Posted June 28, 201014 yr Sack the manager? This still remains to be seen, depending on the FA, however, Capello is a proven manager with a top pedigree elsewhere. Perhaps he is only as good as the players at this disposal. Bringing on Heskey when we need a goal? I'll never work that one out!?! Some will say drop the old guard ie Lampard, Gerrard and build a side for 4 years time, to compete at the World cup in Brazil? But if you look at the list of players who have played for the U21's recently, the cupboard is a little bare: Joe Hart Scott Loach Frank Fielding Alex McCarthy Michael Mancienne Micah Richards James Tomkins Kyle Naughton Ryan Bertrand Chris Smalling Kyle Walker Fabrice Muamba Lee Cattermole Jack Rodwell Tom Cleverley Jack Wilshere Fabian Delph Jack Cork Dan Gosling Henri Lansbury Victor Moses Andy Carroll Daniel Sturridge Danny Welbeck Nathan Delfouneso Kieran Gibbs You can add a few players such as Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor, Gary Cahill, Phil Jageilka, Steven Taylor and Darren Bent who haven't made the current squad, but there aren't many players that fill you with excitement. Some will say they can't be alot worse than this lot, but if they can't get a regular game for Burnley or even on loan at Wolves ala Cork and Mancienne, what chance have they got when an international tournament comes around?
June 28, 201014 yr Adam Johnson looks very promising, I have to say. The U17s look more promising than the U21s, apart from a select few (Joe Hart, Jack Rodwell, Victor Moses, Danny Studge), they played superbly at the recent U17 Euro's. To look through blue tinted specs, is there worth seeing how someone like McEachran developes over the next few years (be it at us, or the dreaded loan spells), and then a possible inclusion when he's 21 to be England's Ozil, per se.
June 28, 201014 yr Personly think the problem lies in two key area's. Any one that has played youth football in this country will know that aged about 10 you get stuck on and 11 aside pitch deffending a goal the same size as petr chec does on a weekly baisis. This knd of development really suits the kids who are big fast and strong and takes a lot of focus away from the kids who are not as pysicaly developed. Playing at that level also encourages head down sprinting, long ball, shots from the half way line. ect ect. Kids should be encouraged to stay playing 5-7 aside games untill 15/16. this would give scouts an opportunity to notice players with ability that havent hit there growth spurt yet. Additionly all players would have the opportunity to delelop some of the basics like playing with your head up! To be honest I would do away with all youth teams and have fa funded acadamys based on countys. All working from the same madate and training had book. pro teams wouldnt be able to get there hands on these players untill 17. This has to go hand in hand with the second problem by though and that is to many forighn players in the leageu. Manur and arse had a grand total of 1 player on the pitch yesterday. these are two teams who are regularly involved in CL football. Liverpool and out selves managed 4 of the starting line up. so out of 4 teams that play regular champions league football we managed a totla of 5 starting players. The third best team in this country have no english players at this world cup. thats terrible. hate to say it but a decition has to be made about having a quota of english players in the squad/lineup. The fact is that to a degree our league would take a hit for a degree of time. less competative in the champions league and a bit of interest may fade as money wouldnt be thowen about on carlos keep em uppy.. befor any one jumps at that Im reckognising that alot of the forighn players improove our league but the fact is that they reduce the pool of english talent for the national team
June 28, 201014 yr Agreed with RBJ. Adam Johnson is good player. Just read the news in which Frank Lampard says he wants to play still in English national team.
June 28, 201014 yr I am pretty much in agreement with Barak The FA need to, and have needed to for ages, totally revamp the countries approach to youth football. Aligned to that they need to seek a 'gentleman's agreement' with the topflight teams about the number of non English players they have in their first team squad. The problem with that is that it is not enforceable and the top clubs are not going to go along with it due to the damage it will do to their competitiveness in the champions league. In addition they need to identfy a manager who will stay in the post for at least eight years (if that isn't Capello then let him go now) with his remit being to forget all about 2012 and 2014 and focus on the 2016 and 2018 international tournaments. To support that he needs to end the international careers of Lampard Gerrard Joe Cole Barry Heskey SWP James amongst others and focus on the player who will be the core squad in 5-10 years time. The FA need to have the balls to make it clear to the media and the fans that we may well not qualify for 2012 and 2014 but that that will have no impact on the manager's job. If the media start hammering the young players then can be kindly uninvited from press conferences. They also have to have the balls to accept the fact that we may select some youngsters who aren't even regulars for their club sides but that adopting this strategy over an extended period will hopefully lead to a far more cohesive international team in future which is built around players who have developed together as part of a long term strategy.
