No they don't. They demonstrate these qualities week in week out with their club teams.

Maybe but the Welsh, Irish and Northern Irish at least play with passion and desire.

The Welsh have answered every question by getting to the quarter finals

They've certainly looked well organised and been spirited. The only blip was the England game where they looked below par.

I think Wales' success is a little in spite of Coleman. Having them sit back and invite England was needless when you look at their tournament otherwise, I fear for the club that's seduced by his international record when he moves on.

Wales have something the rest of the home nations dont have, and that is a world class player. Makes a big difference if he is part of a well organised, and together team.

Whilst that might be the case the biggest concern for me was the lack of quality and ability to even create a decent chance considering the players we had on the pitch.

I almost hope they weren't trying because if that was them giving a go then we have real problems!

Doesn't matter about world class players. Spain has loads of them and still went out and Iceland have none and went through. The team is what matters and playing to a system that suits them and that they understand.

Woy just wambles on and on, i bet most of the players switch off when he speaks, it could be part of the problem , he talks a lot but doesnt really say anything, he is speaking at this press conference and i tuned out.

It runs deeper than the manager I think, or you wouldn't have the same problems each time. And the recurring problems I see are...

1. Team shape.
2. Lack of leaders.
3. Nervousness - especially in knockout games.
4. Lack of team ethos - especially noticeable amongst fans and media.
5. Belief that they are automatically better than some countries - for whatever reason - they don't have the record to be so dismissive of others. Reality check needed for media and some fair-weather fans.
6. Fitting individual players into teams to the detriment of the team shape - or picking umpteen strikers and central midfielders because they are higher status footballers and taking not enough wingers, then discovering that your diamond formation has flaws and changing to another shape with the wrong squad picked to really play it.

Obviously fans will blame the manager and selective players but the same problems in the England international game have been in evidence for decades. Number 2 is more recent maybe. The rest have always been true.

A truism that every successful football team (league and international level) knows, but for England seems a total mystery.

What I would add to it is one word SETTLED. All the teams that have won the Euro's have had a stable, known team that only changes when needed. We on the other hand faffed about with players positions and formations for no reason at all.

Woy just didn't have the bottle to sub Rooney sooner....Rooney should have been replaced 1/2 an hour earlier...he was below par in other matches too

no they don't. They are made to look good by the foreigners in the teams.

eg Chris Smalling was completely exposed in the cup final. He carried this form through to the Euros.

Is there really no better defender than him?


England have done the thing that lots of teams do. Kept players on beyond their sell by date, instead of selecting the best team full stop.

I think England would have won the World Cup in 1966 with Greaves, but Hodgson would never have had the bottle to leave a Greaves out of the team.

Losing the ability to trap a ball or keep a cross in the stratosphere doesn't depend on teammates.

Hodgson would have not dropped a player who was injured?

England won the WC in 1966, with a different team and formation to the one that started the tournament. We reached the semis' in 1990 with similar changes.

I doubt all the other winners have not made changes either.

This team were good enough to give anyone a game if they played like they could. They were brilliant in Germany a few months ago.

No one, including the players, could have expected the mental breakdown that took place last night.

But why?

England were quite impotent, something they had much showed against lesser teams already.
Whilst I expected England to win, the result was only a very minor shock.

knowing him, probably not

So how come they suddenly lose all of these qualities when they pull on an England shirt? If you look back down the years, we are always outplayed by our opponents who are more creative, skilled and comfortable on the ball. Can it be, as others have said, that our players are too nervous, under pressure or even scared when playing for England?

I think those pressures were exactly what happened last night. There is no other explanation. The players are not rubbish, but they collapsed mentally, and although it was the worst breakdown in that way that I can remember, it's far from the first time.

The savagery that awaits their every defeat leads to that fear factor, and you could see it as soon as they went behind last night.

It needs addressing somehow, and our media, and so called fans have to look at their own roles in this never ending cycle.

We tried to do a Northern Ireland and grind out a 1 nil and that is simply not how we play. I think the pressure got to the team a little bit and we allowed England to dominate the game and never really took the game by the scruff of the neck which we should have done.


Really? We haven't qualified for a major tournament since 1958 and this is our first ever European Championships, Northern Ireland are actually one place above us in the FIFA rankings as they stand so technically we are more of an underdog than they are.



Gareth Bale is definitely a large part of our success but he is able to play as he does because he has a solid team around him and a team he knows he can rely on. Joe Allen has been fantastic, Ledley who broke his foot in May has also been impressive, Williams at the back is a proper leader and a brilliant organiser, Ramsey has been solid and Johnny WIlliams and Robson Kanu upfront have both played their part too, Ben Davies is also someone who is still young but hasn't really done much wrong so far.

And with all due respect, I might be biased saying this as a Welsh woman but I would far rather was us play than Northern Ireland for instance who do what they do very well but basically scoring one goal and then defending like hell for the rest of the game is boring as hell to watch.

How about more of our players need to play Champions League football every year

But with the money in the game that is not going to happen

Also players who earn high wages in this country they dont need to go abroad and play in another country

I think this would improve the England team because Eric Dier played abroad and was one of our best players at the Euros

This is what we get for leaving the EU, can we get the match replayed if we didn't like the result?

Quinn on talksport still referring to Iceland as a pub team.

Iceland are 8/1 against France.

Whilst France are less disorganised than England they are very generous odds.
But for it being in France I would say it is 3/5 or 4/5 on Iceland winning, pub team or not.