16 Jul 2026 10:58:41
I find it hilarious that Egypt gave Argentina a more difficult game than England. Hossam Hassan for the England Job!
16 Jul 2026 12:08:39
Not sure why there is this obsession to park it as a top team. I get it if you're small, but it doesn't play to England's strengths since the defence is dross.
Teams aiming to win the big trophy should be trying to win, not being afraid to lose.
Felt like a page out of Artitas' book.
16 Jul 2026 12:19:59
England are flat track bullies, and when they meet a good side they collapse. DR Congo, Mexico, Norway are hardly top teams.
16 Jul 2026 12:21:17
Egypt (overall) have players with better all-round technical skills than England... and that's a fact. Now let that sink in.
The FA needs to change the way kids are taught football. They've made some changes, but it's not enough.
Until then, England will never get by an Argentina, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, etc. You have to be able to control the game, and England are not taught how to do that at youth level like other nations are.
16 Jul 2026 12:55:46
When you say the FA need to change the way kids are taught, how many English players are in our squad, let alone starting XI?
16 Jul 2026 13:31:35
Rome, that's what we should sort out. Play only 3 or 4 foreigners in every Premiership side, let the lads who don't get chances at top clubs have a chance to shine or fade. We as a nation play football the same way for decades, last decent team we had who played attacking football was when El Tel was manager.
16 Jul 2026 13:32:31
@Rome, I get that, but players should only make the team based on ability and merit. You can't blood youngsters for the sake of it, if there is a better foreign player.
Regardless, the point I was making was that other countries introduce certain skills very early on in a player's development, in other countries. The onus isn't on winning, but mastering ball retention, spatial awareness, and developing skills.
They're also taught about dictating play and controlling the game.
Spain is the gold standard, but France, Netherlands, and other leading football nations also do this. The problem in this country is that the government just doesn't provide the funding the FA needs. If anything, we are closing down facilities.
16 Jul 2026 14:12:06
Strom, if we have less technical players in the club squads, mainly those from overseas, we see the same dross that we saw back when there were only 3 foreigners allowed in the squad.
International football has been a very poor relation to Club and European football for a long time now.
It's no longer the pinnacle of aspirations for a great many fans (and arguably a fair few footballers too).
16 Jul 2026 14:19:00
Spain are probably the gold standard right now in terms of how to control a match, but they aren't exciting to watch. They should beat Argentina though, so will probably end up as WC champions. France are the best team to watch when in full flow. Spain simply didn't allow them to play.
England don't have depth in many key positions right now, and also left a lot of the more talented technical players out of the squad. They went more with stability and physicality than flair.
That was a choice of Tuchel, and at the time many questioned it, but also many didn't, as there was a narrative going around that to question the squad pics would set the wrong tone.
Such is life. There's a few players coming through who can shake up areas of the squad, but still a dearth of quality centre forwards, defenders, and keepers. That makes the next Euros difficult, but maybe by the next World Cup we'll have a more exciting balanced team to watch.
16 Jul 2026 14:42:37
Salah, personally, I couldn't care less what nationality our team is made up of. As an Englishman, I'm disappointed that we lost, but first and foremost I'm a Liverpool supporter.
The question of coaching crops up after every tournament. The bottom line is, we lost yesterday due to pi** poor defending and keeping. That has nothing to do with the FA.
The trend nowadays is, and it's highlighted on this forum, whenever we are linked with an English born player it's "he's not good enough".
If we're linked with someone who's played in the Bundesliga, he's the best thing since sliced bread, or "the next generational talent". I can be guilty of this myself. A case in point was Spence. General consensus is he was a bag of cr*p. On the other hand, Palestra, who I know fu*k all about, we need to buy, we need to buy. Neither assessment is correct, but the bias is always towards the foreign player.
Anyway, I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the summer, till the stress of the new season starts.
16 Jul 2026 15:01:30
OP, Cape Verde did better than Egypt did, which tells you how awful England was v Argentina. Flat track bullies, indeed.
16 Jul 2026 15:31:35
Tuchel's tactics were the real villain. It would have been better to go toe to toe and lose than park the bus and defend like amateurs.
16 Jul 2026 16:22:57
Cape Verde and Egypt showed more courage and spine than the "mighty" England. Pathetic.
16 Jul 2026 16:53:05
Lofty, you mean the dross when Liverpool were winning everything in sight, with mostly UK n Irish players ...
16 Jul 2026 18:35:28
Rome,
There definitely was poor defending, but my point is that we cannot control games. It has always been like that. It's a cultural issue - we are taught a different brand of football that will not win tournaments. We cannot produce a creative midfielder comfortable on the ball and able to play between the lines. We cannot produce a midfielder that controls tempo. It's all safe side to side or backwards passing.
It is interesting that some people just can't see that in this country.
What is refreshing is that some English pundits are beginning to say as much, but the vast majority are sticking with the whole poor tactics angle and our players lacking courage. It's complete tripe.
We have had world class managers in charge of the national side and no one has got them playing fluent football. It has nothing to do with the manager (although Tuchel did shoot himself in the foot) and everything to do with a lack of technical ability in that aspect of the game.
16 Jul 2026 18:39:14
Btw, I'm not stirring, just really interested in how different people interpret things. Enjoy the rest of your summer! Really looking forward to the new season and seeing what Iraola brings to the club.
16 Jul 2026 19:43:56
Storm, I'm talking about international level, arguably in my lifetime (47 tomorrow), the national team was predominantly cack during the period where foreign players were at a premium, only bright spots were Italia 90 and Euro 96, despite the influx of overseas talent, English players have been massively overhyped by the press since then.
Football has changed, as much as you seem to not want it to, the bulk of the ones we've had haven't been good enough to win the league, shown out by Klopp buying exactly 1 English player who was a key part of the success with us (Ox).
Tell me which other English players who were available would have even been good enough to propel us to CL and EPL titles over the last 10 years?