Both of England's games have proved otherwise, when you look at the matches (and not the results). Hoddle is right in that we could have beaten both Uruguay and Italy.

I still don't think the PL is to blame. The simple fact is that even though we may have some talented players and are capable of putting on great performances occasionally, we simply are not good enough to go all the way (without the aid of home advantage). That's the way it has been and always will be.

Because they're being fair? I was far more angry at our performances in 2010 than this year. This was an inexperienced and it was always going be a struggle.

double post

Exactly. The team set up made no sense, the only game plan seemed to be to put 3 strikers and 1 winger up top and have 2 central midfielders playing deep. No link between midfield and attack, no players making runs from deep, not enough tracking back from the forwards so the defense didn't get enough protection (particularly out wide).

I refuse to believe that Hodgson got the best out of the players available to him.

Totally agree, don't they get paid enough?!

They are not alone in that though , are they ?

To be fair, the ruling changed in regards to getting through to knockout stages, so your comparisons are pretty meaningless.

eg England in 82 won 3 games (beating the likes of France 3-1), and drew 2 against Spain and Germany yet went out.

You don't need stats to see the decline of Englands decline anyway, anyone old enough to have watched them will have seen it with their own eyes.

They're not doing anyone any favours. The audience wouldn't be offended if the panel were hugely critical of the performance. Roy Keane is badly missed (he tore into Ireland after they lost 4-0 to Spain at Euro 2012)

Aye, you're right. It could be worse.
We could support a team that makes a habit of not even qualifying!

We need fast players who can literally run with the ball and appear from nowhere, like Croatia. We need to make our chances not wait for them, and a defence like Chile wouldn't go amiss either.

Unless we develop English players and play them more, we'll never have a chance in the World Cup. And nor will we deserve it.

Speaking of which, anyone else spot the Scotland shirt in amongst the Uruguay fans?

Why, though? Spain's dominance coincided with Barcelona and Real Madrid kicking on in La Liga with both teams containing a large contingent of Spanish players. Premier League successes have been based on foreign players. What are they doing right that we're not and shouldn't we be learning from them?

Because we actually gave it a good go and just weren't quite good enough?

Jesus people we've hardly been destroyed. This has been a huge improvement on 4 years ago.

I actually agree with Chiles. We can't keep picking a player and go "it was him that is why we lost". Why can't they just say England lost because England were the worse team. We rarely looked a threat going forward! Not solid at the back. Couldn't pass and tried the exact same against Italy which practically is an instruction manual for Uruguay on how to play against us.

PRoblem is we don't have any players like Saurez or Pialo or Nessi. Rooney was our 'supposed' star player but at World Cup level he is just average. Not surprised we got beat to be honest, they always disappoint when it really counts.

Rooney actually played well, but the rest of the team were a total letdown. Gerrard was a big disappointment.

You can thank this disaster of a world cup to those idiots who called for the 'old guard' to be dropped in favour of these 'fresh young talents'. Absolute morons, and to think as well that they were going after Rooney's head as well. Gerrard has been rubbish as captain as well. We undoubtedly would've done much better with the likes of John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand.

We reached the last 16 in that World Cup. And as poor as we were we had a decent defence until we were torn apart by a superior Germany. Italy and Uruguay weren't impressive at all and we lost to them both, this can't be dressed up as anything but failure.

https://twitter.com/1971domrch/statu...896256/photo/1

And have never won. But we can rely on there always being a smug ***t to come in and gloat.

Scrappy game. England are never good to watch although the ITaly game we had some good passes. Suarez is a genius though. Liverpool supporter so good to see him score.

Agree it was a really tough group and to be honest I expected Italy and Uruguay to qualify from it so I'm not too surprised by the results. England just aren't good enough against the better teams.

England haven't been good enough for the past 48 years now!!!

That's a lot of bad luck.

Sky and the Premier League are definitely to blame.

Beaten by Balotelli and Suarez.

It's all about money in the PL ... and England will NEVER do well whilst we still buy foreign players.

Even worse are the thoroughly average "Wigan" type foreign players (sorry, Wigan fans ... there are plenty of other teams) who deny good English players prospects to progress.

Italy and France have worked it out ... why can't we?

I agree with this for the most part actually. I just think some of the criticism from some quarters (probably casual fans who only watch at international tournaments) as been rather ridiculous. After all, how much were people expecting from this World Cup?

England were not abysmal but not creative or energetic enough bar the five minutes after they scored. Some of those players definitely get by on reputation at this stage rather than what they add to the team. I think someone like Milner would have been a good pick for the midfield because he has pace, power and work ethic. I think they need to ditch the last of the old hands and decide who they want to be the next batch of stars to build towards Euro 2016 afresh. I certainly don't think this has been a calamity though.