England ....Who is to blame?

[Kim Wipe]

Regardless of how good anyone is at their own job, if your boss gets you to work with people who are not specialists in their field then the team is going to struggle isn't it? If he picks a taxi driver to be your accountant and a chef to be your crane operator you are in trouble. If he hires 15 truck drivers but only one digger driver you are going to have difficulty shifting what needs to be shifted.
The manager of a football team picks the side and decides how its going to play and he selects the personel he wants to fulfil each role. If he gets it wrong, inappropriate formation or players not in positions they excel at, then its turns into a car crash unless the opposition is considerably weaker all round and the shortcomings of your managers choices are outweighed by the skill of the players.

See what you,re saying but it wasn't like he was playing Rooney in goal and Terry on the wing. There were several unusual decisions like why the hell Crouch can't get a game under him, and why Joe Cole is constantly overlooked. But the rest play for top club sides in this country.

 

[Trusty Adjusty]

Premier League

Premier League

Dumped out in the second round and a woeful performance yet again. Who do we blame

Players?
Manager?
Both?
Media/Expectation?

You decide

All the above to a certain extent, the main one for me isn't there though- The Premier League itself. Since the inception of the self glorifying "best league in the world" our national game has been slowly dying on it's arse. Our best performance in a competition post Premier League? Euro 96 - where we played at home and most of the squad were pre Premier League players anyway. Once the Shearers,Sheringhams,Inces,Batty's,Pearces,Adams',even Gascoignes hung up their boots we were left with a load of over hyped and overpaid drivvel that were more concerned with a popstar girlfriend and getting their wedding in the latest Hello magazine.

The Premier League is not the best league in the world. It is the most entertaining, and there is a significant difference. Our league is full of defensive errors, refereeing mistakes and foreigners. We cannot compete on an international level again untill we achieve parity with the Spanish and Italian leagues. We commit too many fouls in international games - why? Because our refereeing is too lenient, our players can't cope with the differences between our own league and that of other countries and it is there for all to see - how many players in the WC squad play abroad? Exactly. Now ask the same question of other big teams -Spain,Argentina,Italy,Germany,Brazil. We are simply not adaptable enough and untill our league setup is fundamentally changed we will struggle.

Ironically an option that would have got some votes would've been -

Don't care - because I'm English!