World Cup 2014

[Hartleburyharrier]

So England are out at the first hurdle, and in all probability will come home with Nil Points, can anyone see them even drawing
against Costa Rica - even the most optimistic among us must face facts, Hodgson is a busted flush, and is not the answer - yet those that sit in their Ivory Towers that is the FA - have collectively patted him on the back for this ignominious failure - the worst in World Cup history if England lose the last game, and Wroy will take us to success in two years time at the Euros...........

Greg Dyke - do me a favour.

Walk Now !!

Sorry, but this I can't agree with, the bit about Hodgson I mean. He did a pretty good job with the players he had at his disposal, we failed mainly because we have no decent defenders, and he can't be blamed for that.

[Cal's Spongebag]

..agreed…Johnson simply isn't good enough and there are no better right backs, Baines is good enough, but had a poor couple of matches, and the centre backs look shaky

Rooney's failure to convert the chances...or the refs decision not to send off Godin….

it is about fine lines at the end of the day…

no-one disagreed with the squad selection, no-one disagreed with the team selection…

would it have been any different under a different manager….in my opinion, no.

talk of sacking Hodgson is ridiculous in my opinion….there isn't a better international manager available to us….

no-one disagreed to any great extent in the team selection or the approach by the team, but we fell short

we were in a group without any weak teams, possibly the hardest group to qualify from..

the players were not good enough..

[redandwhitemike]

Excuses, excuses.

There's not a better R/B than Johnson in all of the Premiership available -Right

Baines isn't in the same league as Ash Cole, big mistake not taking him, managed he could have been the difference.

Who didn't agree with team selection ? Well I was calling for Barkley to start and the over reliance on a Liverpool axis of Gerrard & Henderson was always doomed IMO - and playing Rooney wide against Italy was simply naive.

No better International managers available .............................................

Don't believe you said that.

I've no doubt he will get England qualified for the Euros against all the Mickey Mouse countries, but I can't see England getting past the likes of Spain Germany France Holland Belgium Croatia etc etc.

England will only slip further down the ratings under Hodgson.

Brazil 2014 will probably turn out to be the most ignominious of all of England's World Cups but it's not the manager's fault.

Even under Cappello in 2010 we managed to progress out of the group stages without actually losing.

I wonder what will happen to Vincente del Bosque when the Spanish team return - fall on his sword with honour I would have thought.

Hodgson and the FA will just muddle through, and carry on regardless. - what a joke

No wonder fans are switching off from watching the national side.

[harriershane]

There are better Rb's in the Prem--THEY ARE FOREIGN!

Cannot agree with the Hodg bashing here. Everyone moans at his perceived defensive style of play--then when we play attacking, moan about a crap defense.
Everyone says get rid of the old guard and play the kids, we play the kids and now thats crap and should never play again..

Who do you replace Roy with? Will they be able to go out and summon out of nowhere a new back line? NO! We have to face up that we ain't good enough and stop this revolving door mentality that has been instilled in people by the Premier League

[tonythescout]

Until the fa or/and premier league decide to cap amount of over seas players in the starting elevens of first team fixtures our national side will continue to decline. Our last decent shot was, IMO 2004 when we had bar goal keeper target man and left winger we have a very very good side. Now..... IMO we have no world class players. Rooney, not world class IMO. The decide between him and Suarez was apparent the other night.

Getting rid of roy won't sold anything. He can't go out and buy a centre back etc etc, he has to make do with the average pool of players he has got.

Only thing he got wrong IMO was Italy game playing sterling in Rodney's position and vice versa. I think he should have done all he could to get John Terry to play to do with Cahill. But Hendersons had a very good season for Liverpool along side Gerrard so why not play them together. Yes they were poor, to me they just looked knackered.

Our best right back is Micah Richards IMO. Who can't get a game at City. Johnson is ok. walker is not as good as Johnson. That's all we have. Same as keepers. hart is ok, ruddy foster not better, and Forster plays at a poor standard. Cahill is our only half decent centre half. Jagielka smelling and jones wouldn't have been anywhere near that side 6/8 years ago. I was berm used why he didn't take michael dawson who I think is better than the previous three and is confortable with the ball at his feet.

It's frustrating but there was no expectation. But there's are a few kids coming through which may bode well. Not exactly that class of 92 with Neville beckham scholes etc but stones, shaw, sterling, the ox, Sturridge and Barkley all look promising. Gerrard will take some replacing if he retires, I hope he sticks around for the euros.

[Cal's Spongebag]

There are better Rb's in the Prem--THEY ARE FOREIGN!

Cannot agree with the Hodg bashing here. Everyone moans at his perceived defensive style of play--then when we play attacking, moan about a crap defense.
Everyone says get rid of the old guard and play the kids, we play the kids and now thats crap and should never play again..

Who do you replace Roy with? Will they be able to go out and summon out of nowhere a new back line? NO! We have to face up that we ain't good enough and stop this revolving door mentality that has been instilled in people by the Premier League

Spot on. As far as I can see the Hodgson bashing is coming from one person.

