Lakenheath Old Boys

We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Six Problems Facing England

I was fortunate to miss the worthless mess of a performance by England in Slovenia during a busy work day. I suppose that an away draw is an away draw but the match exposed a number of problems for England going forward, as documented by The Guardian's Daniel Taylor and Dominic Fifield:

1. England has only scored 4 goals in the past 5 matches against fairly modest opposition - Slovenia, Malta, Iceland and Slovakia (twice).

2. England no longer have an unbeaten aura to them, even at Wembley. Teams feel like they can get a result against us.

3. England lack leadership on the pitch. If Wayne Rooney is being shuffled off toward international retirement, which seems likely, who among the youngish squad is up to being skipper?

4. England have no distinctive style; they just play like other middling European teams.

5. England lack a sense of spirit on and off the pitch; Allardyce's resignation hasn't helped with this.

6. England don't have a permanent manager; should the FA appoint Gareth Southgate as the new England manager?

Here's the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/12/england-gareth-southgate-wayne-rooney-fa-world-cup

Your thoughts, gents?

posted by The Blue Devil @ 8:29 AM 

1 Comments:

Blogger gooner71 said...

I'd have Gareth as permanent manager if we beat the Scots next month. He wasn't give sufficient time to work with the players so it's natural for him to revert to a safety stance.

I agree that he's got to use the time now to figure out the squad leaders. Trouble is, when you look around the recent teams, you can't find a leader, even though the team has club captains in it. And based on recent performances, there's no natural leader on the pitch. I like the swing forward to a squad of newcomers, but I don't see a natural leader like Gerrard in Henderson, or Dyer. Not yet. And guys like Cahill and Rooney are on their way out. So Gareth has to identify some latent leadership quality in the squad that we've not seen yet.

And then the scoring. Lalala and Sturridge are lightweight, Theo too. Rashford seems full of verve and I don't get why they don't pick him and give him the games under his belt that will make him confident enough to be a regular scorer. I'd also like to look for another style of play that suits the squad. If say Liverpool and Spurs are the league leaders with the highest number of potential squad players, go ahead and pick those guys, and put them on the pitch in a system they recognize, and fill in the numbers around them.

It all depends on the match against the Scots. Eff that up, and though I still believe we'll eventually struggle over the line, the FA may have to find another Manager. No one stands out however.

7:39 PM  

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