Future England Stars.

[marbelladave]

Not at all I'm saying it wont happen and making even more certain that it wont is the upcoming qualifiers, as you say no one would have the balls not even Harry and Woy.

Shame, but you are probably right...

[maddog]

Sadly i can still see the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Cole, Terry, Crouch, Defoe, Carrick all present at the next Euros.

Gerrard and Lampard still remain consistently 2 of the top points scoring midfielders on fantasy football in the PL, so why can they not score some playing for England

I just can't see a complete total change of loads of players, maybe 4 or 5 will go but 10+ no chance.

Could Hodgson or Redknapp get more out of these players that Capello did this tourney

[Donut]

If you changed the manager, the usual would just happen

Reaction for 5 to 6 games early into the managers tenure before the same malaise would set in yet again and we would be going round in this never ending circle calling for someone elses head.

1) There were many calls for Gerrard to play behind the Rooney at the world cup in what you might call a 'typical' number 10's role. In which case, what 'quality' player have we got that also has the discipline to play on the left side, with natural width, to allow this to happen? NO ONE.

Brazil have played a system throughout the world cup using 2 holding midfielders all the time. In order to play this way, we would ACTUALLY NEED 2 quality holding midfielders, which we obviously havent got, so how do you play a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3/4-5-1 with what we had at our disposal without playing an obviously weak link player

Players at their club sides can do this owing to the players around them, which england doesnt have at its disposal. In any system, by nature some of our players are bound to be played out of position or left out because we either have more than one player for the position (Gerrard and Lampard playing similar positions), or players of insufficient ability compared even to a player played in a secondary position.

2) We are talking up our youngsters like they are the next 'golden generation' and these players havent done anything at club level, let alone international level.

The world cup has highlighted our lack of technical ability and frankly players like Theo Walcott and Aaron Lennon have technical ability of zero. Cattermole's, Rodwell's, Muamba's have been mentioned but they arent playing top level football, they arent even playing regular football for the likes of Bolton, Everton, Sunderland etc and we think these players can do some kind of job internationally?

3) We will never have technical ability in our players owing to the franetic style of the premiership which may be exciting but is ultimately low on quality and arguably the quality is receeding further as illustrated by the English teams showings in the Champions League.

The two biggest attributes we look for in players are whether they have a good engine and whether they have pace. We dont take the raw skills of technique and THEN build fitness into the players at a young age. I appreciate that other World cup nations are represented in the premiership but a closer look at international squads will show you the successful teams all have at least a large majority (some almost all) of their players playing in leagues of considerably more technical ability than ours.

4) In our major tournament history, we have won one world cup, for which we qualified for by default, and reached two major semi finals, of which one we qualified for by default.

So we have ONLY progressed further than the quarter final of a major tournament on three occasions EVER

We have a chequered histroy of even REACHING major tournament finals, let alone winning them, yet for some reason we seem to believe we are one of the world best footballing nations. clearly we are not.

[Koke]

We have a chequered histroy of even REACHING major tournament finals, let alone winning them, yet for some reason we seem to believe we are one of the world best footballing nations. clearly we are not.

Holland and Portugal have never won the WC. Granted, Holland have reached a couple of finals and won the Euro. Spain prior to 2008 had won the Euro once in 1964 - their best World Cup run was a 4th place in 1950. Historically, they are bigger bottlers than England are. Still, all 3 of those nations are what I would consider the part of the top bracket of footballing nations.

[marbelladave]

Hi Donut.

A new manager who picks the same players would be a waste of time, so pick a new manager who will pick different players!

1) Personally I do not think the Gerrard / Rooney combination has any chance of success, I think it will turn into another Lampard / Gerrard scenario but until it is actually tried we will never know.

We have players who can play on the left, Downing, Young, Johnson for example. Downing was 'frozen out' by his more illustrious team mates and neither Young nor Johnson have been given a chance, primarily to accommodate Gerrard.

Similarly we have holding midfield players, but in the main we do not pick them as Lampard has to play somewhere. Assuming Barry's awful performance was a fitness issue rather than signs of (terminal) decline he should be the experience alongside a promising youngster, Rodwell, Muamba or maybe Milner for example.

2) You need to pay more attention. There is virtually no correlation between club form and international form, we pick our best club players who turn out to be complete bobbins because their game is not suited to international football. Ergo, pick someone else, look fo players whose game might well work at international level, even if it is not what is required at the top levels of the Premier league.

3) Our lack of technical ability is well known and probably not going to change any time soon, find a way around it!. Assuming we dump the crocks and pensioners we can put together a decent back 5, put our two most 'technical' players in the central (holding) role and pick players with pace to play in front of them, any three from the likes of Lennon, Walcott, Johnson, Milner, Young, Downing, Wilshire - you get the idea. Play Rooney up front if you must but if you want alternatives look at Agbonlahor or even Bent and Zamora. Don't be put off by their lack of success at club level, just think Podolski, Klose, Gilberto Silver, Robinho etc.

3) History is History, learn the lessons and do things differently next time!

[davieG]

From Sky

England manager Fabio Capello says young players coming through the ranks are not good enough to play international football.

The inquest into another failed World Cup campaign has got under way and answers are being sought from the Under 21 set-up.

The likes of Steven Gerrard,John Terry,David James and Frank Lampard are likely to have played in their last finals and new talent is being sought to take up their positions in future.

However, Capello believes the calibre of the players in the system at present is not up to standard - and admitted he has precious few other options to tinker with as sights are now set on the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

Just not good enough

The Italian boss said: "Where are the young players? The best are in the U21 side but they are just not good enough at the moment. There are probably just two or three who would join us in the next six months.

