Was anyone that surprised by England's pitiful display against Germany? IF you were then you really have been wearing rose tinted specs, because frankly, it was a hammering waiting to happen.
The 4-1 final score was England's worst ever defeat at the World Cup finals, but the truth is, it flattered England because it could quite easily have been six or seven. England really were that bad.
Right from that first game with the USA, the warning signs were there for all to see. Capello was too rigid when stubbornly sticking to 4-4-2. Worse still, the Italian pushed Gerrard out onto the left wing where he is less effective. Joe Cole was the obvious choice to play wide left, but he was largely ignored and you have to wonder if it was another case of the manager being stubborn. In ingoring the calls for Joe Cole, Capello stuck to his guns when going against the wishes of John Terry, the media and public; it is one thing being single minded, but being pig-headed for the sake it and ultimately making the wrong calls reflects badly on the Italian.
In the wake of what was a pathetic performance, the soul-searching has begun in earnest. Questions are being asked, the introspection will not let up, because today the Germans gave England a serious beating.
Personally, I wasn't at all surprised about today's result, because it was coming. I don't take any pleasure watching England lose, not a bit of it. Nor do I blame the players, well not entirely, but they are accountable all the same. I'm fairly certain the England ladies football team would have defended some of the German attacks more professionally than their male counter-parts.
Perhaps in future, our pathetic all too often jingoistic media will think twice before bringing up the war and that 5-1 win against Germany; but why do I get the feeling we won't stop hearing about goal-line technology for the next forty years?
England's problems run much deeper than blaming the officials and until we start getting the basics right, we will continue to be also-rans and in all probability a laughing stock on the biggest of stages when it really matters.
Ultimately, Capello must take the blame for what happened today and England's awful World Cup displays - the Italian has to go - and the sooner the better. Capello might well be a great club manager, but international management is all together a different matter. England played like clowns today and the ringmaster is to blame.
Capello made some strange choices and no doubt the buck will land with him but I really dont think 4-5-1 with Joe Cole would have helped England. We were just crap the whole tournament. Rooney was awful in every game. Lampards best game was against Germany and that doesnt really say much. The defence was all over the shop. Barry was invisible in all the games he played. So whilst Capello made some poor calls, I dont think there is a man on earth who could have managed England and got them playing well.
ReplyDeleteStill you have to wonder how things would have turned out if Lampards goal had been allowed. With the momentium on Englands side how would that second half have turned out.
At least by getting our butts kicked that way it should prompt change. Would have been worse if we had lost 2-1 and argued that we were robbed and allowing that to deflect the blame away from an awful world cup capaign.
Oh and wouldnt you just love to see Ozil at United. Wouldnt mind Lahm too!
couldnt agree more mate. im not a man u supporter and i dont normally leave comments, but englands performance tonight was beyond poor! why didnt capello at least try once the combintion of gerrard and rooney that has been working so well for manchester united all season? why was heskey even there? and why was peter crouch whos been the most consitent goal scorer for england, cld be wrong but i think he has the best record for his appearances, and such and underrated player! sat on the bench for most of the tournament! why bring on sean wright phillips with a few minutes to go to humiliation and with no way of makin up the goal defecit! that was jus rubbing salt into the wound imho. the list of cock ups is endless!lol but to be honest most of the players out on that pitch tonight, looked like they wld rather be eslewhere, whilst loyal fans have paid nearly £5000 pounds to follow a team that they belived in. so much for the three lions! looked pretty toothless to me, ripped apart by a clinical and much younger german squad!
ReplyDeleteI second the call for Ozil to join Utd. He would play well in the Scholes role and he is only 22 or so.
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of that. But, I'm fairly certain someone like Redknapp ( I cannot stand him btw ) or Roy Hodgson would have got more out of England. IMO, Capello has flopped as an international manager because he has failed to get the best out of the players at his disposal and he has steadfastly refused to bow to public opinion - and that is a sign of pig-headed belligerence.
As for Ozil, I spotted him in the Germany's first game. I cannot see him playing for - United no money etc etc.
DM,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, England's World Cup Finals campaign has been a total shambles. The travelling fans' deserved better.
Evgenii,
ReplyDeleteIF only!!
I guess for me the biggest worry is how long it will take to get back from this world cup fiasko. Half of the team is the wrong side of 30 - at least the best players in the squad are around this. You cant really see Lampard, Terry, Gerrard, J Cole, etc in the next world cup. The problem is at least to me that we dont have any exceptional young players to rebuild the squad.
