England - the future?

[Macca Ha Ha Ha]

Who knows, there are new players coming through but not in the right quantity / quality and squeezed out of many top premier league squads by the flood of overseas now established in our domestic game.

Sure we were abysmal tonight in the first half and maybe only 1 or 2 players put in a really good performance - but Croatia were on this showing in another level altogether - sharper, more intelligent use of the ball, passion, stuck to their formation and gameplan - and benefitted greatly from the 2 opening goals which were an embarrassment to our game.

There's no easy fix and quite frankly I don't think we have the set up to ever win a tournament in the forseeable future - they are all blinkered by the money flowing in the top level and tonight we saw the consequences of the foreign invasion and the filthy loot, missing key players England could not cope.

We need to look at other countries setups and move our game forward, instead of being stuck in this time warp.

And the pitch - laughable - Amercian Football left it's mark on Wembley alright - I hope the money received eqautes to more than missing out on a European Championship Tournament...................

[Ed]

The future is Jose.....

[Jantje]

Agree, Croatia are a good solid side like i've said elsewhere, can you imagine Italy or Germany changing their whole system . It just doesn't happen. Why do we do it?

[youngbill]

With the open doors policy for overseas players,England will always struggle as the promising future stars get limited opportunities to show their wares and to develop their games.In my view at least. You guys are seeing it every week.Does the "higher" standard of football from the overseas stars compensate for the downturn in English football? Cheers.

[Parrot]

Who knows, there are new players coming through but not in the right quantity / quality and squeezed out of many top premier league squads by the flood of overseas now established in our domestic game.

Sure we were abysmal tonight in the first half and maybe only 1 or 2 players put in a really good performance - but Croatia were on this showing in another level altogether - sharper, more intelligent use of the ball, passion, stuck to their formation and gameplan - and benefitted greatly from the 2 opening goals which were an embarrassment to our game.

There's no easy fix and quite frankly I don't think we have the set up to ever win a tournament in the forseeable future - they are all blinkered by the money flowing in the top level and tonight we saw the consequences of the foreign invasion and the filthy loot, missing key players England could not cope.

We need to look at other countries setups and move our game forward, instead of being stuck in this time warp.

And the pitch - laughable - Amercian Football left it's mark on Wembley alright - I hope the money received eqautes to more than missing out on a European Championship Tournament...................

Top post Wisey tup:

You definately hit the nail on the head there ;)

[Kop Kred]

Glad to see that some are now realising that the foreign influx into the english game is slowly killing it.

Too late though maybe!! :(

[Jantje]

Glad to see that some are now realising that the foreign influx into the english game is slowly killing it.

Too late though maybe!! :(

German and Italian football has its fair percentage of foreigners but they seem to qualify for every tournament and get pretty near to winning as well.

The England players are just not as good as they are hyped up to be by Sky and the press

[Macca Ha Ha Ha]

Some of our top league sides have maybe only a couple of English players in any one game - is that good for the National Team?

[Kop Kred]

OK.. so I'm retrogressing again, but when we ruled european football with teams like Liverpool, Forest, Villa and to a lesser extent Ipswich we had teams made up of predominately British players with a complementary smattering of foreigners... we played the English way and obliterated the opposition.
It has to be said that the national side was probably no better then than it is now but at least there were a large pool of players to select from.
When foreign national teams fail they always seem to reconstruct and bring in a lot of new faces whereas we seem to select from the same core of players until they are too old or crocked.
There is something wrong.

[Jantje]

Liverpool was full of Jocks or Micks though! Hansen Souness Dalglish Whelan Lawrenson Rush (Welsh)

[Jantje]

I honestly think its at National level. If you have a good enough coach he can work with players and fit players into a team rather than picking names and egos.

I keep going back to Germany and Italy. They qualify for every tournament and get near to winning them as well. Why is that?

[Kop Kred]

I honestly think its at National level. If you have a good enough coach he can work with players and fit players into a team rather than picking names and egos.

I keep going back to Germany and Italy. They qualify for every tournament and get near to winning them as well. Why is that?

They don't have *premier* teams with 70%+ foreigners?

