England

[Robsondinho]

Very boring but credit where it is due, maximum points is some going. Not the toughest group, but to win every game is something that deserves credit.

A long way off from doing well next summer, but you never know as the standard of international football has dropped drastically in recent years, espesh the European sides.

For me I fancy the French to win it next summer with a great young squad and home advantage. Long shots, I fancy Iceland to do well.

[shanns]

Won't watch England until we get to a quarter final of a major tournament. Not going to happen then.

[Hertford Hoop]

Very boring but credit where it is due, maximum points is some going. Not the toughest group, but to win every game is something that deserves credit.

A long way off from doing well next summer, but you never know as the standard of international football has dropped drastically in recent years, espesh the European sides.

For me I fancy the French to win it next summer with a great young squad and home advantage. Long shots, I fancy Iceland to do well.

The French will be the team to beat along with the German's, Iceland is a good shout to go far in the tournament

[très bon don]

There's a theory that because our leagues are so intense, the players don't get the fitness required to compete in major summer tournaments like other leagues with winter breaks etc. I'm not gonna explain it all because its long but its in soccernomics if you want to check that out.

I'd disagree with this, the winter break thing may have some truth to it but the rest of the continent has caught up with the English game pace-wise. Watch the Bundesliga, it's much quicker football.

England's undoing at tournaments is simply a lack of skills and the inability to dominate and dictate the pace of a game. It's always backs against the wall stuff against a half decent side.

[TBLOCKRANGER]

There's a theory that because our leagues are so intense, the players don't get the fitness required to compete in major summer tournaments like other leagues with winter breaks etc. I'm not gonna explain it all because its long but its in soccernomics if you want to check that out.

Isn't that more an excuse the premiership give out to deflect any criticism that the leagues not as great as it makes out and the top club's generally get turned over in Europe. Also by giving this message it justifies paying ordinary players £80k p/w when European counterparts that are much better are on a 1/4 of this.

Premiership has a lot of foreign players and their countries seem to do ok.

My own view is English players aren't very good.
This is reinforced in my view by top English players not now play for clubs abroad and are generally in recent times cotton wooled by their premiership clubs like terry and lampard at Chelsea, Gerrard at Liverpool, Rio, scholes and nevilles at Utd consequently because they were untouchable at these clubs on £200k p/w or whatever they were seen as greats but in reality were above average but these clubs for marketing purposes needed them and it was mutually beneficial for both to continue the charade that they were legends. However as soon as they were wheeled out by automatic selection at international tournaments ..opponents didn't care who they were and they got humiliated every two years whether on the European or world stage.
Last decent England team was 98....

[BuffooneRy]

I was there with my nearly 9yr old son and can confirm that it was really hard going and very disappointing all-round. Rubbish performance and lack of fearlessness from Roy means that it confirmed what we already know and that is that England will never go anywhere in a major tournament under cautious Hodgson....:(

[nanocopic]

I would say England last had a chance of getting to semi's in Euro 2004 and they should have beaten Brazil in 02, just a couple of errors otherwise perfect game. At the moment yeah they are boring to watch (although my just got into football son really enjoys watching them tbh just any football in general at the mo) but as others said you can only beat the teams you play. They will get out of group comfortably next summer as the extra teams will make the groups easier plus even a few third place teams go through to the last 16. Then I would expect them to make the quarters but probably not get further than that unless they get an extremely lucky draw.

[72bus]

Isn't that more an excuse the premiership give out to deflect any criticism that the leagues not as great as it makes out and the top club's generally get turned over in Europe. Also by giving this message it justifies paying ordinary players £80k p/w when European counterparts that are much better are on a 1/4 of this.

Premiership has a lot of foreign players and their countries seem to do ok.

