Ideas to make England better again.

[McRamFan]

It will be fine now, we have brexit so no overseas donkeys will get over and we can recruite from the sublime talent we have at grass roots................

So are brexit voters going to kick out the investment?

[Posh Ram]

1 hour ago, ilkleyram said:

Why, Posh?

People say that our players are more tired - why is that when they play less than they have done before, with bigger squads and rotation at the top levels; why is it when they have access to better training, pitches, facilities, nutrition, lighter footballs, better kit and all the rest of it?

And when would you do it? Pick the two weeks after Christmas and it will snow and frost in February, never mind the carnage with fixture lists, national and otherwise

Derby used about 13/14 players in the season we went up to the old first division in the 60s - we had a long run in the league cup on top of it, played on the BBG pitch, players played with injections and injuries and the net result was that the likes of John O'Hare had difficulties when their playing careers ended.  But players play less now and in better conditions and with better care.  Why would a two week winter break - which clubs would use to take the players off on money spinning jaunts to Asia anyway - be beneficial?

Well, the same is true of Germany and Spain and on top of this they have the luxury of a winter break to recover mid-way through the season.

Germany is probably the most interesting example - the last two tournaments, I think Ozil has underperformed a bit, particularly in 2014. Tiredness? Not necessarily and obviously it's only one example but that could be a factor.

I'd have it in January. Two/three/four weeks of recovery. Even with rotation players can top fifty games which is absolutely knackering. The only real scheduling issue would be the rounds of games played in January but that probably only amounts to four PL games which could be fitted in earlier in the season where there never seems to be enough mid-week games. 

When we won the World Cup in 1966, home advantage was a huge factor, but so was fitness. At the start of extra time in the final, the German players were exhausted and England were able to pull away. In tournament football, which is all about fine margins, fitness can sometimes make all the difference.

Obviously there are other sweeping reforms needed as well - not least our insistence on forcing players into a specific "mould". John Stones is a classic example - we bang on about how he can't defend whilst ignoring the fact that his vision means he has the potential to be a world class centre back; the same can't be said of more functional defenders like Chris Smalling. We should stop trying to coach players to all fit the same mould. A huge problem is the fact that still, from a young age, size and strength are prioritised as if winning is a big deal. Aged 11 one lad is bound to be a bit bigger and stronger, but that won't make him a good footballer in the future.

[maydrakin]

If it were me, any player that is not a regular for their club should not be selected for the England team. I'd rather have seen players like Shawcross, Drinkwater and Noble who would've been delighted to play for England rather than the top 6 players who spend half their time kicking their heels.

Also, I'd bring in a clause that any player who had less than 25% appearances of games they were available for could walk away on a free at the end of a season. That would hopefully prevent the bigger teams from stockpiling players.

[Van der MoodHoover]

The case study of Germany is very interesting. Partly the DFB  (German fa equivalent ) instigated the changes through various programs much as we have thought to do. But they similarly have free movement of labour etc leading to conflict with of clubs vs country.

In their case it seems that a huge contributory factor was the collapse of the main tv deal suddenly shrinking the amount of money available to the club's. They in turn were forced to prioritise German youth out of necessity.

This suggests that whilst we have a hugely rich premier league we have an irreconcilable conflict. Sure quotas can mitigate to an extent but would also need them to apply to European competition to achieve desired outcome. 

When you see Chelsea spending 30m plus on a raw Belgian kid you have to think why are they stockpiling youth if they are not going to bother developing them. So for me I would also like to consider a minimum quota of players developed through the youth system. 

[G STAR RAM]

9 hours ago, eddie said:

Hoddle is a loony. Anyone who believes that disabled people are paying the price for misdemeanors in a past life is a head-case.

Do you have any evidence to disprove him?!

It was a really silly thing to say but if that's what he truly believes what difference does it make whether he says it or not? 

Does not really affect anything from a footballing perspective other than he may be unlikely to play any disabled players!

[G STAR RAM]

9 hours ago, Posh Ram said:

A winter break would be hugely beneficial imo

Never understood this argument, there will still be the same number of games to play and surely they will have to be crammed into a shorter amount of time unless the season starts earlier/ends later?

[Anag Ram]

It might help us to have a tough qualifying group for a change. Maybe I'm cynical but there's no doubt that any organising body would want England at their tournament because of the income they bring. This means players build reputations against weaker opposition and get exposed on the big stage.

There are also two fundamentals in football- how you plan to score goals and how you plan to prevent them being scored against you.

Neither our defence, nor our attack looked like they had a plan.

We had Rooney's sweeping crossfield balls to the full back, a sprint and hopeful cross and watch it cleared.

