On Saturday afternoon England’s blushes were spared thanks to a very late Adam Lallana strike giving his country a 0-1 win over minnows Slovakia.
After a disappointing European championship performance, in which the Three Lions were knocked out by tiny Iceland in the last 16, it seemed like déjà vu for the fans. Their side struggled to break down Slovakia, who played for over 30 minutes with ten men after Martin Skrtel saw his second yellow card.
After yet another disappointing performance one is forced to ask the question, why do England perform so badly on the international stage? How is it that the supposed inventors of the beautiful game have only won one World Cup?
The manager
Many critics will claim that England has always been let down by the tactician leading the squad. Despite a revival of English football under Bob Robson in the 80s, since then the only manager to lead the Three Lions who held the international credentials to manage such a proud football nation was Fabio Capello.
How the likes of Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Hodgson and most recently Sam Allardyce have been placed in such an important role by the FA is questionable at best.
Over half the names lack the credible experience on what would normally be expected for such an important role. Case in point being ‘Big Sam’, who over the past 15 years has earned himself a reputation of instilling boring, defensive football and managed the likes of English minnows such as Bolton, Blackburn and West Ham.
When compared to other recent top national team managers, such as Vince Del Bosque for Spain, Tony Conte for Italy and Didier Deschamps for France, it is painfully obvious just how out of depth Allardyce is.
Foreign influence in local game
Many pundits have claimed that there has been a massive drop in local talent ever since the Premier League was launched 20 years ago and took the world by storm, bringing in a record TV rights deal this season.
There is no doubt that the likes of Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Aguero have helped increase the worldwide popularity of the Premier League however this influx in overseas talent would have undoubtedly limited the space available for local, upcoming players.
Despite some experts blaming the dwindling talent pool on foreign imports this does not explain England’s poor historical record, meaning the national team’s struggles on the big stage has been occurring well before the mass influx of overseas talent.
The media
In recent history some people have gone as far as to blame the lack of success on the media, which has been described as being overbearing and also setting out unrealistic targets.
The problem could be linked to the large number of popular tabloid newspapers within the British media which are renowned for printing inflated articles and also singling out individual players and coming down very hard after a poor team or individual performance.
The team
Passion is another part of the puzzle some pundits claim that is missing from the England squad, with some commentators going as far as saying that the squad much prefer going on a summer holiday than represent their country on the big stage.
In a lot of cases the England squad has had a large array of talent, including the likes of Frank Lampard, Dave Beckham and Wayne Rooney, however they have failed to show real fighting grit when it counts on the field.
In the past 20 years the Three Lions have never made it further than the quarters in both the Euros and World Cup, while smaller footballing nations have performed much better and gone farther. The likes of Denmark, Greece and more recently Portugal, have won the European Championships.
I think it’s clear that a number of factors have affected the success of the English national football team, with the FA’s choice of managers and also the team’s lack of passion and talent being two of the strongest.
England seem a long way away from competing with the likes of Spain, Germany and Brazil and unless a realistic national strategy is conceived by the FA things are likely to improve for the Three Lions.
Perhaps the FA can learn a thing or two from the Great Britain Olympic team, who are fresh from an extremely successful London and Rio Olympic games in 2012 and 2016 respectively, in which they punched well above their weight finishing third and second in the medals table.
Welshman
Guest
How did you Aussies do in the olympics fadida.? If you wand to see mediocrity I suggest you look closer to home.
Fadida
Guest
And yet they appoint Sam Allardyce, he of the long ball and relegation battle as national coach. The philosophy has to be reflected by the head coach - Fat Sam in this case, and it's not
Mark
Guest
If you talk about absolute elite, I would only agree with Scholes and Gerrard of those you've named. They could have played at any club they wanted. Beckham, Shearer and Owen, maybe when they were at their absolute peaks. The rest of them are 'world class' in that they had very good careers both domestically and internationally and were among the top players in their position, as you say, but would never threaten for a 'World XI' selection.
Andy
Guest
At least one of Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard would have been considered top 10 in the world for most of that 30 years. Owen was one of the best strikers in the world for at least a few years, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry were two of the best defenders for more than a few years, David Seamnan was top 10 goalkeeper easily, Shearer was top 10. Ashley Cole and Rooney were both world class. Its not a lack of talent. Hell can even include the likes of Beckham and Le Tissier, Tony Adams and Robbie Fowler were at one time or another in the top 10 easily in their positions.
