Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [Archived] Soccer • Page 671

You guys just need to avoid doing what England did when they failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 - promise an overhaul of the national team and then just continue on with the same bullshit for 10 years.

 

You hope it's only for 10 years. We've seen nothing to suggest we'll see any change!

 

I would still rock that leaked jersey from a few pages back

 

This could kill any mainstream growth soccer was attaining in the US

 

Lol, too true. I cannot recall in my lifetime England even committing to playing a certain style of football (up until the mid-2000's I was a dumb kid, naive to tactics so I obviously could've missed stuff from Euro 1996-Euro 2004). Rather than Tiki-Taka like Spain or Cattenacio (sp?) like Italy, It's like we have one elite player - Gazza, Beckham, Rooney, Kane etc. - and the whole tactic is "uhhhh, maybe they'll do something to help us win so give the ball to them"!!!

Like now when Southgate says we'll play 3 at the back, a formation alone doesn't win a game. Committing to playing a certain style, and developing that style from the u15's all the way to the senior team, will ensure at the very least all players will know what they need to do as a unit to win & we wouldn't have tepid, directionless football like we had under Roy Hodgson and have now.

 

We need someone in midfield who is an actual playmaker. Playing two DM's means we have zero creativity, just a ton of players making runs or desperately want to try one on one's. We need a player who can spray passes. We have no one like that currently in the squad.

 

What I don't understand about England is why we don't try to play in a style akin to the Premier League. It's what the vast majority of the players are doing week in week out. It might not be super effective against technical class, but it surely couldn't be as dire to watch as the current mess.

As for the play maker situation, do we have one of international standard? I've seen Jonjo mentioned by a few people/in a few places and while I think he might have been handy in the qualifying, I cannot see him having any impact at a tournament.

 

Well I think the main issue is we have one deep lying playmaker who is frankly a step above every other option, Jack Wilshere, but he's never fit so he can't really be considered unless he gets 15+ games under his belt this season. Other than that, they're all very mediocre journeyman players.

I also can't help but wish one of Gerard or Lampard were in their prime now.

 

Agreed again - I remember someone like Gary Lineker commenting how we have produced, and continue to produce, lightning-quick wingers (and recently fullbacks too, like Walker & Rose) - it's like, why can we never seem to be able to play to that particular strength? If we don't currently have top-level passers, why not consider counter attacking style that uses wingers to break at pace and centre a ball for literally one of the worlds best strikers to challenge for? Instead we prod away at teams like Lithuania with our "superior passing" and end up relying on a penalty to win anyway.

 

Also before anyone questions me on my bias regarding Jack Wilshere, he's been man of the match in six of his last seven England games, is clearly the best English player technically, and looks fantastic currently, all whilst still returning to fitness. If Harry Winks can get in the team based on four PL appearances, so can Jack.

 

Wilshere is a known glass cannon. If he plays well and regularly in the lead up to the tournament, then he should absolutely be in the squad. The thing is, that is a big if.

 

Big JW fan right here, so no questioning any bias from me - would be 2nd name on the team sheet behind Kane by now if he hadn't had so many injuries. Harry Winks is cool too but he will inevitably suffer from the weight of expectation of playing for England like all our players do. We all have a right to express our opinions on them, but with the sports media being so influential in this country, and social media like twitter giving even more opportunities for nobodies to harass players for poor performances, playing for England would take an enormous toll on players mentally, and that really sucks to have earned the honor to represent your country at the highest level and just be stressed to fuck the whole time.

 

With all players fit, I'd say:

----------Butland---------

Walker- Cahill - Stones - Rose

-----Dier ---- Wilshere-----

Sterling --- Alli --- Rashford

--------- Kane ----------

 

Surely that scrutiny is not a purely English thing though?

 

really confused at people being like oh poor pulisic won't get to play in a world cup till he's 24; all things going well he'll still play in three and taking a summer off might be good for a lad his age

 

You're correct in saying that, but I think our media is among the most invasive & poisonous of all the top footballing nations, and our fans among the most demanding. Spanish & German fans can be demanding because their teams actually have the quality to win tournaments - a huge number of us think England should be getting to semi-finals etc when we objectively do not have the quality to do so. As for the media - remember Beckham after France 98? People were burning effigy's of him and front pages of all newspapers destroying him - imagine how bad it would be in the social media age where we could all tweet to players directly!!!

Rage saw Becks hanged in effigy

 

I was more thinking about the social media side of it. I presume that all nations have idiotic fans who will target players they don't like in that way.

I don't disagree about our tabloid press at all though. They're absolutely disgraceful, as are the people who buy into their nonsense. It's pretty poor right now. The team has qualified easily, only conceded three goals and yet they're still getting an earful.

 

the spanish media actively strengthens the barca/real divide within spain and the spanish squad lol

 

Wouldn't disagree with anyone who says they're just as bad as UK press, but Spain won 3 international tournaments in a row. They were able to overcome it's effects and not let it weigh on them - not confident England could do the same imo.

 

Would the Spanish squad beat the hypothetical Catalan squad?

 

Remove the Catalans from Spain's squad and they're still the second best squad in Europe, so I say no. But I do think the Catalan squad would hypothetically (with current talent) still be one of the top 15 squads in Europe.

 

I’d argue Winks over Wilshere but other than that looks about right.

 

Lamela and Rose back at training.

 

Who shall I root for in the World Cup? Maybe I'll just draw a name out of a cap.

 

I'm all in for Argentina now, but that's not surprising to anyone in here. Italy and Spain will vie for my second hope depending on roster selections. Iceland, too.