Dead right about the revolving door mentality.

[harry211]

Hodgson is the best manager we can get for the job, I'm bemused by this fixation on sacking England managers if we do poorly. Look how that has faired for other countries...not well at all. We've played better at this World Cup than we did at all in 2010, I doubt we'd have qualified under Redknapp...I can't have seen him having the tactical nous to go to Ukraine and get anything at all.

We lost to Uruguay and Italy and couldn't get out of the group, like we did in 2010. Yet in 2010 we were the only top 15 nation in the group. In this one there's three...and the team top of the group is the underdog! If that doesn't give people perspective nothing will.

Rooney has to be dropped. Constantly a passenger, can't do it for England, never has on the big stage and never will. The rubbish about Sterling being played in 'his' position against Italy is a non-point, Sterling was one of our standout players and a constant bright spark. In that position against Uruguay Rooney seldom threatened to do anything. A tap-in from seven yards out does not make you world class, and upsetting the team balance and putting 3 players noses' out of joint for the sake of one should not be on. I think Hodgson caved to media pressure by playing him there...can't see him having a future for England.

Richards might be a good player, but his attitude is awful. Hence why no England manager since McLaren has played him, and even Pelligrini has dropped him.

One final point - I see that Dyke is continually trying to copy other countries and their approach to football in a bid to rejuvenate English football. If we constantly try to copy others, we will be doomed to be 12-18 months or more behind their progress. We need to be the best English team possible, not a Germany/Spain MKII.

[pricey5]

Well its been a great World Cup so far, even England didn't play as badly as some are making out. Very little between us, Italy and Uruguay especially the latter as if Suarez doesn't play we win the game, he was the difference. Optimistic about the future with some very good young players coming through although the lack of defensive quality will find us out when coming up against anyone decent. Cahill is ok and hopefully Shaw continues his impressive development, although that is only 2 of the 4 positions sorted.

My game of the tournament so far was Germany v Ghana, the 2nd half was end to end and I didn't want it to end. Holland v Spain was a close 2nd. I backed the Dutch at 22/1 pre tournament but the likes of Chile and Colombia look very strong and could surprise a few, I hope Brazil come up against Chile in the next round as I can see them losing!

[ograzebrook]

Calling for a sacking is just daft.

Roy is not perfect, but he has so much experience and intelligence.

Sometimes we just have to accept that we are not good enough.

The top flight game is all about the finest of margins.

[Morgan]

Interesting comments from Harry Redknapp today on 5Live that when he was Tottenham manager players asked him to get them out of having to go on England duty..

[redandwhitemike]

I will watch the games, not because I think England will do any good - but because it's the only football this side of August that I can watch.

Of course I may get even further disillusioned with England under Wroy and not bother by the time of the last game.

I can see us struggling to win a game to be honest.

And no - I don't want to debate the merits of the England manager - AGAIN.

What were the odds of England not getting a single point in Brazil I wonder?


ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[ograzebrook]

I'm a USA fan now so I don't care.

[pershoreharrier]

I have to say that I did predict England would not win a game so I am not that surprised to see us playing tomorrow with a side made up of those who have not already had a game. No doubt tomorrows opposition wil also play a weakened side as they are through to the next round whatever I believe.

I have not watched that many games but to be honest what I have seen I doubt we would have beaten any of the teams I have seen play.

It is not Hodgson's fault - in fact I think we have seen some new faces for the future rather than a reliance on the old old guard who I have frankly had enough of.

Listening to Graham Taylor this morning he said what originally had been called the FA Premier League was now just the Premier League with no reference to the FA at all and once the League season starts the England squad are just a sideshow to the Champion's League.

Did Greg Dyke say we were aiming to win the World Cup in 2022 - delusional - totally delusional.

[pricey5]

Interesting comments from Harry Redknapp today on 5Live that when he was Tottenham manager players asked him to get them out of having to go on England duty..

I agree with what Gerrard said in his press conference yesterday, name some names Harry! This is the type of reason why I never wanted Redknapp to be England manager, plus he's also another one of these managers who likes 'his' players. At least Hodgson has given the younger players a chance with others set to get a game tomorrow too. We'd be back to Lampard-Gerrard in the middle under Harry!

[pershoreharrier]

Interesting comments from Harry Redknapp today on 5Live that when he was Tottenham manager players asked him to get them out of having to go on England duty..

I agree with what Gerrard said in his press conference yesterday, name some names Harry! This is the type of reason why I never wanted Redknapp to be England manager, plus he's also another one of these managers who likes 'his' players. At least Hodgson has given the younger players a chance with others set to get a game tomorrow too. We'd be back to Lampard-Gerrard in the middle under Harry!

Totally agree and a reason why Rednapp is not even suitable to be England Manager - he thought he had it sewn up and still resents not getting the job.

There is only one man in my book who should have had the job and didn't get it and that isn't Harry Rednapp but Brian Clough - a giant in a land of dwarfs whose skill made Nottingham Forest 2 times European Champions.