fazza
Well-Known Member
- May 5, 2004
- 17,285
- 490
:lol:
England -v- Croatia
- Thread starter ChRiStOpHe
- Start date
:lol:
speccy_spur
Active Member
- Aug 2, 2005
- 1,192
- 0
Thank goodness we have finally been put out of our misery. And by that I mean the inevitable removal of McClown and Teflon Tel. We can only hope that this time (and it is a slim hope with the idiots involved) that the FA gets a proper coach.
Euro 2008 is going to be great tournament without us.
Euro 2008 is going to be great tournament without us.
- Jan 14, 2004
- 15,105
- 9,122
- Staff
- #304
I don't disagree that we did it purposefully, it looked as though we did. Just that it was tactically naive especially as we didn't really have anyone off Crouch the whole game. I'm not saying we were bad, just out thought in my opinon. I thought Croatia were the better footballing side.
NickHSpurs
Well-Known Member
- Mar 14, 2004
- 13,641
- 11,937
He deserves 100 caps
SpurSince57
Well-Known Member
- Jan 20, 2006
- 45,213
- 8,229
So basically, I made the right choice in giving up at half-time and watching 'Heroes' instead of recording it.
- Jan 14, 2004
- 15,105
- 9,122
- Staff
- #309
I have to disagree Joey. Sven has been able to come into the prem and play decent enough attacking football with a group of pretty average players. International football is very different to premiership football and countless times tonight (and throughout the qualifying campaign) we were in dire need of organised quality football. I think sometimes people misunderstood Mourinho's football for boring. The possession style football is completely different to just poor attacking football.
Beyond that, he would demand respect and passion, he would make the brave decisions. People would become intersted in the national team again. Considering it is a lonf term job now he seems far more suited to me than Jol.
That's why you guys didn't win or draw tonight. Totally dismissing Croatia as opposition. We are a bloody good side and we'll push the likes of Germany, Italy etc at Euro 2008.
We outplayed you. Despite the close scoreline, we had the clearer chances and should have won by more.
By the way, lets hope we can get Modric at Spurs. Class act!!
LSUY
Well-Known Member
- Jul 12, 2005
- 24,030
- 66,881
The 21st November 2007 will go down in English footballing history as a dark day but it could also become the building block for the future. The pundits and media are comparing England’s 3-2 loss to Croatia and failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships to England’s loss against Germany at Wembley in 2000 or England’s failure to qualify for World Cup USA ‘94. Personally I hope it gets compared to England’s loss to Hungary in 1953.
On November 25th 1953, the supposed Match of the Century took place at Wembley. The great Hungary team of the 1950s who were unbeaten for three years and winners of the 1952 Olympics played the most famous international side at the time England.
England lost that game 6-3 and were humiliated by the Hungarians. But England learnt from it. Everything from tactics to the manufacture of kits were drastically altered in this country because of this game. Alf Ramsey, who played in the game, listed the match as the most influential on his own managerial style.
So hopefully England’s loss to Croatia will act as the same motivation to the national set up here like the 1953 loss did.
Unfortunately this is only half the problem. As bad as the FA and manager are the players have to take their fair share of the blame for England’s current woes. Gerrard and Lampard are world class players for their club but when it comes to international duty they play as if they belong in the Championship with QPR. But in order to tackle these players poor performances you need to sort out the system that creates and looks after them.
Back in early 2006 Michael Johnson said Britain rewarded mediocrity. The multi gold winning athlete may have been talking about the likes of Mark Lewis-Francis and Darren Campbell who despite the multi-million sponsorship deals and funding from the UK sporting board have failed to live up to expectations, the same can be said of the current England football team.
England’s players have lost their hunger and this is because the system the FA have in place has helped them lose it. It rewards England’s best, not the world’s best. Even though England has failed to qualify for Euro 2008 each player is getting a £135,000 bonus from the FA.
You look at who is going to be the next big thing in English football and you worry. Young players come along and show promise, but if they come up through this system, they will go the same way. David Beckham is the most famous sportsman on the planet but what has he done to deserve this? He was meant to be the saviour that wins England another World Cup but since his sending off in France ’98 his performances at the big tournaments haven’t been good enough.
When someone mentions Pele or Maradona they say great player. When someone says David Beckham they say free kicks, posh spice or wearing his wife’s underwear.
England’s players are poster boys who are afraid to get their hands dirty and fight in a game. This ‘golden’ generation haven’t achieved anything other than making the England team the laughing stock of the world. ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption rarely talks about football but even they had a slot about England’s awful performance in Russia and will similarly laugh about the Croatia performance on tomorrow’s show.
The whole system has to broken up and start from scratch. Drastic measures are needed otherwise the next generation are going to get tainted as well. England’s players are in a comfort zone and a radical overhaul of the current system in place is the only way forward. The big names know they won’t get dropped and if by a miracle they are it’s only for a worthless game against Andorra or a friendly. If the FA put a manager like Alex Ferguson in charge the players would have been bricking it at the thought of entering the dressing room two nil down. If the FA said to the players that failure to qualify would mean no bonus the players would perform that bit better.
Players in the German, Italian and Dutch national team are probably envious of the support that England’s players get. Our players have it all – the status, the support, the money – before they have done anything to deserve it. Michael Ballack is one of the key players in the German team but before the 2006 World Cup Jurgen Klinsmann made it perfectly clear to Ballack that even though he was the captain and one of Germany’s best players he is still droppable. Could you imagine McClaren saying that to Gerrard?
Weeks before the start of the 2006 World Cup Gary Neville expressed his disgust at how before every major tournament the old 1966 team are wheeled out and make comments about the current England team. Neville believed that they should shut up.
