England pre-euros

[ali jenkins]

I don't know about anyone else but the more I see, hear and read about England the more I think we have a bright few years coming up.

I don't think we will win the Euros, or even get past the quarters, but I think the noises coming out of the camp are pointing towards Roy being the right man for the job.

Quite looking forward to the summer now. Think we might surprise a few people who have written us off.

 

[brakespear]

I don't see any reason, at least from a players on the pitch perspective, why we don't have a reasonable chance to win. I fully admit we aren't the best technically but if the defence can keep their conentration up then I reckon we have a chance

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I've said it on here before and I will probably repeat it again. Roy Hodgson is the best England manager in my lifetime, in my humble opinion. He is the right age, has the right experience, knows the game, knows the players and is English. He will be successful as England manager, the only question is, what will that be? I don't think we'll win the Euros either, but I suspect we'll be tasty come Euro 2016!

Hart
Walker Cahill Lescott Cole
Chamberlain Henderson Wilshere Johnson
Carroll Rooney​

I think that could be a winning team. Maybe Luke Garbutt will have replaced Ashley Cole by then. Or Jonjo Shelvey might have broken through. You never know, Lampard and Gerrard might still be hanging around.

 

[banjo]

Quarters at best for me. Hate to say it but i think Germany will win it.

 

[StonehamPark]

I don't think England will ever be the decent team everyone expects them to be. Hugely paid footballers whom I doubt feel that much need to perform 110% for their country.
I know it's a very negative view, just being honest, I think England are generally a crap team. No amount of Roy Hodgeson will change anything.

 

[RowleyBirkinQ.C(deceased)]

I too have said for several years that Hodgeson would be a cracking england boss, but we won't win this tournament and I think we'll struggle for years to come. Which is a shame for Roy as he is a great manager but as at Liverpool it could be the right manager at the wrong time.

 

[pottert]

I've said it on here before and I will probably repeat it again. Roy Hodgson is the best England manager in my lifetime, in my humble opinion. He is the right age, has the right experience, knows the game, knows the players and is English. He will be successful as England manager, the only question is, what will that be? I don't think we'll win the Euros either, but I suspect we'll be tasty come Euro 2016!

Hart
Walker Cahill Lescott Cole
Chamberlain Henderson Wilshere Johnson
Carroll Rooney​

I think that could be a winning team. Maybe Luke Garbutt will have replaced Ashley Cole by then. Or Jonjo Shelvey might have broken through. You never know, Lampard and Gerrard might still be hanging around.

So in 2016 you believe

Lescott 33
Cahill 31
Cole 35.
Walker 26. A back 4 with the combined age of 125 years will make us tasty

 

[Ninja Elephant]

So in 2016 you believe

Lescott 33
Cahill 31
Cole 35.
Walker 26. A back 4 with the combined age of 125 years will make us tasty

Yes, yes I do. That is a solid defence. By then, actually, Tomkins will probably be playing. Or Lewis Dunk, instead of Lescott. I wasn't thinking clearly last night.

 

[supaseagull]

England have no pressure on them this year. Gerrard, Lampard and Terry have one last chance to prove themselves.

The Spanish are technically the best but Llorente is unproven at tournament level and they have key players out. no team has won the Euros twice in a row.

The Germans are strong and are my favourites to win.

France and Holland will do well if they don't fall out with each other.

Italy and Portugal are both outsiders who have an ageing team.

Russia will be very strong due to the region the tournament is in but again are woefully inconsistent.

The rest are just that- there to make up the numbers.

So tell me, with all of the above in mind, why England(providing they qualify) cannot win the trophy.

All footballers are overpaid- its not just ours and we have the most experienced and technically the best international manager in the world.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

[MENTION=1877]supaseagull[/MENTION] I would agree with all of that, I think Germany are the best team in the tournament overall.

 

[Mutts Nuts]

I've said it on here before and I will probably repeat it again. Roy Hodgson is the best England manager in my lifetime, in my humble opinion. He is the right age, has the right experience, knows the game, knows the players and is English. He will be successful as England manager, the only question is, what will that be? I don't think we'll win the Euros either, but I suspect we'll be tasty come Euro 2016!

