I know it might not end this way, but how come England looked like Kidderminster and Wales look like Barcelona? Why can't we get the best 11 footballers in our country to gel effectively.
What is the answer to the 64k question?

Because Wales pick 11 players who play as a TEAM , where as England pick the best individual players that are overated and hyped up by the media . I don't even enjoy watching them play and I'me pretty sure most people are the same . Feel sorry for the people who pay good money to go out to these tournaments to watch them , must be misguided loyalty or something . Give me Town anyway . Fox

Quoted from buckstown

I know it might not end this way, but how come England looked like Kidderminster and Wales look like Barcelona? Why can't we get the best 11 footballers in our country to gel effectively.
What is the answer to the 64k question?

We don't have an England team is the answer. Even in a major knock out competition we managed to change the entire make up of the team for the 3rd group game when we should have done everything to win. The current vogue for resting players who are perfectly fit has got a lot to answer for. We should have an England 1st eleven that plays every game and should only change the team if a genuine injury occurs.

All other players in the squad should be busting a gut to take the place of the man in possession of the shirt, and we should play every player in his natural position where he plays for his club. If two "superstars" are vying for one position in the team play the one in form, and do not find room and disrupt the team for the other "superstar."

Its all common sense really, but our over paid egoistical stars will not play meaningless matches to bond as a team; an "FA approved" manager will bow to pressure from the big clubs to rest players and therefore the cycle will go on endlessly. We do have some great players but judging by Wales' success it might be better all round to get an England team to gel before introducing any more supposed superstars.

All the England friendly matches are meaningless. An endless supply of players never to be seen in an England shirt again, playing different systems and different positions. What is the point?  

Of course you also need a manager that plays the game the right way and has a system that suits the team down to the ground but can adapt if things go wrong in a tournament.

Signed G. Hoddle.

If we played 11 players from the championship we would do better,

Well we could not do any worse could we ?

Pete, i agree with you, but i would add Div 1 & Div 2 & National league as well, at least they would play with pride & maybe we would believe in our National team again, because at the moment it's full of male masturbators.

Quoted from chelseacity

Pete, i agree with you, but i would add Div 1 & Div 2 & National league as well, at least they would play with pride & maybe we would believe in our National team again, because at the moment it's full of male masturbators.

I read today that Rooney is on holiday in the med on a boat that costs £120,000 a week,

He booked this 2 days before the Iceland game. (Confused)

Quoted from buckstown

I know it might not end this way, but how come England looked like Kidderminster and Wales look like Barcelona? Why can't we get the best 11 footballers in our country to gel effectively.
What is the answer to the 64k question?

Wales have been crap for years so you can hardly say they've cracked it because they have had a couple of good years. No doubt they'll be crap again in a couple of years time. They probably won't even qualify for the World Cup.

We played the same system effectively throughout the qualifiers and most of the friendlies except the Portugal one. Woy decided we should play a new system which clearly failed is point one. Point 2 imo you should only play players in form which means drink water and noble and Carroll were left out for the likes of sterling Wiltshire and Rooney ?? I believe we had the players this championship to really have ago but woy was completely out of his depth. Changing the team for third game was madness it was almost like trying to keep everyone happy regardless of the consequences totally bizarre.  

Weight of expectation has a lot to do with it. Luck plays a part too. Portugal have won 1 game and are in the semi final. England have been shite though, so don't deserve anything.

