England

[Guest MattP]

Were the players at Sven's disposal really a 'golden generation?' That tag irks me, in my opinion, it was Venables who had the most talented bunch to play with.

I agree as a unit the Venables one was stronger, problem was Svens teams was full of players playing in CL finals every year, we were more succesful in europe than any other nation at the time and people automatically though that meant we had a golden generation.

I still wonder where Gascoigne came from, dont know how many people here remember him at his peak but he just wasnt english, he had that flair, talent that I have never seen from one of our players before. Magnificent.

[Guest Bilo]

Were the players at Sven's disposal really a 'golden generation?' That tag irks me, in my opinion, it was Venables who had the most talented bunch to play with.

Seaman

Neville-----Adams-----Southgate-----Pearce

Anderton----Ince----Gascoigne-----McManaman

Sheringham-----Shearer

That's the side that beat Holland in Euro '96. A spine of Seaman, Adams, Gascoigne and Shearer.

The mix up that Capello should've made after the World Cup is now surely glaringly obvious. Players like Welbeck, Cleverley, Jones and Smalling shouldn't be Plan B, in the squad due to injury or withdrawals, but they should be starting games for England. Germany have always integrated new players with old so much better than we have. In 2006, Lahm and Schweinsteiger were good, talented players. Now they're exceptional players. Now the likes of Hummels, Goetze, Kroos and Howedes are breaking in, mixing with players that aren't necessarily old, but still have plenty of experience (Neuer, Muller, Ozil). They look like the only side (apart from Holland, perhaps) that seem capable of challenging Spain next summer. Come 2014 the talents Low is blooding now will be on a different planet, they'll have had the experience, one that Capello seems so reluctant to give our youth, instead relying on players that've failed time and time again.

We need to take a German style approach, and start building a team around youth, so we can have a side that'll make us proud. Terry, Lampard, Barry, Crouch etc, should be nothing more than a bad memory for England fans if Capello does the right thing.

He won't, though.

I have to say I totally agree, the process of bringing in young uns for Germany began in World Cup 2006, and has escalated to the point where now I fully expect to end Spain's dominance in either Euro 2012 or WC2014. If we have the cajones to bring in younger and more talented players, we could end up saying the same about England in a few years' time.

Without wanting to sound negative, there's no way we're winning Euro 2012 no matter what set of players we throw out because we're just too far behind Holland, Spain and Germany in particular. I wouldn't fancy our chances much against a rejuvenated French side either. We do though stand to gain so much more by giving our young guns a run-out than sticking with the same old names who are just not going to improve come World Cup year.

I would go for this line-up as a starting XI in our opening group game.

Hart

Cole Terry Cahill Smalling

Rodwell

Lennon Wilshere Walcott

Young Rooney

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

I agree as a unit the Venables one was stronger, problem was Svens teams was full of players playing in CL finals every year, we were more succesful in europe than any other nation at the time and people automatically though that meant we had a golden generation.

I still wonder where Gascoigne came from, dont know how many people here remember him at his peak but he just wasnt english, he had that flair, talent that I have never seen from one of our players before. Magnificent.

I always forget about McManaman, too. Real talent.

I know Neville's come out with some revelations about England in his autobiography, but I doubt playing alongside any of that lot was the chore he described England duty as.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Hart

Cole Terry Cahill Smalling

Rodwell

Lennon Wilshere Walcott

Young Rooney

If I had to choose a side for our opening group game - providing the youth at United continue to improve, I'd go for:

Hart

Kelly----Smalling----Jones----Cole

Rodwell

Wilshere----Cleverley

Downing-----Rooney ©-----Young

We have to be dramatic and shift things about now so we aren't behind by the time the World Cup comes round. Obviously, it all depends on the kind of seasons they have at club level, but Kelly has come into the fold at Liverpool and done incredibly well, Capello has singled him out for praise. If he doesn't make the cut, there's Richards at Man City, or the option to move Smalling and put Cahill in there. There are tonnes of options / alternatives all over the pitch that don't require us to call on the 'old guard.'

