Last 16: England v Iceland 27th June, 8pm

[Blitzballer]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1015839705130585

 

[tinpot]

Dear Forum
Firstly I wish to apologise, unreservedly to all, for the profane & immature comments I have posted during the England v Iceland match. This was due to the fact that I had expected the England team to put up a decent account of themselves, and I got a bit carried away under the circumstances. (Mainly fuelled by a very fine bottle of Merlot). Post match, & having quaffed a couple of scotches, and had time to reflect on what I had witnessed by a laclustre & incompetent football team, & their previous three games, I wish to comment in a more mature manner.

Hodgson: YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE!
Hart. Thank god you play for Man City.
Walker. Pretty good. (But tonight you were Dier[sic]).
Clyne. Did alright from what I saw.
Bertrand. Not given a proper chance.
Cahill. Meh.
Smalling. Meh.
Rose. Did not bad.
Dier. Nice free-kick. After that you thought you were fuckin' Archie!
Milner. Words fail me.
Alli. Meh.
Henderson. Thank the Lord you play for Liverpool.
Rooney. You are not on the set of Escape to Victory. Get a grip.
Sturridge. You also are not on the set of Escpae to Victory, & stop that stupid dance bollocks.
$terling. You're crap. Again, thank god you play for Man City.
Kane. Your job is to get on the end of corners & free kicks, NOT TAKE THEM!!!!!
Wilshere. Does matron know you're out of bed?
Lallana. Vanilla.
Vardy. Not given the chance.
Rashford. (See Vardy).

If I have missed anyone out, I apologise. If I have, you obviously didn't make any impression on me.

And.................breath. Good Night All.

 

[Kim Mitten]

Just like to say a massive thank you to England tonight, I knew you'd come through and do me proud on my Iceland 2-1 England (after 90 minutes) bet, just a shame I only put a fiver on it, I really should have had more belief in you all.

 

[JoshBCFC]

Thank god the inept manager that is Roy is gone.

 

[Bobbin']

Seen some poor, gutless England performances in the past but that one truly tops the lot.

Hodgson reading off a piece of paper to announce his resignation, pathetic. It was obviously pre-prepared, he clearly knew we weren't going to go far.

 

[JoshBCFC]

Oh, and congrats to Iceland.

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

I didn't expect us to win the thing, nor play fantastically well but I was confident going in to the tournament that we'd be tougher to beat and give some of the big-boys a scare. I'm still stunned at how poor we were last night. I can take going out, we've been there and done that many-a-time but that? What a fucking disappointment.

 

[Bobbin']

Oh, and congrats to Iceland.

Absolutely.

Thoroughly deserved it and showed our overpaid frauds right up.

 

[TheArtfulDodger]

Lovely stuff, England as a country has show itself to be a inward looking tosspot of a nation. Only fitting they were dumped out unceremoniously,

 

[Red]

The probem is always the same. We sleepwalk into every tournament thinking we'll do well. Arguably we have got the best league in the world and as individuals the England players are all excellent. However, collectively they just never gel.

 

[Gassy]

Nearly all of those players were taught a footballing lesson by Leicester that if you play with heart and passion, you can go a long way.

I would have thought they'd have learnt something over the course of the season; clearly not.

Absolutely pathetic last night, really the players should be ashamed when they look in the mirror. I have never seen a worse England performance in my life time. And how Hodgson can say it's been a fantastic 4 years is a complete farce.

 

[Mustard]

Being an Arsenal fam prepared me well for this level of 'we're not actually that bad' to complete disappointment so I'm not really upset about going out. The players were shit last night but still the majority of the blame has to go to Roy. Switching to 4-3-3 and then not brining any wingers was diabolical. His tactic of shoving all our strikers on the pitch showed him to be a bit of a footballing dinosaur, nice bloke that he is. The signs were there in all 3 group games that we were a bit shit so it's no surprise to go out early.

That being said the individual perfomances yesterday can't be attributed just to poor management. Rooney, our best player in the group stages along with Walker, couldn't hit a simple 5 yard pass well. Kane managed to knock about £10m off his value in one game. Sturridge's god obviously left him. Walker has had a good tournament as I said, but everybody knows he is shit defensively and today it cost us. Hart should be advertising Shoulders because he lost his head (badum). The only players to come out with any vague credit were the subs, Rose and Smalling who actually looked bothered and were moving, but that really is slim pickings, especially since our 86th min sub was probably our MotM. Those other players just weren't astoundingly bad, and think the midfield struggled more because of how bad the strikers were...complete lack of movement.

 

[Pagnell]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=544526819086251

When you spot yourself on the big screen and want to look like you have a plan....

I laughed.

 

[blademan89]

Very fucking tired and very very depressed this morning. I think that's it for me with England at least until they start showing the effort and passion thousands of us do spending fortunes going to watch the set of wankers. That was beyond pathetic last night an absolutely shameful display

 

[JJH]

The probem is always the same. We sleepwalk into every tournament thinking we'll do well. Arguably we have got the best team in the world and as individuals the England players are all excellent. However, collectively they just never gel.

That's the thing though, we absolutely don't. The English public like to make out we have a fantastic chance squad, but we haven't had for years.

