England Friendlies

[frimmers3]

should scott parker be the england captain?

[Ian Royal]

should scott parker be the england captain?

We could do a lot worse.

[No Fixed Abode]

The vice captain stepped up yesterday and scored the winner v the World champions. You can't ask for more than that. Parker shouldn't be captain.

[cmonurz]

You have to admire Spain's ability and dominance. But they are also quite boring.

Their technical ability is second to none I have watched in my lifetime. That's not boring.

[cmonurz]

15 England caps for Joe Hart now, he's the football team's Tim Bresnan, unbeaten with 11 wins and 4 draws, only 8 goals conceded.

[Ian Royal]

You have to admire Spain's ability and dominance. But they are also quite boring.

Their technical ability is second to none I have watched in my lifetime. That's not boring.

I don't watch football for technical ability. if I did I'd go to training grounds. As I said, admirable, but they are dull as far as I'm concerned.

[Royal Rother]

lots of people saying that victory means nothing though, where i think that is over doing it a little.
it shows we arent as faar behind as people think.and its shows that we should stick to what we are good at, instead of trying to follow whatever the flavour of the month fashion in football is at any one time.
just have a clear direction, and focus, and work on it. get players playing for eacgh other, in the way they play each week, and we have what it takes to beat anyone on our day, and if we get a bit of luck, and get a real team together, with some fresh blood, and some old heads we could possibly have a decent tournament for once.

Here we go. Things will never change when one decent result (in which we had 29% of possession and 3 shots) gives people cause for this sort of optimism.

There's never any real momentum for the really vital changes that are required when this attitude pervades in the corridors of power. We have circa 3,000 FIFA Level 2 (if that's the right classification) qualified coaches in this country. Spain has something like 20,000 and Germany 35,000. Until this pathetic state of affairs is addressed as part of a long-term plan for the future we ain't getting anywhere close to those countries in important football matches.

They are light years ahead of England and one victory against the World Champions does not change that one iota.

Another false dawn, even if most acknowlesge it's a pretty misty one.

[Royal Rother]

You have to admire Spain's ability and dominance. But they are also quite boring.

Their technical ability is second to none I have watched in my lifetime. That's not boring.

I don't watch football for technical ability. if I did I'd go to training grounds. As I said, admirable, but they are dull as far as I'm concerned.

Each to our own eh? Each to our own.

I wanted Spain to win last night because they are teaching the world how to play football all over again and I wanted England to absorb that lesson in a major way - and humiliation would help in that process. Unfortunately it wasn't to be.

[cmonurz]

Fair enough RR, but on that basis, should no-one ever get excited about the England team, irrespective of our results?

[Platypuss]

You have to admire Spain's ability and dominance. But they are also quite boring.

Their technical ability is second to none I have watched in my lifetime. That's not boring.

Would you watch Mr Woo for 90 minutes every week?

[TheMaraudingDog]

Agreed with all of that brendyhead.

Although TMD says we should work on our Cruyff turns and it doesn't matter if we lose. So I don't know what to think.

Once again

That's not what I'm asking for is it. Im just pointing out that they are miles ahead of us where some people seem to think the gap isn't that big.

[Hoop Blah]

Not sure how you can say that many people think that the gap between us and Spain isn't that big when all we've heard for the last couple of weeks was how it was a stupid game to play because we'll get tonked by a team we're not fit to be on the same pitch as.

I think what the game showed is that at times you don't need to have the best players to make the best team.

Yes if Spain took all their chances they would've beaten us but they didn't really test Hart. That is the be and end all of what the games about and although I'm a firm believer that over the long term results will reflect the quality of your performances this result can be a significant value when we in turn come up against teams that have better players than us or are in better form. It shows us we can win games without just playing our normal ridgid 4-4-2 and taking teams on.

As for the further development of the English game and the number of coaches etc. I think it's a bit of a red herring but I also agree there are some things that can and should be fixed in order to improve the standard of players coming through.

[Tails]

Football is more than beautful attacking play; Spain's expansive football [IMO] didn't over-run the excellent English defensive discipline.

For all the quality and reputations, Theo 'out done' Ramos more times than Villa 'out done' PhiLOL Jones.

I took immense pleasure from England's display.

[manny96]

Once again

That's not what I'm asking for is it. Im just pointing out that they are miles ahead of us where some people seem to think the gap isn't that big.

Can't disagree. I won't turn my nose up at bragging rights to all my Spanish mates but even then they don't even need to respond, given the trophies they've won.

I'll take the win but the gulf in class is still massive. FFS their 2nd keeper is the best the Premier League has to offer!

[manny96]

You have to admire Spain's ability and dominance. But they are also quite boring.

Their technical ability is second to none I have watched in my lifetime. That's not boring.

I don't think it's boring but it is composed and almost mathematically logical. I like that (within reason) and think it has a beauty about it but it's not the only way to play football beautifully. It annoys me when Guardiola or Wenger come out and complain about other teams playing 'defensively' when that's effectively the only way they'll win. Ultimately football is about winning but it's clearly not just about winning. I don't begrudge Switzerland grinding out a win against Spain in the World Cup, applaud them even, but hope for a little more for England.

Brazil play a different kind of attacking football with more pace and more unpredictability. Spain are predictably lethal. Chile play beautiful football but don't win trophies. Spain do both.

[cmonurz]

Agreed with all of that brendyhead.

Although TMD says we should work on our Cruyff turns and it doesn't matter if we lose. So I don't know what to think.

Once again

That's not what I'm asking for is it. Im just pointing out that they are miles ahead of us where some people seem to think the gap isn't that big.

Once again, there’s about a bajillion people saying ‘now all the mongdivs will say we’re great’, and only a tiny handful actually saying that.

RR even berated brendy for daring to be happy with the result and taking positives from the game, of which there were many.

[Simon's Church]

It reminded me of our game against Man City last season except obviously for the result. Spain dominated but it was an excellent defensive performance from England and they never really broke us down.
Spain really seem to lack a cutting edge though, they struggled past Scotland and Czech Republic in qualifiers and were thrashed by Portugal this time last year.

[Royal Rother]

I prefer the term debate than berate.

Anyway, I'm sure brendy will find 10 different ways of expressing his disagreement with me once he gets started.

[manny96]

Spain really seem to lack a cutting edge though, they struggled past Scotland and Czech Republic in qualifiers and were thrashed by Portugal this time last year.

I really disagree. When it matters, they perform. Even after a dire first half performance against Chile, 2 goals down, they win 3-2. Their form hasn't been as good since the World Cup but it just doesn't matter if you're winning the big ones and cruising qualification.

[RobRoyal]

will we look to set up so defensively against lesser nations, no.

This is my main issue with all of this. Yes ok we had a gameplan and executed it well, at least the defensive part of it. But that's no excuse for our total inability to keep the ball. Even if you're looking to play direct, some of the passing was so aimless even the pretence of getting it up to Bent/Walcott was absent. It's no gameplan to let Spain have posession back every time they lose it.

Since the World Cup we have shown only a rather minor improvement in keeping the ball and breaking teams down from open play. What we saw against Algeria in 2010, Montenegro at home this year... there's nothing in our football at the moment to suggest we won't struggle again against the lesser nations next time.