June 28, 201014 yr Barak got it pretty much spot on, the focus of youth football in this country needs to move away from winning games to more about developing the players. Watching youth football in this country is so annoying at times, parents and coaches shouting at players to "get rid" and "get it up field" all the time, instead of letting them keep possession and play it around. Youth football in this country has been too much about results for too long.
June 28, 201014 yr Barak has nailed it. We need a long term plan and it has to start with the under 11s. We need to iradicate the 'if in doubt' culture and we need to educate the weatherspoons Taliban that the roy of the rovers style is not the way to go. We come from a country where talent and flair is treated with suspicion because we are not used to them. Remember this is a country where hoddle has had less caps than heskey (not heskeys fault). Players need to cone from a background where they are comortable with the ball and that's why we need stop the kids playing on full size pitches 3 times a week (used to happen to me all the time) It's part of the culture here and thus it's not an overnight job to change what has been in place for a century and an even harder job to change the meat n potatoes attitude. Capello has too take a fair amount of blame , some of his choices these past few weeks have been strange to say the least but some things were always out of his control and it won't change whoever is in charge, it's impossible. Will it change? It's a 15 year plan so I doubt it. Especially when the FA have their cash cow premier league to w**k themselves silly over. A league , incidently only made good and exciting because of the foreigners they have allowed into it.
June 28, 201014 yr Just want to add. The idea of sacking of the next few tornaments may be one that we have to accept any wich way as the pool of availible quality players is so small. the question is will the FA have the forcite to accept this and put the peieces in place to get it right pro-activly or just go through a load of managers
June 28, 201014 yr I don't understand how limiting the number of foreign players and thus decreasing the quality and competitiveness of the PL will make the English national team better. As all England' players come from that league, wouldn't it make sense to want to make it better? On another note, why would you want to impair your own league, and, by extension, your beloved club - Chelsea - whose fortunes you all admit you hold in higher regard, for the dubious benefit of a national team you all admit you care very little for, except every now and again?
June 28, 201014 yr I would love to see Roy Hodgson in charge. Experienced at managing national teams and has worked with big players. We need to forget the players who won't be around in 2014 and start building a young squad for the future. We do have some promising players like Jack Rodwell, Jack Wilshere, James Milner and Adam Johnson, I've also been impressed with Nedum Onuoah. Michael Johnson looked very good for Man City last season but has had a couple of long term injuries. PS. 4 of Germany's starting lineup played in the Under 21 tournament last year. All 4 players have been impressive throughout the tournament. The players were Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Jerome Boateng and Manuel Neur. We had one (James Milner) who was arguably our best player in the tournament.
June 28, 201014 yr i think a lot of the problem lies in the deliberate policy of buying foreign players because English players of similar or even lesser ability are so much more expensive. and new Uefa rules can only exacerbate this situation, at least until the academies start paying dividends. so the long term intention is not to weaken the league but to maintain, or even improve the overall standard, but with English players rather than comparatively cheap foreign imports.
June 28, 201014 yr I don't understand how limiting the number of foreign players and thus decreasing the quality and competitiveness of the PL will make the English national team better. As all England' players come from that league, wouldn't it make sense to want to make it better? On another note, why would you want to impair your own league, and, by extension, your beloved club - Chelsea - whose fortunes you all admit you hold in higher regard, for the dubious benefit of a national team you all admit you care very little for, except every now and again? In answer to your first question it would be because young English players would get more opportunity to play more first team football and thus develop their careers. The hope then being that England wouldhave a better overall pool of players than they do just now. In answer to your second I don't want to - I was trying to put myself in the shoes of the FA and think what I would do if my priority was England rather than Chelsea.
