Under 21s

[ohjimmyjimmy]

How shit were they !

[Lofthouse Lower]

Very.

This irked me though

Sir Trevor Brooking, was saddened by what he considered to be pedestrian displays in the first two matches and said that they exposed the poverty of English coaching. "Creativity and subtlety in the final third is probably something neglected in all the age groups," he said. "You have to be doing those things at 12, 13 and one of the key areas is playing in between opposing players, looking forward or diagonal."

He has been Director of Football Development in England for ages but is still just pointing out the problems that exist after matches. Surely if he made the changes to coaching when he first got the job; those 12 and 13 year olds would be in this squad now.......?

Though the real fact of the matter is the way we play. The only solution i can see is for our young players with ambition to get loans or transfers to the Bundesliga or Serie A where they will learn to play in teams with the emphasis on technique and skill. They will also get in few games at a relatively early age. Then the England manager might be able to fashion a team that can play with the required amount of skill and technique when they come up a stronger opponent. At the moment Capello and co have no chance as the players they are working with are incapable of playing a controlled game.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

Yep we've just no concept of basic technique + controlled possession + patience = success. We rely too heavily on the theory of using the 3 or 4 average players across the back & midfield to get it up or wide to the one player with skill as quickly as possible,a nd then asking them to carry all the expectation.

[bobo the clown]

Very.

This irked me though

Sir Trevor Brooking, was saddened by what he considered to be pedestrian displays in the first two matches and said that they exposed the poverty of English coaching. "Creativity and subtlety in the final third is probably something neglected in all the age groups," he said. "You have to be doing those things at 12, 13 and one of the key areas is playing in between opposing players, looking forward or diagonal."

He has been Director of Football Development in England for ages but is still just pointing out the problems that exist after matches. Surely if he made the changes to coaching when he first got the job; those 12 and 13 year olds would be in this squad now.......?

Though the real fact of the matter is the way we play. The only solution i can see is for our young players with ambition to get loans or transfers to the Bundesliga or Serie A where they will learn to play in teams with the emphasis on technique and skill. They will also get in few games at a relatively early age. Then the England manager might be able to fashion a team that can play with the required amount of skill and technique when they come up a stronger opponent. At the moment Capello and co have no chance as the players they are working with are incapable of playing a controlled game.

This must be your longest post .... ever ! Well done.

Anyway, Brooking is a nice gentleman who was appointed to a role he has no obvious ability in & he's proving that. A pointless role providing a pointless outcome.

As to the way we play, maybe the opposite of the obvious is the solution. We seemed to win European cups willy-nilly in the days when British/English clubs played British football with British players. The foreign technique back then was better than ours, but our strength, speed and mentality won over that.

For 20 years we've heard people bang on about how we need to develop technique. We've therefore tried .... & almost always fall short. Maybe a full blooded return to 'the British way' which seemed to serve us pretty well is the answer, not flailing around half-heartedly trying to instill unfamiliar processes into players.

The idea that the solution is to over-coach youngsters from increasingly young ages is not necessarily the right one. Hearing 7 year olds talking about tracking back and providing cover is all a bit like supressing the enjoyment for me. The result is all too few kids play in their jeans on patches of grass using (yes, mock if you will) jumpers for goalposts. It's rarely an enjoyable game played in a spontaneous way these days and THAT removes natural flair.

Sorry, rant over.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

I agree to a point, but spanish kids still seem to enjoy playing, and Brazilian kids, german kids. Maybe our coaching in general is just not very good?

[thebish]

The idea that the solution is to over-coach youngsters from increasingly young ages is not necessarily the right one. Hearing 7 year olds talking about tracking back and providing cover is all a bit like supressing the enjoyment for me. The result is all too few kids play in their jeans on patches of grass using (yes, mock if you will) jumpers for goalposts. It's rarely an enjoyable game played in a spontaneous way these days and THAT removes natural flair.

Sorry, rant over.

careful - you'll have Kebaaaaaaaaab back out of his box!

[BWFC_Insane]

Very.

This irked me though

Sir Trevor Brooking, was saddened by what he considered to be pedestrian displays in the first two matches and said that they exposed the poverty of English coaching. "Creativity and subtlety in the final third is probably something neglected in all the age groups," he said. "You have to be doing those things at 12, 13 and one of the key areas is playing in between opposing players, looking forward or diagonal."

He has been Director of Football Development in England for ages but is still just pointing out the problems that exist after matches. Surely if he made the changes to coaching when he first got the job; those 12 and 13 year olds would be in this squad now.......?

Though the real fact of the matter is the way we play. The only solution i can see is for our young players with ambition to get loans or transfers to the Bundesliga or Serie A where they will learn to play in teams with the emphasis on technique and skill. They will also get in few games at a relatively early age. Then the England manager might be able to fashion a team that can play with the required amount of skill and technique when they come up a stronger opponent. At the moment Capello and co have no chance as the players they are working with are incapable of playing a controlled game.

This must be your longest post .... ever ! Well done.

Anyway, Brooking is a nice gentleman who was appointed to a role he has no obvious ability in & he's proving that. A pointless role providing a pointless outcome.

