UEFA EURO 2016 Qualifiers and International Friendlies ** spoilers ** [3rd - 9th September 2014]

I get the impression that if England were remotely successful or passionate everyone would support them over their club team. It's only because of the players' attitudes and the fact that we get consistently spanked at international competitions that we love our clubs more than our country.
 
The timing of them is so awful as well. No one really likes club football being interrupted, but they especially hate it when the season has literally started and the transfer window just closed.

Everyone's excited to see their new signings and then everyone buggers off for a bunch of pointless internationals*.


* yes I am aware one is a Euro qualifier.
 
Still pointless for England, we'll get there and do nothing. waste of money.

I really dislike Rooney, he used to be someone special whom I admired for his ability, however since Ronaldo left he's looked lazy and abhorrent, yet they pander to him constantly, because he's our biggest name and image.

He used to be a player with power and a burst of pace that would go past a player with strength and then unleash a blistering shot or interplay well. Now he's tame, if he tries to go past somebody he falls to the floor claiming foul, his passing is either sloppy or slow and stalling. His movement is always to pull back and steady himself, rather work on the limit and instinct.

I had really hoped LVG would sort him out, but he's given him the captaincy, maybe it's just to try and reignite him, hopefully this is showing that's impossible and LVG will drop him.
 
What's it going to take for Hodgson to get the sack?

The standard of the squad right now might not be great but there's some very good young players around and we can't let Hodgson ruin them. The man is a diabolical manager and his appointment is up there with his appointment at Liverpool and Moyes at Utd as the most retarded decision ever.

As there ever been a time when International football has been so meaningless? Appointing a young, progressive manager will go a long way to changing people's opinions on England.
 
Rooney said the young players are still learning well he's not setting a good example as captain is he, based on last night's performance. Also age is irrelevant when players such as Sterling are clearly better than him.
 
BaZ87 said:
What's it going to take for Hodgson to get the sack?

The standard of the squad right now might not be great but there's some very good young players around and we can't let Hodgson ruin them. The man is a diabolical manager and his appointment is up there with his appointment at Liverpool and Moyes at Utd as the most retarded decision ever.

As there ever been a time when International football has been so meaningless? Appointing a young, progressive manager will go a long way to changing people's opinions on England.
Click to expand...

I'll keep saying it till people actually get it. Manager after manager making the same team choices despite being wildly different managers at club level. Sven, Mclown, Capello, all picking Lampard and Gerrard, all picking Rooney no matter what.

Starting Gerrard/Lampard in midfield even though it effectively never works. Only when players are injured have we seen glimpses of a real team.

FA offer a huge wage that is higher than most international managers, higher than all of them including Capello have ever been paid at club level. They take the job because it's just too much money to turn down, but it's a job with no where near the control, where I'm 99.7% sure they get given say a list of 15 players who have to be in the team(largely Pool, Utd, City, Chelsea, Arsenal players), with a little leeway over the rest and we've seen some slightly different teams and formations when a few of the pre picked names are out injured.

The manager won't matter till the FA relinquish control and accept that picking the 11 most popular players and putting them on a pitch isn't conducive to winning a tournament.
 
The FA are not picking the team DM. McClaren dropped Beckham completely and left Lampard out the side a fair bit too which shows that, not that he done very well though.

Hodgson's a dinosaur. He needs to retire from football altogether. How he got one of the most important jobs in football is truly mind boggling.
 
England manager = one of the LEAST important jobs in football, and he did well everywhere except Liverpool, but Liverpool fans want to remember him as failing everywhere because Liverpool fans are weird. Prem league manager, potentially being in control of a 500mil a year revenue club, playing up to 70 games a year in 4 or 5 competitions, against the rest of the best teams in the world. England, pipsqueak revenue in comparison, 10 games a year, 80% of them against the likes of San Marino or Lithuania... most people barely give a crap about it. the idea that anyone thinks international manager is one of the most important jobs in football is... worrying, because there isn't a single reason to believe that is true.

Also Beckham being out of the England team had nothing to do with him moving away from English football at all right. While his worldwide fame increased, the english interest in him dropped as most people don't want La Liga. He was dropped, someone else from a top England team replaces him.... surprising, nope. He also quit as captain and he wasn't as effective. There is also usually a scapegoat from most international tournaments. Oh, we sucked, manager gets fired, new manager and we sucked, give manager a chance cut a big name player who is almost at the end of his career anyway.

Most teams do similar in terms of cutting a few "stars" deemed to have under performed or a manager, or both.

As for leaving Lampard out, again after donkeys years of the team and managers favouring Gerrard, and literally years and years of "does gerrard and Lampard really work", one got less game time. I fail to see how that goes against what I said.
 