Lennon would be in the squad but not the starting eleven for me, brilliant pace with little end product, coupled with the fact that Downing has come on so much the past couple of seasons, means he's a much more attractive option for me.

[Bugg]

If I had to choose a side for our opening group game - providing the youth at United continue to improve, I'd go for:

Hart

Kelly----Smalling----Jones----Cole

Rodwell

Wilshere----Cleverley

Downing-----Rooney ©-----Young

We have to be dramatic and shift things about now so we aren't behind by the time the World Cup comes round. Obviously, it all depends on the kind of seasons they have at club level, but Kelly has come into the fold at Liverpool and done incredibly well, Capello has singled him out for praise.

Lennon would be in the squad but not the starting eleven for me, brilliant pace with little end product, coupled with the fact that Downing has come on so much the past couple of seasons, means he's a much more attractive option for me.

That team looks very appealing, but I'd rather have Micah Richards (who is still only 23!) in instead of Kelly.

And possibly keep Terry at CB to give the defence a little bit more experience, although I wouldn't know which one to drop.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

That team looks very appealing, but I'd rather have Micah Richards (who is still only 23!) in instead of Kelly.

Edited to say that Richards is an option before you replied mate, can't believe he's only that age.

[Guest Bilo]

Yeah, looking at MTWG's team it does look better. Amazing to think Richards is still only 23, he seems to have been around forever.

If I had to drop either centre-back in favour of experience in the form of Terry, it'd probably be Jones who will still be learning his trade next summer.

That XI with a couple of tweaks would be very much one for the future and if they went in off the back of good seasons, they could prove a tough act to stop given the fact that our U21s have performed well recently in tournaments and can do so again.

[Guest MattP]

Smalling is too big to be a full back, he will get torn to bits by a quality winger.

Some parts of these young sides being posted look good but they just aren't going to frighten the best in the world. Players like Walcott, Cleverly, Smalling, Wellbeck etc are good players but just won't be forming the spine of world cup winning teams.

[John Matrix]

i think our next coach needs to be German. we've always been mentally weak and unorganised and they would hopefully sort that out.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Smalling is too big to be a full back, he will get torn to bits by a quality winger.

Some parts of these young sides being posted look good but they just aren't going to frighten the best in the world. Players like Walcott, Cleverly, Smalling, Wellbeck etc are good players but just won't be forming the spine of world cup winning teams.

I understand what you're saying, but they've all got the potential to be very, very important players for England, especially if they all continue to excel at some of the best club sides in the country, they'll only get better with European football under their belts.

The players I've mentioned in the German game (Hummels, Howedes, Kroos) are all starting to look the part after several successful, consistent seasons playing for the top sides in the Bundesliga. In fact, Hummels was discarded by Bayern Munich and sold to Borussia Dortmund for peanuts after a loan spell. He played one game for Munich, they failed to spot his talent, now he's on the cusp of becoming the greatest centre half in world football. In some cases, the talent is always there, they just need the right environment to develop and progress. I think the likes of Welbeck, Cleverley, Smalling, and Jones will all benefit tremendously from having Sir Alex as a mentor, learning from the best and having to cope with the pressure that comes from playing for United. They might not seem like the brightest stars on the footballing map yet, but with the right guidance, we'll have a team in 2014 that is experienced without being decrepit, that should have an average age of 25/26 (roughly the same that Germany & Spain had in South Africa, compared to our 28.7) and is about at it's peak.

I'd readily discount 2012 as an experiment / learning curve for youth if it meant we took a stronger side to Brazil.

The type of experience early on is invaluable, and it's where we've let ourselves go in recent years, drafting in young players from all corners of the world, rather than having a focus on developing English / British talent.

[accessory]

I understand what you're saying, but they've all got the potential to be very, very important players for England, especially if they all continue to excel at some of the best club sides in the country, they'll only get better with European football under their belts.

