England

[Rogue Baboon 0]

Is this the worst, dullest national team we have had since pre-1996?

It should be an exciting team full of good young talent but there is just nothing happening on the pitch

[Baldyboy 1]

We have an exceptionally dull manager who just picks the same old 5hite that’s why!

[Norfolk Mustard 106]

Marcus Rashford apart, England have been dreadful!

Gareth Southgate doesn''t appear to be very inspirational does he?

"zzzzz"

[Drazen Muzinic 1,502]

Bland manager, bland team selection, bland tactics.

We will be bland in Russia, qualify for the second stage and Gareth will get a new contract because he is nicely spoken and well-dressed.

And then the cycle will start again.

[First Wazzock 1,014]

Boring Boring England...

Do we really have to go through this just to become group stage canon fodder in Russia?

[FCC 94]

No progress since Iceland. All those empty seats must be damaging the FAs finances.

[Feedthewolf 5,885]

Unfortunately, real change takes time, and the FA are far too cowardly to appoint anyone progressive enough to even set those wheels in motion.We are still suffering the side-effects of appointing charlatans like Charles Hughes and Brian Barwick to oversee our nation''s footballing developments.Remember all the fanfare about the opening of the ''state-of-the-art'' national centre of excellence at St George''s Park? It''s almost like it hadn''t been done two decades previously in France and Spain...Blaming Southgate for our current shortcomings is short-sighted in the extreme.

[Yellowbeagle 0]

why is anyone surprised they consistently serve up this drivel. They are natures greatest cure for insomnia.

[djc 0]

Raheem Stirling runs around like Rocky the Rooster from chicken run. Absolute sh*t performance from all of them. Reputation before current form.

[Rogue Baboon 0]

‘Blaming Southgate for our current shortcomings is short-sighted in the extreme‘

I disagree. With the talent available (there is talent there) we should be playing much better than we are.

An uninspiring, safe manager picking players based on name and club who simply cannot put an exciting team together

[Yellowbeagle 0]

Fat man invades the pitch, shows more movement than the entire England team and rightly gets the loudest chear of the night. MOTM.

[First Wazzock 1,014]

Shocking

What are they doin in traynun Gareth??

[Feedthewolf 5,885]

Sorry Baboon, but I totally disagree. The way that the FA has run English football in the last 50 years has led us to where we are. I agree Southgate was an uninspiring choice, but so were Allardyce, Hodgson, Capello, Ericsson... the FA just doesn''t have the guts to appoint someone progressive. You still have pundits like Ian Wright saying Sean Dyche should be given a chance as the next England manager. Our national game is a disgrace that''s run by appalling cronies, and Southgate is just the fall guy. Anything good that happens on the pitch is a bonus, we have no right to expect anything as a footballing nation, and it''s our FA''s fault for their arrogance and imperial, island-nation mentality.Hooray, we''ve qualified for the World Cup!

[Making Plans 957]

[quote user="Feedthewolf"]Hooray, we''ve qualified for the World Cup![/quote]Which we stand absolutely zero chance of winning.But hey ho, winning a host of boring games by slender margins against weak opposition in the qualifiers is all that matters.England are dire.End of.

[hogesar 10,766]

Good news is Southgate can celebrate his 250k bonus for us qualifying.

which is equivalent to me getting a bonus for sitting on a chair.

[Horse Renoir 1]

Look at how many of our leftover players from the last few managers have improved under farke. Not in terms of ability but just decision making, how to shield the ball, what space to move into, when to attack and defend etc. The problem is our coaches are stuck in the dark ages and most of the youth coaches are barely qualified or failed managers. Unless we lose this win at all costs, attack attack attack, get it forward, sod the defence mentality we''ll always seemingly underperform.

Aidy Boothroyd is the national under 21 coach and presumably next on the conveyor belt of England managers. That should tell you all you need to know.

The smartest players often don''t make it as managers, it''s the strongest, most dominant characters. This has to change.

[Yellowbeagle 0]

I dont buy into this "it''s all Southgates fault" sure he''s not the most dynamic coach and that would certainly help. But these players have all played under top foreign coaches, are we really saying they join up with England for a few weeks and forget all they should have learnt at their clubs?

The English players lack of real game influencing ability bar a couple of players is disguised by the foreign players stronger more technical influence at their respective clubs.

