With regards to England. So sit back and relax.

Same conclusions drawn tournament after tournament. Same noises being made. Will anything happen? Heck no.

In a few months the Premier League will start and that will be focus for the FA.

Sad indictment that the transfer market gets more hubbub than the national team.

Who honestly expects change?.

I know all that will happen is a load of cobblers will be talked about "grass roots", "bringing youth forward" etc.

In other words NOTHING.

The answer is simple. It's very simple:

Kill the Batman.

Sad but true. Not even failing to qualify for Euro 2008 was enough to really get the FA to take a long hard look at the national team and decide something seriously needed to be done to revamp the entire system for the long-term benefit of the team.

Rooney will only be 33 in 2018 so can still lead us to World Cup glory.

We're out after two games and the main sentiment seems to be a curious mixture of disappointment and resignation. No real outcry, no protests. In a way, this is a tribute to our tolerance and sense of sportsmanship perhaps? But there seems no real hunger for inquiries, or urgency for change, and I can see us heading into the next tournament with similar low expectations.

That's simply because we've gone down this road in so many recent tournaments and the vast majority of people are now wise to it.

http://oi62.tinypic.com/xd9rhs.jpg

I think the lack of an outcry is due to the low expectations we had going into the tournament. For once the fans and the media were realistic about our chances in Brazil.

This squad is very weak and we are in a very difficult group. Our record against Italy is terrible and Uruguay are a decent side playing in conditions they are used to. Even stronger England teams of the past would have struggled to get out of this group.

If we are to achieve anything at all in future we need to address the fact that our mentality and style of play is all wrong for international football and make fundamental changes. It won't happen though.

Only if they make him captain. Gerrard is the worst England captain I can remember.

This won't be a 'learning curve' for the players, nor will it hand them 'experience' which certain pundits attest.

Roy needs to be bold. Shake it up -- pick a team, not names.

Needs to get sacked more like.

Lol.

Roy "we don't need to win" Hodgson shake it up?.

Not gonna happen.....

you know there are other sports, maybe England should turn it's attention to them instead, controrary to popular sports there are some sports England are actually quite good at, we're not going to dominate at everything so we should stop trying.

I couldn't agree more. Roy isn't the man to do it though.

I think any new manager has to decide on a basic team shape and style of play and then find the players he needs after that.

I'd play a 4-5-1 and have a 3 man midfield with one out and out defensive player and give the wide forwards some freedom to attack and make the main emphasis team shape and keeping possession. It probably wouldn't be exciting enough for the fans though.

--------GK---------
WB CB CB WB
--------DM--------
-----CM---AM---
FR---------------FL
---------FC---------

Midfield should be a defensive-minded ball winner, a creative playmaker who always wants the ball and is intelligent in maintaining possession and doesn't try to many long balls but builds simple team moves whilst holding his midfield position, and a box to box player who will make runs and link up with the forwards. You need one of each I think to have balance. There's plenty of box to box midfielders in England. Classy playmakers? Not sure. Defensive midfielders. Not many of them either.

But I think most fans would rather play 4-2-4 with two offensive midfielders holding the midfield, 100 miles an hour, kick and rush........etc. Half the team at one end of the pitch and the other half at the other end and not a lot in between.

Interesting article....
https://www.givemesport.com/406953-h...dfield-dilemma

It is a quite staggering stat that we have only reached one final of a major tournament, and that was on home soil and nearly 50 years ago!
Imho, the failure has gone on so long we've developed a mental block when it comes to the major tournaments.
However, i do believe that one day something will suddenly click and we'll find the recipe for success, like Spain did after years of under achieving.

I know pundits have been saying it but I really think we need more of our top young players taking part in the U21 tournaments. I think our players treat them as joke tournaments.

I recall that the Spanish players (think it was them) used to refuse to go to the U21s but they were told that if they didn't go there would be no call up to the senior team. So they all started going. And look what happened? Out first round! J/k No, seriously, they became the world's top tournament team for 6 years. In countries like Brazil and Mexico, they want to go and do tournaments like the Olympics. Does them no harm.

Firstly, I don't think winning is the only representative of success or change.

Progressive steps have been made to include newer players to the national team as well as younger players. And a more attacking and less rigid system has been adopted. I'm pleased with that.

But I would take it to a whole new level, and revolutionise the development of players: by encouraging English players abroad (permanent transfers) and maybe a capability test for youngsters, to ensure they're on track with the new vision for English Football.

Most countries have won f*ck all.

Buying in foreign players has somehow created a distance between the perceived self image of a great football nation and the actual reality of a mediocre football nation.

Then every WC the money making machine takes over (ie Nike) and uses more than stupid ads featuring the same or similar players that mostly only perform if put together with other good players (Rooney, Ronaldo). This seemingly deludes the English public again and again.

Germany is always a slight bit better as often the team is essentially Bayern Munich which seemingly has at least some local talent or the less hostile racism there includes second generation immigrants and half nationals like Polish (Klose, Podolski), Ghanaen (Boateng), Tunisian (Khedira) and Turkish (Oezil) players.

Doesn't make them great, but multiculti seems to work for them.

While Kevin Prince Boateng, big up on his Ghanean roots will probably be on the loosing side while Jérôme Boateng plays with the inclusive team.

So their recipe is play essentially a club team and include anyone who can get a German passport, essentially a PL, BL player mix as far as you can get away with under the rules.

Brazil on the other hand just seems to win cause everyone kicks a ball and Capoeira teaches them also to kick.

It's very depressing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-Eriksson.html

Sven does make a good point here.

And only 37 in 2022 so let's keep hoping and investing in him.

Agreed. He is the boy wonder.

Well dyke still thinks we can win in Qatar. Personally I don't think we'll win in my life time and im over 40 just. I sincerely hope im proved wrong and this ridiculous idea that taking terry and Cole would have helped is just that, ridiculous. For a start terry turned down the chance to go and cole would have made no difference.

The natural passing of time will change things.

In the past year Cole, Ferdinand, Terry have gone. Lampard is going. Gerrard doesn't have long left.
Rooney will probably go to the Euro's but will he stll be good enough in four years?

So a lot of places up for grabs.