Andy
Guest
you cant blamelack of quality players, Englands team in the 90s was awesome. how you dont win anything with scholes, gerrard, lampard, owen, shearer, seaman and co is ridiculous.
Mark
Guest
There are too many English people who drink the Premier League's 'Best league in the world' Kool-Aid and think, by extension, that England must have a great national team as well. English football (distinct from the Premier League), including the national team, is just average. To the extent that the Premier League is a great league, it is raised above average by all the foreign talent there. The quality of English players coming through is decidedly average. Some of them who are good enough to find their way to Chelsea, Man U or Man City are made to look better than they are by the foreign talent playing around them. The long and the short of it is as Fadida says, above. Coaching and junior development in England is far below the standards of Germany and Spain, and until it improves the English national team will continue to be average. Over the last 30 years, how many genuinely world class players (ie. top 5-10 in the world) has the English system produced? Not many, and unfortunately for England, the best one of them is Welsh.
aladdin sane
Guest
You really love giving England a whack Fadida. They're doing far more to address their youth development than you give them credit for. This article is a good explanation of the work they are doing with coaches, particularly the AYA: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/nov/18/football-association-advanced-youth-award-english-young-talent-st-georges-park You can read more here: https://www.goalreports.com/EPLPlan.pdf
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
Indeed. It's a little disingenuous to describe Slovakia as "minnows" too. They're currently ranked 24th in the world by FIFA, above other "minnows" like the Netherlands, the Ukraine, the USA, the Republic of Ireland, Côte d'Ivoire, and Russia, and well above the current Asian champions Australia. They can also claim to have twice been runners up in the World Cup (and who knows what might have been had Mussolini not allegedly "intervened" prior to the 1934 final), as well as European Champions in 1976 when a Slovak-dominated Czechoslovakian team beat West Germany.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Slovakia away is the toughest game on paper for England. Coming away with a point would have been good result, they managed three. Perhaps the title of this piece should read "England Supporters Continue to Struggle".
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
Wow. Where to begin? Roy Hodgson took Switzerland to the knock-out stages of the 1994 World Cup, their first tournament since 1966, and took them to third in FIFA's world rankings. He took Inter to third place in Serie A and to the UEFA Cup final, a final he also contested whilst manager of Fulham. Prior to taking the England job Sven-Göran Eriksson had won Serie A with Lazio, the Coppa Italia with Lazio, Roma and Sampdoria, Portugal's Primeira Liga with Benfica, and was a regular at UEFA Cup finals (winning it with IFK Göteborg). Terry Venables had won La Liga with Barcelona, and the FA Cup with Tottenham, as well as being another regular in European finals, All of these were pretty well qualified to lead a national team at the time of their appointments to the England role, to suggest otherwise reveals a rather vague understanding of their careers. Take a look at the career of Fernando Santos, the manager of the current European Champions. I'm sure he'd also be considered out of his depth in comparison with Tony [sic] Conte or Vince [sic] Del Bosque Also, Blackburn, Bolton and West Ham are minnows? Really? West Ham? Minnows? As for "the national team’s struggles on the big stage has been occurring well before the mass influx of overseas talent", take a look at the Liverpool team that so dominated English football in the 70s and 80s, and you'll see a fair amount of "overseas talent" there too. This isn't a new phenomenon, it's just that now those players come from all over the world, as opposed to back then, when they came from Scotland, Ireland, Wales... Finally, to accuse Beckham of a failure "to show real fighting grit when it counts on the field" is astounding. Whatever one may accuse Beckham of, he never gave less than his all in an England shirt.
marron
Guest
Did somebody say MINNOWS!!!????
Liam Sheedy
Roar Guru
Ross Barkley should be starting in that team.
Fadida
Guest
The players are extremely average. Those that went before them were much better, and still not even close to winning anything. A damning indictment on coaching and junior development in England. They don't even have a national curriculum or philosophy!!!!! Why? "We're England, we don't need that foreign namby pamby stuff. Get it in the mixer, get stuck in, don't pass backwards!"