At the back we had Joe Hart who is mentally fragile. Not only does he make mistakes but he also kicks the ball into touch on a regular basis. And he has become a face of English football. An untouchable.

In front of him we have two wingers and two defensive midfield players. You can't call Cahill and Smalling (or indeed Stones) centre halves because they lack authority, positional sense and the determination to head and kick the ball away from our goal at any cost. They all want it easy, and look like what they would much rather be doing is going forward.

We need to instil teamwork not patroiotism. Mere passion just gets adrenaline flowing and inhibits composure. If every player knows their job and their team mates they become very hard to beat.

 

[Sexydadbod]

Winter breaks won't make a difference. In Spain the winter break is about 5 days whilst the rest of it is playing friendlies for their sponsors. Sky did an article the other day saying that Premier League clubs had more rest in February than Barcelona did in their winter break. The main issue is the mentality and lack of tactical astuteness. Don't want this to sound harsh but quite simply since 66 we are bottlers and losers. Until we get rid of the losing mentality we won't win anything no matter how good our players are. I don't buy the argument that the players aren't passionate either because it is an easy excuse and Joe Hart was probably our worst player despite being our most passionate.

[The_Sheriff]

FA- Lets be honest they are the ones appointing the wrong managers so that needs to be changed. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow give every England fan a vote of who should be manager!

More togetherness- I think theres room for improvement here, get the squad a few times a year to have short breaks away rather then just meet up every time there is a qualifier then don't train/see each other again for months.

Settled system- An example of this- All qualifier we had Rooney up front then decide in the finals to play him centre midfield. Lets have a settled system and work on plans B & C in case Plan A isn't working or theres suspension/injuries preventing us from playing that correctly.

 

[McRamFan]

We do not produce the talent, until we start producing enough of it will always be slightly above average.

[Rampage]

David Beckham as new manager?@~"\-@~

[ilkleyram]

9 hours ago, Posh Ram said:

Well, the same is true of Germany and Spain and on top of this they have the luxury of a winter break to recover mid-way through the season.

Germany is probably the most interesting example - the last two tournaments, I think Ozil has underperformed a bit, particularly in 2014. Tiredness? Not necessarily and obviously it's only one example but that could be a factor.

I'd have it in January. Two/three/four weeks of recovery. Even with rotation players can top fifty games which is absolutely knackering. The only real scheduling issue would be the rounds of games played in January but that probably only amounts to four PL games which could be fitted in earlier in the season where there never seems to be enough mid-week games. 

When we won the World Cup in 1966, home advantage was a huge factor, but so was fitness. At the start of extra time in the final, the German players were exhausted and England were able to pull away. In tournament football, which is all about fine margins, fitness can sometimes make all the difference.

Obviously there are other sweeping reforms needed as well - not least our insistence on forcing players into a specific "mould". John Stones is a classic example - we bang on about how he can't defend whilst ignoring the fact that his vision means he has the potential to be a world class centre back; the same can't be said of more functional defenders like Chris Smalling. We should stop trying to coach players to all fit the same mould. A huge problem is the fact that still, from a young age, size and strength are prioritised as if winning is a big deal. Aged 11 one lad is bound to be a bit bigger and stronger, but that won't make him a good footballer in the future.

Except that it won't be like that Posh.  We all know that the clubs will see this as an opportunity to extend their global reach - they'll take them around the world and play exhibition matches in Asia, Australia and America in order to flog a few more shirts and shares.  Not much R and R there. 

And it's not just 4 PL matches there's the FA Cup as well, or should the PL clubs only come in at the 4th round perhaps - that competition is now so watered down as to be unrecognisable. And when does the season end? And should players be playing midweek matches at the start of the season when they are not wholly fit (like we do)? Or should the PL be 18 or 16 or 14 clubs rather than 20 so they have fewer matches - and what's the knock on effect to the other leagues?

The argument that English players will learn, compete with and therefore develop better with the overseas players in the EPL has proven to be nonsense. The overseas players have taken over and are steadily pushing English players out (and those from other UK countries too).  The same is happening with owners and managers, which is why we are struggling to find an English national manager and to find English players good enough to win an international competition at a time when everything else should be going for them

[ramsbottom]

Grassroots football has got to change.  More 3G pitches, small sided games until kids are 12 at least.  More opportunities for people wanting to earn their coaching badges in order to train kids from 5-12 years of age (a quick search on the FA's website lists 2 classes in the whole country, both over 40 miles away from me!!!).

Interestingly the introduction for the FA Level 1 course says - 

The course will introduce practical games to develop players’ technical skills such as shooting, turning with the ball and running with the ball.

How about passing & dribbling the ball???  Our nations deficiencies summed up in one sentence...