June 28, 201014 yr Agree with practically everything said here. 1 GK David James 1 August 1970 (age 39) 53 0 Portsmouth 12 GK Robert Green 18 January 1980 (age 30) 11 0 West Ham United 23 GK Joe Hart 19 April 1987 (age 23) 3 0 Manchester City 2 DF Glen Johnson 23 August 1984 (age 25) 26 1 Liverpool 3 DF Ashley Cole 20 December 1980 (age 29) 82 0 Chelsea 5 DF Michael Dawson 18 November 1983 (age 26) 0 0 Tottenham Hotspur 6 DF John Terry 7 December 1980 (age 29) 64 6 Chelsea 13 DF Stephen Warnock 12 December 1981 (age 28) 1 0 Aston Villa 15 DF Matthew Upson 18 April 1979 (age 31) 21 2 West Ham United 18 DF Jamie Carragher 28 January 1978 (age 32) 38 0 Liverpool 20 DF Ledley King 12 October 1980 (age 29) 21 2 Tottenham Hotspur 4 MF Steven Gerrard (captain) 30 May 1980 (age 30) 84 17 Liverpool 7 MF Aaron Lennon 16 April 1987 (age 23) 19 0 Tottenham Hotspur 8 MF Frank Lampard (vice-captain) 20 June 1978 (age 32) 82 20 Chelsea 11 MF Joe Cole 8 November 1981 (age 28) 56 10 Chelsea 14 MF Gareth Barry 23 February 1981 (age 29) 39 2 Manchester City 16 MF James Milner 4 January 1986 (age 24) 11 0 Aston Villa 17 MF Shaun Wright-Phillips 25 October 1981 (age 28) 34 6 Manchester City 22 MF Michael Carrick 28 July 1981 (age 28) 22 0 Manchester United 9 FW Peter Crouch 30 January 1981 (age 29) 40 21 Tottenham Hotspur 10 FW Wayne Rooney 24 October 1985 (age 24) 64 25 Manchester United 19 FW Jermain Defoe 7 October 1982 (age 27) 43 12 Tottenham Hotspur 21 FW Emile Heskey 11 January 1978 (age 32) 62 7 Aston Villa That's the current squad at the moment out of all those players, i'd take out; James, Upson, Carragher, King, Gerrard, Lampard, Cole, Barry, Crouch, Heskey, Wright Phillips, Carrick. We need like how everyone is saying an 8 year plan. - Sack Capello, bring in Harry Redknapp. - Scrap 4-4-2 - Remove the mentality where everyone seems to think they can't be creative in an England shirt. - FA need to make sure that English players get games in the premiership, i know they have added the quota but to give you an example a player like Fabregas who is Spanish is considered 'Home Grown'. - Build up from the Youth starting straightaway next year. My squad would eventually and providing players reach their potential. GK Joe Hart GK Frank Fielding GK Ben Foster DF Glen Johnson DF Kyle Naughton DF Kieran Gibbs DF Ryan Betrand DF Micah Richards DF Chris Smalling DF Michael Mancienne DF Gary Cahill DF Phil Jones DF James Tomkins MF Mark Noble MF Lee Cattermole MF Jack Rodwell MF Adam Johnson MF Fabiah Delph MF Jack Wilshere MF Dan Gosling MF Ashley Young MF James Milner MF Josh McEachran MF Aaron Lennon MF Victor Moses FW Daniel Sturridge FW Wayne Rooney FW Theo Walcott FW Andy Carroll FW Connor Wickham ------------------------------Hart------------------------------------ ----Johnson-------Cahill------Smalling---------Gibbs---------- ------------Milner-------Rodwell-------McEachran------------- ------Lennon-----------Rooney---------Adam Johnson----- I have so much confidence that Josh can be the real deal, watching him in the reserves and his games for England U17's he's been great. If he could eventually break into the Chelsea first team he'll be a great talent for England. Obviously this is more my squad 2016, 2018 and of course we'll expect a few upcoming talents that pop up out of no where but i'd love for this team to start playing together after the Euros. If you give them the practise at 2014 it will be a great boost. I'm convinced that this squad which is full of pace and a lot of technically gifted players could do real damage at the 2018 World Cup which could very well be in England and what an accomplishment it would be, just for god sakes bring in the right manager! Edited June 28, 201014 yr by J.C.B
June 28, 201014 yr good debate, especially liked the barak points - I have a 5 stage plan to suggest: 1. replace brooking as head of FA development - unless he adopts baraks suggestion which is aimed at developing creative and mobile players, not athletes who can run box to box 2. seriously consider copying germany open-book policy - their team had 5 non-german born players 3. change the academy system because it is churning out talented foreigners and physical uk players - the fa youth cup said it all - we had 6 players of foreign decent and played some great stuff - villa had uk players and grunted & huffed/puffed and worked hard but not much talent 4. change the way we play - 442 too rigid and far too easy to play against - all the top clubs/countries play a fluent 433/451 system - yes you need different type players but remembr when hoddle came to our club - he did root & branch review and changed system at all levels...............we should do same at senior level and bring in players like wilshire & rodwell 5. change the manager - but not hodgson cos he is 442 traditionalist too - has to be someone like hiddink for me (not many choices here) - same at u21 level, they play same as the senior team thats it for now - now back to crying in my tea cup
June 28, 201014 yr good debate, especially liked the barak points - I have a 5 stage plan to suggest: 1. replace brooking as head of FA development - unless he adopts baraks suggestion which is aimed at developing creative and mobile players, not athletes who can run box to box 2. seriously consider copying germany open-book policy - their team had 5 non-german born players 3. change the academy system because it is churning out talented foreigners and physical uk players - the fa youth cup said it all - we had 6 players of foreign decent and played some great stuff - villa had uk players and grunted & huffed/puffed and worked hard but not much talent 4. change the way we play - 442 too rigid and far too easy to play against - all the top clubs/countries play a fluent 433/451 system - yes you need different type players but remembr when hoddle came to our club - he did root & branch review and changed system at all levels...............we should do same at senior level and bring in players like wilshire & rodwell 5. change the manager - but not hodgson cos he is 442 traditionalist too - has to be someone like hiddink for me (not many choices here) - same at u21 level, they play same as the senior team thats it for now - now back to crying in my tea cup Good point about Hodgson, i'm now fully behind Redknapp!
