by NorthView » Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:53 pm
I think there's a lot of truth in what Stone's written, but at the heart of the English problem is the dilemma that every English football fan is keenly aware of: that less than stellar English players are earning ridiculous sums of money out of all proportion to their ability and achievements.
On top of this, we're expected to tolerate their embarrassingly uncool behaviour (rampant and vulgar materialism, vile attitudes to women and the general public etc), as evidence by our captain and A1 idiot John Terry during another night out puking on the floor of a disco between the 2 latest qualification games. I'm all in favour of people getting hammered, but there's a time and a place for everything.
I used to think we had at least 2 "world class" players ie players that any time would be pleased to have, Gerrard and Rooney; now I realise we have only Rooney, as Gerrard hasn't played particularly well for England since the 5-1 defeat of Germany in Sven's first game (about 6 years ago I think!).
This is nothing new of course - the '66 WC winning team were a bunch of decent hard working players who made full use of home advantage to beat a superior W German team (heresy but fact, as anyone can see for themselves from the match DVD that's available), but contained no "world class" players other than Banks and maybe Charlton.
My view is now simple: the only teams that can REALLY play football they way we all know it should ideally be played (ie in the main along the ground, to feet) are those from Latin countries (Holland in the early '70s were the exception that proves the rule).
The best that Anglo Saxon/Slavonic teams can hope for is to recognise that they're second best in the areas of ball control, touch, vision etc and place greater emphasis on physical strength and stamina, team play and a sense of unity, much as Germany have done for a long time with great success.
Suggesting that "England should play like they are used to in the premiership" and citing Man Utd's "direct attacks, using the flanks a lot to feed balls to central strikers" in support of this overlooks the fact that their fast and lethal wing counter attacks come from foreign players, and that England have no equivalents. Remove those players from Man Utd and you get what happened yesterday - a poor performance resulting in a loss to a team like Bolton.
The hopelessly out of touch FA now need to appoint an England manager with experience of working with footballers with enormous egos and limited abilities. To my mind giving the job to Capello would be counter productive, good manager though he is; I'd much rather see Klinsmann do it, though I wouldn't be too disappointed to see Redknapp in the job, supported by someone with experience of international competitions (Pearce?).
Mon May 12, 2008 1:46 am
When I play a patient and relaxed game I win - that simple.
Mon May 12, 2008 10:55 pm
Seriously, fuck poker.
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[21:03] NorthViewBTP: mac is a fellow mexican
[21:03] Mekosking: yup
[21:03] NorthViewBTP: you should support your bro
[21:03] Mekosking: therefore hes a fat worthless tsr obv