What Neville failed to realise is that the reason the ’66 players are wheeled out is because they are real sportsman. They put years of hard work in to be the best and continue to work towards improving unlike the current batch. The England back four looked as if they didn’t know each other against Croatia. The recent past and current players, coaches and managers are happy with getting knocked out in the Quarter-Final because they feel it means they’ve put in a good performance at a tournament.
Bobby Moore and Alf Ramsey wouldn’t have been satisfied with a Quarter-Final place.
In England the players and system aren’t hold accountable enough. In most of Europe you are held accountable when things go wrong but that doesn’t happen in England. There can be no more excuses. It is one thing after another.
It’s time that everything from the FA all the way down to the grass roots were changed.
On November 25th 1953, the supposed Match of the Century took place at Wembley. The great Hungary team of the 1950s who were unbeaten for three years and winners of the 1952 Olympics played the most famous international side at the time England.
England lost that game 6-3 and were humiliated by the Hungarians. But England learnt from it. Everything from tactics to the manufacture of kits were drastically altered in this country because of this game. Alf Ramsey, who played in the game, listed the match as the most influential on his own managerial style.
So hopefully England’s loss to Croatia will act as the same motivation to the national set up here like the 1953 loss did.
Unfortunately this is only half the problem. As bad as the FA and manager are the players have to take their fair share of the blame for England’s current woes. Gerrard and Lampard are world class players for their club but when it comes to international duty they play as if they belong in the Championship with QPR. But in order to tackle these players poor performances you need to sort out the system that creates and looks after them.
Back in early 2006 Michael Johnson said Britain rewarded mediocrity. The multi gold winning athlete may have been talking about the likes of Mark Lewis-Francis and Darren Campbell who despite the multi-million sponsorship deals and funding from the UK sporting board have failed to live up to expectations, the same can be said of the current England football team.
England’s players have lost their hunger and this is because the system the FA have in place has helped them lose it. It rewards England’s best, not the world’s best. Even though England has failed to qualify for Euro 2008 each player is getting a £135,000 bonus from the FA.
You look at who is going to be the next big thing in English football and you worry. Young players come along and show promise, but if they come up through this system, they will go the same way. David Beckham is the most famous sportsman on the planet but what has he done to deserve this? He was meant to be the saviour that wins England another World Cup but since his sending off in France ’98 his performances at the big tournaments haven’t been good enough.
When someone mentions Pele or Maradona they say great player. When someone says David Beckham they say free kicks, posh spice or wearing his wife’s underwear.
England’s players are poster boys who are afraid to get their hands dirty and fight in a game. This ‘golden’ generation haven’t achieved anything other than making the England team the laughing stock of the world. ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption rarely talks about football but even they had a slot about England’s awful performance in Russia and will similarly laugh about the Croatia performance on tomorrow’s show.
The whole system has to broken up and start from scratch. Drastic measures are needed otherwise the next generation are going to get tainted as well. England’s players are in a comfort zone and a radical overhaul of the current system in place is the only way forward. The big names know they won’t get dropped and if by a miracle they are it’s only for a worthless game against Andorra or a friendly. If the FA put a manager like Alex Ferguson in charge the players would have been bricking it at the thought of entering the dressing room two nil down. If the FA said to the players that failure to qualify would mean no bonus the players would perform that bit better.
Players in the German, Italian and Dutch national team are probably envious of the support that England’s players get. Our players have it all – the status, the support, the money – before they have done anything to deserve it. Michael Ballack is one of the key players in the German team but before the 2006 World Cup Jurgen Klinsmann made it perfectly clear to Ballack that even though he was the captain and one of Germany’s best players he is still droppable. Could you imagine McClaren saying that to Gerrard?
Weeks before the start of the 2006 World Cup Gary Neville expressed his disgust at how before every major tournament the old 1966 team are wheeled out and make comments about the current England team. Neville believed that they should shut up.
What Neville failed to realise is that the reason the ’66 players are wheeled out is because they are real sportsman. They put years of hard work in to be the best and continue to work towards improving unlike the current batch. The England back four looked as if they didn’t know each other against Croatia. The recent past and current players, coaches and managers are happy with getting knocked out in the Quarter-Final because they feel it means they’ve put in a good performance at a tournament.
Bobby Moore and Alf Ramsey wouldn’t have been satisfied with a Quarter-Final place.
In England the players and system aren’t hold accountable enough. In most of Europe you are held accountable when things go wrong but that doesn’t happen in England. There can be no more excuses. It is one thing after another.
It’s time that everything from the FA all the way down to the grass roots were changed.
Real_madyidd
The best username, unless you are a fucking idiot.
- Oct 25, 2004
- 18,797
- 12,456
Great news. It now means non of our players can think by not playing for us they have missed out on the squad. No forwards at the Euros, no mids? No defenders (maybe chimbo) no keeper. We will do well next season!
nightgoat
Well-Known Member
- Sep 12, 2005
- 24,604
- 21,898
He's stating the fucking obvious there...
fazza
Well-Known Member
- May 5, 2004
- 17,285
- 490
Now that is positive thinking. :grin:
Green Samot
Ever so slightly annoyed
- Apr 14, 2004
- 746
- 145
I'm glad it wasn't Robbo making that mistake. He'd have been crucified.
Carson will probably get away with it. And that 'great save' he made was bollocks. It hit him.
Carson will probably get away with it. And that 'great save' he made was bollocks. It hit him.
karennina
ciffirt
- Nov 24, 2004
- 2,820
- 1,032
I think they both did. On the second all he had to do was stand still. Sorted.
nightgoat
Well-Known Member
- Sep 12, 2005
- 24,604
- 21,898
That's what Trevor Brooking is trying to do, but the suits keep ignoring him...
