinking of Jose Mourinho (all Jol bias aside) would be ideal for the job?

Your sig is hilarious.:rofl::up:

 

[Partizan]

If the FA actually do their homework and look at the results he got when he had top quality players avialable, then there are few better choices in Europe. When Leds was fit, under Jol we earned more points per game than Arsenal for the last 2 seasons and Liverpool last season. At England Jol would have Terry, Ferdinand and King etc at the back. If he can get the kind of results he got for us with just King, then with a team of real quality players he'd have an outstanding chance of winning the WC. Also he's got the personality to get the whole country fully behind him in a way the likes of McClaren and SGE never could.

Wait, you said Croatia have clearly better players than England, but with a top coach like Jol, England could suddenly have a chance of winning the WC?

 

[fazza]

Your sig is hilarious.:rofl::up:

So is mine :grin:

 

[karennina]

I'm glad we're out too. As a nation we failed to stop our mad parliament starting the Iraq war. Russians and Croatians have suffered greatly, they deserved the chance at Euro 2008 more.

Also, did our players actually want it? It didn't look like it, and why should they? Life can't get appreciably better for them materially, 'England' is only a name for a patch of ground, and in the same way the world looks at the USAs teams failing with happiness given their recent history, why should we look at our own team any differently?

Do we really care as a nation how we do, and does it matter anyway?

 

[fazza]

My Avator that is.

 

[joey55]

.

Anybody else thinking of Jose Mourinho (all Jol bias aside) would be ideal for the job?

Mourinho is a good shout, but I think most people rightly feel we need to play to our strengths, which is to play Prem tempo football. Mourinho is more of a tactican (his teams are quite similar to SGEs). I think Wengers or Ferguson's limited tactical approach (just pass the ball quickly) is far more suitable for an England team than Benitez/Mourinho/SGE intensley tactical approach.

 

[fazza]

I'm glad we're out too. As a nation we failed to stop our mad parliament starting the Iraq war. Russians and Croatians have suffered greatly, they deserved the chance at Euro 2008 more.

Also, did our players actually want it? It didn't look like it, and why should they? Life can't get appreciably better for them materially, 'England' is only a name for a patch of ground, and in the same way the world looks at the USAs teams failing with happiness given their recent history, why should we look at our own team any differently?

Do we really care as a nation how we do, and does it matter anyway?

Will be in Iran by next June anyways mate.

 

[kishman]

Btw, does anybody think there's anyway back for Beckham? He's stuck of 99 caps. Will the new manager pick him at 33 years of age?

 

[fazza]

Btw, does anybody think there's anyway back for Beckham? He's stuck of 99 caps. Will the new manager pick him at 33 years of age?

Yeah he will get his 100, he's the only decent player we got at the moment.

 

[Zapsta]

You say that Zap, but for the majority of the game we just lumped the ball into the area.

It wasn't just arbitrary though. We played it around in their half a fair bit before working it into positions to get it into the box. We might not have been dazzling, but we were confident, comfortable and efficient (despite going 2 goals behind). If I saw that first half performance from a Premier League team, I'd think "Good performance - unlucky to be behind to 2 sloppy goals". And while obviously goals are what it's about, I think some people's perception of our overall performance has become so ridiculously distorted as a result of them (i.e. none in the first half from us, the 2 in the first half from Croatia). On a similar note, I thought we were worse in the second half, and always looked far more likely to concede a goal.

 

[fazza]

 

[fazza]

 

[nightgoat]

On the BBC Sport front page now...

:-|

 

[fazza]

I found the next England Manager..........................

 

[karennina]

Will be in Iran by next June anyways mate.

Yes, a national sport we can be good at! As alluded to by Norman Mailer in his 2003 essay here

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/10/5141/

about white american men finding a war to root for in the absence of caucasian dominated sports teams. Hopefully our collective delusion of 'England' has taken a crack to the goolies/foundations tonight.

Also, I agree with Zapsta, we looked ok first half.

 

[fazza]

McClarens day off....

 

[don1]

I found the next England Manager..........................

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: class