"Adam Johnson and Kieran Gibbs at Arsenal. Then there is (Michael) Dawson, (Gabby) Agbonlahor and (Bobby) Zamora. And (Owen) Hargreaves.

"No, some are not so fit and not so young. We also hope Theo Walcott will recover fitness. And then there is Jack Wilshere."

Capello indicated Hargreaves and Zamora were the only other players he would have picked for the finals had they been fit enough.

Qualifying for the championship in Ukraine and Poland starts against Bulgaria in September and the duo can expect to be involved, should they return to full health.

He added: "Bobby Zamora is not young and was injured, but he is a player we have spoken about. Another player we hope that will be fit is Owen Hargreaves. He did not play at all last season."

The 4-1 loss to Germany compounded a disjointed campaign for the Three Lions, who looked sluggish even in the group stages.

Joachim Low's team ruthlessly exposed the sloth in the Free State Stadium on Sunday as the virtues of swift counter-attacking football paid dividends.

Has to change

And the lack of tempo throughout the tournament left Capello questioning the schedule his team face with their domestic clubs.

He went on: "I understand something which is really important and why England did not win before. When English players get to the end of the season they are really tired.

"In total, we played seven games in this period and I never saw the players that I saw in the autumn before the heavy Christmas spell, or two months after Christmas.

"They trained well and were focused on everything but they were not the same fast players I know. Something has to change.

"There are too many games and at the end of the season it is Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday."

England had fallen two goals behind in quick succession to leave them shell-shocked in Bloemfontein and the team looked abject in their quest to mount a fight back.

Appetite

The fear that gripped Capello's players in the draws with USA and Algeria appeared to have returned, meanwhile, sloppy defending only allowed Germany to capitalise in ruthless fashion.

The manner of the exit left the 64-year-old unhappy, who added: "At 2-1 Germany played with fear, even (German general manager) Oliver Bierhoff said that when I saw him at the airport.

"But I am also angry about the defending and our positions on the pitch. We conceded five goals in total and three of them were avoidable."

Pressure is now on the manager, however, Capello said his desire remained unchanged. He said: "Yes I have the appetite. I never stop. Ever."

[Bugg]

N'Zogbia for England!!

[Dames]

The man is clueless if he can't see theres obvious talent to get us through the next 2 major tournaments at least.

All he needs to do is play the right system with the right players. Not try and cram as many 'superstars' into 4-4-2 as it allows him. Its a shame it seems as if that report there is to indicate that we will still be seeing the same shit served up in 2 years time if we get there so that means, John Terry and Rio at the back, Lampard, Gerrard and Barry in midfield and Rooney with whoever has the unpleasant task of partnering him up front.

We'll have one of the oldest and slowest squads at Euro2012. They might as well just drop out of qualifying now and save themselves the embarrassment.

[Frost]

There seems to be more talent coming through the system than most of us believe. If we are going to offer key roles within the national team to youngsters, surely we should look at Stuart Pearce as manager? He managed the U21's so im sure he'd actually have a clue as to who could make the step-up etc.

Just a thought.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Great to see Capello getting excuses in for yet another miserable failure, not from him, but from our 'stars'.

There's enough young talent to piece together a very respectable starting XI. It may well mean lack of success in the short term, but the rewards could be reaped by the time the next World Cup rolls round.

Nonce.

[marbelladave]

I have been watching plenty of TV coverage in the aftermath of Sundays debacle and I am stunned by the number of pundits, mostly ex players, who are standing by the players and laying the blame elsewhere.

Poor preparation, tiredness, boredom, discipline, wrong system, players out of position, in short anything but the players and of course mostly the manager.

Do these people have no shame or are they truly just stupid? Just look at the record;

Euro 2004. After a poor start a young tyro galvanised our performance so we actually had a decent run, however once he was injured we were immediately knocked out. England's big players, specifically Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham, Owen and Scholes were average at best and this was a good performance.

Germany 2004. This time the big players all went missing, Rooney replaced Scholes in the above list, none of them had any impact, none! Our best players were Joe Cole, asked to fill in on the left and the almost universally reviled Owen Hargreaves.

Euro 2008 Qualifying. Ok I know McClaran was in charge but he put out full strength sides, yet once again the same big names failed to turn up, draws against Israel and Macedonia were digraceful, I was in Tel Aviv for the Israel game and they were as bad as they were on Sunday. (They were just as bad a few days later in Barcelona, worse first half, if that was possible). Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney played in all the games bar Andorra, when Lampard was missing. A win against either Israel or Macedonia would have taken the pressure off the final two games. Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney were all MIA in Moscow, particularly after the goal went in when the game was there to be won.

World Cup 2010. Decent enough in qualifying although the opposition was bobbins. Once qualification was assured the big players switched off and had no idea how to switch themselves back on. None of our big players bothered to show up in South Africa.

Same players, same result... Every time...

But of course it is not the players fault, is it?

[Tommeh]

Chris Waddle Fvcking nailed it.

To blame for the shambles:

1. The FA - This includes the state of football in this country, the distribution of money, contracts, the fact they are the tea boys to the Premier league and of course New fvcking Wembley.

2. Rooney, Gerrard etc. The key players who we see time and time again produce quality for their clubs are just not fooked whatsoever.

3. The Media.

4. Capello

Finally no penatly shoot-out, shit referee, flukey goal or childish sending off can defend the embarasment we call our national team and the whole set-up of English football, it's finally hit rock bottom after 20 years of brewing.