I would like to say I am in shock about the fact that England failed to qualify for Euro. That , however, would be a lie.


England fielded what is possibly it's worst lineup in my living memory (Carson, Richards, Campbell, Lescott, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Gerrard, Barry, Lampard, Joe Cole, Crouch) and got its worst performance. Seems pretty straight forward. The problem is that many teams -for completely random example take, oh... I don't know, Croatia?- would be very lucky indeed to field that sort of team. Which brings us to the main point: England Sucks. They can't play as a team, they can't play up to their individual standard (possible exceptions of Gerrard and Hargreaves in the last WC) and they cant seem to show any real desire to lay it on the line. Oh, and apparently Lampard can sort of play in England kit. All it takes is for the fans to strart booing him... Maybe that's what was missing the past euro/world cups.

Anyway, McLaren is gone which is good news I guess. Erikson was definately a better manager. I just want to know how long it's going to be before England pulls together and finally wins something.

Jim Allen had a good blog post on this.

Dan it's simple, you're not going to win games unless you have a good manager in place. You can have all the best players in the world but unless they're willing to put their egos aside and play as a team...play as one... they will not amount to anything.

This is why you bring in a proven manager with past success and perferably one who's not English. Not only will their past success command respect from the players, but the fact their foreign can help bring in a slightly different style of play and training. Something England can certainly benefit from.

Look at Portugal as an example... they were the "Golden Generation" after winning back to back World Youth Cups (the last in 91)... since 91, when they all joined the senior squad (Figo, Rui Costa, Couto, Baia etc) they qualified for Euro 96, Euro 2000 and World Cup 2002. They struggled hardcore.

Along came Scolari, who took Brazil to a World Cup win in 2002... suddenly Portugal is a runner-up in Euro 2004 and a semi finalist in World Cup 2006. That foreign influence helped and I suspect it will do the same in England.

Interesting theory that bringing in an outside manager helps. Sort of like a company hiring an auditor. If the auditor is credible, no one in the company should feel there is a bias toward one company employee or another, so they may be free to work as a team.

I know some coaches will deliberately make themselves a target of the players wrath just to get them to unite against something.

Not a fan of either technique myself. Better for them to unite for something (preferably each other) than against something. I think the best managers/coaches/teams accomplish that, or better said, allow that.

The malaise in English football may run a little deeper than managerial.

And there may not be a problem with English football at all. It may just be that everyone else has caught up with and passed them - maybe some time ago.

I thought I might make another post and then disappear for a few months again

Anyway...England didn't qualify for Euro 2008, and that's not a surprise. Soccer America's Paul Gardner had a couple good articles about this.

1. Goalkeeping- Why the heck did Steve McClaren put Scott Carson in goal? As SoccerAmerica put it, it was akin to US Women's National Team head coach Greg Ryan switching goalies in the semifinal of the World Cup- a terrible mistake.

2. Midfield- I don't know how many of you guys watched the game or the highlights...but let me assure you that England's problem was their midfield. The midfielders simply did not work to pressure Niko Kranjcar on the first goal or the substitute on the third. If you check out the highlights on YouTube, you can see that there's ACRES of space for the Croatian midfielders. No surprise that with a lack of midfield pressure, England fell apart.

3. Coach- Steve McClaren was never cut out to be England's coach, so I don't know how he got the job. His tenure was disastrous at best- losses to Russia and Croatia, personnel mistakes... It will be interesting to see who ends up with the job next, now that Jose Mourinho has ruled himself out. I think a non-English coach may help a little, but Sven-Goran Eriksson didn't make a huge splash really. There's something to be said for hiring a foreign coach now though- England needs someone to look really hard at the way things are going and propose some solutions and shake things up. Again, going back to the US Women's National Team, once Greg Ryan was fired, the US Soccer Federation hired the first foreign coach in the team's history- Swedish coach Pia Sundhage- in large part because she was willing to overhaul the team's attacking philosophy.

England's failure to qualify didn't just rest on the Croatia game though. This is something the FA should have seen ages ago. Since about 2002 (even before then probably) pundits have been talking about English stars being phased out of the Premiership. Every year, the star Premiership players have been non-English- Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas, Didier Drogba, etc. English clubs need to have some incentive to stop importing talent and start developing English players. In the short run, such an incentive would lead to the quality of play in the Premiership going down a little, but in the long run, it would only help the national team. The other option is to send English players abroad- who was England's best player against Croatia? One David Beckham, who hasn't played in England since 2003.

England has some good players, but there are some gaping issues with the national team and the Premiership that need to be addressed. No matter who comes in next, I certainly hope he forces some of these "stars" (Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Wanye Rooney) to show some commitment. Talk all you want about luck, but your team's star striker should not have a goal drought stretching back 3 years, covering World Cup qualifying matches and the World Cup itself. Your midfield's most dynamic players should not be standing around instead of pressuring opponents.

I hope this failure serves as a wake up call for England- they simply haven't been that good for a long time. They lost to Brazil somewhat unluckily in 2002, but in 2004 and 2006, Portugal was just a better team (don't even get me started on the problems facing the new manager resulting PK shootouts- are English players that bad at taking penalties?). England should be back for the 2010 World Cup, and hopefully, they'll be a lot better.

Metro!!! Welcome back... I hope to see you keep posting!!!

For those who don't know... England has named Fabio Capello their new manager. A terrific decision and there's no doubt in my mind that England will quickly become a contender at World Cup 2010!

Well at least the English have maintained their sense of humor about the sport.

Whole else could possibly do a video as simultaneously erudite and whacky as Monty Python's Literary Football.