[Jantje]

Bayern have 11 foreigners in their 1st team squad

Sagnol, Lucio, Van Buyten Ribery, Toni, Van Bommel, Ze Roberto, Altintop, De Michaelis, Sosa, Ismael.......all internationals

[Kop Kred]

one team... OK :)

[Macca Ha Ha Ha]

Liverpool and Chelsea / Arsenal have a hell of a lot more - there's no easy fix and i doubt the desire is there to do anything at National level.

[Jantje]

one team... OK :)

Just an example CB, Germany has somewhere near as many foreigners as we do . National coach Low was complaining about it last year

Italy i believe must have 3 U21 players of Italian stock in the match day in Serie A squad which must help their development

[Bantamtim]

The problem with English football is not the amount of foreigners, it is the whole youth setup. Basically, the English setup tries to find big, strong, quick players like Micah Richards and give them some technical ability, whereas players with brilliant technical ability are ignored because they are considered "lightweight". There is no way that someone like Kaka would come through an English youth system, as he would be ignored for the player who is half as good but a bit bigger. Even if he did manage to get past that, he would have most of his natural skill and flair squeezed out of him, as youth football is too results-driven, so you get 11, 12 and 13 year olds playing for scrappy 1-0 wins and launching it up to the big, strong guy up front rather than letting them enjoy their football and develop as players. Until this is sorted out, we will never get anywhere in international football, as we will not be able to keep the ball in midfield or create many chances, and will resort to hoofing it long like we did in the last 10-15 minutes last night.

Another thing that could help with the development of young English players is increasing the number of subs allowed in the Premiership to 7, then making a rule that you have to have two or three under-21 English players in your matchday squad. Most other Europeans do it, and it would be preferable to foreigner quotas that will just lead to a Premiership of average English players against average English players, and won't help the national team at all.

[Kop Kred]

nope!.. it's BLOODY FOREIGNERS!! :D

[Jantje]

The problem with English football is not the amount of foreigners, it is the whole youth setup. Basically, the English setup tries to find big, strong, quick players like Micah Richards and give them some technical ability, whereas players with brilliant technical ability are ignored because they are considered "lightweight". There is no way that someone like Kaka would come through an English youth system, as he would be ignored for the player who is half as good but a bit bigger. Even if he did manage to get past that, he would have most of his natural skill and flair squeezed out of him, as youth football is too results-driven, so you get 11, 12 and 13 year olds playing for scrappy 1-0 wins and launching it up to the big, strong guy up front rather than letting them enjoy their football and develop as players. Until this is sorted out, we will never get anywhere in international football, as we will not be able to keep the ball in midfield or create many chances, and will resort to hoofing it long like we did in the last 10-15 minutes last night.

Another thing that could help with the development of young English players is increasing the number of subs allowed in the Premiership to 7, then making a rule that you have to have two or three under-21 English players in your matchday squad. Most other Europeans do it, and it would be preferable to foreigner quotas that will just lead to a Premiership of average English players against average English players, and won't help the national team at all.


Agree with most of that

[Parrot]

The problem with English football is not the amount of foreigners, it is the whole youth setup. Basically, the English setup tries to find big, strong, quick players like Micah Richards and give them some technical ability, whereas players with brilliant technical ability are ignored because they are considered "lightweight". There is no way that someone like Kaka would come through an English youth system, as he would be ignored for the player who is half as good but a bit bigger. Even if he did manage to get past that, he would have most of his natural skill and flair squeezed out of him, as youth football is too results-driven, so you get 11, 12 and 13 year olds playing for scrappy 1-0 wins and launching it up to the big, strong guy up front rather than letting them enjoy their football and develop as players. Until this is sorted out, we will never get anywhere in international football, as we will not be able to keep the ball in midfield or create many chances, and will resort to hoofing it long like we did in the last 10-15 minutes last night.

Thats exactly my view Bantamtim tup:

The FA could do worse than offer Dario Gradi the job of reconstructing the youth set up in this Country.

[Macca Ha Ha Ha]

Well a lot of fans are guilty of that - labelling some young players as too lightweight - and forgetting the likes of MCall, Hendrie at our club alone who overcame this obstacle in their careers.

On the youth side, it goes down as far as the junior sides where even at that level some parents are screaming on the sidelines to try and ensure wins at all cost - with many managers and coaches also guilty - the winner takes it all the loser gets fck all is the way things work in the UK - until we can also overcome that and look further forward then it's hopeless - and there again who wants to manage a team of young kids that are technically gifted but lose nearly every fekin match to heavyweight opponents.