England Football Team

Snap

I think Sam will do alright tbh. He's served his time and done reasonably well wherever he has been, barring Newcastle where he was all over the place. He is pretty good at getting good results with fairly limited options. Exactly what he did at Blackburn ( my club) and Bolton, and he did a very good job at Sunderland. He was also under valued at W Ham too IMO.

He certainly isn't the hoof it one trick pony he's accused of either, and he's pretty astute tactically. For me, he's the best England appointment since Venables. LEts hope he does well.

scrumhalf

I'm ambivalent ovr this.

On the one hand I was no fan of the football his club teams played. On the other hand it was often very effective, and he made the most of what he had.

On another hand, he used to be a bit of a "we didn't get this decison, we didn't get that decision" in front of the cameras, which made him seem a bit whiny.

On yet another hand, having read about the things he brought into football and having recently see him become mellow and interesting in some of the things he's written (or put his name to), I quite like the current version of Sam.

I wish him well, although as with every England manager his most difficult opponents will be the media.

Rocker

The Wales manager did not have the players to play football as he wanted. It is reasonable to expect that England does not have that problem (bigger country, more football teams, more players etc)

chrispy108

But they absolutely do have that problem, as I said

chrispy108 said:

Hodgson insisted on playing 4-3-3 despite having no wingers, attacking midfielder or a target man. Look how that went.

Obviously there are English players who play that position for their clubs, but they aren't in the top tier of English players. We got knocked out with the league's second top scorer on the bench, whilst Sturridge played as a winger and Rooney as a central midfielder, that clearly isn't the most effective way to play the squad we had available to us.

axisus

scrumhalf said:

I'm ambivalent ovr this.

On the one hand I was no fan of the football his club teams played. On the other hand it was often very effective, and he made the most of what he had.

On another hand, he used to be a bit of a "we didn't get this decison, we didn't get that decision" in front of the cameras, which made him seem a bit whiny.

On yet another hand, having read about the things he brought into football and having recently see him become mellow and interesting in some of the things he's written (or put his name to), I quite like the current version of Sam.

I wish him well, although as with every England manager his most difficult opponents will be the media.

Blimey! How many hands have you got!?!

Nikko

I counted 3. Hes been preparing himself to meet that girl from Total recall ...

snakemanStoo

Nikko said:

I counted 3.  ...

Does that mean he's really Zaphod Beeblebrox?

Nikko

Never know...you get allsorts on here

scrumhalf

Not all my own hands.

Although I did promise the judge I'd stop that sort of thing.

Jalapeno

I'm quietly unexpectant. In recent times England have always underperformed.

Dropping Wilshere is sound - all he did was give away possession in the Euros.

Be interesting wha the does with more or less the same squad as Hodgson.

Snap

I think if we learn to defend a little, that will be a good start. Allardiyce is pretty good in that department.

joneve

The inclusion of Michail Antonio is a good one. He improved Forest's attack considerably and has obviously earned a spot based on his performances since moving to West Ham. As long as I never expect much from England, it's always a bonus if they end up excelling. 

thecolourbox

TheBlueWolf said:

Being the manager of England's football team is a poisoned chalice IMHO.

But the chalice is made of very expensive gold to be fair, I'd drink from it if I got to keep it afterwards.

The main constant things that remain more or less the same whoever the manager is, is that the players do not play as well as they think they can, and that they do not play in the same style that they do in the league.

This leads me to think there are a few problems, maybe of of these, all of these, or none of these are true, but opinions are always like that:

1. We just aren't that good at playing football compared to other countries, whoever the manager is.
2. Somebody who is not the manager is having a say on who plays or doesn't play, my guess would be the FA because they'd prefer the sellable images of the more fashionable players to be maintained for their brand. Or maybe media pressure (we've all seen players from smaller unfashionable clubs be smeared and ignored when it comes to England. 
3. The players play better in the league because they are surrounded by better foreign players.
4. They are the same as me and are totally mercenary in their intentions - I do property management for a wage and not for pride, I'd expect 99% of men of football playing age to be exactly the same. I do a good job at work because I'm paid to, if somebody offered me a chance to do it for free for pride I'd give them pretty short shrift.

I'm not sure if it shows, but I'm not a fan of any international football. Good luck to Sam whom I've always liked, but I am pretty sure I won't think any less of him if we don't do very well.