Whoa.. here I thought France were nailed-on certs for worst team of the tournament, then England suddenly surge through to become real contenders.

I'm actually quite shocked at how bad that was..

Quote from J@tko :

Horrible. Rooney was poor.

Rooney IS poor. He's never looked any more useful than that during the qualifying matches.

Why do (most) players generally 'hate' to play for their contry? Is it because the club season is over and they just want to go to holidays, or what?

Can someone post a cap of the headlines from The Sun?

I think England will scrape through and then get knocked out in the 2nd round.

It's quite clear what's wrong with England. We don't export players like more successful national teams - Brazil, Argentina etc.... All our players a based in England because other leagues don't want to go near them. Bar David Beckham (who now should be recognised as one of England's best players in recent years) no teams outside the UK want our players. That says everyting you need you about the fundemental quality of the players

No manager can sort the problem. People are rushing to blame Capello but England are England!

Also, Rooney was pants but what he said was right. Why travel half way around the world to boo your team? He played rubbish but I don't see those fans working their ass off day in day out to try and actually do anything about it.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

Why do (most) players generally 'hate' to play for their contry? Is it because the club season is over and they just want to go to holidays, or what?

They want to rest and not play for such a shitty national team.

Quote from Intrepid :

It's quite clear what's wrong with England. We don't export players like more successful national teams - Brazil, Argentina etc.... All our players a based in England because other leagues don't want to go near them. Bar David Beckham (who now should be recognised as one of England's best players in recent years) no teams outside the UK want our players. That says everyting you need you about the fundemental quality of the players

I was thinking EXACTLY the same about all our players being British-Based. It's a definite characteristic that the Premiership plays differently to most other leagues, and maybe this is a factor? [not that we've necessarily been this bad before despite us still being completely English]

I would say that Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry and Rooney could easily play for the likes of Milan/Barca/RM/BM e.t.c. in terms of quality [when they're not in an England shirt] but maybe because they're used to the english way of playing, these foreign teams that play differently don't want them?

Quote from J@tko :

I would say that Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry and Rooney could easily play for the likes of Milan/Barca/RM/BM e.t.c. in terms of quality [when they're not in an England shirt] but maybe because they're used to the english way of playing, these foreign teams that play differently don't want them?

I believe Gerrard signed for Real Madrid

And lol guys, you really think your Premier League and your players are rubish, damn So that's why i like to watch it the most? Cheer up..

Quote from J@tko :

I was thinking EXACTLY the same about all our players being British-Based. It's a definite characteristic that the Premiership plays differently to most other leagues, and maybe this is a factor? [not that we've necessarily been this bad before despite us still being completely English]

I would say that Gerrard, Ferdinand, Terry and Rooney could easily play for the likes of Milan/Barca/RM/BM e.t.c. in terms of quality [when they're not in an England shirt] but maybe because they're used to the english way of playing, these foreign teams that play differently don't want them?

Hmm... I don't agree it's the way the football is played in the premiership affects the players. Argentina has a couple of premiership players as do other top teams.

The fact is the no major European teams go out of their way to buy English talent. If we can't export any players, not even raise enough interest for big bids to be made, it says everything about the quality of the players.

We have so many foreign players in the premiership because the lack of english player quality. The fact we can't export just highlights the problem.

We have some good players who play well with foreign players in club teams, but we don't have that fundemental base of talent to excel in national competition.

Either way why these people boo the team I don't know. it doesn't help the situation one bit.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

Why do (most) players generally 'hate' to play for their contry?

They expect to be given a million dollars a month while they're playing football, so they get confused on international duty.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

They expect to be given a million dollars a month while they're playing football, so they get confused on international duty.

Rubbish! Every other team out there has massively paid players and they don't suffer as much.

Quote from Intrepid :

Hmm... I don't agree it's the way the football is played in the premiership affects the players. Argentina has a couple of premiership players as do other top teams.

Then can you explain how the likes of Robhino, Mutu, Forlan (to name but a few) have came to the EPL and floped. Only to return to their home shores, orto an European league and become the players everyone expected in the EPL.

The EPL is a diffrent style of game to the likes of the Seria A, Bundasliga or La Liga. To suggest that it doesn't affect the players is slightly baffling

Quote from Intrepid :

Either way why these people boo the team I don't know. it doesn't help the situation one bit.

Never like seeing that, but then I suppose sometimes a performance like that deserves a booing. It would be a bit stupid to applaud them off

Quote from Intrepid :

Rubbish! Every other team out there has massively paid players and they don't suffer as much.

*cough cough* France *cough cough*

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Then can you explain how the likes of Robhino, Mutu, Forlan (to name but a few) have came to the EPL and floped. Only to return to their home shores, orto an European league and become the players everyone expected in the EPL.

The EPL is a diffrent style of game to the likes of the Seria A, Bundasliga or La Liga. To suggest that it doesn't affect the players is slightly baffling



Never like seeing that, but then I suppose sometimes a performance like that deserves a booing. It would be a bit stupid to applaud them off

Some players don't fit within the EPL. That's fine, but there are a ton of examples of players flourishing - Veira/Henry/Torres/Tevez/Ronaldo etc.. etc... - who go on and perform on an Interntaional stage.