Last edited:
And Blackburn and Inter.

You seemed to be suggesting that the FA force the manager to pick the big name players. Beckham was totally axed and Lampard was left out the side a lot under McClaren. I don't believe for one moment that the FA have any meaningful say on who is picked in the squad*.

*unless it involves a disciplinary case.
 
Last edited:
IMO Rooney is bigger than both England and United solely due to commercial reasons.

As a footballing talent he has become easily replaceable but commercially he is the poster child of England, United and English football as a whole... there's just no replacing that unless someone like Sterling becomes a Bale MK2. Rooney is at the moment living largely off reputation and past deeds and is being put on a pedestal by being given captaincy roles.

The FA can't use Rooney's image for England so much and then not play him.
 
Last edited:
BaZ87 said:
And Blackburn and Inter.

You seemed to be suggesting that the FA force the manager to pick the big name players. Beckham was totally axed and Lampard was left out the side a lot under McClaren. I don't believe for one moment that the FA have any meaningful say on who is picked in the squad*.

*unless it involves a disciplinary case.
Click to expand...


In Beckham's case he was 33, he was at the world cup that year and would be 35 come the next tournament. There was also widespread talk at the time he was being pushed out of the team at Real and was likely moving to the MLS..... he didn't drop him in the middle of his Utd career, but as they thought he would be irrelevant 2 years later AND when he was noticeably less good.

Then there is the little fact that Beckham still played games, was brought back for full internationals. It turns out the move to the MLS and repeated loans back to europe furthered his commercial draw, not ended it, and he was promptly brought back even though his performances didn't make it worthwhile or a good idea. So he wasn't dropped as much as... he was going to be 35 and they didn't think he'd be around to play in the tournament, and he would have been 37 for the following world cup?

As for Lampard exactly what are you basing the idea he was dropped on precisely?

Gerrard internationals 2006, 13 games, 07 11 games, 08 and 09 7 games a piece, 2010 12 games, etc.

Lampard 06 13 games 07 9 games 08 6 games 09 10 games, 2010 and 11, 7 games, etc.

Beckham 2006 8 games, 2007 5 games, 2008 8 games 2009 8 games..retired.

When exactly was Lampard dropped, Beckham for that matter as well?

The fact that the biggest names get picked if they should be or not under what 5 different managers. The fact that managers with entirely different philosophies(Capello's ultra defensive style) using the same general players.

Beckham was briefly shoved out when people thought his career was over(ignoring his performance level) then when it turned out his star status grew he was brought straight back(ignoring his performance levels again). Sure sounds to me like they thought his commercial value was going to be non existent, realised it wasn't and brought him instantly back... then they insisted on having him involved on the bench despite absolutely no coaching experience, just to have his name involved in the England team even after he stopped playing... strange decision that one.
 
McClaren dropped Beckham (later recalled him) and went through a stage where he left Lampard out in favour of playing Gerrard +a defensive mid alongside him.

The FA are not picking the side dm. England currently have one big name player. Nobody is forcing Hodgson to pick the players he's picking and the useless tactics he's using. He's just incapable.
 
Last edited:
Roy Hodgson said:
We'll find it hard to bring attendances back because the opponents we're playing won't excite the public.
Click to expand...

I think it's more to do with the insane ticket pricing and the dull performances of the home team, Roy.
 
timebomb26 said:
I think it's more to do with the insane ticket pricing and the dull performances of the home team, Roy.
Click to expand...

Jesus wept, he really can't see 10 centimetres in front of himself.

People don't want to throw away £60 per person on watching 11 men do **** all for 90 minutes.

Hodgson being manager is a problem, but not as big a problem as the inept ****wits at the FA who dictate this nonsense and have been making the same mistakes over and over.

For Monday i'd play Sterling in the middle and drop Rooney for Welbeck on the left. Never going to happen for the obvious reasons.
 
Last edited:
He'd be more likely to play Rooney on the left as we can probably get away with it against the lesser teams, but then as soon as we got to a big team/tournament he would almost definitely revert back to Rooney in the middle so as not to expose him to criticism.
 
Last edited:
Purdy said:
Think you'll find we don't give a **** how he did elsewhere
Click to expand...

To say he 'did well' everywhere else is garbage anyway.

He was **** at Blackburn, had a decent first season then got binned off the next with the club bottom of the league and ultimately we went down.

He even openly admitted his time there was a failure.

The joke with Hodgson is, he keeps saying he thinks we played well? I mean, if he thinks we played well last night, what hope have we got.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom