Well, thanks Sven.

[Marshy]

Mclaren..........

the reality that he is the new England boss is setting in...

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Same old rubbish about England bosses. At least we got through to the Quarters at all comps under Sven unlike Keegan or Hoddle who I am sure everybody backed at the time. Oh sorry, I forgot Sven is foreign and England should never have a foreign manager.

We have lost twice on pens and once to a freak goal under Sven. Give him a break. He is not the best manager ever but he is considerably better than any English alternative we have at the moment.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Same old rubbish about England bosses. At least we got through to the Quarters at all comps under Sven unlike Keegan or Hoddle who I am sure everybody backed at the time. Oh sorry, I forgot Sven is foreign and England should never have a foreign manager.

We have lost twice on pens and once to a freak goal under Sven. Give him a break. He is not the best manager ever but he is considerably better than any English alternative we have at the moment.

I would have been perfectly happy with Hiddink or Scolari. The point of the matter is that we fell at crucial stages, whether you say that is unlucky to lose by penalties or not, with the talent available to Sven we shouldn't need to go to a 'depleted' Portuguese side. We were inept in the midfield and we had a severe lack of strikers to rely on.

I am not just basing my view on Sven on the defeats, but also the manner of our play. We have a team that should be fearsome and steamroll opposition. Whatever happened to the team that beat Germany 5-1?

McClaren seems to be in the same mould as Sven. He has been given a considerable amount of money at Middlesboro' and never really produced anything to suggest that he can end the drought for England and win us some silverware. Of course I would loved to be proved wrong, but I can't see it happening.

Our exit was the perfect time for a clean break and mull over a replacement for Sven over the coming month. Didn't Scolari say that he was refused the job as he didn't want it announced before the world cup?

I would have liked the FA to keep quiet about Sven leaving until after the world cup as well.

 

[Hannibal smith]

Same old rubbish about England bosses. At least we got through to the Quarters at all comps under Sven unlike Keegan or Hoddle who I am sure everybody backed at the time. Oh sorry, I forgot Sven is foreign and England should never have a foreign manager.

An argument for mediocrity for me I'm afraid. In this tournament we have had the luck of the draw, even 2 of thier players suspended, a better set of players (man for man on paper we are better than Portugal) but still fell short against the first half decent side we played.

OK. The England team have improved under Sven (I remember Keegan's 0-1 V Germany when we couldn't string 3 passes together) but considering the players we had, we really have underperformed in this tournament. If we still had Trevor Sinclair, Emile Heskey and Danny Mills in the team you could say Quarter finals is par for the course, With this set of players a better manager would have got us further. Hiddinck for me after watching what he has done with Australia and Korea. Instead we get Steve. Pissing. Mclaren.

 

[Hannibal smith]

I would have liked the FA to keep quiet about Sven leaving until after the world cup as well.

At least sacking him would have lifted the country. We don't even get that pleasure.

 

[Uncle Buck]

What is going to be the thing to moan about now he has gone?

Unless McLaren gets his coaching staff spot on I cannot see things getting better, but more likely a post 1990 down turn, but we shall see.

This tournament we had not been playing well, but had been getting through the rounds. Aside from the sending off, the big gripe was our inability to score from the spot.

Sven took over the Keegan mess and got us to the tournaments, however ultimately he has failed as he did not win them, but some of the stick given is unreal, I guess it is that he is not English. I notice the Sunday Mail ran a headline along the line of England crash out, but at least Sven has gone, kind of sums the mentality of people up.

 

[Easy 10]

some of the stick given is unreal, I guess it is that he is not English.

I'm sorry, but that is just utter crap. His nationality has got NOTHING to do with it. All I want to see is an England team playing inventive, flowing, attacking football, whether the bloke in charge is Swedish, Brazilian, Chinese or whatever. I couldn't give a toss WHAT country the manager comes from, I just want to see a successful England team. A team to be proud of.

