One just has to see the treatment of Cleverley from the English media and fans to realise (if you haven't by now) why the England team are what the fans/media deserve.
England beat Moldova 5-0 and the media were gushing over the English team performance. Moldova is at best a team playing league 1 football. 5-0 is more or less what should have been expected, even if we were to play the U-21s team I'd expect a comfortable win against Moldova. Roy was saying how Cleverly is England's Cesc and the media saying that now finally that Gerrard and Lampard can play together. Though the partnership never worked for the past 10 years suddenly, beating Moldova was proof it is finally working and Roy worked a miracle in making it work.
Then came last night when England faced an position that was better than a pub team and with more or less the same team failed perform as they did against Moldova. That should have been expected by the fans of England. Ukraine are a much better side than Moldova. Against half decent sides and better England perform the way we have come to expect.
Playing Cleverly in an advance role may work against weaker teams but not againts the likes of Ukraine. So Cleverly goes from being the Cesc to being useless by England's fans. The cliche of pegs and holes never gets old with England as it is the same thing over and over again every time. Cleverly isn't a number 10. Milner isn't a winger. Gerrard and Lampard shouldn't be starting together (should be one or the other), and I could go on but I'm sure everyone has their own opinion and on what should and shouldn't happen. But the Manager of England (whoever it is or was in the past) always try to do the same things.
There is no quick fix and like always England's best players (or potentially best future players) will or have always suffered from Injuries (Shearer, Rooney, Owen, Wiltshire) or left unused, neglected or under used.
And before people go hoping for the new generation to be any better...remember how that hope was with the original 'Golden Generation' and that alone should dampen any high expectations England fans have.
But it won't and we'd expect England to be better than it really is and when England fails to play to our expectations (but pretty much play to what they have been playing to) fans will be left disappointed and looking to point at individuals, or players from their rivals teams.
There is no fixing England. Not until we change the mentality of coaches, players, the media and the fans, we should be use to such things with England by now.
Same old England Team/Media/Fans
posted on 12/9/12
The england media/fans can be summed up in this excerpt from "those magnificent men in their flying machines"
"Up, down, flying around
Looping the loop and defying the ground"
Oh, and it's united players turn to take the flak for this performance.
posted on 12/9/12
We need a bit more of the Olympic Spirit; and I don't mean the players!
When I went to watch Olympic and Paralympic Football everyone got behind the teams. Team GB were competing in a match for 7th place and yet everyone was still behind them.
Too many people think they know best and it's never constructive or helpful!
posted on 12/9/12
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 12/9/12
Cleverly isn't a number 10. Milner isn't a winger. Gerrard and Lampard shouldn't be starting together (should be one or the other),
.................
Agree with all of that.
And to add, I really don't know what it is Milner does.
posted on 12/9/12
Yer not wrong!
posted on 12/9/12
That was in reply to vik.
posted on 12/9/12
I suppose Milner is the water-carrier.
posted on 12/9/12
Clevs did well. It's only his second game. Like keano said, he's a very intelligent player and will grow as a player this season. Very happy to have him even if the rest of the English public think he's pants (Along with SouthLondonManc surprise surprise) I totally love Clevs attitude too. There's no ego and a clear drive to want to be better. Real pity this guy's development has been hampered by injury. If he gets a full season under his belt, I think we will see quite a player next season.
The OP is right about the media. Bashing one of our up and coming players in only his second game is utter nuts
Anyone would think he's the first ever player to misshit a shot ffs. Even top strikers make a hash of things sometimes. Go have another look at Torres miss in front of the stretty last season.
Oh, Welbeck looked very good when he came on. He and Clevs showed they can operate in tight spaces which is something they are going to need to do for United this season if teams keep playing the pressing game against us.
The England side just looked unbalanced last night to me. Welbeck and Clevs want to play a neat passing game through the middle. Ox just wants to get down the wing rather than play simple balls inside. Milner is Milner. Gerrard wants to hit 70 yard balls to Glen Johnson (which he does well)
Not the making of a good 'team' for me.
Defence was not that great aside from a very decent performace from Bertrand when he came on. I just hope for his sake he doesn't make one single error that leads to a goal or he too will feel the wrath of the media. It's just what they do
posted on 12/9/12
we didnt lose..
that is the mantra of coaching in this country..
the first principle is not to lose..which is all well and good in an away match at a "supposedly" bigger team.. it has now spilled over into a lot of games.. the jock manager now says the 2 points "gained" in their first 2 matches might well be the difference between qualifying or not??
Forgetting to mention the other side of the coin that the 4 points dropped is more likely to cost them qualifying than the other way round..
We had lee clark, an "up and coming young manager" who had a 43 game unbeaten run which brought us no success because other teams won more games whilst we were "picking up a hard fought point"....
other than foreign players looking better than ours its the whole mentality that has gone wrong..
posted on 12/9/12
We still haven't learnt from the past, Gerrard and Lampard have rarely worked as a midfield partnership but 9-10 years on we're still playing them both, i don't think this would happen in any other country. We're still playing players out of position, there's no way on earth that Tom Cleverly is a number 10, he missed a couple of chances but finishing isn't his strong point so why play him in that role? for me, Milner and Chamberlian aren't wingers, they'd both be better suited to central midfield because whilst they can beat a man they don't do it often enough and the final ball isn't great, but they do have attributes to play in the centre.