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

[Bartonyellow]

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.

Passion starts with the national anthem. Half of the c*** probably don't even know the words. Watch the Italians. They sing with so much passion and look close to tears.
We needed a John terry last night.

 

[smat]

Passion starts with the national anthem. Half of the c*** probably don't even know the words. Watch the Italians. They sing with so much passion and look close to tears.
We needed a John terry last night.

Yeah, wish the trophy-laden John Terry era would come back.

 

[Benji]

The Times rated every player 0. Does that really help anyone? There's been a massive overreaction in the media about this result. They were disrespectful to Iceland before the game, and they're continuing to show massive disrespect to a team that won a game rightly and fairly.

 

[Nilsson]

The Times rated every player 0. Does that really help anyone? There's been a massive overreaction in the media about this result. They were disrespectful to Iceland before the game, and they're continuing to show massive disrespect to a team that won a game rightly and fairly.

It's one of the most embarrassing results and performances in English football history, the reaction is perfectly normal.

 

[smat]

The Times rated every player 0. Does that really help anyone? There's been a massive overreaction in the media about this result. They were disrespectful to Iceland before the game, and they're continuing to show massive disrespect to a team that won a game rightly and fairly.

Harsh on Sterling, who looked quite dangerous imo.

 

[JJH]

The Times rated every player 0. Does that really help anyone? There's been a massive overreaction in the media about this result. They were disrespectful to Iceland before the game, and they're continuing to show massive disrespect to a team that won a game rightly and fairly.

Harsh on Rashford, but that's about all I've got to say for it.

 

[CEngelbrecht]

It's one of the most embarrassing results and performances in English football history, the reaction is perfectly normal.

Denmark, Euro '92. Germany laughed at the Netherlands losing the semi to the holiday team from up North and expected a walk over in the final.
How about rendering unto bloody Ceasar, lads?

 

[jimmy whistle]

Passion starts with the national anthem. Half of the c*** probably don't even know the words. Watch the Italians. They sing with so much passion and look close to tears.
We needed a John terry last night.

Yeah, and maybe our gracious monarch could even partner JT at the back. At least then, there would exist something, somewhere in the world, that is even more shit than that post.

What if all of our players are passionate republicans!? What then!?

 

[CEngelbrecht]

 

[Bartonyellow]

Yeah, and maybe our gracious monarch could even partner JT at the back. At least then, there would exist something, somewhere in the world, that is even more shit than that post.

What if all of our players are passionate republicans!? What then!?

Well it would be a start. Half can't be arsed to sing the anthem. Stand there like lemons. Passion does not win you football matches but it is a start. Look at the some
Of the other teams. You can see it in their eyes. How much it means to them. Can England say the same? No. The talent is there, so it must be mental. Determination, application and a hard work ethic will help too. It did my team no harm for the last two seasons against better teams.
And yes - John terry. Someone who at least wore his heart on his sleeve and knew what it means.
A bit of Mike Bassett at half time would have not gone astray...

 

[JimJams]

The players have no confidence. It's not passion. Who else in the tournament has made needless changes for rotations sake? You shouldn't have people still playing for places during the competition. In friendlies when they're trying to stake a claim they can get greedy, in the tournament for the most part they got scared. Nobody wants to be the man that gives the ball away with a forward pass that didn't find it's intended target, so pass it back. Nobody wants to be the player that turns the ball over because apparently possession is more important than creating chances.
Rashford didn't play with that fear, he came on with fuck all time left, and took on his man 3 or 4 times. He got past him a few times but couldn't make it count and one time he beat his man and stood on the ball. But if he's given the opportunity to do that for a full game he'll beat the man a handful of times and do something dangerous. He might lose it 10 times, but so what? Far better playing like that and having a mix of turnovers with chances than having a player take the safe option and play it back. They'll not give the ball away but they'll create fuck all. I suppose of course we could get 40 yard free kicks for Kane to smash into the top corner though. That'll work.

 

[DarkSithLord]

The Times rated every player 0. Does that really help anyone? There's been a massive overreaction in the media about this result. They were disrespectful to Iceland before the game, and they're continuing to show massive disrespect to a team that won a game rightly and fairly.

Have to agree with this. . The total lack of respect we have shown Iceland is pathetic. Regularly comparing them to San Marino.. Hang on they won their qualifying group and managed to qualify for the knockout stages on merit.

 

[Red]

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.