I'm surprised people go into the tournaments with the same levels of optimism - I'd learnt my lesson before this tournament, and we went out as soon as I expected to. Still, come 2018, most clowns will still believe that we actually go into the tournament with a decent chance of winning it. Fat chance.

 

[mente captus]

i hope Rooney retires now from international football. awful captain who cant lead a team. Hart should also quit but i am pretty sure he will become the new captain when Rooney steps aside.

England should fire the whole staff, damn are they awful. i heard Roy sent 5 scoute to the Austria-Iceland match and they still conceded a goal from a throw-in.

anyway: i laughed a bit as i heard Sigthorsson scored the winner ( i missed the match) and replied to a friend: who else?

Sigthor sounds equal to the german Siegtor, which means (game) winning goal

 

[The Unbeliever]

Nearly all of those players were taught a footballing lesson by Leicester that if you play with heart and passion, you can go a long way..

You also need a way of playing and a manager that can instill confidence not erode it. God knows what Spurs fans are thinking, RH gets 5 players from the second best team in the league last season and in the space of a few weeks sends them home with their confidence and self belief shot.

 

[St. Juste]

It's a bit of a shame, the cycle of massively overhyping average players, mocking the opposition and planning for games they hadn't yet qualified for was going so well for them - now they must ponder how, despite all the odds, footballs greatest underachievers have achieved a level of capitulation and embarrassment even their greatest detractors thought scarcely possible.

Russia and Ukraine will be delighted, their blushes spared

The cycle rumbles on, from Keegans "we'll smash Germany" to Murphys "why we'll cut through Iceland" and Hodgsons "we'll hammer someone eventually", if they are fortunate enough to qualify for the next World Cup each opponent will be weak, there for the taking and terrified of the mighty English. Probably managed by a football luminary like Gareth Southgate or - please, for all that is holy - Glenn Hoddle, reincarnated as someone angry when football teams don't play to the strength of the opposition.

Joe Hart wants to get England back to "where they belong in world football" and he has gone some way to achieving that in this tournament - right at the bottom, pitied, but not feared.

 

[Seventyseven]

Fortunately, I didn't have to watch that debacle last night. Unfortunately, I listened to it on the radio driving back home from Leicester. The ball and chain was in the car with me.... and the final whistle blew..... 'Are Iceland a very good team then?' she asked all so innocently....(she'd had her headphones on listening to some durge from the 80s throughout the whole game). I just smiled.

 

[Etienne Vermeer]

 

[PoolieTom]

Tenner to charity on that?

This Kane performance has got to be one of the worst single performances for England I've seen in a long time

International retirement for Rooney, please. Quite honestly the worst individual performance I have ever seen. [emoji1]

Silkyman, in my defence, I didn't say who the worst single performance would belong to. Turns out it was all 11. You can give the money to Macmillan please.

 

[SALTIRE]

Hahahaha!
Lineker's opening line on MOTD.
"Surprised you've joined us, you must be a glutton for punishment."

Or someone like myself who thoroughly enjoys the autopsy of another failure, though even by England's standards, last night was in a league of its own.

 

[SALTIRE]

Do me a favour and get rid of your stupid avatar.
I've just watched 11 c*** on the pitch. Don't need to see your Jimmy krankie look-a-like

All the more reason to keep my avatar then, Sturgeon is the one honest politician still around who isn't backstabbing their felow party members and is actually trying to sort this mess out for us up here that you lot put everyone in.

 

[St. Juste]

Where do you even start with that, don't want to take too much credit away from Iceland who did what they were excellent at for 90 minutes, very well organised and brave, but that was absolutely pathetic from England. Started off well with the penalty but as soon as they got that instant equaliser from us switching off from a set piece, I knew it was going to be a long night. As it got further into the game our players seemed frightened to get on the ball and make things happen, even the simplest 5 yard pass was being made to look like rocket science, embarrassing. Again we dominate the game possession wise, but we could have played till next week and we still wouldn't have carved out a clear cut chance, absolutely no cutting edge or substance to us not just tonight but all tournament.

Onto the next point which is Roy, he has absolutely done the right thing in resigning immediately after the game, although he obviously wasn't getting a new contract. His squad selection for this tournament would have been absolutely fine had he played a diamond formation, but why in fuckery would you choose 1 out and out winger in the squad.being an out of form Sterling at that, and deciding to play with wingers? Jack Wilshere's inclusion over Danny Drinkwater was also absolutely ridiculous. On top of that he saw clearly in the first game against Russia that it didn't work, Kane taking set pieces also didn't work, he addressed this in the next game which after 45 minutes got it right, however it didn't work against Slovakia, so what does he do? Reverts back to the same idea, and personnel that didn't work out in the first game. It's been an absolute joke of a tournament for us, skimping through a piss poor group and being embarrassed by Iceland, this is far worse than 2014. We do however have a very promising young group of players which you'd like to think will benefit from this experience, the next manager must however stick to a style of play and a system and choose the right players for it, not based on a player's club or reputation. We need to build our own style of play and stop trying to copy every other successful nations methods, as it's clearly not working. It definitely runs deeper than just the manager, but the next appointment is so important.

