Euro 2012: Quarter finals

[trekka]

Thats it now for the old players in our squad imo

Gerrard has been exceptional this tournament but i think its time to freshen things up build a young side like germany have and build it for years to come

The likes of Walker, Cahill, Jones, Carroll, Rooney, Henderson, Wellbeck start to build a young side and move the old guard out like Cole Terry e.t.c

Germany have done it im sure we have young talent in this country that we can start a new side from

Hear hear.

[PandaMac]

I'd keep Cole and Gerrard for one more tournament

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

England need to bite the bullet and change if they want to achieve anything.

[AshVilla]

I hate to imagine the scoreline had we got through anyway

that young German side with 48 hours rest Gerrard and Parker looked like corpses at the end of the game i don't think they would have been able to get out of bed for the match maybe a blessing in disguise

[Papillon]

ashley young has had an awfull tournament..

and i still think its a joke that people talk about Rooney as if he is one of the best players in the world, doesnt even make it into the top 10 for me.

I think Hodgson has done well, and the future looks a little more bright. I think he cocked up with taking Milner off for Walcott rather than Ash Young.

The problem in a team is always visible looking at the striker. Rooney cannot do it all on his own, even though he almost scored a nice goal at the end of normal time. What would you have said if he did? He is an excellent player, but the Engand-team is very defensive and lack attacking patterns completely. Every player can have a poor competition, just look at Van Persie. Easily the two best strikers in the Premier League and they were obviously tired after a long season. Rooney did well against Ukraine and scored a goal, today he was isolated and England were outplayed when they came in an attacking position. Rooney is not the best player in the world, but in terms of strikers only Ronaldo and Messi are clearly in front of him. You have numerous behind these two, but in terms of consistency he is very good. Of course you have Aguero, Van Persie, Gomez, Higuain, Villa, Benzema (who also played badly) and other topscorers, but I would not necessarily have any of them in front of Rooney during a season. Comparing players in itself is not always that easy anyway, as so many hold a very similar and extremely high level. Kompany vs. Rooney vs. Vidic vs. Özil vs. Iniesta vs. Pique vs. Buffon vs. Xabi Alonso vs. Xavi vs. Robben vs. Ribery vs. well, every very good player. Form changes over a season, the Euros is just cut out for some players and some are tired and struggle with their team-mates.

[RunRickyRun]

So why can't england produce player's with skills like pirlo?

Because the FA spent a billion pounds on a shiny new stadium instead of coaching at grassroots level.

Only 2,769 English coaches hold Uefa's B, A and Pro badges. Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790 (Guardian 2010).

[AshVilla]

Lets face it a class player like pirlo only comes around once a generation the bloke is a class player

[dudevillaisnice]

So why can't england produce player's with skills like pirlo?

Coaching.

[RunRickyRun]

Lets face it a class player like pirlo only comes around once a generation the bloke is a class player

But England struggle to produce 11 players who can trap a football.

[LondonLax]

Lets face it a class player like pirlo only comes around once a generation the bloke is a class player

He's in the same generation as Xavi so there are two in a generation

[andym]

Thats it now for the old players in our squad imo

Gerrard has been exceptional this tournament but i think its time to freshen things up build a young side like germany have and build it for years to come

The likes of Walker, Cahill, Jones, Carroll, Rooney, Henderson, Wellbeck start to build a young side and move the old guard out like Cole Terry e.t.c

Germany have done it im sure we have young talent in this country that we can start a new side from

i agree with moving out the old guard, but the problem is most of those young players you listed are not good enough. we need a bunch of real top class players, not ones we overrate because they do well in the media dubbed "best league in the world". (in teams where they are surrounded by lots of superb quality foreign players).

look at rooney, gerrard, lampard etc. everytime they come up against some actual good quality international opponents for england they are found wanting. gerrard was our best player, yet was completely outplayed tonight by pirlo.

as runrickyrun said, we have to get it right at grassroots level first.

[AshVilla]

Lets face it a class player like pirlo only comes around once a generation the bloke is a class player

He's in the same generation as Xavi so there are two in a generation

I kind of meant per nation i guess spain are the exception to the rule and have a team full of them

[heffoman]

I think a lot of it is to do with coaching.

All the tops team seem to have a decent playmaker in the side and England don't and has been a long time since they have.

Whilsire of the current generation really seems to be the only one.

[Demitri_C]

ashley young disgraced the nation. absolutely piss poor all tournament. walcott did more in 15 minutes than he has all tournament

[Papillon]

England need to bite the bullet and change if they want to achieve anything.

Change what exactly? The passports of other international players? The fact is very clear, the team is nowhere near good enough for winning the tournament. And going out in the Quarter finals, an inch behind the semis because of penalties, is extremely good. England have very good players, but I would say none of them would get into the team of Germany or Spain. Well one or two could do a job, like Hart, Ashley Cole and Rooney, but there is no playmaker, no attacking flair, no plan B or defined gameplan. Very solid in defence like always, but not like Italy can do it and always do it really.

England did exactly what they were capable of in my opinion, and just showed their level is exactly what they showed. If England had met Spain instead of Italy, the differences would have been even more visible. A decent tournament with an incapable manager in charge, with some injuries and few options from the bench.

[coda]

Sickening way to go out but clearly the best team won. We were poor for 75 minutes. Why can't we produce a player of the talent of Pirlo.

I feel if Milner and Johnson had featured more for Citeh they both may have produced for England. Probably for the best that we won't face Germany who I hope go on and win it.

Good luck to Roy in the 2014 campaign.

[legov]

I'd keep Cole and Gerrard for one more tournament

No to Gerrard for me. At the next WC he will be 34 and it will be highly unlikely then that he will be good enough to justify holding down a starting spot in the national team.

Cole will also be 33 by then and possibly unable to continue marauding up the left flank like he does for Chelsea, nevertheless given his defensive qualities I'd keep him in the team unless Gibbs (or some other leftback) comes through.

[Brumerican]

Same old same old, but at least this time it didn't make me cry .

I was very meh about the whole thing .

[The_Rev]

So why can't england produce player's with skills like pirlo?

Because the FA spent a billion pounds on a shiny new stadium instead of coaching at grassroots level.

Only 2,769 English coaches hold Uefa's B, A and Pro badges. Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790 (Guardian 2010).

It's bleaker than that when you take coach/player ratios into consideration. From that same Guardian article:

There are 2.25 million players in England and only one Uefa-qualified coach for every 812 people playing the game. Spain, the World Cup favourites, have 408,134 players, giving a ratio of 1:17. In Italy, the world champions, the ratio is 1:48, in France it is 1:96, Germany 1:150 and even Greece, the Euro 2004 winners, have only 180,000 registered players for their 1,100 coaches, a ratio of 1:135.

Thankfully Woy is very much a badges man, he is the kind of guy that will look to getting grass roots in this country sorted out and that is probably one of the biggest strengths he has over Harry Redknapp who really is only interested in the first team squad. St Georges Park (the elite academy at Burton on Trent) is finally due to open this year and while welcome and long overdue it's really about getting coaches involved with players who are 8-10-12 years old. It's investment at school level and bringing those players though which has proven time and again to be successful elsewhere in the world.

[dudevillaisnice]