My own view is English players aren't very good.
This is reinforced in my view by top English players not now play for clubs abroad and are generally in recent times cotton wooled by their premiership clubs like terry and lampard at Chelsea, Gerrard at Liverpool, Rio, scholes and nevilles at Utd consequently because they were untouchable at these clubs on £200k p/w or whatever they were seen as greats but in reality were above average but these clubs for marketing purposes needed them and it was mutually beneficial for both to continue the charade that they were legends. However as soon as they were wheeled out by automatic selection at international tournaments ..opponents didn't care who they were and they got humiliated every two years whether on the European or world stage.
Last decent England team was 98....

good post , gerrard and lampard were never up to it against the best sides

[Ramsey is god]

Don't need to explain it mate, its pretty much common sense.

Yea, think it is a topic that has been spoken about a lot in recent years.

Personally, i love the big tournaments. Always have that sense we might do something special.

Qualifiers can become extremely boring. Was expecting a better show from Switzerland, but it was a poor group. Hard to make the game entertaining when one team comes with 11 men behind the ball and dont move out for nothing, not even when 2/3/4 nil down.

Can only beat whats in front of you, so well done to Roy.

[Ramsey is god]

Isn't that more an excuse the premiership give out to deflect any criticism that the leagues not as great as it makes out and the top club's generally get turned over in Europe. Also by giving this message it justifies paying ordinary players £80k p/w when European counterparts that are much better are on a 1/4 of this.

Premiership has a lot of foreign players and their countries seem to do ok.

My own view is English players aren't very good.
This is reinforced in my view by top English players not now play for clubs abroad and are generally in recent times cotton wooled by their premiership clubs like terry and lampard at Chelsea, Gerrard at Liverpool, Rio, scholes and nevilles at Utd consequently because they were untouchable at these clubs on £200k p/w or whatever they were seen as greats but in reality were above average but these clubs for marketing purposes needed them and it was mutually beneficial for both to continue the charade that they were legends. However as soon as they were wheeled out by automatic selection at international tournaments ..opponents didn't care who they were and they got humiliated every two years whether on the European or world stage.
Last decent England team was 98....

sorry mate but Rio, Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and scholes are not just "above average". They were all world class players in their prime.

[nasser95]

Isn't that more an excuse the premiership give out to deflect any criticism that the leagues not as great as it makes out and the top club's generally get turned over in Europe. Also by giving this message it justifies paying ordinary players £80k p/w when European counterparts that are much better are on a 1/4 of this.

Premiership has a lot of foreign players and their countries seem to do ok.

My own view is English players aren't very good.
This is reinforced in my view by top English players not now play for clubs abroad and are generally in recent times cotton wooled by their premiership clubs like terry and lampard at Chelsea, Gerrard at Liverpool, Rio, scholes and nevilles at Utd consequently because they were untouchable at these clubs on £200k p/w or whatever they were seen as greats but in reality were above average but these clubs for marketing purposes needed them and it was mutually beneficial for both to continue the charade that they were legends. However as soon as they were wheeled out by automatic selection at international tournaments ..opponents didn't care who they were and they got humiliated every two years whether on the European or world stage.
Last decent England team was 98....

The thing is, a lot of the best performers at the world cup don't play in England. You look at the individuals prior to the world cup and in most cases, the top performers aren't playing in England. English players are class, hence why we have had a great record (prior to 2013) of getting far in Europe. But this also means our best players get weakened.

All it takes is a look at the all star sides of the world cups since 2002 to see that most of the best players aren't in the premier league. Only 5 players out of the 61 selected since 2002 were premier league players those years and only two of the players were English (both centre backs: Sol Campbell and John Terry). To have a league representation of Under 10% is embarrassing when you consider how big the league is. That to me is proof enough that the energy is sapped out of most players before the world cup.

[Kevin Mcleod]

Bit of fighting out there tonight, stay safe beefy son.

[West Acton]

Bit of fighting out there tonight, stay safe beefy son.

Was beefy getting to the front of the beer queue he's there now and calm has returned

Hodgson really is a prat

[Kevin Mcleod]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-2016-tie.html

[IsleworthRanger]

Was beefy getting to the front of the beer queue he's there now and calm has returned

Hodgson really is a prat

Real old fashion toe to toe fighting in the ground for ten minutes before thd game started and also when we scored the first goal

QPR and Luton fighting last night plus trouble in various bars with tazors being used and loads arrested