Article by frenchparkpat
Well, well as John Motson would say on the telly. Once again England has flattered to deceive at a World Cup final. After the worst defeat inflicted on them in their world cup history England is waking up this morning wondering what happened. The print media as normal have started the post mortem and trial all in one, apportioning blame on anyone that will stand still long enough to take it. Over the coming days and weeks no one will be spared as they assassinate anyone and everyone that has anything remotely to do with the England team. Top of the list I’m sure will be Fabio Capello who was seen as the saviour of English football when appointed after the Steve McClaren debacle. For a while the been there, done that, got the t shirt Italian seemed to have whipped the boys into shape as they blasted through their group with only one loss, which happened only after they were safely on their way to South Africa. It has now been shown that the only t shirt Capello doesn’t have is a world cup one. Wether it is him who ultimately takes the blame or his players we will have to wait and see. The papers are calling for Capello’s head, he has said he won’t resign and why would he with 2 years of a £6 million contract left to run. It now looks like he was wise in that contract update that was sealed before the world cup began. The FA on the other hand have scored an own goal which will see them having to stump up the cash if they want to get shot of him.Despite having what were described as some of the best players in the world, England were shown to be mediocre at best, unable to get the ball down and play with any authority. Everyone is asking where Wayne Rooney was, he was there but starved of anything you could call service he failed to flourish. James Milner, Jermaine Defoe, Aaron Lennon Emile Heskey. Doesn’t exactly strike fear into opposition defences does it? Joe Cole and Peter Crouch didn’t really have enough of a chance to shine. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry were totally outplayed in midfield and John Terry was made to look quite ordinary at the back for someone who is meant to be one of the best centre backs in the world. Apart from his goal Matthew Upson had nothing to give to this England team, nor did Glen Johnson. Ashley Cole is one of the best left backs in the world and will probably be around for a while yet, but for some of the others it’s time to bid farewell to their undistinguished international careers and let some of the younger players be blooded now in advance of the European Championships in two years time. As one newspaper described it, it was men against boys and the boys won. There is no doubt about it England were torn to shreds by Germany yesterday and Lampard’s goal that wasn’t given, which was a travesty in itself, would not have made one bit of difference to the final outcome, such was Germanys ability to slice through the England midfield and defence at will.Almost every other team that I have seen at this tournament have been better than England in the technical department, much more in control of the ball, much better ability to pass the ball and much more of a team unit when they didn’t have the ball. And with some of the football minnows that were present that’s saying something. England’s players are over hyped, over paid and over rated; they look like a bunch of mercenaries rather than a well drilled army. Passion and pride can only take you so far and after 44 years it’s time England learn that or they are never going to win anything. They are not right mentally and instead of shouting for an English manager maybe they should look to Germany to see if one of their coaches would be able to instil some of the mental toughness and technical ability that is so sadly lacking in the English game. I wouldn’t like to be the man that proposed that at a FA meeting, you could find yourself strung up by the short and curlys. I don’t honestly think England will win the world cup in the next 20 years and that’s because they need to start again from scratch and start working on these technique and mental issues with the players that are only being born today. One or two world class players are not enough to win a tournament of this stature, and the sooner English football starts breeding a production line of mentally tough, technically gifted players, they haven’t a hope. But that’s just my view on it.
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frenchparkpat