I don't think there is any solution unless we get lucky with an inspirational manager.the premiershite rules everything. The essential problem is that international knockout football is a game we will never master with our style of play, our premiershite outlook and our insular attitude. We really need a hoddle/Allison intelligent manager with 11 intelligent, continent ally experienced players like hoddle, waddle, dier, Wilkins etc unfortunately with the money being paid in the uk now it isn't going to happen. I am a firm believer that there are good premiership players and good international players. The two may well be completely different animals. Erikkson gets loads of stick but he picked Chris Powell immediately because he thought he could adapt to international football.
There are so many examples of good footballers who because they haven't made it in the premiership are labelled as rubbish as a result. Dennis Sanchez and Borja Valero are two good examples.
In international football you have to be technically excellent, patient, intelligent, able to retain possession if at all possible and the ability to make good decisions without panicking or going hung Ho.bthere are far too few English players who meet this criteria . Delve Ali is like a young Wayne Rooney.good players but a lack of intelligence and a reckless streak make them liabilities when the going gets tough. Contrast them to messi, bale, modric, the juve back 3 etc.
IMHO we need a foreign manager with a clear eye as there are no English contenders, apart from maybe glen hoddle Brendan Rogers, or Sam allardyce

Defensive football seems to have the upper hand at the moment. England played four games against teams who parked the bus, but we couldn't defend so it was obvious how to play against us. Leicester won the league playing low-possession football. Wales as far as I can discern have been doing the same, although I stopped watching Euro 2016 once England got knocked out and nothing will bring me back. When I was watching it many of the games I managed to endure were dull because the format of the competition means avoiding defeat at all costs.  If we want a decent tournament EUFA should  have a longer group format that encourages teams to win and less knockout games.

When it was 2-1 to Wales I said to my wife that Belguim would win.

I said that they would get an equaliser, then take it to extra time and win on penalties.

I said I was confident of this after decades of watching these tournaments.

But of course it was decades of watching England, who seem mentally fragile. Wales look to have a different mind set.

I wouldn't put it past them to beat Portugal. I hope so!

Simple for me Wales are getting right a lot that England are getting wrong such as,

- Playing to a system
- Having a specific plan for each game
- An environment where the pressure is lifted and the players loom forward to being part of
- Picking on form and desire rather than reputation
- Integrating works class players (England don't have any BTW) with good players.
- Managing expectation
- Appointing the right manager.

If I am honest after thinking about it all week I reckon that the England players only take a proportion of the blame for another failure and most of it should sit with Hodgson and the FA.

I hope Wales keep going (ouch that hurts) as it may kick the FA into gear.    

We are always focusing on the future aswell instead of the here and now . Let's stop trying to play like other teams - Allardyce or Pullis as manager get organised and cause other teams problems - basic 4-4-2 , Crouch and Caroll up top load then reload cause chaos . Fox

Portugal could win the Euro's without winning a game,

Up to now they have drawn their 3 group games,

Beat 2 teams on pens,

So if they do the same in the semi and final ,

They are champions without winning a game,

Very strange

Portugal won 1 game in extra time.

Got my tickets to fly out to Lyon to watch the game in the Fanzone, and to soak up the atmosphere for a couple of days as well. I've never, ever, seen my country at a major tournament before, and at 62 years of age am unlikely to get that many more opportunities for more, especialy at this stage of the competition, so this is just something I couldn't miss.

Cymru am byth!

The question of England's performance isn't just about this squad, but is a 40-year question about how a country of 60 million people with over 100 professional clubs and the most money in world football, underperforms compared to similarly and worse situated countries.

In the last 40 years, the following European countries have better records (Championships won, semis reached) than England:  Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Czech, USSR/Russia, Spain.

So, objectively judged, we're not even in the top 12 of European footballing nations.  Add in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and we're not even in the World Top 15.

So, this goes a lot deeper than "Hodgson couldn't inspire the players" or "He should have taken player X/Y" (though both are probably true), because that doesn't explain 50 years of failure and suggests the problem is more structural.

I'm inclined to agree with Forza Ivano in that the structure of the English game produces (on the whole) substandard players who are not technically and intellectually good enough to play anywhere other than in Premier League teams where they are enhanced by top foreign players.  Our players have zero transfer value on the international market and those who may be good enough care more about picking up huge pay packets than about improving their game and expanding their horizons (Tom Ince, Rooney)

So yes, we can talk about getting in a coach on big bucks, or we can think about how we improve our game in the long run so we perform more in line with our size.

Spot on Hackney.