England needs Scholes?

[Zaad]

while England have had a great pool of talent, Germany have had their worst team ever.

 

ENgland does have lots of talented players but that's all they really are. Just that.

It's a key ingredient to achieve something big but if they fail to do so then they're pretty much as useless as any other nation.

[bibblies]

And it's not much good having a great pool of players if the man at the top is a shite conservative manager who wants them to play like Italy!

 

England very rarely play how they should - just going at it, full-pelt, 100 miles an hour. They usually try to sit back and be "sophisticated", which usually amounts to slowing down to walking pace and giving the advantage back to more technically skilled players (usually on the other side). People like Mentors don't seem to realise this (thinking the opposite) but I think it's a natural lack of confidence in the English. For example, in WC2002 we really didn't think we could compete with Argentina or Brazil and were surprised to find ourselves doing well. The same happened in Euro2004. One-nil up against France, we had the certain feeling "We're not meant to be here" and sat back into a meek defensive strategy (when France weren't actually that good). It's like a poor man going into a posh restaurant, feeling he shouldn't really be there and worrying about how to behave. (The fact that his parents were there 40 or 50 years ago or that his great-great grandfather founded the restaurant doesn't help!)

 

The "natural" way would also probably have a better chance of working in Germany than in Japan, where we broke down at temperatures of 100 degrees. (To bring the topic back to its start, Scholes is especially badly affected by heat!)

[Steve]

Bibblies, the first thing that struck me when I saw England's national teams was that they play completely different than they do in the league. If the players play that way and are comfortable that way, why not do so on the national team?

 

Also, Sven was not the right man. I still think you need a bold, positive thinking manager who could care less about pop icons or public sentiment. Just do what he feels best. Mourinho is that type of man as I've said. Also, there are one or two national team managers. That guy who got, was it Cameroon or Senegal to the world cup? And what about the Korean manager?

[Zaad]

That guy who got, was it Cameroon or Senegal to the world cup? And what about the Korean manager?

It was Senegal and their coach was Bruno Metsu at that time (a Frenchman btw.)

 

And the Korean coach at the WC was the Dutchman Guus Hiddink who's training the club in my avatar at present.

[Man at Work]

bibblies said:

One of an Englishman's current joys is that for the last 4 years, while England have had a great pool of talent, Germany have had their worst team ever. And they've even got no decent players coming through! It's hilarious. You're so shit! You've Ballack ... and then what?

 

KAAAAHN, Podolski, Lahm, Hitzelsberger, Frings, Kurani, Assamoah, Hinkel, Schneider, Mertesacker, Owomoyela, Huth, Schweinsteiger, Ernst, Engelhardt, Borowski, Deisler, Brdaric and and and

 

Did I mention KAAAAHN?

 

And all but two are playing in Krautland! And all but 5 are below 25 yrs of age! Look at your leading 3 Teams, how many English players are playing there?

 

So much for Talent!

 

MaW

,

[sayjann]

have to agree MaW.

there are 20 Teams in the English PL with fairly big Squads.

but as you say there are mant Foreign Players and this will eventually be detrimental of the English National Team.

at the moment we have a talented Squad and they could do well in the future if we had a good Manager,but all the time Sven is there i don't think this will happen.

he is the stereotypical ice-cool Swede and just becomes too cautious when we reach Tournaments.

but our Squad is always the same with the odd latest 'boy wonder' thrown in.

but we don't really have a lot of Players coming through that i can see will be permanent fixtures in say 5 Years time.

 

look what has happened to the other Home International Teams.

 

Scotland are a joke these Days because they do not have a competitive League and when i last saw a Game of theirs i was trying to recognise most of the Players as they were so obscure.

 

Northern Ireland have to rely on Players from the lower Leagues and they are certainly not up to International standard.

 

Wales have had a flurry of retirements from the Squad because they don't want to play for Toshack and again they have to rely on Players from obscure Leagues to find a Team.

 

the ROI are probably the best of the bunch.

they have some good Players and are slowly getting themselves together.

they have come out of the shadows the last few Years and i enjoy watching them.

[chelseafan]

For Chelsea there is Bridge, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Johnson, Parker, Duff if you include Irish. All regular players when fit.

 

United from memory have Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Scholes, Rooney, Ferdinand...I'm sure there are others.

 

Arsenal have Errrr Cole.

 

I think both United and Chelsea are blended nicely with English and foreign players, which IMHO makes the Premiership the best viewing in the world.

[bibblies]

Man at Work said:

bibblies said:

One of an Englishman's current joys is that for the last 4 years, while England have had a great pool of talent, Germany have had their worst team ever. And they've even got no decent players coming through! It's hilarious. You're so shit! You've Ballack ... and then what?

 

KAAAAHN, Podolski, Lahm, Hitzelsberger, Frings, Kurani, Assamoah, Hinkel, Schneider, Mertesacker, Owomoyela, Huth, Schweinsteiger, Ernst, Engelhardt, Borowski, Deisler, Brdaric and and and

 

Did I mention KAAAAHN?

 

And all but two are playing in Krautland! And all but 5 are below 25 yrs of age! Look at your leading 3 Teams, how many English players are playing there?

 

So much for Talent!

 

MaW

,

None of your team would even get into our squad at the moment. Kaan's a big fat old man (now getting into his Seaman after 2000 period : Huth? Hitzelberger? Are you joking? Hitzelberger can't even get into a crappy Aston Villa side and you regard him as your talent?! :

 

I think the pertinent point is that Chelsea can afford to buy and play any player in the world they want and the English Lampard, Terry and Cole have been their best players this season. But, strangely, Jose doesn't want to buy any German players...

 

Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Owen, Ferdinand, Terry, Campbell, Ashley Cole, Wright-Phillips... any club in Europe would love to have them if they could afford it. Is any German apart from Ballack cherished across the Continent?

 

Sorry mate, your time has gone (and about time too! :. It's a sign when Real Madrid signs three Englishmen in a couple of seasons but doesn't want any Germans. That's the reason most of your players are playing in Germany - no one else wants them!

[Steve]

...and Sol Campbell...hehehe...If Cole goes then we're down to Sol only. A lot of gooners do want to see more native talent in the squad. Most are calling for us to buy Shaun Wright-Phillips to come back 'home'. Other than him, I don't see us buying any new English talent. Gerrard would be a possibility but that's it. Hoyte and Bentley from our youth squad are the only future ones I can see.

 

Ireland seem to be doing well. Its hard to go to Israel and get a result and they should have killed off the game. They did very well against Italy in the Euro group stages as well.

 

America lost to Mexico 2-1 in Mexico City. They outplayed us frankly. They hate us as well. They booed our national anthem and a some of the fans were chanting 'Osama...Osama'. We'll go through though. Not much competition in our region. I was hoping to beat them there. The Azteca stadium is at altitude and so its very hard for any one to go there and get a result if they are not aclimated to it.

 

France is a mess. The biggest disappointment of any country in Europe. Not sure what the issue is but they need to get it sorted...and quickly.

[Zaad]

France's problem is that they rely too much on the names on the shirt.

 

There are some decent French players in Lyon and Monaco's squad. It's about time they get a chance to replace the oldies in the national squad and do what others obviously can't.

 

This was exactly Portugal's problem as well but the youngsters were given a chance and the tradition of selecting the old names was broken. Seems to go better now with the current squad, preformances and results.

 

Same for Holland btw...performing well with new names...how many of you guys know kromkamp, bouhlarouz, landzaat, kuijt, castelen, babel, Mathijsen, Vennegoor of Hesselink ...