The problem with the England Squad

I think the problem with England's football team will always remain that of the choice of managers appointed to put the squad together.

What the team needs is a manager that has not choked on the big names; a manager that can keep a star player on the bench because the player is surplus to the tactical requirement of the team.

It is not a must to feature all the best if they don't fit into a tactical formation.

Gerrard is the best attacking midfielder in the squad with the added quality of being able to fall back and defend when necessary. He is at his best marshalling that midfield. Lampard on the other hand, is more like a second striker, near potent when attacking but sub par when it comes to defending.

Why, then would managers continue to have a problem with who should be in control of the midfield?

The game against Germany really made it clear; England had no midfield presence with the pair of Lampard and Barry in charge of it. Gerrard kept on running from the left wing to cover the centre.

Solution? Either play Lampard as a second striker to Rooney(?) or bench him.

I think one of the problem is the manager didn't dare or couldn't afford to drop either one of Gerrard or Lampard and both also expected to be part of the team automatically.

I am surprised that Capello hadn't tried Gerrard in the hole behind Rooney with Lampard and Barry behind him and J. Cole and Milner on the wings. Gerrard excels there when he has someone who is able to pull the strings behind him, someone like Xabi Alonso. I think Frank Lampard could have done that job.

Gerrard is great wherever he plays but I noticed that he links up with Rooney very well.

England need a complete change in their approach.

For £6m a year Capello should have the bollox to make the hard and not so hard calls.

For example:

Gerrard - play him in the middle whether that be behind Rooney or in CM. He is our best midfielder who can control games so dont punish his versatility for inferior players.

Lampard - He excels at Chelsea where he basically has a free run behind the striker and 2 sitting midfielders. Have a run on goal and a few pots shots its fine Frank Chelsea are a very strong team. Play him in a standard 4-4-2 formation and he is invisible. I have watched him closely over many years and I have yet to see him control a game.

Barry - Why the fuss, too slow, immobile and hasnt a clue about the holding role - he was so far forward at times there was about 30 yards gap to the defence. Watch Masch, Busquets, Sweinsteiger for example. Play in the zone cut down the space the oppo has to play in and link the play.

Heskey - enough said.

We also lacked pace and our fitness levels looked inferior to the other teams.

Decide your tactics then pick the best players for that role. If it means dropping Lampard or Gerrard or Barry then do it and stop worrying about the press reaction after. Its your job do it your way.

And one last thing we need to move on from the Beckham obsessed era and start thinking about the future.

"The problem with the England Squad?"

They're sh*te and we know they are..... 

The majority are overpaid, talentless, can't pass to a fellow teammate, egotistical wankers.

That might just be the problem.

The majority are overpaid, talentless, can't pass to a fellow teammate, egotistical wankers.

That might just be the problem.

Sums it up. Be easier to ask the question "What isn't wrong with the England Squad?"

The problems with the England squad ......

Rooney...... The player who was going to set the world cup stage alight clearly went to STh Africa injured. He was injured towards the end of the season, a bad ankle injury, and then brought back before he was ready and re injured.
For a player who runs the miles Rooney runs,  an ankle injury is not something he can carry.

Capello was in a no win situation. If he refused to take an injured Rooney the whole of England would have blamed losing the world cup on Capello for NOT taking Rooney.

Gareth Barry........ Clearly went to Sth Africa injured. He was slow, caught dwelling on the ball, and his passing at times was shambolic. He should never have been selected after he got injured.

King........ Everyone in England knows (except for Capello) that King cannot play back to back matches. One thing is Harry Rednap risking him every second week for Tottenham, but risking him in a world cup finals campaign was absolutely ludicrous.  It was a risk that did not pay off.

Lennon.... In the moments before Lennon was substituted he had just beaten a man and put a dangerous ball into the box. In fact our two closest things in that match were both due to Lennons ability to beat a man.
One of our weaknesses is not having anyone on the pitch who can beat a man, and yet the one player we have who can do it was grossly under used.

