by fan_of_mulligan » Wed Jun 29, 2016 7:31 pm
Prepare yourselves for a long post.......
After England’s 2 - 1 defeat against Iceland on Monday, Roy Hodgson took the only decision that was available to him and resigned as England Manager, I have a lot of sympathy for Roy Hodgson, because he wasn’t on the pitch putting in a dreadful dire performance on the pitch and it is Roy Hodgson getting the blunt of the criticism and it is Roy Hodgson who has to do another Press Conference the day after he has resigned, not one England Player took responsibility on the pitch and said - look this isn’t working, let’s try something different - our control at times was appalling, our set plays were often over-hit and going out of play, and neither Raheem Sterling or Daniel Sturridge were willing to put in crosses into the penalty area and test Iceland’s defence on the few occasions we managed to get in and behind Iceland’s back-line.
I think Roy Hodgson is a very experienced manager and he has plenty of International Experience, and now he will be known as The England Manager who lost to Iceland, but his achievements at Malmo, Inter Milan, Fulham and West Brom are going to be forgotten, but as much as I do have sympathy for Roy Hodgson, he made some questionable decisions before and during this tournament, taking Jack Wilshire and Jordan Henderson were risks, I can understand Jordan Henderson being selected, but Jack Wilshire has barely kicked a ball all season, Roy Hodgson stuck his neck on the line by starting Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling may have won the penalty which was scored by Wayne Rooney, but he was very disappointing from then onwards, and Harry Kane has struggled throughout the competition, he hasn’t had the service he requires and why Harry Kane is taking free kicks I have no idea.
The players panicked at 2-1 down, we lacked idea’s, imagination, quality and the character and mentality to get ourselves back on level terms, the latter two characteristics is clearly lacking in English Players, before Euro 2016 started, Alan Shearer was looking back at Euro 96, the only tournament that I can remember England doing really well in, and we had players like David Seaman, Tony Adams, Stuart Pearce, Paul Ince, Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham, Captain’s, Leaders and players who could scrap when England wanted to scrap, and players who wanted to play when we wanted to play, now there are some talented youngsters in this England Team, Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, John Stones, Ross Barkley and Eric Dier, but they needed The Experienced Players to help them out, and one experienced player in particular cost us on more occasion in this tournament and that player is Joe Hart.
Joe Hart should of saved Gareth Bale’s Free Kick and I thought he should have saved the second goal scored by Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, But England’s defending before Iceland’s Second Goal was dreadful and to concede from a long throw just moments after England had taken the lead is amateur defending, I watched Iceland play in there opening two group games, they are compact, hard to break down and Iceland do rely on the set play’s and second ball’s to score goals, but Iceland have A Team, they know there strength’s and weaknesses, they know there limitations, they know that whatever happens they will have a hero’s welcome back in Iceland, as Iceland have never qualified for a major tournament before, but you know how Iceland are going to play.
We cannot say about England, we cannot say that this is how we are going to line up and this is how England are going to play, and this is where Roy Hodgson does get criticism, he should have found a system and had a good idea on his best eleven, and before the tournament had started, everyone was praising Roy Hodgson for picking several young players who are going to be in future England Squad’s for The World Cup in 2018 and 2022, and The European Championships in 2020 and 2024, but we went into every match thinking that England could be playing the diamond midfield formation, are England lining up with a 4.3.3 or 4.2.3.1 formation? and which player is playing where and not having a clear system and a clear way of playing was our un-doing.
The Pundits on BBC made this valid point on Monday Night, you could be the worse team in the world, but you can make up for your limitations if your organised and have a clear way on how to approach games, Iceland made up for there limitations and I am going to say congratulations to Iceland for deservingly winning against England, I think a few of our players thought that they only had to turn up to win against Iceland, and under-estimating the opposition has proven to be costly, this is a very good Iceland side that won twice and kept clean sheets in both matches against The Netherlands, even if England didn’t under-estimate the opposition and perhaps the occasion got to the players or we just didn’t believe or had the character to get ourselves back on to level terms, this is as bad of a performance I can remember from A England Side in my life-time, now England have been disappointing in tournaments, World Cup 2014 we didn’t even get out of the group stage, but that performance on Monday Night was a real low, and now the task of re-building this side goes to a new manager.
What I hope The FA don’t do which is what they do after every tournament, they start looking at ways or improving The English Game and I can see Premier League B Teams being discussed in detail as a suggestion of improving The England National Side, there are seventy two fantastic and well supported clubs in The Football League and many more brilliant supported clubs in Non League Football, all Premier League B Teams will do is damage English Football, there are no benefits to include Premier League B Team’s into The Football League.
I also think that The FA have no direction, they keep picking the flavour of the month, we kept talking about Spain and Barcelona’s Tika Taka Football, then it was the football Germany Played, and with Leicester City winning The Premier League Title and Iceland winning against England, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if counter attacking 4.4.2 formations get talked about as the way forward for England, we need to find our own identity and our own style of play, even if it is dull and boring to watch, at least we as supporters can say that this is how England will line up and this is how England are going to play.
I was also listening to Chris Waddle and Danny Mills speak at great length, and the coaching badges in England are much more experience and there are more hurdles to over-come in England compared to France, Spain, Italy and Germany, Academies and Saturday / Sunday League Football is all about winning and not the development for players and you got to enjoy playing football first and foremost before you start going into the tactical and coaching side of things, but we seem to say all of this after every tournament, Roy Hodgson has lost his job as England Manager, but the changing of manager's has been done in the past to no real effect or improvement to The England National Side.
Perhaps the biggest thing that Chris Waddle and Danny Mills spoke about is that Germany, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands all find roles for Former Internationals' within there national set up, Gareth Southgate is Englanf U21 Manager and he is being spoken about as a possible candidate to replace Roy Hodgson, Aidy Boothroyd is England Under 19 Manager and Neil Dewsnip is Head Coach for The England Under 18's, if we could somehow fill those roles with people like Paul Scholes, Alan Shearer, David Seaman, David Beckham and Tony Adams, players who know what it takes to play for England in a major tournament and add more football people at all levels of England's Age Groups then that may well help the players a lot more, other major footballing countries seem to do this a lot better then England, but we also have the lowest percentage of footballers playing top flight football in The Premier League, and not only that, our players do not go abroad to try and experience a different type of football and another way of playing.
Whoever is appointed as England Manager needs to come up with a system, finds players that fits that system and gives us as supporters a idea of how we are going to play, if that means dropping players who we are surprised to see not named in the squad, then I can accept that providing that there is a clear message on the team, the system we're going to play and a idea of how England are going to play, for now Gareth Southgate will hold the fort as Interim Manager, but he isn't someone I would look to appoint as England Manager, leave Gareth Southgate as Under 21 Manager, but for the top job we need someone else, the trouble is we have no idea who that replacement is going to be.