This idea the EPL has a type of play which affects International play is nonsense excuses. Sometimes players flop, but that is bound to happen occassioanlly.

For sure don't applaud England performance but the fans have a tendancy to boo and go uber-negative at the soonest possible moment. They almost take pleasure in stating that they "have saved up for months and the english players should play with more pride"

They are sssooo negative and the bad vibes will affect the players. The fans who travel to these games should start to take some responsibility. The players are only human and when 40,000 people are telling you "you suck" just metres away from you the players are bound to be affected.

Well wouldn't you boo French players and that psycho Domenec if you travelled all those miles to watch your team loosing 2-0, and Domenec not even thinking about bringing in their best striker? And he didn't even invite Benzema to the world cup, rofl

Quote from Intrepid :

For sure don't applaud England performance but the fans have a tendancy to boo and go uber-negative at the soonest possible moment. They almost take pleasure in stating that they "have saved up for months and the english players should play with more pride"

They are sssooo negative and the bad vibes will affect the players. The fans who travel to these games should start to take some responsibility. The players are only human and when 40,000 people are telling you "you suck" just metres away from you the players are bound to be affected.

Yeah its the fault of the fans, not the overrated team. Only the central midfield players had the nerve to actually shoot tonight, BOTH the forwards were holding up and only Heskey managed to actually play anyone in. They were shit. But yeah it's because the fans weren't good enough.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Yeah its the fault of the fans, not the overrated team. Only the central midfield players had the nerve to actually shoot tonight, BOTH the forwards were holding up and only Heskey managed to actually play anyone in. They were shit. But yeah it's because the fans weren't good enough.

The fans should take some responsibility because they almost take joy in slating the team. Listen to the phone-ins listening to all the fans gloating at how they would do so much better and how they ' a working class man' has 'saved and saved'. These aren't fans! They just want to make themselves feel better by slating the team.

The team is over-rated, that's true, and boo if you want. The problem is expectations. The sooner people accept England is average the better.

Quote from Intrepid :

The team is over-rated, that's true, and boo if you want. The problem is expectations. The sooner people accept England is average the better.

The problem isn't expectations, there's nothing wrong with expecting England to beat Algeria. England were seeded 8th by FIFA for this competition and are usually ranked around the top 10. Algeria have never ranked in the top 20. This is the first time they've qualified for the world cup for over 20 years.

Quote from Intrepid :

For sure don't applaud England performance but the fans have a tendancy to boo and go uber-negative at the soonest possible moment.

...rather like you were the other day. :rolleyes:

Quote from DevilDare :

This.

And the fact that England supporters downlook every single team and laugh at others.

I would love to see England do well, but it pisses me off when everyone thinks they are the best team around. Did you forget England drew with USA? Yeah...

I actually completely agree, especially due to the fact Algeria were branded as a shit team on BBC and ITV and that it wouldn't be a problem for England to win. Little did they know that Algeria were so good at closing the ball down.


If a team has qualified for the world cup, the chances are, they have talent. You can't qualify for the world cup just on a fluke win.



England didn't play their best, of course, but it doesn't mean that they were BAD. It obviously means that Algeria just cancelled them out. The worst thing to do is underestimate and opponent. And that's obviously what happened.

Do people really expect England to win? There hasn't been anything to suggest they will come close in recent years, so I suspect what's happening is people are building them up and up so they can rejoice in their inevitable failure. It's in the English DNA. We take more pleasure in failure than victory. Just look at F1. We have two world champions and no one really cares all that much until a tiny slip up and it's fever pitch. However unlike footbal, us Brits are superb at racing so we rarely slip up

England will still probably qualify, even reach the quarter finals if we are lucky. But this overt negavitiy (that we've all been guilty of ) against the team only makes thing worse.

Mind you... why the hell didn't Capello play Joe Cole? Wright-Phillips for Lennon?? like for like...pointless substition that borught nothing to the team! And England BADLY misses David Beckham!

It's no suprise they fail all the time, the expectations are too high. England invented most of the worlds sports and they suck at all of them.

Quote from BlueFlame :

It's no suprise they fail all the time, the expectations are too high. England invented most of the worlds sports and they suck at all of them.

Darts - nuff said!

England have some top sportsman.... but winners don't sell papers People consume failure over success.

Quote from BlueFlame :

England invented most of the worlds sports and they suck at all of them.

Is that even relevant anymore?

No.

Pointless bullshit from you as usual.

Quote from niall09 :

Is that even relevant anymore?

No.

Pointless bullshit from you as usual.

Well Ireland invented getting pissed out of their minds. And they are still the best at that!

TBH... Sir Alex has shown the way you get the best out of Rooney... and Capello... christ I can't work out what he is doing...very weird...

What is wrong with playing the way Manchester United do with Joe Cole as Nani and Lennon as Valencia... or is it the ego or Lampard and Gerrard? If I was England manager I would probably drop them both, as I suspect Lampard would have been if Scholes had accepted his call up... Lampards god awful if he has to actually work...