Glen Hoddle give England 6 out of 10 .

[Giraffe]

Tough group, we didn't disgrace ourselves losing very narrowly in both the games that mattered.

7/10 which is what I expected.

 

[Sheebo]

I love listening to the views of Souness, Hoddle, Waddle - straight talkers who tell the truth, all played abroad to a high standard and Hoddle has great coaching credentials.

Offensively, possession, creativity and passing we're improving.

But Hart, Baines, Jagielka are nowhere near world class, or as good as predecessors. We also don't protect the back 4.
Most international countries, at clubs like Chelsea and Liverpool play 4-3-3, with 2 midfielders in the 3 deft at protecting the centre of defence. Hodgson didn't do that, meaning Henderson and Gerrard were outnumbered in the CM battle and we were prone to the counter attack.

Wise words...

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

6/10 sounds fair to me. We played much better football than in the last 2 tournaments. Our main weakness was our defence and that was no real surprise considering its the first tournament we've played without Terry and Cole in defence. No Walcott and no Oxlade-Chamberlain was a major loss.

 

[Machiavelli]

6/10 sounds fair to me. We played much better football than in the last 2 tournaments. Our main weakness was our defence and that was no real surprise considering its the first tournament we've played without Terry and Cole in defence. No Walcott and no Oxlade-Chamberlain was a major loss.

You're right to say that defence was England's main weakness but, if that's the case, the defence needs maximum protection from the midfield and this didn't happen, which is all the more surprising given Hodgson's negative reputation. Ultimately England were naive in this competition: their defensive weakness, coupled with insufficient support from midfield, were brilliantly exposed by Italy.

 

[Questions]

Glenn Hoddle? Wasn't he England manager in a previous life?

Yes, and he came back because of his previous sins as an ITV pundit. What goes around........

 

[vegster]

3/10? Ridiculous. We were narrowly beaten twice. You could play those three games on another day and we'd have got far more points (which equally wouldn't have made us world beaters).

We've have cruised out of 5 of those 8 groups as a second seed.

We lost to a creaking, poor Italian team and a Uruguay team fielding one Premiership player and hung on for a draw against Costa Rica ranked 28th in the world. Thank God we were not in group A,B, E, F or G, it would have been even worse.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

I'd have loved him instead of Hyypia and he would have stayed longer

Yeah but where would all the disabled people go?

 

[Czechmate]

6/10 sounds fair to me. We played much better football than in the last 2 tournaments. Our main weakness was our defence and that was no real surprise considering its the first tournament we've played without Terry and Cole in defence. No Walcott and no Oxlade-Chamberlain was a major loss.

Walcott and the Ox were a major loss as well as Kyle Walker , who in my opinion is a much better attacking defender than Johnson although he needs to improve his defending skills and also one of the biggest misses was Andros Townsend .

In my opinion it would be a good idea if the future England team would meet up say one day every 2 weeks for training and meeting to bring the team mentality more into our system . Doubt the Premier league would allow it though .

Thought also Luke Shaw looked a better bet at left back than Baines , he was disappointing .

 

[Simster]

We lost to a creaking, poor Italian team and a Uruguay team fielding one Premiership player and hung on for a draw against Costa Rica ranked 28th in the world. Thank God we were not in group A,B, E, F or G, it would have been even worse.

If we'd got the draw against either Italy or Uruguay, nobody would have said it was ill deserved. And I wonder whether Costa Rica would have beaten "a Uruguay team fielding one Premiership player"? I see Italy didn't. As it turned out, it was our shìt luck that Suarez wasn't available for their opener.

If just ONE of those three matches had turned out very slightly differently, we would probably have gone into the last game knowing a half decent win would have seen us through. Although I'd have to say that Colombia look far too good for ANY of the teams in our group at the moment.

 

[S'hampton Seagull]

Tough group, we didn't disgrace ourselves losing very narrowly in both the games that mattered.

7/10 which is what I expected.

7/10? We didn't win a game! 5/10 for me.

 

[dazzer6666]

Lost narrowly to two teams ranked above us and played much better football than we did last time around. 6/10 seems fair to me

 

[vegster]

If we'd got the draw against either Italy or Uruguay, nobody would have said it was ill deserved. And I wonder whether Costa Rica would have beaten "a Uruguay team fielding one Premiership player"? I see Italy didn't. As it turned out, it was our shìt luck that Suarez wasn't available for their opener.

If just ONE of those three matches had turned out very slightly differently, we would probably have gone into the last game knowing a half decent win would have seen us through. Although I'd have to say that Colombia look far too good for ANY of the teams in our group at the moment.

I admire your optimism, it's in a similar vein to that film whereby Santa Claus would cease to exist if all the children stopped believing in him.

 

[Simster]

I admire your optimism, it's in a similar vein to that film whereby Santa Claus would cease to exist if all the children stopped believing in him.

Quite clearly, it's pretty far removed from that.

The fact is, the problems with the English national team are very deep rooted - we don't have enough good players coming through. This is borne out by the fact that our terrible defence picks itself, as the back ups were even worse. We can't keep the ball. Rooney was our "world class" player earning £300k a week, even though blatantly he isn't even in the world's top 50.