Eriksson has had 6 years to build us a team. And he has failed MISERABLY to do that. By now, we should've had a system in place to get the best out of the players at his disposal, to make us a genuine force on the World stage. Instead we had no system, no cohesive pattern of play, no clue whatsoever. He's fiddled and fannied about with the tactics, playing people out of position, persisting with his old favourites when they were contributing nothing, and now we've been knocked out by a piss-poor Portugese team who didn't even have the bottle to go for it against 10 men. They were there for the taking, but once again, we've come up short. Forget the penalties, we should've rolled that lot over comfortably during normal time.

Can you honestly say Sven has taken this England team forward since he's been in charge ?

 

[Marshy]

we qualified for all the major tournaments though easy

So he must have done well.....

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Quite right Easy. I hate this "We win ugly, I would rather win than lose with flair". Why can't we do both?

The other countries manage it, so why can't we?

 

[Uncle Buck]

Can you honestly say Sven has taken this England team forward since he's been in charge ?

He took a team that had crashed out of Euro 2000 at the first round and had one point from 2 qualifiers to winning its World Cup qualifying group and to the quarter finals of the tournament in 2002. So yes he has taken us forward. However he has not built on that and so will be regarded a failing.

However your stick is just pure hatred, I knew it was going to be on here and I should have ignored it.

Still everything will be OK now...

 

[Uncle Buck]

Quite right Easy. I hate this "We win ugly, I would rather win than lose with flair". Why can't we do both?

The other countries manage it, so why can't we?

What?

Italy are often ugly but win, until this tournament the same with Germany.

Results out weigh the performance every time, both with the Albion and England.

 

[Brovion]

...
Can you honestly say Sven has taken this England team forward since he's been in charge ?

Again, like my good friend DKM there is a lot of truth in what you say, but the answer your final question is 'Yes'. Unequivocally. As U.B. says he inherited a dispiriting mess from Keegan (and to an extent the caretaker Wilkinson) and turned it round. You can sum up Sven's reign in one of his catch phrases "1st half good, 2nd half not so good", but overall he's been a success. This tournament is easily his worst one, but we are MUCH better off than when he arrived.

 

[Easy 10]

This tournament we had not been playing well, but had been getting through the rounds. Aside from the sending off, the big gripe was our inability to score from the spot.

I'd also disagree with that.
The big gripe is that we turned up and played like Torquay reserves. In terms of England performances, this has been the most depressing World Cup I can remember. The fist half v Sweden was good, the rest of it was just turgid. I'm actually embarrassed after that. Sven has made this England team into a laughing stock.

 

[Simon Morgan]

What is going to be the thing to moan about now he has gone?

Unless McLaren gets his coaching staff spot on I cannot see things getting better, but more likely a post 1990 down turn, but we shall see.

This tournament we had not been playing well, but had been getting through the rounds. Aside from the sending off, the big gripe was our inability to score from the spot.

Sven took over the Keegan mess and got us to the tournaments, however ultimately he has failed as he did not win them, but some of the stick given is unreal, I guess it is that he is not English. I notice the Sunday Mail ran a headline along the line of England crash out, but at least Sven has gone, kind of sums the mentality of people up.

I agree. Everyone is always harping on about his substitutions and how dreadful his tactics are and we get this same old post after every single england match and I really can't stand it anymore. I thought his substitutions were pretty good on the whole, he made the effort to accomodate both Gerrard and Lampard by playing Hargreaves, who looked brilliant.

We probably just weren't good enough this time and also, I long for the time when England get some luck at a major tournament. Over the course of the Portugal game, we didn't deserve to lose. Rooney probably did deserve to get sent off, but many other refs would have missed that and you could tell Ronaldo was playing for it. Also, a re-taken penalty in a shoot-out

Simply blaming the manager is just the easiest way out. In my opinion, one of the main reasons we have failed this year is Frank Lampard, who has been absolutely dreadful in my opinion

 

[Uncle Buck]

I'd also disagree with that.
The big gripe is that we turned up and played like Torquay reserves. In terms of England performances, this has been the most depressing World Cup I can remember. The fist half v Sweden was good, the rest of it was just turgid. I'm actually embarrassed after that. Sven has made this England team into a laughing stock.

