posted Oct 19, 2007

It doesn't matter if the manager is foreign but it does matter if he is right for England. The FA have demonstrated over a sustained period of time their ineptitude when it comes to finding the right man. Any bloke down the pub could have told you that O'Neil was a better bet than McLaren!Alan Curbishley spoke about his England interview in his recent book and his account convinced me that we are dealing with muppets. We need a syestem where every league and Conference club (except Welsh) can nominate from a list of candidates (Can poll it's season ticket holders). One manager will be chosen by each club and and the one with the most votes will get the job and have the support of the fans. Something McLaren has never had!

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posted Oct 19, 2007

Not convinced McClaren is the answer and I've always been of the opinion you should have the best man available - English or not. However, can you really blame him for Wednesday's farce?

For more than an hour we were reasonably comfortable within a one goal lead that any of us would have taken before the game. Add to that a couple of gilt-edged chances that went begging and we should have been on our way to the finals. Nothing wrong with that game plan as far as I can see.

What went through our players minds with 20 minutes to go though does need questioning. At 1-0 up you don't have to make things happen and yet the frequency they gave the ball away in their own half, coupled with sitting deeper every second, was nothing short of suicidal. To squeeze the play and support the seconds from the longer ball may upset the purists, but it's sometimes a necessity (one not lost on a very successful Jose Mourinho - and no, I'm not a Chelsea fan). This was an occasion for the means to justify an end and our players were in pole position to make that happen.

Those same players have, justifiably at times, had their technical ability questioned. The inexcusable however, is for players at that level to make so many wrong decisions in their minds.

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posted Oct 19, 2007

SeanyMac10

You're the kind of person who really portrays england fans as stereotypical proud know it alls.
"draw with ur defensive friends greece"
At least theyre already through to euro 2008, having scored in every single game. Dont be so bloody spiteful and arrogant, england arent the most exiting team in the world are they? Infact they arnt exciting at all. And leading on to this "beast league in the world" hype, the most followed league in the world is actually the spanish premiera, where you see more spaniards playing, and actually playing quick attacking football, The premiership is all about, being physically fit, quick, and tight at the back, with the possible exceptions of man utd, and arsenal, and when they play each other, its more often than not, 1-0.

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posted Oct 19, 2007

The FA only appointed McClaren over O'Neill because they wanted a puppet they could control after the whole mess Sven's antics caused. At the end of the day, it wasn't football reasons that led to Sven losing his job. It was all the controversy he caused.

For this reason Jose Mourinho is very unlikely to get the job, even if he did want it.

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posted Oct 19, 2007

England's main problem is an inability to hold onto the ball. Your fans and media love players like Steven Gerrard who, while he undoubtedly a top player, is not suited to international football and has flattered to deceive on numerous occasions (which most of your ignorant fans pin on national scapegoat Frank Lampard).

In the premiership players such a Gerrard, Lampard etc can try ambitious balls...they don't come off...but they get the ball back moments later. As you saw on Wednesday night, Gerrard or whoever played a wasteful long pass...we got the ball and you didn't get it back for a while.

We outplayed you on Wednesday and a team with greater firepower upfront would have punished you further. Our wide players constantly got in behind your defence and eventually your inability to hold onto the ball cost you dear. While you were unlucky with the bad decision for the penalty, you had earlier profited from Rooney being offside for his goal and in the match at Wembley our goal being wrongfully disallowed at 1-0. So McClaren’s whining about it all being down to a bad decision is embarrassing to the extreme. Anyway the penalty only made it 1-1...that was a good result for England...why did he not change things then, instead he waited until you were behind and then it was too late.

But back to my point, as you have experienced time and again at major tournaments, England can't hold onto the ball against technically gifted teams (i.e. Portugal, Brazil etc) and you are forced to soak up pressure and eventually wilt under it. All your defenders (particularly the full backs) constantly knock aimless long balls which 9/10 times results in your opponent getting the ball back. Your midfielders are similarly wasteful in possession and your strikers become isolated.

To be honest I think this is a deep rooted problem in English football which the manager more often than not has to take the blame for and perhaps even if you had Wenger, Mourinho or Hiddink it would be difficult to change. You are also perhaps not as good as your fans and media make you out to be. While there are several world class players in the team such as (despite my earlier comments) Gerrard, Rooney, Ashley Cole…many others are not as good as the mass media would have you believe.

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posted Oct 19, 2007

robinson should take the blame of goal-keeping error. in tv reviews rooney does not pull the russia players. the referee was at a distance to it

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posted Oct 19, 2007

How can McClaren say after that performance that he cannot fault the players? Can I suggest he counts the number of times we gave possession away in the 2nd half? As usual, when the going got tough we resorted to the hoof it anywhere, hit and hope tactics that are the natural style of most premiership sides. We gave this game back to the Russians through tactical naivete at every level in the England setup. We don't deserve to qualify - not just because of how we played last year, but because we are simply not good enough to compete at the international level.

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posted Oct 19, 2007

no more LOSERS no more Foreigners, what we need is a someone with PASSION as I said yesterday willing to die for his country like our lads in Iraq and Afganistan do every day for what these loosers earn in a minute. The FA have a 50 year history of incompetance, first of all SACK them !!!!!What do they know about management ? what do they Know about football ? they spend most of their time living it up in posh hotels and even at games spend most of their time in hospitaliy suites and miss what is going on on the pitch. Let the fans choose the next England Manager like someone said every season ticket holder of every English club has a vote to pick the next Manager. And my vote would be for a man who dosn't even have a team to manage at the momment maybe because he is TO passionate about the game STAN TERNANT, he never had the players but he had the respect of his players and " most" other managers , given the players McClaren has had Stan would be online for a nighthood in 2008, Good Luck to ENGLAND tomorrow we know at least they are prepered to die for their country , Ian Lofthouse Burnley

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posted Oct 19, 2007

oldtimeclaret

I think being willing to die for your country over a football match is a little extreme. As for voting for a manager, your encouraging another reality show, I think one more would drive me insane.

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posted Oct 21, 2007

Phil McNulty

Perhaps it is fair to ask why the media constantly use the England manager as the scapegoat for the failure of the England team? Over the years the media have helped to get rid of the manager, but criticism of the FA was largely absent. The result was that "Blazers", rank amateurs, were allowed to run our national game. The lack of technical expertise which results in England struggling to keep possession when put under pressure, as Gus Hiddink pointed out, is still prevalent. Why? Because no one is monitoring the effectiveness of the FA in ensuring our kids learning the game can even do the basics.

Winning doesn't seem to be pre-requisite to run sports in our country. The LTA being the best example. The biggest tennis tournament in the world and one of the poorest selections of home grown players players. Murray learnt his trade in Barcelona.

I want England to qualify as a patriot, and also because it would be wishful thinking to imagine the sporting media will do anything more than ridicule the manager and call for his head, rather than admit we simply aren't good enough, if we don't qualify and demand changes to ensure we produce a stream of top quality players, rather than simply hope they come along.

The sporting media have always had a short termist approach to the game, simply concerning themselves with the next competition rather than demanding long term changes to improve the game. We have the richest league and our national team don't look like
qualifying for a major tournament. Will anyone but the manager pay the price? No!

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