Oh yeah, they're pretty brilliant.

I don't think England fans will ever learn.

At least the media will stop asking French players what they think of facing England in the quarter finals.

 

[Laker]

I've had time to reflect now and I just don't think we're very good at football. I know that's a bit of a sweeping statement so bear with me.

There are several things wrong with the preparation of our young players, particularly the lack of top flight football. Aside from that, I was disappointed by the lack of fight and hunger in the team and it got me thinking why, especially when you look at players in other countries like Iceland, Hungary, Wales, Northern Ireland who seem to have it in abundance. Are our young players who do reach the top paid too much too soon? Does it damage that hunger, leaves them nothing to attain as they feel they've already "made it"? I'm speculating but there's clearly a mental issue there.

I also think our players are not as good intellectually as other players. I watched the Italy/Spain game yesterday and I thought Italy were fantastic at managing the game - knowing when to attack and when to keep the ball, when to just clear their lines, when to foul even. It's simple stuff but they a smart at it. The Germans are similar, Iceland demonstrated a fair chunk of it too. We showed very little to none across the entire tournament.

Further to the intellect point, our players seem fine when playing for their clubs but not for England. Why? I can only speculate they don't know how to adapt to different systems, to different players playing alongside them. They need to be smarter, more agile players if we are ever going to be successful at a tournament again.

With regards to technical ability, I don't think we're awful but that's not the point. You can coach players though you obviously can't polish a turd and each player has its limitations. But we invest as heavily as anyone in coaching young players in technical skills, I don't it comes down to that. It's the mental side where we are weak.

My concern, as a League 2 fan, is that it'll be the lower leagues that they now try to hit "with the reaction required". But that would be wrong, you are not going to resolve our failings by sticking our best youngsters out against League 2 sides who are not as am strong technically.

Brexit (whatever your views) possibly gives an option to restrict overseas players and to open up the leagues for young British players (depends on negotiation of free movement etc). If the opportunity presents itself, the FA need to act there. I won't hold my breath and I firmly expect us to struggle at the next x number of tournaments.

 

[Storzy]

All this passion talk is missing the point. Would we have broken Iceland down if Tim Sherwood was on the side line throwing his gillet on the floor? Maybe if Rooney had ripped his shirt hulk style and charged around like a headless chicken screaming "FOR ENGLAND! FOR ST GEORGE!!!"?

We lost because our team was set up by a fraud of a manager with no idea how he wanted the team to play beyond Rooney having to start. Sometimes the players can compensate for a lack of system, but ours can't or at least didn't on this occasion. Roy's only answer was to chuck on every striker and hope we bundled one in.

 

[Vale on Trent]

Can we stop with the passion nonsense? We can accuse the England players of many things but I wouldn't say they have no passion. I'm positive they wanted to win that game just as much as Iceland did.

For me, it comes down to mentality. From top to bottom, this country there is a negative mindset. Since the groups stage we were fearful and moaning about our potential half of the draw being hard. Do you think the Germans or Italians care whatever side of the draw their in or who they may play? They are confident they can beat anyone, we are not. We shit ourselves against Iceland, for God sake.

We freeze in tournaments. Players are clearly fearful and extremely nervous. Once Iceland took the lead we needed clear heads with the belief we could turn the game around. I would of expected other top international sides to turn that game around, just like France did against Ireland. We should have had the capability to do that.

The squad we have is good enough, arguably one of the best at the tournament. Can we even say we aren't producing good players? The players have always been there. There has got to be a deeper issue, which may root from the management. There is no system, no style, no clear outline of what is wanted. We have even moaned previously about ageing players, we now have a youthful, exciting squad. What's changed? Nothing.

 

[Vale on Trent]

Also, I am absolutely gutted. I was bursting with joy when we beat Wales with that last gasp goal. Not sure I've ever celebrated a goal like I did with that one. That is what following your nations football team is all about - in the pub with all your mates, having a drink and daring to dream.

After that and two decent performances in our opening games, I was filled with optimism, perhaps naively. I dared to dream that this England team could fill us with hope. I was never expecting us to win it, but not in a million years did I expect us to crash out like we did.

Perhaps we get too emotionally attached, I certainly do. The highs in following England have been few and far between but every low still hits me hard.

And yes, we will all repeat the procedure in 2 years time. What else are we meant to do?

 

[CEngelbrecht]

Guess a movie:

- The simple fact is we were soundly beaten.
- By comparison, the Surprise is a somewhat aged man-of-war. Am I not correct?
- Would you call me an aged man of war? The Surprise is not old. No one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She's a fine sea boat, weatherly, stiff and fast. Very fast, if she's well-handled. No, she's not old. She's in her prime.

 

[Bartonyellow]

All the more reason to keep my avatar then, Sturgeon is the one honest politician still around who isn't backstabbing their felow party members and is actually trying to sort this mess out for us up here that you lot put everyone in.

She is clueless and will lead you into political oblivion. Don't come crawling on your arse when your sovereignty has been stripped in the name of been part of the eu club. not that you will be allowed in anyway, as it may have escaped your attention that we voted to leave the European Union.