But however bad the perfomance it still got wins and that has to be more important than performance.

This tournament had that feeling at some point we had to start playing and we did not and it was annoying.

Trying to have an objectional discussion on this is pointless.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

What?

Italy are often ugly but win, until this tournament the same with Germany.

Results out weigh the performance every time, both with the Albion and England.

But that hasn't worked for us in the last three tournaments. As a team we are capable of ripping the opposition apart or at least should be. The last three winners of the world cup have done so in style by outplaying their opponents.

We trashed Portugal in the first 30 minutes in Euro 2004 and should have finished them off, yet we sat back.

I think Sven has done a good job reviving the team and instilling some spirit, but I truly think he could have done a whole lot better.

 

[Uncle Buck]

But that hasn't worked for us in the last three tournaments. As a team we are capable of ripping the opposition apart or at least should be. The last three winners of the world cup have done so in style by outplaying their opponents.

We trashed Portugal in the first 30 minutes in Euro 2004 and should have finished them off, yet we sat back.

I think Sven has done a good job reviving the team and instilling some spirit, but I truly think he could have done a whole lot better.

Do not agree.

Last tournament, it opened up for Brazil, but at no point was the Samba fooball there.

1998, France laboured past Paraguay via an a golden goal, put Italy out on penalties, scrapped past Croatia, before beating a Brazil side that was falling apart in the final.

1994, well the Brazilians were very critical of that side as it did not play the Brazilian way.

 

[Hannibal smith]

Again, like my good friend DKM there is a lot of truth in what you say, but the answer your final question is 'Yes'. Unequivocally. As U.B. says he inherited a dispiriting mess from Keegan (and to an extent the caretaker Wilkinson) and turned it round. You can sum up Sven's reign in one of his catch phrases "1st half good, 2nd half not so good", but overall he's been a success. This tournament is easily his worst one, but we are MUCH better off than when he arrived.

Can't argue with any of that. As I said earlier, an argument for Sven is an argument for mediocrity. He took us so far but didn't have the strength of charactor or tactical nouse to take us to the next level. One suspects Steve Mclaren won't have it either.

I'd be interested to read the first memoir to come out of this world cup and see what the players really think about it all.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Can't argue with any of that. As I said earlier, an argument for Sven is an argument for mediocrity. He took us so far but didn't have the strength of charactor or tactical nouse to take us to the next level. One suspects Steve Mclaren won't have it either.

I'd be interested to read the first memoir to come out of this world cup and see what the players really think about it all.

I think that is right, his inability to take us to the next level was his problem.

I do not want to get on McLaren's back, but I do feel an impending sense of doom when it comes to him. However he needs to get his backroom staff spot on, especially needs somebody with some tactical nouse.

 

[Easy 10]

He took a team that had crashed out of Euro 2000 at the first round and had one point from 2 qualifiers to winning its World Cup qualifying group and to the quarter finals of the tournament in 2002. So yes he has taken us forward. However he has not built on that and so will be regarded a failing.

However your stick is just pure hatred, I knew it was going to be on here and I should have ignored it.

Still everything will be OK now...

Just because the guy in charge immediaetly before him was f***ing useless, it doesn't turn SGE into some kind of footballing messiah you know. Yes we were shit under Keegan, but any half decent manager would look good following on from him - not exactly a tough act to follow, was it ?

Its the typical English mentaility of settling for complete mediocrity and trying to present it as success. So we qualified for tournaments under Sven...woo hoo. We KNOW we can beat the likes of Poland and Azerbaijan, but for the likes of yourself, you seem happy to dress that up as "success." Qualifying is "success" because, well, we did miss out on a couple of tournaments 30 years ago and in 94 after all. Arn't we lucky now that we qualify ? Well bollocks to that. Qualifying is the MINIMUM expectation with this group of players. And now 3 times running, we've made zero impact when it matters, and folded when the first real test has come up.

I'm sorry, but the excuses have run out now. After that abysmal showing in that tournament, I can't believe you can still defend him.