Gerrard throwing it away–All of it.
While many blame Fabio Capello this morning, championing the sacking of the Italian, I hope he stays.
Why?
Because when you draw a line under the horrific 90 minutes that took place at Bloemfontein on Sunday, there is one thing abundantly clear to all, and it’s not the phantom goal England players are using as an excuse this morning either.
While that incident changed the game and the officiating was a disgrace, I was far more concerned with the following 45 mins.
England’s second half performance was lazy, lackluster and filled with individuals being, well, individuals. Germany played like a team while England’s glory-hounding main offender, Steven Gerrard, continued with his ‘one man band’ World Cup.
Gerrard was a disgrace yesterday and summed up this “golden generation,” a stupid name as the only thing golden about this bunch is the overpriced jewelry they don as they count their millions and scratch their heads, wondering why referees hate them so much.
Gerrard wasted many chances yesterday by shooting from 30 yards instead of capitalizing on England’s build-up play and passing a few yards to a teammate. He did it time and time again, handing the ball back to the Germans who said ‘thanks’ before breaking.
And while they raced down the pitch, where was our Captain? Standing on the corner of the opposition 18 yard box, shrugging his shoulders.
England never recovered from the phantom goal and chose to pass the ball around, scared to penetrate dangerous areas while holding 55% of yesterday’s possession. During the latter stages of the first half, England got round the back and tested the Germans (who were reeling) with crosses. No matter after the break, mind you, as we were slaughtered in the second half, offering no invention nor any semblance of what worked briefly in the first half: crosses in from round the back. Instead, we took shots from distance and passed the ball around while German guts highlighted our lazy attitude and lack of ideas.
Quite frankly it was disgusting, embarrassing and hurtful to think that this bunch is the best we can offer up to the World. Past teams who were far less talented than this played with guts and gusto. It’s sickening.
Best players or not, I’d rather have 11 fighters than this awful, shameful bunch. Do they really need Fabio Capello to tell them to try? To track back? To battle? How do you motivate an English footballer to play for his country in a World Cup?
If you have to, you’ve got the wrong player–and we’ve got at least six wrong un’s. Whatever happens from here, we must not be fooled again by successful qualification for Euro 2012. We must learn–we need to look to the future and blood the kids. Learn from the Germans, they they have shown us that they are the model for such rejuvenation.
To add insult to yesterday’s injury, watching the players depart the plane from Bloemfontein at Rustenburg last night, I couldn’t believe my eyes– while Rooney and Lampard looked devastated, Ashley Cole and Ledley King were laughing and joking. These two pricks should never have the opportunity to play for their country again.
So while a nation mourns the battering at Bloemfontein, the FA are weighing up their options. Swapping Capello is not the answer, getting rid of the prima-donnas is.
From back to front, it’s time for some young English heart; No more Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Cole and James; let’s bring in Rodwell, Johnson, Hart and Wilshere. I’d rather lose battling, than on our knees, surrendering– We’ve seen enough of that.
If Gerrard and Co. can’t get excited to play the US or Algeria, I’ll find you an XI that will–they’ll be knocking down the door to be where these over-paid glory hounds are right now, with an opportunity to give their all for their country. The midfield is the key, that’s the source of creation and where heart and resilience is needed, to shut down an opponents attack–this is where we start: Gerrard, Lampard and Barry must go.
So while the FA contemplate using Don Fabio as a scapegoat, a coach who has won more trophies than most over a distinguished career, ready to waste 10 million pounds to pay him off, ask yourself this; Englishman or not, is Capello to blame, or is it the squad of gutless muppets who fly home in shame today?
Spot on Ned. As I mentioned in the UF email this morning, put a combo of Sunderland/Birmingham/Bolton on the field with a Rooney or two, and I bet you could equal or better then tournament performance of this pathetic “Golden Generation.”
“To add insult to yesterday’s injury, watching the players depart the plane from Bloemfontein at Rustenburg last night, I couldn’t believe my eyes– while Rooney and Lampard looked devastated, Ashley Cole and Ledley King were laughing and joking. These two pricks should never have the opportunity to play for their country again.”
This is not an argument I can abide by. Why should they react in one certain way? Do they have to blubber and a quivering lower lip? People react differently to these situations and just because they don’t appear sufficiently distraught does not make them unworthy of donning the shirt again.
Now if you were to say Ledley King is a washed up, injury prone hack and Cole was a terrible defender, I could at least allow you that argument, but to say somebody can’t wear a shirt because you saw them laugh on the way home is ridiculous. .
I think it is Capello’s fault, because if he had just named Rooney to the squad I think the team would have been better.
I don’t know, I think Capello has to take some of the blame. He didn’t make the best decisions himself in this tournament. Just one example from the game v. Germany: England lacked width the entire game. There were spots where you had 6 players stacked up on top of each other in a little 5-10-yard-wide box in midfield. The commentators noticed it, too, and kept on saying they thought Capello would bring on one of the wingers (e.g., Lennon). He ended up bringing on Joe Cole, who immediately tried to drift inside from the wing, at which point Capello apparently (according to the commentators who were there) barked at him to stay out wide. Strange decisions. Of course, that said, I agree that the vast majority of the blame falls squarely on the gutless muppets, as you so rightly put it.
France welcomes you as you join them amongst the ‘small footballing nations.’
Plenty of blame to go around for sure. Although, I kind of thought that Capello showed he had lost the plot when he was yelling at the photographers during training camp. I mean, where are your priorities?