The players I've mentioned in the German game (Hummels, Howedes, Kroos) are all starting to look the part after several successful, consistent seasons playing for the top sides in the Bundesliga. In fact, Hummels was discarded by Bayern Munich and sold to Borussia Dortmund for peanuts after a loan spell. He played one game for Munich, they failed to spot his talent, now he's on the cusp of becoming the greatest centre half in world football. In some cases, the talent is always there, they just need the right environment to develop and progress. I think the likes of Welbeck, Cleverley, Smalling, and Jones will all benefit tremendously from having Sir Alex as a mentor, learning from the best and having to cope with the pressure that comes from playing for United. They might not seem like the brightest stars on the footballing map yet, but with the right guidance, we'll have a team in 2014 that is experienced without being decrepit, that should have an average age of 25/26 (roughly the same that Germany & Spain had in South Africa, compared to our 28.7) and is about at it's peak.

I'd readily discount 2012 as an experiment / learning curve for youth if it meant we took a stronger side to Brazil.

The type of experience early on is invaluable, and it's where we've let ourselves go in recent years, drafting in young players from all corners of the world, rather than having a focus on developing English / British talent.

But don't Bundesliga clubs do the same? Or does their youth/schools system promote technique more to enable young German players to compete?

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

But don't Bundesliga clubs do the same? Or does their youth/schools system promote technique more to enable young German players to compete?

They do, but not quite to the extent that Premier League sides do. Here's a decent article explaining the differences.

Germany Provide the Blueprint....

Sums it all up really, why we don't adopt something similar, I don't know.

[SOCCERROO FOX]

Brilliant point.

He takes a huge part of responsibility for the WAG culture when you look back at it that we ended up with.

He has been there since 2008, if it was such an issue he would of stamped it out within the first couple of months.

[Guest ttfn]

If I had to choose a side for our opening group game - providing the youth at United continue to improve, I'd go for:

Hart

Kelly----Smalling----Jones----Cole

Rodwell

Wilshere----Cleverley

Downing-----Rooney ©-----Young

We have to be dramatic and shift things about now so we aren't behind by the time the World Cup comes round. Obviously, it all depends on the kind of seasons they have at club level, but Kelly has come into the fold at Liverpool and done incredibly well, Capello has singled him out for praise. If he doesn't make the cut, there's Richards at Man City, or the option to move Smalling and put Cahill in there. There are tonnes of options / alternatives all over the pitch that don't require us to call on the 'old guard.'

Lennon would be in the squad but not the starting eleven for me, brilliant pace with little end product, coupled with the fact that Downing has come on so much the past couple of seasons, means he's a much more attractive option for me.

Rodwell's done nothing for a year, and couldn't get in the under-21s this summer or the Everton team for much of last season/the start of last season. I've never seen the appeal.

Kelly has, what? 15 games for Liverpool? Richards has to be a better option and for the life of me, I can't see why Capello hasn't given him a chance.

Cleverly has played 3 league games for United. It would be ridiculous to start planning an England team for 3 years away around him. I still think Gerrard will have something to offer in 2014 and if not then there is always someone who's flavour of the month who will come up on the rails.

I think that last point is important. Players break through all the time. 2 years ago, few people knew who Jack Wilshere was, and they certainly wouldn't have been pinning many of their hopes for Euro 2012 on him. Who knew who Wayne Rooney was in summer 2002? And yet he was our best player in Euro 2004.

So what's the point in building for 3 years away? What happens if the results/playing style don't improve? Do we bring back Lampard, Gerrard etc? Or do we keep picking players because they're young?

[Guest Bilo]

A big problem for me is the lack of coaches in this country.

UEFA figures show we had 2,769 UEFA Pro, A or B qualified coaches in England compared to 34,970 in Germany, 29,240 in Italy and 23,995 in Spain. This means that kids in Germany, Italy and Spain get top quality coaching from the day they walk into an academy aged 12 to the first day they walk onto a pitch with their fellow pros and beyond. The fact is we desperately need more coaches and the FA's recruitment drive in this area is frankly inadequate, although it has apparently grown to over 4,000 coaches.