June 29, 201014 yr Good point about Hodgson, i'm now fully behind Redknapp! Hows Arry gonna manage without being able to throw money into buying players. Where has this "Arry is great" campaign came from, he`s not even nearly good enough to manage at that level.
June 29, 201014 yr Hows Arry gonna manage without being able to throw money into buying players. Where has this "Arry is great" campaign came from, he`s not even nearly good enough to manage at that level. His daughter-in-law is fit as f**k though!
June 29, 201014 yr His daughter-in-law is fit as f**k though! forgot about her, gets my vote then. Im happy to see arry for england manager so we get to see more of Louise.
June 29, 201014 yr Personly think the problem lies in two key area's. 1. Better Youth Academies / Change in the way football is played by kids 2. Lack of English talent in the Top Clubs ...... arse had a grand total of 1 player on the pitch yesterday. these are two teams who are regularly involved in CL football. Liverpool and out selves managed 4 of the starting line up. so out of 4 teams that play regular champions league football we managed a totla of 5 starting players. The third best team in this country have no english players at this world cup. thats terrible. There are two players in the English NT, who had footballing education at arsenal. If you consider academies instead of currently played teams, you may get some wonderfull stats. Regarding the 'footballing style' point, How about getting rid of coaches who preaches 'kick'em and get in there faces' strategies when playing against techique/passing based teams? I am not arguing against physical play here. More Fullhams or Evertons and less Stoke and Blackburn will definitely help the National Team in the long run.
June 29, 201014 yr Too Right. Don't know about you - I hate it when things get left on the stairs in my house. Wouldn't hate it so much though if................................... Edited June 29, 201014 yr by Nibs
June 29, 201014 yr - First we need to get rid of Capello. I don't think he's necessarily a bad manager, he just hasn't got the slightest clue how to manage this England team. Plus I hate his guts for dropping JT as captain, playing Lampard out of position and for not giving Ashley Cole someone to overlap with. Gerrard down the left is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. - We need to stop trying to shoehorn our 11 best players into a 4-4-2. We have a few good centre mids, and we don't have anyone who is really good enough to partner Rooney. If we have to sacrifice Gerrard or Defoe or Heskey for the good of the balance of the team, we should just do it instead of trying all these different players out of position in various positions and watching them all fail horribly. - Give youth a chance, and not just all the garbage youth players like SWP or Walcott who are hyped up by the media. - In fact, completely ignore the media altogether. If they recommend doing something, do the exact opposite. "Mirror mirror on the wall... shut the f**k up because I'm not starting Gerrard behind Rooney." - Don't pick any West Ham players except Scott Parker. - Don't put any stupid ungrateful c**ts like Carragher in the team. I should probably stop before it gets too ridiculous.
June 29, 201014 yr There are two players in the English NT, who had footballing education at arsenal. If you consider academies instead of currently played teams, you may get some wonderfull stats. Regarding the 'footballing style' point, How about getting rid of coaches who preaches 'kick'em and get in there faces' strategies when playing against techique/passing based teams? I am not arguing against physical play here. More Fullhams or Evertons and less Stoke and Blackburn will definitely help the National Team in the long run. maximus, i can only think of Ashly cole, who else? If it's upson, he was raised and reard through luton towns youth team. Has nothing to do with Arsenal's acadamy.
June 29, 201014 yr I don't really understand the whole get rid of cap thing. onlt 4 months ago he was the mesaiah for the best qualifying campaighn england had ever had. I heard Andy Townsand going on about how he watches these players week in week out perform at a much higher level in the champions league. again this left me wandering who he was watching (really dont rate the guy as a pundit any way) Marcel made the point that while the first 11 may be strong (debatable) the back up for these players is not of a high quality. Personly I would keep Capello on, there isn't any one better out there
June 29, 201014 yr Capello revealed himself to be tactically inept. He alienated the players. He player our best players out of position. He picked players who were either injury prone/injured. He picked players who were our of form. He undermined the goalkeepers with his dithering. Whatever you think about the players and their abilities, it is unarguable that Capello did not get the best out of them when it most mattered. It turned out he wasn't the Messiah after all.