I know that Klinsy can get downright new-agey with his Zen-like approach to the game, but he was right that the English players looked completely tense and afraid of losing. That’s down to the manager. And Capello was the one who selected Gerrard/Lampard… Imagine what someone like Adam Johnson would’ve done if he had a spot in the starting lineup. I suspect we’d be talking about him the same way people are fawning over Ozil for Germany.
Having said that… Yeah, it always comes down to the players on the pitch.
Isn’t the biggest problem that players are chosen on name recognition rather than on the current form of their game?
How can you teach a team to be a competitive collective unit, when the selection process and/or starting lineups are based on name recognition?
For example, there is no way King makes the plane, nevermind the starting lineup were it not for name recognition. How else can King get PT over Dawson, who outplayed King this season on the whole?
Also, Spec, I think Joe Hart saves at least two of those German goals, to say nothing of Dempsey’s shot in the opener.
Also, the same manager with pretty much this exact squad breezed through qualification. Maybe the crazy German Beckenbauer, who nobody listens to except the English and they get riled up about it, was actually right in his comments last week.
Or maybe qualifying out of Europe is indeed ridiculously easy.
I found it funny how Capello said he wanted to stick around to find new young talent. The young talent was there for this World Cup, he just chose not to take it.
I have more ideas on this, but I’ll be saving them for our podcast taping tonight.
Ryan – Thats is just Capello’s very polite way of saying, I’ll take 9 million a year to coach the new bunch of players, since this is the last WC for nearly the entire starting lineup.
It’s all Terry’s fault. Locker room discord, selfish play, shambolic defending, and general t**ttery. He’s a cancer and England can only improve without him.
If only Wayne Bridge had agreed to play. If only…
@Berg – Agree that Terry is a douche of the highest order, but the same thing happened with Harkes, and Sampson sent him packing in 1998. USA went on to finish in last place at the WC that year.
I doubt dropping Terry would have united the rest of the squad with some teamwork and competitive spirit.
I agree that the players were almost universally terrible but Capello has to shoulder most of the blame. He picked the wrong squad and played the wrong team. There is no reason to play a 442 when virtually every other team in the tournament has an extra man in midfield. Not to mention that all of Englands best players never line up that way for their clubs. Also, it was clear from his substitution choices that he had no clue what was going wrong on the field and even less of an idea how to fix it.
@LE – But if Capello changes the formation/players from what was working during qualifying he’d get all the blame as well.
Or were people calling for a non-442 formation during England qualifying as well?
@knocsucow00
Not quite, qualifying starts at the end of the year and most of these players are available to pick, gerrard will still be 32 in 2012–he will need to clear out completely and show balls.
I blame the players, a manager can do so much and this bunch played like crap, we selfish and even with an awful manager should have played better and had balls.
Knocs: Capello get paid 9 million to win matches not to avoid taking blame. If you’re a good coach you make the decisions you think are necessary to put the best team out on the field. If you’re more worried about getting your paycheck and making sure you don’t rock the boat, you have no business being in the job.
@LE – Agree, but clearly 9 million gives you all the more reason to try to deflect blame to keep the big paycheck. Right now Capello is just trying to deflect blame to hang on for a few more years.
Again though, when they were winning in qualifying, was there the 4-4-2 and the current formation is going to doom England in the WC?
@LE
That team was gutless, inept and selfish–If they didnt listen or perform the simple things–like pass 10 yards to space instead of shoot from 30 yards.
Did Capello get coerced into playing J. Cole? It just seemed an odd choice both times he came on, epecially after the Terry bust up. I think he lost the team way before the Germany game.
@slhvmwa: Yeah I tend to agree… Tabloid stories about lockerroom factions and discord are pretty much inevitable once the players settle in back home.
@Spec
Just wait for their new, tell-all autobiographies, coming Spring, 2011!
It’s honestly amazing to see after the way England buzzsawed through qualifying.
Other than the money (which is awesome), what coach in their right mind would take that job? Bratty entitled players, a ridiculously overbearing press, and idiocy at the FA — after Capello, who wants to deal with that unless they are given absolute authority?
@ned: Don’t get me wrong, I am not disagreeing with that. England’s players were almost as s**tty as humanly possible. But Capello’s terrible squad selection and tactics don’t get a free pass just because the players were terrible and had no passion.
You guys forget that the national team is the only way for the FA to make enough money to fund itself and pay debt on Wembley. They need marketable, recognizable stars to get people to come games, buy replica shirts, sell tv rights, etc….So dropping Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Terry, is nearly impossible even if it makes sense from a purely footballing standpoint. Shit the whole reason Becks is allowed to hobble around on the fringes of the team and sit on the bench is to get publicity and sell shirts.
really on point post. if i were managing england id play either a 4,4,1,1 or a 4,2,3,1 atleast with this team
hart(how the f**k did james/green play ahead of him?) leaving walcott and adam johnson at home was borderline criminal, morseso johnson based on his form at the end of the season. also, why in the world was darren bent left home in favor of heskey and crouch? it boggles the mind. yea he’s obsessed with twitter but the man scores and he does it at sunderland where he doesnt receive nearly the quality service he would at other clubs.
johnson,terry,dawson,cashley
lennon,milner/lampard,cole(ideally adam johnson)
gerrard
rooney
the 4,2,3,1:
hart
johnson,terry,dawson,cashley
barry,carrick
lennon,lampard,gerrard/cole
rooney
but for the future id like to see
hart
johnson,dawson,rodwell,keiran gibbs
lennon/walcott,wilshere/milner/delph,cattermole,johnson/young
rooney,ibangedawhore/delphoenso,defoe