The Burton project will be a big factor but I honestly think we need a national, huge recruitment drive of coaches to bridge the gap. The first problem is that we are so far behind the times in terms of our mentality. For years, England as a nation has laboured under the illusion that you must have played at the highest level to manage at the highest level. How many good coaches have we let slip through the net because they only played in Division Four for Colchester in favour of an average one who played for Liverpool? The kind of coach we need to be producing is somebody like Andre Villas-Boas. This is a man who has NEVER kicked a ball in anger at any significant level, but has been busy acquiring coaching badges since the age of 17. He's done it the hard way, with stints as assistant manager and on the coaching staff at Porto but at 33 years of age, an age where many players will have six or seven years of playing before they even think about starting coaching, he has a Portuguese title, a Europa League and a Portuguese Cup in his trophy cabinet. Why aren't we producing men like him? Again, it's because our mindset is so dated.

So how do we address the problem? My personal opinion is that we should extend the commendable Burton project to ordinary schools or more precisely, academies as implemented by the government. An academy receives 10% of its funding from a private investor, up to £2m, and in return this investor gets to impart its curriculum, ethos and specialism. I see little reason why a footballing body, be it the FA, Premier League, Football League or individual clubs could not be this private investor. Education could be offered in areas where clubs operate to academy players and we could even have a limited number of FA coaching badges being offered at Sixth Form level within the schools, so we could produce our own version of Villas-Boas because we're a million miles away at the moment. Clubs get the positive publicity that would come from such a move, England as a whole gets more coaches and young players get educated so everyone wins. Football needs an overhaul and radical thinking, this could be it.

[Dr The Singh]

A big problem for me is the lack of coaches in this country.

UEFA figures show we had 2,769 UEFA Pro, A or B qualified coaches in England compared to 34,970 in Germany, 29,240 in Italy and 23,995 in Spain. This means that kids in Germany, Italy and Spain get top quality coaching from the day they walk into an academy aged 12 to the first day they walk onto a pitch with their fellow pros and beyond. The fact is we desperately need more coaches and the FA's recruitment drive in this area is frankly inadequate, although it has apparently grown to over 4,000 coaches.

The Burton project will be a big factor but I honestly think we need a national, huge recruitment drive of coaches to bridge the gap. The first problem is that we are so far behind the times in terms of our mentality. For years, England as a nation has laboured under the illusion that you must have played at the highest level to manage at the highest level. How many good coaches have we let slip through the net because they only played in Division Four for Colchester in favour of an average one who played for Liverpool? The kind of coach we need to be producing is somebody like Andre Villas-Boas. This is a man who has NEVER kicked a ball in anger at any significant level, but has been busy acquiring coaching badges since the age of 17. He's done it the hard way, with stints as assistant manager and on the coaching staff at Porto but at 33 years of age, an age where many players will have six or seven years of playing before they even think about starting coaching, he has a Portuguese title, a Europa League and a Portuguese Cup in his trophy cabinet. Why aren't we producing men like him? Again, it's because our mindset is so dated.

So how do we address the problem? My personal opinion is that we should extend the commendable Burton project to ordinary schools or more precisely, academies as implemented by the government. An academy receives 10% of its funding from a private investor, up to £2m, and in return this investor gets to impart its curriculum, ethos and specialism. I see little reason why a footballing body, be it the FA, Premier League, Football League or individual clubs could not be this private investor. Education could be offered in areas where clubs operate to academy players and we could even have a limited number of FA coaching badges being offered at Sixth Form level within the schools, so we could produce our own version of Villas-Boas because we're a million miles away at the moment. Clubs get the positive publicity that would come from such a move, England as a whole gets more coaches and young players get educated so everyone wins. Football needs an overhaul and radical thinking, this could be it.

Agree to alot of that, my son currently plays for a sunday league team, and the standards in coaching is far behind spain etc. This has been noted by the authorities, infact the LCFC and FA have began coaching sessions with skills coaches, defence coaches etc at individual clubs, BUT, it's not enough, a few weeks a year is not good enough.

Not only is the coaching but the scoutting, it's all very old school, if your big, and 'brawny' with a hard kick, your gonna get picked, the small skillfull kid who can't hoof a ball up the pitch misses out.

I's going to take investment, the likes of LCFC, FA, etc need to invest alot more into grass roots, and train local team coaches to better coaches!!!