[Indy_Bones 444]

We do have good players, but most of the time their natural talent and more exciting play seems to be coached out of them by the time they''ve even got near their peak.I remember when Joe Cole couldn''t get an England call-up because it was felt he spent too much time beating players, showboating and trying new things, rather than the stodgy, no-nonsense approach that we''ve become ridiculed for in recent decades.The key point here though YB is that it very much DOES come down to the coach and how they want to approach the game that makes the biggest difference. Hughton took over Lambert''s squad, and turned them from dynamic, attacking, never-give-up players, in a dour, overly defensive set of under-performing players, and it wasn''t that they''d forgotten what they''d learnt or done under Lambert, but simply that this wasn''t what the new manager wanted, thusly it wasn''t done anymore or they wouldn''t be getting picked (or possibly even paid if they continued to refuse to do as asked).Until we get a progressive manager, that doesn''t take $hit from players, who wants to play in an attractive and attacking style, and who picks players based on ability and form rather than on name or who they play for, then we''re going to continue getting served up this dog$hit and getting knocked out by the 1/4 finals every f**king time...

[Tumbleweed 106]

"Poor pass from Kyle walker who has been on fire for Man City" .........or words to that effect at one point in the second half. That pass straight to their attacker didn''t result in a goal, their goalie''s throw did. that was how slender that victory was which was a disgrace.

But in those few words lie a nice précis of current issue. Why is Kyle Walker on fire for his club yet, the last minute cross aside, pretty abysmal last bight? Could it be that he plays at club level in an actual team, coached by an inspiring and progressive manager who has achieved great success and even has some tactics for the team he has? Yet at international level he then has to play under a dour ex defender who managed Middlesbrough who seems to have no tactics other than to stand still, sometimes in their wrong positions, and waiting for someone else to hopefully do something.

Sure the FA have got a lot of other more structural stuff wrong but what did they expect with such a national coach?

The England national team is just a collection of players, sometimes bit part ones at that from a big club, who are lumped together seemingly with minimal confidence, passion, guidance or tactical nous. It is genuinely pathetic.

[Salopian 1]

Whatever the quality of the players, they never showed the slightest indication that the manager had called on them to play in a particular way, except perhaps to retain possession.

They kept possession so well, that on at least one occasion they passed brilliantly from the Slovenia penalty area all the way back to their own.

If the policy was to "tire out" their opponents, as they did earlier, and score a late goal or two, it worked, but the football was lacking in anythings to make spectators want to see future matches.

Otherwise the only policy seemed to be "Give it to Rashford!"

We shall meet much better teams at the finals. I suspect we may come home early!

[Indy_Bones 444]

[quote user="Tumbleweed"]The England national team is just a collection of players, sometimes bit part ones at that from a big club, who are lumped together seemingly with minimal confidence, passion, guidance or tactical nous. It is genuinely pathetic.[/quote]This!I''ve always felt that as a national squad, you should have a core of regular first team players, with younger understudy players as the backup.Names or clubs played for, should be almost irrelevant, however we can''t fully discount the experience players get from playing in the Champions League or even the Europa league, which is above and beyond simply playing in the PL, and does add a little bit extra at times in terms of potential selection.We need players that will not only play together, but will not simply go through the motions, thus we need players with creativity, technique, flair, a desire to entertain, but also a core will to win, and we rarely see any of that half the time even if those players may get a call up.The only way to truly shake things up is a big re-work of the squad selection, and a change of approach and tactics to accomodate a better, and more attractive style of play than currently.I''m going to suggest an alternative 25 man squad for Southgate to call up (I''m sure some of our posters will find some choices hilarious), but it would give us the type of players I''ve alluded to above, whilst giving youth an opportunity to get experience, and tossing anyone who simply appears to be ''going through the motions'' when on international duty:Keepers:ForsterButlandPickfordRight Backs:TrippierAlexander-ArnoldCentre Halves:MaguireLascellesJonesKeaneMeeLeft Backs:BertrandGomezWide Players:SterlingRedmond (also as no 10)InceTownsendCentral Midfield:AlliPritchard CarrollDierHendersonStrikers:KaneRashfordVardyAbrahamSuggested starting XI:                    ForsterTrippier Maguire Lascelles Bertrand         Henderson     AlliSterling     Redmond           Ince                     KaneLet the incredulity commence!

[GJP 79]

Bit worrying that we play the uninspiring duo of Henderson and Dier to give us solidity and end up being left exposed numerous times.

[Tumbleweed 106]

Indeed GJP- solidity: at home against Slovenia!! Would he play 10 DMs against a Brazil or Germany?!!!

[Making Plans 957]

The fact that Scotland are likely to finish second in the group says it all really. I watched Germany v NI last night and Germany are different class to England, different attitude and different mentality. What it really boils down to is that their players look as though they are interested, they have a plan and a purpose, they look as though they actually know what they''re doing and they look as though they''re enjoying it. In all honesty, NI look better than us so it is about the quality of the England players.