Hart
Walker Cahill Lescott Cole


Roy Hodgson is the best England manager in my lifetime,


He has not done any thing yet
​

 

[Knotty]

I don't think England will ever be the decent team everyone expects them to be. Hugely paid footballers whom I doubt feel that much need to perform 110% for their country.
I know it's a very negative view, just being honest, I think England are generally a crap team. No amount of Roy Hodgeson will change anything.

What about the hugely-paid footballers of other countries?

 

[matthew]

I think English football is worst than ever and in deep decline

 

[trancing]

Would like to see a team for Euro 2016 something like this

Hart

Walker/Richards
Jones
Smalling
Gibbs

Chamberlain
Wilshere
Cleverly
Young/Johnson

Rooney
Sturridge

 

[StonehamPark]

What about the hugely-paid footballers of other countries?

The international players away from England look like they want to play football and enjoy thus performing better. When watching England, it comes across to the viewer (me) that each player is carrying a 50kg burden on their back.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I like the positivity, but aside from Rooney we don't have a striker. Carroll is utter toilet, Wellbeck is decent but not spectacular, and Sturridge is incredibly selfish. Having said that, all it takes is for someone to break through like Owen in 98 and we'll be laughing.

I'm reasonably comfortable with the midfield and defensive players England have coming through. We're lacking upfront though

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Would like to see a team for Euro 2016 something like this

Hart

Walker/Richards
Jones
Smalling
Gibbs

Chamberlain
Wilshere
Cleverly
Young/Johnson

Rooney
Sturridge

Phil Jones is a good shout. I don't really rate Chris Smalling, I think he's basically the new Wes Brown. Nothing wrong with that, but also not brilliant. I don't think Kieran Gibbs is ever going to be as good as Football Manager thinks he will be. It's not all doom and gloom though in my opinion, look at the teams we've both posted. There are plenty of other players who might force their way in too, Josh McEachran for example. Plenty of talent about, despite all the doom and gloom merchants.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

England have no pressure on them this year. Gerrard, Lampard and Terry have one last chance to prove themselves.

The Spanish are technically the best but Llorente is unproven at tournament level and they have key players out. no team has won the Euros twice in a row.

The Germans are strong and are my favourites to win.

France and Holland will do well if they don't fall out with each other.

Italy and Portugal are both outsiders who have an ageing team.

Russia will be very strong due to the region the tournament is in but again are woefully inconsistent.

The rest are just that- there to make up the numbers.

So tell me, with all of the above in mind, why England(providing they qualify) cannot win the trophy.

All footballers are overpaid- its not just ours and we have the most experienced and technically the best international manager in the world.

I admire your positivity but I think you might be being slightly unrealistic there. To win it we're going to have to qualify from a tough group containing the host nation and one of the sides you highlighted for special attention, plus in Sweden a team that we rarely beat. So getting out of the group will be tough enough.

Then in the knock out stages we'll probably have to beat at least two of Italy/ Spain(winners Euro 2008, w.c 2010)/Germany(finalists 2008, semi's 2010)/Holland(finalists 2010). That's a really tough ask.

On top of that you've got to factor in this is the weakest squad for a long time with a number of players missing, they're only going to get a couple of weeks and two games preparation with a new manager before starting the tournament and with Barry, Lampard, Parker and Gerrard the midfield is populated with players the wrong side of 30, two of whom have spent the past decade failing to play coherently together, three of whom have been involved in all/many of the turgid failures of the last decade, the other of which has no international experience and is coming back from injury.

Finally, there's the weight of history. We've only got past the group stages in three of the seven tournaments we've qualified for, our best result being a couple of semi finals. We've failed to qualify for the tournament proper five times.

Of course it's always possible we'll win but you've got to temper your expectations. If England were to win the tournament it'd be a massive and frankly very surprising achievement. Not quite as out of the blue as Greece winning it but still an improbable result.