England Excelled Themselves Tonight ….

[Canary42]

… against Germany at Wembley.

In 94 minutes of football they didn't have a single shot on target.

Will this be good enough for their appearance in Brazil next year ?

[shoota]

It's not the winning that matters, it's the taking part.....


And posing for pics, going on celeb shows and banging page 3 models.

[VHG]

We are just lulling the World Cup opposition into thinking we are crap, so when we get to Brazil we can "surprise" everyone by playing brilliant football and scoring a hatful of goals.

It is all part of Hodgson's masterplan.

[doctordb]

Swear I saw townsend hit the post. Both teams fielded weakened sides. We were the better team in the second half. It's only a friendly.

[VHG]

Both teams did field weakened sides - though we had about 6 players who would probably play in a World Cup match - Hart, Cole, Jagielka, Gerrard, Sturridge and Rooney.

But their goalie was making his debut and he did not have one save to make.

And we just played two games at home and did not score one goal.

I know Chile played their strongest team, and Germany (even a "B" team) are never easy to beat, but it does look rather bleak.

I always think you can measure the strength of any England team by asking how many would get in the German or Spanish or Brazil team.

And currently maybe only Rooney, and possibly Cole or Baines, would be contenders (or maybe Hart if he could put his problems behind him, and perhaps Walcott as a squad player if fit).

Gerrard and/or Lampard may have got into the German or Spain team a couple of years ago, and hopefully their legs will last till next years World Cup.

But apart from those few players we have no one who would get in the German or Spanish or Brazilian squad let alone team.

We have a few promising players, Welbeck, Townsend etc, but they are not their yet.

We have very few "world class" players, and you need at least half a dozen "world class" players in your team to win the world cup.

[doctordb]

VHG, don't get me wrong. I know we have no chance of winning in brazil. We are paying the price for not scrapping the old guard before the 2010 world cup qualifiers.

We should be using 2014 as preperation for euro 16. Our starting line-up for the first group game in brazil should be; hart, gibbs, smalling, jones, walker, walcott, chamberlain, wilshire, cleverley, barkley, rooney.

[Peter Pedant]

shoota... It's not the winning that matters, it's the taking part.....
And posing for pics, going on celeb shows and banging page 3 models

and snortiing up white lines - no not the lines on the field if you get my meaning - just like your local coop Bank Manager

[andy-hughes]

I know very little about football, but as a dispassionate observer, it does seem to me that all the best Premier League players who would all excel in an England lineup - are playing for other countries in the World Cup!

We appear to lack top class domestic players - is that a fair assessment?

[whistonian]

Err Gerrard made a good attempt with a long shot that just went over the bar .Did you fall asleep on your perch Canary?lol

[Peter Pedant]

.
Will this be good enough for their appearance in Brazil next year ?

hmm that's where the nuts come from, isnt it ?

[tonyav]

I feel sorry for the England manager, most premier clubs these days only have a few English players. The England manager has to pick a sqad with that handful of English players and is expected to win competions. No hope imo.

[jno]

a good attempt with a long shot that just went over the bar

not strictly what you'd call on target, though, is it. Can you get half a point for that, for trying hard?

[Sqad]

jno...LOL

[ichkeria]

The sad thing is that England seems to lack the collective willpower to make the changes needed to become a proper force in international football.
Vested interests such as the Premier League are always allowed to dictate.

Those games were useful in that hopefully they will dampen expectations.
That wasn't a full strength England side but they nothing like as many top players out as Germany, You could assemble a German side entirely out of players not even on the bench last night and still have a team with a serious chance of winning the world cup

[weecalf]

Should England with draw from the world cup as a protest at not letting them score so chiles and company can show it 400 times.

[davetuc]

"We should be using 2014 as preperation for euro 16. Our starting line-up for the first group game in brazil should be; hart, gibbs, smalling, jones, walker, walcott, chamberlain, wilshire, cleverley, barkley, rooney."

Smalling? Jones? Walker? Cleverley? God help us. Add Jordan Henderson to that list and it proves how short we really are. England are a mile off the top level, and a complete restructure from top to bottom is needed and quick!

[doctordb]

Davetuc, Isn't that what i'm saying?
These are our best young players(rooney excepted), Put them in and let them grow.

[VHG]

>>>We appear to lack top class domestic players

That is true.

Many years ago almost every goalie in the top league was English (with maybe a few Scottish or Irish or Welsh now and again).

At one time we had both Shilton and Clemence fighting it out for the goalie jersey, with other top goalies like Corrigan and Parkes waiting in the wings.

Now we have only 2 goalies in the Premier League I think (Hart and Ruddy of Norwich). Hart has just been dropped by his team, and Ruddy just let 7 goals in the other week (though actually played well).

And earlier this year one England squad had the third choice goalie of Jack Butland who was not even 20 at the time and had never played a match for his then team Birmingham City.

He has now been sold to Stoke who have lent him out to Barnsley.

He may be our England goalie in a few years, but the fact he was 3rd choice at one time shows the dearth of goalies.

And we have this same problem all over the team, a dearth of English players.

It is almost the case that if you are English and playing regularly in a Premier league team you will be picked for England!

[doctordb]

As it's true that many foreign players at the top clubs in the prem are world class wouldn't it follow that an english player holding down a place in that team must be pretty good too?

remember we didn't qualify for '74,'78 and '94 (to a lesser extent) with a league almost entirely made up of homegrown talent.

[aelmpvw]

i'm no expert but to win the world cup i think you have to actually get the ball in the opponents net