Since we failed to qualify. Are you happy or disappointed we failed now you think about the position we are now in? Personally, I am delighted we didn't qualify. Let's face it, we were garbage under McClown, and if we did qualify, we'd have only embarassed ourselves in the summer like we always do anyway. Now that we didn't qualify, we now have who I believe to be the best manager in the World, Don Fabio, and now that expectations are low, we can only go up!! And, let's say we do shite under Capello, we can finally say, hey, maybe it's not our coaches who are the problem, let's take a look at the players for once. Are they good enough, technically or skill wise? Either way, we are in a win win position now. We do well under Don Fabio, and every one is happy, we do shite, well, no one is expecting anything anyway, plus we can start building for the future with new players who aren't totally shite.
I'm unsure. Failing to qualify was disappointing but if we had qualified we'd have done nothing there then had to put up with McClown's shit all the way through qualifying for WC2010. More importantly we now have a world class manager in charge and to be honest I'd rather we miss a European Championship rather than miss a World Cup (Which was always on the cards with McClown). It also gives us time to clear away the dead wood in the squad.
The thought of England missing out on the Euro's is depressing. I will be watching as a neutral, with no team to cheer for. But like Prenn said, we were going nowhere with McTwat, we now have a manager that is World Class, that wanted to manage England from the beginning ( which says a lot ), and who will play players on form and not just name recognition.
Great thing about having Fabio, is that he clearly wants to be in the job. As soon as we lost vs Croatia, he said he wanted it, and even after we chased Maureen, he said he wanted it. I think that shows how much he wanted to lead us. I also think that he wants to win the World Cup for himself. To him, England is a means to an end. He sees England, at an all time low, but he also sees players who are potentially great, and thinks, if he can win the World Cup with us, he will get legendary status. I personally don't think we will anything under Capello, but I think we'll do rather well.
I'm not English but I'd say wait to see what happens.. if England reach the semis or further in 2010 under Capello, I'd say the wake up call was worth it.
If England qualify for WC '10 it will have been worth it because we probably wouldn't under McClown. As for EC '08, every time I'm hurt by our absence, I remind myself just what a shambles it would have been playing in the finals.
What Capello is doing right now IS "taking a look at the players" in the way that you put it. He came in, took out the weak players (helped by convenient injuries of course) and he's putting in better alround footballers into the team. Don't you notice how different the starting team v/s Switzerland was to normal? They played better than I have seen England play for a few years now, and that was their FIRST game together. If the "normal" come back into the team, motivated or not, it's gonna go back to what it was. Their inflexible ability is what was costing you.
Well I thought we were garbage for the first half an hour, but after that we played well. We never set the World alight during the game though. This to me is OK, as peforming too well so soon, would make us think we are better than we are!! The thing I most love about Don Fabio, is that he has said repeatedly that he wants the team to play the style of football they do in the league. He'll have the players playing at a fast tempo, closing down the opposition, and attacking a lot. I do not expect overly defensive football from Don Fabio at all. We will play it when it is for the best, but over all I think we'll play attacking football. He is not married to one type of style, and wants to play to our strengths.
I'm not happy that we never qualified for Euro 2008' BUT I'm happy that we have a coach that finally picks players that are performing for their clubs, will instil respect and manners and some authority that was clearly lacking. And a wake up call to the FA and media. This is a similar wake up call to the FA as was the situation of the French national team in the mid 90's. English fans didn't really need a wake up call. I believe we have two sets of fans. The ones who know what they're talking about and the ones who are heavily influenced by what the media says. i.e the proper supporter and the "gobsh1tes". We've got a coach that will not be ridiculed which is a "media national pastime". But also a coach that won't be affected anyway even if he does. In the short term its bad. But in the long run it's good and Capello couldn't have asked for a better start. I.e. a roster full of big players that failed to qualify for a major competition. He can't do any worse than his predecessor he has nothing to lose. The only bonus is that this summer I'll be surfing and generally playing football on the beach rather than sat in the pub watching football. As I wasn't planning on making the trip to Switzerland.
If we had qualified, McClown would still be in charge. Would you really want that? We were never gonna win 08 anyway, let's be honest. At least now we have something to build on, and get an extra 9 months to prepare for the World Cup over our qualifying rivals.
Sprinkling sugar on a turd... LOL Wouldn't McClaren have probably been fired after Euro2008 even if England drew or beat Croatia? Unless England did really well in the finals, which would've been even better. Anyway you slice-it it's better to qualify.