[Dimmu]

Imperialism.

[JS1997]

Solution is simple... Rooney move a side!

Hodgson tried way to hard to fit him in the team when he didn't deserve a place in the team based on form and also there are better players in his best position (number 10) Dele Alli!

[McRamFan]

Make them watch that horror show at the start of training.

[MuespachRam]

2 hours ago, Joel Stanley said:

Solution is simple... Rooney move a side!

Hodgson tried way to hard to fit him in the team when he didn't deserve a place in the team based on form and also there are better players in his best position (number 10) Dele Alli!

Rooney was our best player against Russia, played very well against Wales and did enough when he came on against Slovakia, he didn't perform against Iceland but that can be said about every single one of them.

From the tournament I would say that the worst two players we had in the squad were Hart and Rooneys replacement Kane...so getting rid of Rooney is definitely not the answer.

[Posh Ram]

8 hours ago, ilkleyram said:

Except that it won't be like that Posh.  We all know that the clubs will see this as an opportunity to extend their global reach - they'll take them around the world and play exhibition matches in Asia, Australia and America in order to flog a few more shirts and shares.  Not much R and R there. 

And it's not just 4 PL matches there's the FA Cup as well, or should the PL clubs only come in at the 4th round perhaps - that competition is now so watered down as to be unrecognisable. And when does the season end? And should players be playing midweek matches at the start of the season when they are not wholly fit (like we do)? Or should the PL be 18 or 16 or 14 clubs rather than 20 so they have fewer matches - and what's the knock on effect to the other leagues?

The argument that English players will learn, compete with and therefore develop better with the overseas players in the EPL has proven to be nonsense. The overseas players have taken over and are steadily pushing English players out (and those from other UK countries too).  The same is happening with owners and managers, which is why we are struggling to find an English national manager and to find English players good enough to win an international competition at a time when everything else should be going for them

Ok, but the alternative is English players playing in a weaker league, which doesn't do much to strengthen the national team either.  A "foreign player quota" system (is this what you're advocating?) wouldn't make our players any better, save from getting more game time, albeit in a much weaker league. It's very much a quick and lazy solution which would in my opinion do nothing.

I think the "game time" problem could be solved if players didn't take such a strong position against going and playing abroad, particularly in Germany where there are similar wages. You've got to give credit to players like Michael Mancienne, Micah Richards and even Ravel Morrison for taking a chance to further their careers rather than sitting in the reserves and slowly sliding down the football pyramid.

[eddie]

13 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Do you have any evidence to disprove him?!

It was a really silly thing to say but if that's what he truly believes what difference does it make whether he says it or not? 

Does not really affect anything from a footballing perspective other than he may be unlikely to play any disabled players!

On your first point - the onus is not on the denier of sky pixies of whatever form to disprove their existence.

It was a really silly thing to say - and it makes a huge difference whether he says it or not, not whether he believes it or not

Someone could hold opinions of an extremist, violent nature, justifying to themselves for instance the absolute destruction and utter annihilation of <insert anything or anyone here> - but unless they voice that opinion, let alone act upon it, then basically no harm done - because thankfully, we do not have 'thought police'.

What about a footballer with disabled friend, a disabled child, disabled parents etc? Should that footballer just discount the feelings of the manager? What about disabled fans? Shouldn't they be able to support England without thinking that the manager thinks them unworthy?

Take the current Brexit fallout. Over 300 incidences of 'hate crime' this week - six times the weekly average. Have we as a country suddenly become six times as racist, or have people who were always racist suddenly become more emboldened to act upon their rancid feelings?

Sometimes, the right thing to do is to say nothing.

 

[G STAR RAM]

2 hours ago, eddie said:

On your first point - the onus is not on the denier of sky pixies of whatever form to disprove their existence.

It was a really silly thing to say - and it makes a huge difference whether he says it or not, not whether he believes it or not

Someone could hold opinions of an extremist, violent nature, justifying to themselves for instance the absolute destruction and utter annihilation of <insert anything or anyone here> - but unless they voice that opinion, let alone act upon it, then basically no harm done - because thankfully, we do not have 'thought police'.

What about a footballer with disabled friend, a disabled child, disabled parents etc? Should that footballer just discount the feelings of the manager? What about disabled fans? Shouldn't they be able to support England without thinking that the manager thinks them unworthy?

Take the current Brexit fallout. Over 300 incidences of 'hate crime' this week - six times the weekly average. Have we as a country suddenly become six times as racist, or have people who were always racist suddenly become more emboldened to act upon their rancid feelings?

Sometimes, the right thing to do is to say nothing.

 

Yeah fair comment