And it's no surprise. We have a culture at grass roots of lumping it forward, a culture of parents bawling at their kids from the sidelines, we don't emphasis keeping the ball, we don't have enough qualified coaches, the Premier League (with it's foreign vested interests) is too powerful and so on.

Blaming the manager is like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. A manager, who incidentally, HAS managed to get us to two major tournaments despite the worst England team in a while, two years ago, when we even got out of the group. We'd have qualified under Hodgson 4 years ago, yet Capello barely managed it. He was expensive, and awful for England really. And now he's awful for Russia.

 

[darters74]

6/10 for getting 1 point out of 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The man is a buffoon and he bores me to tears.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

We were competitive in each of the games and results could have gone more for us. Hopefully we can develop before the next tournament. 6 out of 10 is pretty fair.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

If we could defend we would have won the group.

But I don't know what people expect from The England team really?

 

[sten_super]

Most international countries, at clubs like Chelsea and Liverpool play 4-3-3, with 2 midfielders in the 3 deft at protecting the centre of defence. Hodgson didn't do that, meaning Henderson and Gerrard were outnumbered in the CM battle and we were prone to the counter attack.

You're right to say that defence was England's main weakness but, if that's the case, the defence needs maximum protection from the midfield and this didn't happen, which is all the more surprising given Hodgson's negative reputation. Ultimately England were naive in this competition: their defensive weakness, coupled with insufficient support from midfield, were brilliantly exposed by Italy.

I agree with both of these from a tactical perspective; the problem is I'm not sure who England have got who could have played as a genuine holding midfielder (of any quality). I'm not sure Huddlestone is mobile enough (and he's more in the mould of the way Gerrard played, as a deep lying playmaker, anyway), Rodwell has had no playing time at Man City and Parker is past it. Who does that leave?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I agree with both of these from a tactical perspective; the problem is I'm not sure who England have got who could have played as a genuine holding midfielder (of any quality). I'm not sure Huddlestone is mobile enough (and he's more in the mould of the way Gerrard played, as a deep lying playmaker, anyway), Rodwell has had no playing time at Man City and Parker is past it. Who does that leave?

Livermore is the only one that springs to mind.

 

[Machiavelli]

I agree with both of these from a tactical perspective; the problem is I'm not sure who England have got who could have played as a genuine holding midfielder (of any quality). I'm not sure Huddlestone is mobile enough (and he's more in the mould of the way Gerrard played, as a deep lying playmaker, anyway), Rodwell has had no playing time at Man City and Parker is past it. Who does that leave?

You've identified something important there. My point was more that Hodgson played something like a 4-2-4. I know others would like to call it 4-2-3-1 or whatever, but effectively he selected four players who are considered as forwards or, at the very least (and probably only in the case of Sterling) attacking midfield players. Italian tactical know-how and Pirlo's execution was always going to expose that.
What your post points to is the dearth of quality English midfield players. Gerrard and Lampard have both had excellent club careers, but their international performances have largely been underwhelming. Gerrard was poor in this World Cup. I've been extremely impressed with the development of Henderson this season, but he failed to make an impact at this World Cup; but he's the style of player (Lothar Matthaus seems to be the template) that we need more of and other countries seem to have a surfeit of. Wilshere also fits into this mould, but I don't think he was fully fit, and both he and Henderson both lack international experience.
Beyond Gerrard, Henderson and Wilshere, there don't appear to be too many options to play in a midfield three. Which might explain why Gerrard is being given maximum leeway to delay his international retirement.
One option for both club and country is to move Rooney into midfield. Whether he could recognise this is a different question, although van Gaal might well give him little option.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Quite clearly, it's pretty far removed from that.

The fact is, the problems with the English national team are very deep rooted - we don't have enough good players coming through. This is borne out by the fact that our terrible defence picks itself, as the back ups were even worse. We can't keep the ball. Rooney was our "world class" player earning £300k a week, even though blatantly he isn't even in the world's top 50.

And it's no surprise. We have a culture at grass roots of lumping it forward, a culture of parents bawling at their kids from the sidelines, we don't emphasis keeping the ball, we don't have enough qualified coaches, the Premier League (with it's foreign vested interests) is too powerful and so on.

Blaming the manager is like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. A manager, who incidentally, HAS managed to get us to two major tournaments despite the worst England team in a while, two years ago, when we even got out of the group. We'd have qualified under Hodgson 4 years ago, yet Capello barely managed it. He was expensive, and awful for England really. And now he's awful for Russia.

Not all grassroots football Simster, at Fishersgate Flyers U8's - win, lose or draw, we keep on passing the ball!

It is getting better, but the blaming of parents shouting (I heard Lineker say a similar thing…) and a general mindset is missing a MASSIVE issue of the quality of facilities. We played Hove Park Colts toward the end of the season with a pitch that wouldn't have looked out of place on Salisbury Plain during a military exercise.

Uncut, unkept, uncared for pitches are wide spread. There is simply not the money flowing into the game at the lowest level to bring the quality of our pitches and facilities up to a standard that is conducive to fast flowing, possession, skill based football. I've actually gone out with my own mower before some games because I didn't think we'd see the kids socks over the length of the grass!