Euros 2012

No, we don't have the best league in the world. We have the most exciting but isn't conducive to international tournement football. With excitment you trade technique.

As I mentioned before Hodgson deserves credit given it's only his 6th game in charge. The stark reality, however, is we lack composure. 

They didn't press the Italians, they gave Pirlo way too much time and space, and they couldn't keep the ball at all.

The Italians pressed England all over the park, yet didn't look half as tired at the end, go figure 

There's something wrong with English football.

You can hear in in the fans' monotonous tub-thumping. There's no skill, variety, or nuance to England's game. The problem's endemic in the national footballing culture. From the start, English players are taught to play the wrong way -- kick and rush football and a belief that heart and guts bests skill. The England team seem intransigent in their approach, and the national team is playing from a handbook that was out of fashion on the world stage decades ago.

I don't blame the players. They're simply products of the English football system and academies. I don't blame Hodgson, either. He did as much as he could with the resources at his disposal.

Unless there's a fundamental change in the the way English clubs coach players from a young age, nothing will change. And frankly it's embarrasing to watch. The problems start with the FA and filter down through different clubs' youth development systems.

I abandoned hope that England stand a chance of progressing past the quarter final stage of a major international tournament some time ago. It'd be great to have that hope restored, but I can't see that happening any time soon.

The inquest has started. Yet again I've heard people say 'we have a good foundation for the future. There are positives...'

Going back to Euro 96, after the Germans knocked us out, they were saying the same thing about the Man U yoof: Beckham, Scholes, Neville. The truth is we just don't nurture the right type of player, with the skill and mental stability to compete at tournements.

The reason why we, generally, get knocked out at the quarter-final stage demonstrates exactly where we are: About 8th best team in Europe.

Another dream bites the dust.

We were just not good enough. We would have had a better chance had we had 11 fit players on the field, but it was obvious that Rooney was not match fit, at times he just seemed to be strolling around, so in essence we only had ten and a half players for the whole game. It was a mistake to include him in the party.

I haven't bothered to read the185 posts and I didn't watch the game but the outcome is exactly as I thought it would be.

We lack the skills, particularly ball control and retention that so many teams have mastered.  The Premier League is full of foreign players who have these skills so why do English players lack these skills when they are displayed to them constantly in the domestic and European games they play?

In essence they have a total lack of backbone that once set this country [England and other GB nations] apart from the rest of the world.  When the going gets tough English footballers fall down under the pressure.  Perhaps they could start by riding some tackles instead of chucking themselves on the ground and writhing around as if their life were gushing from their every pore any time anyone touches them.  

The whole game would be enhanced if they took a leaf from rugby and had Citing Officials.  After the game, tackles could be reviewed and those players who have been caught 'diving' could be banned for 6 games and multiples thereof for future offences.  I wonder how quickly that would get rid of this obnoxious CHEATING?

+1

I see England has lots of coaches, but none for taking penalties. I wonder............

Their most important coach is the one that heads to the airport.

As sad a some of us are feeling about last night's result, can I just put it in to perspective.

I have just read about the death from cancer of a former Liverpool youth player Miki Roque at the age of only 23.

It's just a game everyone, and I will try to remember that in the future.

     NO footy to watch......Oh sorry that was last night.   

Don't worry guys, the new excellence centre opens soon at Burton so in 10 years we will rule the world.

Pleased to see the arrogant Germans fall.

Balotelli is a one-off. Pity he plays for Man City.

You're mistaking being rather good for being arrogant. Apart from the goalie obv, who needs a slap.

Not according to the pre-match quotes coming from the German camp.