ReplyDeleteI mean lets say Capello stays - hes stubbern enough to! - say he decides on drastic changes and cuts the big names that didnt perform like Lampard... who is he gonna replace him with? Carrick? With the exception of Rodwell, I havent seen any young english players for some time that I believe look to have potential at the very highest level.
James, I kinda like Harry Redknapp - think it comes from my time living in Pompey with the ex. Tho it always seems as if he is blagging it a bit and should really be out of his depth but somehow gets away with it. Hodgson has been great for Fulham and has experience all over the world. If Capello does go then fingers crossed Roy would be the one given the job.
Wouldnt you just love to see Lampard and Terry play for Chelsea next season like they have for England over the last few weeks!
Im actually quite looking forward to what the players say about this world cup in books etc. You just have to think that there was some major crap going on behind the scenes. We did well in qualifying and then the whole thing unraveled in South Africa - be nice hearing what the players actually believe caused this.
Oh and offtopic but right now I am really hoping there is some truth to the talk that Fabiano is eager to join United. Perhaps we can sell a few fringe players to bring him in as I could see Rooney doing a Berbatov next season and cracking under the expectation. The last thing we need is another great striker turning into a nervous wreck.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteI nearly wet myself a couple of weeks ago when Trevor Brooking said he's worried because there's no real prospect of England replacing the 'Golden Generation'. FFS, the Golden Generation? How pathetic have the so called golden generation been this last two weeks?
With that said, I think people are losing sight of a few things right now.
England have some decent players; on an individual basis and with the possible exception of Mesut Ozil, there's not that much between the Germany and England sqauds ability wise.
But there are some serious problems to address. The FA has really screwed everything up as far as I'm concerned and the lot of them should be sacked along with Capello. (I might well dedicate a post about this lot).
Appointing Capello has turned out to be a disaster. I'm no Johnny Englander, but we shouldn't be appointing a foreign coach of our national team.
IF you look at Germany, when Klinsmann walked away after 2006 they appointed his assistant Joachim Löw, so they at least had some continuity.
I agree with everything you've posted about Redknapp, yes, there's something about him that smacks of 'wide-boy chancer', but IMO, he'd do a much better job than Capello. For one thing, he can speak the language (sort of) and he knows the most of the players much better than Capello.
Hodgson is about to take the Liverpool job, which is a shame because he'd have been my first choice too.
The players input will be interesting (for once) so let's see what they have to say.
Regarding Fabiano, I totally agree with you and of course it looks like Hernandez will hopefully turn out to be a be a very smart move.
I think it's a racing cert Rooney will suffer next season. I'm worried he could eventually turn out to be the next Gazza - because he has the potential to balloon size wise, due to his build. But I'd hope he will be professional enough to realise he was shot even before the tournament began. There's also rumours that Rooney has serious money issues in connection with his agent.
It doesn't take much to lose your cutting edge when you are a goal scorer.
Golden generation... farcical really isn't it. On paper our team is better than the Germans. They only have a couple players (Ozil, Lahm, Schweinsteiger) that I believe would get into England's first team. I always felt we had some very good players and some very poor ones. That our starting 11 was always going to be a collection of good and poor with no real middle ground... after this world cup I am not so sure. I am starting to believe that the likes of Lampard, Terry, Gerrard - maybe even Rooney are quite ordinary but are surrounded by quality foreigners at club level that are able to get the very best out of them and perhaps fooled us into believing they are world class players. Not one of those players have looked world class over the last few weeks.
ReplyDeleteThe FA are a bit screwed with Capello. £12m to get rid of the guy! They made a massive blunder with that new contract before the World Cup - most countries change manager after a major tournament so it strikes me as being crazy to give him a new deal before a ball is kicked. Had that clause preventing either side from walking away from the deal still been in place then I bet Don Fabio would be gone already. He is gonna make some major money out of this failure.
Maybe I'm a bit mental but I have this vision of Harry Redknapp managing England with Tottenhams 4-4-2. Crouch and Defoe up front. Joe Cole, Carrick, Lampard and Lennon in midfield... Maybe I am having some form of Ex-West Ham/Spurs England nightmare!!
Dave,
ReplyDeleteThe England thing is a farce you are right. The what the FA have done is scandalous, they have rewarded the Italian massively and for what?
Regarding Harry Redknapp, I think any half decent British Premier League manager would have done better than Capello at the World Cup Finals. I don't care who they give the job to, but it will probably be Redknapp and good luck to him, because he will need it.
Silva just signed for City. At least someone in Manchester has money to improve their squad...
ReplyDeleteEvgenni,
ReplyDeleteYes, it hasn't gone unnoticed. I fear we are really going to struggle this coming season.