Yeah, you have to not qualify for a major Tourney for the "brains" of the FA to finally see the light..
What about from a talent perspective? Do you think that England is not producing as many ELITE level footballers as some of the other countries are? I am not an England fan, but its almost always better to watch a big name team in major tournaments I think the problem is that England lacks difference makers in terms of individual talent. There's no Kaka, or Messi, or Diego to break other national teams down. I see it time and time again....I know that Gerrard and Cole are big name players, but they don't have the ultimate flair or audacity that catches defences off guard. They are talented....but recall that in 2002, England was beating Brazil 1-0 all the way until pretty much half time. Then Ronaldinho had a certain burst of speed, cut through the middle of the England midfield, did a stepover, and passed to Rivaldo who side footed it into the net. Then five minutes on the other side of half time (or thereabouts), he scored that audacious free kick from the sidelines. Within ten minutes, he won the game. Then of course he got sent off. I don't remember the last time any English player took over a match against a top quality opponent in a major international tourney. There's no one that you can turn to and say "Hey, create something special and singlehandedly win this match for us". I don't even know why England bothers with Owen. I'm a big Micah Richards fan, however. I'm not even sure that the stringent training camps will make that much of a difference. I would like some feedback on this (I'm sure there will be some).
Interesting that you managed to "name drop" a couple of Barcelona players in that novel of a post you typed....Why England bothers with Owen you say? Well, in the past he has been a thorn in the side to many quality opponents..Portugal, Germany, and not to mention Brazil to name a few.. He's taken his fair share of big injuries, and it's been a long road to recovery. I think he will be back in the mix under Capello soon enough, but Capello is playing players on form and not just name recognition.
Haha....that was unintentional ....yeah I guess I did "name drop", but I see Messi play every week. Regarding Owen, I know that he was a major player and a major threat....but it seems like before Capello, he was always considered to be an automatic team member, and he hasn't played to anywhere near his peak in a while. Up front then, who would be the hot candidates for Capello's team? I'm actually asking a question, this is not rhetorical.
Well against the Swiss he played just 1 up front.....Rooney, whether its just because it was a new system and they not used to it yet or not, they didnt seem to really spring into life untill he brought Crouch on to partner rooney in a 4-4-2. I dont think it suits Rooney to play alone to be honest, when Crouch came on they linked well together. Only thing for me is that altho Crouch has a really good goals per game record for England, because of his height players do tend to take the easy root and lump it up in the air to him. Other strikers in the equation would be Owen, Agbonalahor (who is very pacey and young), Heskey, Andy Johnson......im struggling to think of many more to be honest lol
Rumor has it that Capello is extremely high on Agbonalahor..Wouldn't be surprised to see him and Rooney up front as some point.
2 points. 1) One game is too soon to judge the performance of an England manager. McClaren's first game was England crushing the European Champions Greece 4-0. 2) By your earlier comments stating Gerrard's game comprises almost entirely of obvious short passes, it is apparent that you have seen very little of England's games in recent years.
Neither do Germany, Greece, Portugal or the Czech Republic, yet they have managed to outperform us. Spain and Argentina with their teams full of superstars continually fall flat on their faces. Elite level players don't mean an awful lot, teams who do well in international tournaments are generally those who can grind out turgid 1-0 wins or win shootouts. There are numerous occasions when Gerrard and Cole have caused all sorts of problems to opposition defences. Gerrard scored twice in the last cup, Cole also managed to get on the scoresheet with a goal that if Ronaldinho or Messi had scored it, people would still be talking about today. He ran up the pitch completely unopposed, something many players could do really, including Joe Cole. Yes he scored a freekick. Beckham scored one in 1998, which was far more impressive. Ronaldinho did literally zero in 2006, whilst a pretty much passed-it Beckham scored two match-winning free kicks. If he hadn't been hacked down in the box, Rooney would have scored a great goal against France in 2004, that if Ronaldo or Henry had done there'd be 4 million videos of on youtube. He also ripped Croatia a new arsehole, a team with great pretentions this summer. Not to mention he ripped apart Turkey who were only recently World Cup bronze medalists. Who did Brazil turn to against France in 2006, or Argentina against Germany? Who do Germany turn to, or Holland? As to why we bother with Owen, well there's the fact he turned Argentina inside out to score in 1998, his hat-trick in Munich, scoring against Brazil in 2002, Portugal in 2004, a brace against Argentina in 2005 etc. He's the only England player to score in four tournaments. He's also scored against France, Denmark and Romania (when they were good).