Lampard.....  Played well in the last match, but in the first three matches was invisible. Seems to be in the best two or three players for Chelsea every week and then poor for England. 

Heskey........ Cant understand Capello persisting with the Heskey experiment. Crouch is a far better player, and scores goals.  Goals would be handy in a world cup campaign.

The problems with the England squad ......

Rooney...... The player who was going to set the world cup stage alight clearly went to STh Africa injured. He was injured towards the end of the season, a bad ankle injury, and then brought back before he was ready and re injured.
For a player who runs the miles Rooney runs,  an ankle injury is not something he can carry.

Capello was in a no win situation. If he refused to take an injured Rooney the whole of England would have blamed losing the world cup on Capello for NOT taking Rooney.

Gareth Barry........ Clearly went to Sth Africa injured. He was slow, caught dwelling on the ball, and his passing at times was shambolic. He should never have been selected after he got injured.

King........ Everyone in England knows (except for Capello) that King cannot play back to back matches. One thing is Harry Rednap risking him every second week for Tottenham, but risking him in a world cup finals campaign was absolutely ludicrous.  It was a risk that did not pay off.

Lennon.... In the moments before Lennon was substituted he had just beaten a man and put a dangerous ball into the box. In fact our two closest things in that match were both due to Lennons ability to beat a man.
One of our weaknesses is not having anyone on the pitch who can beat a man, and yet the one player we have who can do it was grossly under used.

Lampard.....  Played well in the last match, but in the first three matches was invisible. Seems to be in the best two or three players for Chelsea every week and then poor for England. 

Heskey........ Cant understand Capello persisting with the Heskey experiment. Crouch is a far better player, and scores goals.  Goals would be handy in a world cup campaign.

The Manager lacked any sense of good judgement and direction then?

From what I saw in Englands matches, their seems to be a loss of fire and pride.  I didn't see them playing with an attitude. I think that playing in the WC has taken a backseat to club play and even the Champions League.  These guys dont want to play all out and risk Injury in the WC when the start of League play is only a short time away.

The sport has changed 10 fold. Their is so much money involved in club play, sponsor deals, shoe contracts, video games etc... If a player was to suffer a bad Injury in the WC then that will directly affect his career. 

In a WC year some of these guys will end up playing 6-8 matches a month for almost 2 straight years. They play Champions League, League,FA Cup, Europa plus WC qualifying, WC matches and 6-10 friendlies.  Thats a sh*t load of Football. Not too mention the training time, travel,appearances, club functions. 

I know they get paid a sh*t load of money. However, it is still a massive amount of time away from friends,family,children and home.  It will eventually wear on every player.  Its no big surprise that player stats and performance are always low in the seasons following a WC campaign.

I dont feel sorry for them. They get paid a fortune to play a game. But, I understand and can ratioalize why they lost and why they looked tired.

Tactics then formation then team selection and not the other way round

All the best creative midfielders (Dont confuse creative with attacking) in the Premier League are foreign players. All the best goalkeepers in the Premier League are foreign players. Until these matters are addressed England will always fall marginally short of Word Cup success. Im not saying there is an issue with foreign players in England. Im saying there is a problem with youth development in England.

Maybe England can learn something from Germany, or more, maybe the FA can learn something from the DFB, the German Football Organisation. It's not a coincidence Germany are playing more creative and technical football this tournament, it's the result of vision and good policy.

After bad World Cups in '94 and '98, Germany decided to make changes in their football. They felt they played old fashioned football, too much emphasis on the physical aspect. Instead, they wanted to play more fluid creative football with more technical skill. They wanted to produce more creative technical players, like they used to do.

At that time Holland and Ajax especially was very succesful at creating technically skilled players. So the Germans cooperated with Ajax and did research on their youth academy and others, and they made changes to the youth academies of the German clubs to try and create an environment that would produce more creative and technical players. Löw, the German manager, endorses this new policy and vision and he has been heavily involved in it for the last 6 years.

As a result now you see the first of a new breed of German players, and I predict we'll see more of them in the years to come.