As to the way we play, maybe the opposite of the obvious is the solution. We seemed to win European cups willy-nilly in the days when British/English clubs played British football with British players. The foreign technique back then was better than ours, but our strength, speed and mentality won over that.

For 20 years we've heard people bang on about how we need to develop technique. We've therefore tried .... & almost always fall short. Maybe a full blooded return to 'the British way' which seemed to serve us pretty well is the answer, not flailing around half-heartedly trying to instill unfamiliar processes into players.

The idea that the solution is to over-coach youngsters from increasingly young ages is not necessarily the right one. Hearing 7 year olds talking about tracking back and providing cover is all a bit like supressing the enjoyment for me. The result is all too few kids play in their jeans on patches of grass using (yes, mock if you will) jumpers for goalposts. It's rarely an enjoyable game played in a spontaneous way these days and THAT removes natural flair.

Sorry, rant over.

Difference is that in the past we could dominate with strength, speed and mentality as it gave us an edge.

However, over time the more technical european sides developed similar abilities in tandem with their ability on the ball. Physical play would not beat Spain normally or Barcelona for that matter, simply because of all the science in football nowadays, the diets, fitness experts, computer monitoring etc all that stuff generally levels out. So what matters is more keeping the football and technical ability.

And lets not forget the "British way" has won us one, uno, eins world cup, and no European cups, and the one WC we did win was here in England on home soil. Hardly a case to say "our way" is great!

[LiOC]

Difference is that in the past we could dominate with strength, speed and mentality as it gave us an edge.

However, over time the more technical european sides developed similar abilities in tandem with their ability on the ball. Physical play would not beat Spain normally or Barcelona for that matter, simply because of all the science in football nowadays, the diets, fitness experts, computer monitoring etc all that stuff generally levels out. So what matters is more keeping the football and technical ability.

And lets not forget the "British way" has won us one, uno, eins world cup, and no European cups, and the one WC we did win was here in England on home soil. Hardly a case to say "our way" is great!

Not to mention that the referees would be blowing every second for playing "physically" making it impossible to use these days.

[bobo the clown]

Difference is that in the past we could dominate with strength, speed and mentality as it gave us an edge.

However, over time the more technical european sides developed similar abilities in tandem with their ability on the ball. Physical play would not beat Spain normally or Barcelona for that matter, simply because of all the science in football nowadays, the diets, fitness experts, computer monitoring etc all that stuff generally levels out. So what matters is more keeping the football and technical ability.

And lets not forget the "British way" has won us one, uno, eins world cup, and no European cups, and the one WC we did win was here in England on home soil. Hardly a case to say "our way" is great!

Not to mention that the referees would be blowing every second for playing "physically" making it impossible to use these days.

We won plenty in domestic competitions using that very style.

The referee's ... fair point I suppose ... so fck 'em.

I just think we are now neither one thing nor the other. We aspire to a style unnatural to us and so fall between both stools.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

I think we think we play the continental way by fannying about with the ball along the back 4, passing for the sake of it cos we think it makes us look good. Then when it comes to actually facing a wall of midfielders and defenders we dont have the faintest how to navigate through effectively on the floor.

[Bruce Rioja]

How come Stuart Pearce seems to be free of any criticism after this absolute failure?

[Lofthouse Lower]

Cos he's got passion, innit

Free lions on are chest, and all that

[ohjimmyjimmy]

Already had a two year contract extension ready to be signed when he got back, regardless of how we did. Super.

[malcd1]

Already had a two year contract extension ready to be signed when he got back, regardless of how we did. Super.

Reminiscent of the Cappello fiasco.

Stuart Pearce made the most of being a very average, limited ability footballer. Apart from bringing a bit of fist clenching passion to the changing room I'm not sure what other attributes he has.

[TANGODANCER]

Told you before what the answer is: More than six passes in your own half and it's a free kick to the opposition. That'd stop all that pxssing about.

[Prufrock]

Need an identity. No use trying to just 'be Spain'.

However, here is the kisser, and the thing they should have been doing instead of pissing money away on a football stadium that isn't even very good for football.

Number of qualified UEFA 'B', 'A', or 'Pro' coaches:

England- 2,769
Spain- 23,995
Italy- 29,420
Germany - 39,740.

France have Clairefontaine, Italy have Coverciano, and we still don't have pissing Burton.

There is all this talk of an 'identity' which is fun for newspapers and fan boys, but we just do not have the resources, it's that simple. Far fewer kids come into contact with the best standard of coach than any other major European footballing nation, and by an absolute MILE. Even Greek kids are eight times more likely to be coached by a top standard coach.

[CAPSLOCK]

France are shite, academy or no academy

No sign of the surrender monkeys at the 21s either

Unfortunately, the game has been changed and it can't be played 'our' way any more

Its all tippy tappy now, cos they won't let folk tackle

[Prufrock]

They've won a World Cup and a European Championships recently. The only reason they can't do it anymore is coz they've all gone back to being French. That French racism thing was funny coz if anything the foreign players have become TOO french. Whinging bickering and striking.

[CrazyHorse]

They've won a World Cup and a European Championships recently.

Gotta say, your idea of recent differs greatly to mine, Pru.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

More recently than us