[Making Plans 957]

Should be "not about the quality of the England players"

[Baldyboy 1]

Jesse Lingard has barely kicked a ball all season yet is in the squad along with Harry Winks all because of who they play for. It’s no wonder some of the younger players go to big clubs early because they would never get in the squad playing elsewhere! How many players are there in the squad from Stoke, West Brom or West Ham? All established clubs in Premier League but not big enough in Southgate eyes!

[Feedthewolf 5,885]

[quote user="Baldyboy"]Jesse Lingard has barely kicked a ball all season yet is in the squad along with Harry Winks all because of who they play for. It’s no wonder some of the younger players go to big clubs early because they would never get in the squad playing elsewhere! How many players are there in the squad from Stoke, West Brom or West Ham? All established clubs in Premier League but not big enough in Southgate eyes![/quote]Who should be in the squad from those clubs, though? Rodriguez, Dawson and Gibbs from West Brom (all 27/28 years old)? Berahino/Shawcross? Noble/Carroll? Couldn''t make a case for any of those, surely? Sam Byram, at a push?It''s a vicious circle – the top six monopolise all the overpriced young English talent (which isn''t good enough anyway due to the comparatively poor coaching techniques in England), the ''have nots'' can get better value abroad so fill their squads with experienced non-British players, young English players don''t get regular first-team top-flight football... repeat until bored.

[AJ 1,359]

My thoughts from last night, is that England''s biggest problem is the centre of the pitch. We have no baller. I think Carrick is probably still our best option in terms of his ability. We have no Scholes/Gerrard/Lamperd style player who is capable of creating from deep and passing the ball. I cannot think of any other player at Premier League level that does.

Dier? Nope, good tackler, but not a baller.

Henderson? Does the simple things well, but isn''t player, in my eyes, that possess that extra bit of a class.

Drinkwater? Possibly, similar to Henderson, and hasn''t played a game yet this season...

Wilshere? Well, if he was playing enough to be considered...

Ward-Prowse? Probably the best option I can think of, but has only played once for England and is relatively unproven.

So yes, for all the poor performances last night, from Ox, Rashford (to an extent), if they had a decent passer of the ball it might actually help. No wonder Rooney used to end up dropping deep to take up this role...

[Guest]

I don''t believe it is the ability of the players that lets us down.

I do believe that some of them are not international class though.

Slovenia, at times. played far more attractive, attacking football and if it wasn''t for gutless officials, may have been ahead. So I believe they were coached to play that way last night.

But Slovenia had only half the possession we did, so where did we go wrong.

As I said, I don''t think some players are international class. I deliberately watched Henderson a lot last night. I don''t care what the official stats mat say but during the first half, only half his passes reached a team mate. And that is with oceans of time and space to work in. The only time his ratio improved was when he dropped so far back, he was passing it to Stones and Cahill and getting it back to do the same thing again.

Raheem Sterling, "a natural replacement for Ali" said the pundits before the game, is clueless. He had ability at QPR and Liverpool but at this level, he cannot beat anyone so just takes the easy option of passing.

But the remainder of the team, goalkeeper (MOTM??) aside, has, I believe, enough ability to maybe not win trophies but compete for them.

But our coaching system, that seems to break down between U21 and senior level is just the same old boring, imitative stuff that is now 2 or 3 years behind.

We have a striker who surely will go for well over £100M if ever sold. He can''t stop scoring. Twice in the net last night, one counting.

Yet we don''t allow him the luxury of not having to take too big a part in the build up. He has to run for everything up front on his own. Meanwhile, Cahill has three times as many touches going forward as our deadly striker.

I could go on for pages about England but just despair that we are so far behind everyone else in coaching that we give the job to "he doesn''t do the hair dryer" Southgate.

But it isn''t just his fault, The boring FA appointed Mr Safe. Not risky Sam who just couldn''t keep his mouth shut.

Until we try something that others may copy (remember Sir Alf being criticised for 4-3-3 until the rest of the footballing world copied it), we will just flounder around.

The only virtue by us qualifying is that we have an excuse to watch the World Cup.

And on another matter, that Clive Tyldesley ought to join the FA. Criticising the crowd for cheering the guy on the pitch (he wasn''t a terrorist Clive) and looking down his nose at them is not his prerogative when live on TV.

Shut up you boring. Motty wannabe, and just say what you see.

[KeiranShikari_2 0]

Trash as always.Need to get rid of every Liverpool player or player that has played for Liverpool (Lallana aside maybe)No more brainless fast players with no end product in midfield.Doing well for him years ago in the development squads doesn''t mean players like Lindgard should be in the squad.