You don’t have to go back anywhere near 49 years, but my point is they have a history of being ruthless and efficient and we don’t. I accept that you can only beat what’s put in front of you, but unless my memory is playing tricks I can’t recall us beating a top team under Southgate, all we’ve down is beaten comparative minnows. As I’ve said this is the best, most technically gifted and experienced England squad I’ve seen and I’ve great expectations of them, but until we meet a top side then the questions about us not being tested by any top team are valid.
The thing is about the golden generation is that it was really a great XI with zero depth. We used to have to bring the likes of Darius Vassell and Kieran Dyer off the bench in tournaments as our game changing players. A player like James Maddison would be first choice impact sub in that side and come off the bench every game, but he rightly can't even get in the current squad because of how good the players are ahead of him. Yes... which was exactly his point? People putting way too much emphasis on that one off game and ignoring Italy's poor one off game.
Said it to our lass at the last World Cup too, but if England were to win a tournament I can see the country entering a state of anarchy for a few days . Denmark , Italy and Spain will fancy their chances though too . would be nice to knock that **** Martin braithwait out though
@Gloria Lestafan Spot on! Löw would be cheered here again for the first time since 2014. He wasn't the most popular Bundestrainer we ever had (that was Sepp Herberger, then Helmut Schön and of course Franz Beckenbauer (although he was technically no Bundestrainer because of the missing official DFB coaching licence)) but then he would be ranked amongst them. Now he's gone with the flaw of being the first German coach who failed in 2 tournaments in a row. But as you said if we had made it to the semi-final with the results England got in this tournament and especially with 5 games in a row with no goals conceded he would be hailed as a hero here. Unfortunately I can't remember when's the last time we played a match with no goals conceded ( we even got one in the 7-1 against Latvia before the Euro) and so we're all happy he's gone now at last. Anyway, as I see it here it's still the ones who are cheering "It's coming home" and the others who still don't trust Southgate. If I were English I wouldn't be in the latter category that's for sure. Thx for your attention and good luck!
Yeah and this is why it's not a huge issue that most of the young talent coming through is in attacking areas (albeit defenders tend to break through later so we'll see). The way we play covers our individual weakness in defence up and actually makes us appear strong defensively, with the added plus that keeping it tight is better for tournament football. What a waste it was having all those top CBs in 'the golden generation', would rather we have the talent where we have it now, in positions that get regularly rotated anyway. Great that we'll have this abundance in those areas for a long while to come.
Absolutely, we had average premier league players making up the numbers. And we couldn’t keep all of our star players fit. All you would hear in the press before a tournament is if this player, or that player would be fit. We don’t really have that concern anymore. Certainly not to the same extent The spine of the team was fantastic, but we lacked pace and creativity out wide. We also didn’t have many players that could run with the ball at their feet and take players on. Our ‘golden generation’ had glaring weaknesses. Southgate is playing a formation that hopefully protects our current weaknesses.
yep. A real lack of ball carriers, up until the last 3/4 years honestly. Joe Cole was the closest we had but even then he was deployed as an orthodox winger by Ericsson.
Wasn’t even a great XI. It was just a great XI players. Absolutely no balance and too much onus on getting those XI individuals in the team.
It makes me laugh seeing peoples XI's for this euros and putting Foden/Grealish in midfield where they don't play for City and Villa - its exactly what we did wrong with Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard. We have too many players for the positions available. Relax, what we have seen is they are all as good as each other and are suiting and effecting a game differently when they get there chance. The previous Golden Generation had nothing off the bench as pointed out in the above comments.
A better manager still would have won something with that group of players. Eriksson had no courage or any tactics to offer, he just shoved them all on the pitch and hoped their individual quality would carry them.
Haha ****ing hell that’s a bit of an exaggeration. We were shite but we still dominated possession without really looking a threat. They had one decent chance that Pickford comfortably saved. They hardly outplayed us.
You could also argue that having Beckham as captain (as good as he was) actually hindered the team. He obviously had to play because of his quality but without him they could've played a diamond with someone like Hargreaves at the base and then Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard in front. Cole and Neville were good enough going forwards to compensate in the wide areas, while Rooney and Owen were an excellent strike force. Instead, Scholes ended up disillusioned with international football aged 29. Basically, the lack of a decent left winger screwed us over - if only Giggs had chosen to represent England, eh? Yep. Looking at the World Cup 2006 squad, the bench options were uninspiring. Stewart Downing, Jermaine Jenas, Aaron Lennon, a 17 year old Theo Walcott. None of them would be in the team now.
He did play for England schoolboys, but he couldn't play for the seniors because, as @Si Robin says he's Welsh.
