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Why Is Steve Mclaren England Manager
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Why??
Post edited by JustV on
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We have it arse about face over here, pick the best players and then look for a formation. Wrong. Pick a formation and then look for the best players in those positions. Fuck the media scum, do what you think is right...
As for McLaren, best of a bad bunch. Again media clamour for an Enlgishman seems to have outweighed the need for someone who can actually do the job.
Well you've still got to pick a system based on the strengths of your best players, but not try to fit all of them into it, even if there's someone who might not be as good a player, but would fit the system better. I hate all this "we've got to be able to play different systems to suit different opponents" bollocks. I mean you've got to be able to adapt tactically, but in the main, Brazil were the best team in the world by playing their chosen style better than anyone else in the world. Same with France. Same with Italy. I think you're doing your own players a disservice to react to opponents rather than imposing your own style on the game.
The only thing I can say positive about McLaren over Sven, is that at least when he gives new players a chance, he plays them in their proper positions. I was sick of Sven eventually picking someone that everyone's been calling for for months, and then playing them out of position, and wondering why they were shit (Andy Johnson anyone?). I thought Barton showed some good touches in his 10 minutes, and whilst Barry didn't set the world alight, the team looked more balanced with him in it. I would've liked to have seen him with a left-footed fullback to combine with, because Phil Neville offered very little going forward (as you'd expect of a right footer on the left).
ETA: Oh and as for the Englishman argument, whilst personally, I wasn't bothered about the nationality of the coach, I would've personally preferred a coach that has experience in English football, rather than foreign football, because I think this would make him better able to do his job (*cough* Wenger *cough*).
McLaren is in a job because The Sun wanted an Englishman. We've got an Englishman. We're now regularly losing. McLaren was the best Englishman available, which is why an English manager has not won the English league title since 1992 (and that was Howard Wilkinson!). The man who should have been manager is now at Aston Villa.
No you were wrong about Sven.
But you are right about Martin O'Neill!! 100%!
We were beaten by a better team in Japan, a team that went on to win the title, and in the other two we lost on a penalty shootout after a draw. Portugal didn't beat us, folks. Twice we were knocked out by the finalists. Most sensible football people consider England v Brazil to be the World Cup final of 2002. Brazil were down to ten men, but they were in conditions that suited them and they kept the ball for 30 minutes.
I think Sven was a very good manager, and I think time will show just how good he was. You never know what you've got until its gone.
You compare results, but we only drew with Macedonia under Sven because of two goalkeeping howlers. Under McLaren we didn't even look like beating them. And Munich trumps everything.
But I'm hearing all the same shit again. Players sounding too afraid to criticise the performance, and talking about the positives we can take from the game. No-one would even admit that the performance wasn't up to scratch yesterday.
In 2002 Brazil were a better side, and the heat did make a lot of difference in their favour. It's hard to play a high-tempo pressing game in 98% humidity and 35 degree heat, and if a team of Brazil's calibre has the ball they're not going to give it away cheaply. If it had been an evening game, as against Argentina, we'd have probably beaten them. That game was the final anyway- if we'd have had Germany's draw they'd have given Sven medal after medal, regardless of result. In 2006 we were down to 10 men for over an hour, we did well to get it to penalties really.
The big problem in this country is that expectations are unrealistic, and always have been. Reaching the last eight of three consecutive tournaments is a big achievement for any nation, and it's an achievement that goes beyond anything England have ever done in the past. We reached the semis in 1990 because of a flukey goal by Platt, we didn't qualify for the 94 world cup, we only got to the semis in 1996 because of a very dubious linesman against Spain, we reached the last 16 in 1998, and we got knocked out in the group stage in 2000, after being placed in the weakest group.
I don't consider getting to the last eight of three consecutive tournaments, losing two competitive games, beating Argentina twice and beating Germany 5-1 on their own patch to be a particularly shoddy record.
And I don't consider it to be an achievement.
It's why I think most England fans are idiots. And now, because of them, we've got an idiot manager too. Huzzah!
Was England consistent under Sven? NO!
Were the players consistent under Sven? NO!
Does England have high expectations of it's players? YES!
Why? Coz they get paid £100000 a week, surely they must be brilliant!
A good manager will get the best out of his players and sometimes make a mediocre team into a good one (Greece in Euro 2004).
England haven't really been in a hard qualifying group for a long time.
Statistics can lie.
Are you really saying that Sven is worth the £24 million he got for 6 years of not winning anything?
I think that winning qualifying groups and consistently reaching the last stages of tournaments shows a lot of consistency. Sven only lost two competitve games in his five years- Keegan lost more games than that in one tournament.
But we're not going to agree, because unrealistic expectations in this country mean that anything less than winning every game 6-0 is a failure. There are ten teams in any tournament that could feasibly win, expecting us to win is unrealistic- there are better teams than England. England were one of them but now I doubt we'll even qualify.
I think we must have been watching different games in 2002 and 2006. Conditions play a huge part, as in 2002, and using your own logic taking Portugal to penalties after playing an hour with 10 men after seeing our best striker get sent off was a big achievement.
Not really. In both cases, it was down to the team with 11 men failing to capitalise on their advantage, rather than any great heroic effort by the 10men.
But anyway, blah blah blah, whatever, it's all in the past now.
So is England's problem a lack of technical ability all round? I mean I know that we have some technically gifted players, like Joe Cole, Rooney, Carrick, Owen and the like, but with other countries like Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina and Holland, it seems to be a given, rather than another quality a player might have. Whilst England can put some decent attacking moves together, they don't seem to find it as easy to just pass it about, it always seems to be an effort. Is that due to a lack of technical ability like everyone says, or a lack of movement, a lack of teamwork?
Whilst a Greek manager can pick a side for tactics, if an England manager dropped Rooney or Lampard because of tactics he'd be slaughtered unless he won every game 6-0. Lampard and Gerrard clearly can't play in the same team, but its a braver manager than me that tells Fat Frank that he's dropped.
To be honest, I would rather Beckham played yesterday than Lampard, at least Becks has some heart when he plays for his country!
He was a cretin at Boro and he's a cretin now.
Lampard wasn't great. Carrick was poor. Crouch just gives away too many frees, though admittedly some decisions against him were poor. Dyer had a mixed bag. Gerrard shouldn't have been withdrawn. The only real positives were Foster and possibly Barton.
McClaren is an absolute shite bag. He will NEVER win you anything. You can just forsee it now, quarter finals Euro 2008, a talent packed England side getting done by a relatively poor side while McClaren looks on showing no emotion, devoid of any ideas. That's what's going to happen. It is the toughest job in football, but it's not made any easier when the xenophobic press force someone so drastically under-qualified in.
he ALWAYS says stuff like ahh the attitude was there but we just lacked that final pass.... or we just need that extra bit of quality and i ll tell the players this. FUCK OFF lol, stop saying crap and start doing it!
it always looks like hes trying to get people off his back... i really dont think he has the integrity to handle the pressure of a job like this
No country has the right to win games on players reps.
For a non-England fan you're giving more a chance than most supporters at the moment