I've just realised I typed we've got arguably the best team in the world, I meant league

 

[rudebwoyben]

Bartonyellow, this vote will not make us "regain our sovereignty", not that I ever thought that being part of the EU meant we had lost it in the first place.
Honestly, I think the best thing that we could all do for the England team is not watch them play, for the media to not report over every little minute detail of the England squad and for there to be no travelling army of England fans to cheer them on as it's clear that the pressure heaped on the players by all of the squad makes them freeze and play within themselves.

 

[mente captus]

Well it would be a start. Half can't be arsed to sing the anthem. Stand there like lemons. Passion does not win you football matches but it is a start. Look at the some
Of the other teams. You can see it in their eyes. How much it means to them. Can England say the same? No. The talent is there, so it must be mental. Determination, application and a hard work ethic will help too. It did my team no harm for the last two seasons against better teams.
And yes - John terry. Someone who at least wore his heart on his sleeve and knew what it means.
A bit of Mike Bassett at half time would have not gone astray...

hmmmm....

 

[Chris FGR]

Passion starts with the national anthem. Half of the c*** probably don't even know the words. Watch the Italians. They sing with so much passion and look close to tears.
We needed a John terry last night.

Maybe they'll find learning the words to this one a bit easier. It's definitely more fitting.

 

[West Terrace]

Passion starts with the national anthem. Half of the c*** probably don't even know the words. Watch the Italians. They sing with so much passion and look close to tears.
We needed a John terry last night.

What do you expect when the national anthem is about God, who most people don't believe in, and the queen who a lot of people don't care about.

 

[voltage]

Iceland!
Since the eliminatories Iceland is being really surprising. Glad to see them underdogging it. Beautiful celebration of this historical moment for their football national team too.

 

[Bartonyellow]

What do you expect when the national anthem is about God, who most people don't believe in, and the queen who a lot of people don't care about.

Then we need a referendum to change it......

 

[blademan89]

Then we need a referendum to change it......

The main other option is Jerusalem which is also about God. It gets sung with plenty of passion in the stands and a lot of us don't care about God or the Queen for that matter. The players we have are wankers Raheem hasn't even learnt the fucking words yet. Maybe stop ferrying them all over on private jets and staying in luxury hotels , i mean they dont even have to take there own fucking passports and then when they land home after another disgraceful tournament instead of picking the wankers up on the runway let them walk through the airport and receive every bit of abuse they fucking deserve. Set of shithouses

 

[Chris FGR]

I'd rather only pick a squad of Championship players instead of watching these massively overpaid, massively over-hyped, molly coddled bottlers pretending to give a shit.

It also doesn't help that several of them come across as cocky wankers, *cough* Sturridge, Sterling, Hart *cough* most of the time. I'd much rather support a team of honest pros like Iceland give absolutely everything and show real pride in playing for their country, then watch our pampered prima donnas strut around like cocks before turning in tournament after tournament of shite embarrassing performances.

And the FA better not go for Southgate.

 

[Pagnell]

Glad to see them underdogging it.

I always thought Stan Collymore was English.

 

[blademan89]

I'd rather only pick a squad of Championship players instead of watching these massively overpaid, massively over-hyped, molly coddled bottlers pretending to give a shit.

It also doesn't help that several of them come across as cocky wankers, *cough* Sturridge, Sterling, Hart *cough* most of the time. I'd much rather support a team of honest pros like Iceland give absolutely everything and show real pride in playing for their country, then watch our pampered prima donnas strut around like cocks before turning in tournament after tournament of shite embarrassing performances.

And the FA better not go for Southgate.

I agree and also put someone like warnock in charge he's a cock but he'd sort some of the pricks out. It won't happen though. The same old story will keep unfolding, do well for 2 years until the tournaments come round. Why not ever play players on merit instead of just always taking the big names from the big clubs repeatedly. Seriously why would sturridge be playing instead of townsend on the right hand side. Why is drinkwater a man whose won the league with a small club against all the odds and been superb all year not in the fucking squad at least. All just to suit the big names playing them all out of position. I'm sick of it.

 

[CEngelbrecht]

Sorry, couldn't help myself:

(Speech bubble: "All we need now is a bit of French wine...")

 

[Vale on Trent]

After having a bit more time to reflect and think about what went wrong, I've got to say the biggest issue any England team has had is team spirit and togetherness. Not just in this tournament, but tournaments before. In the majority of tournaments we simply have performed below par than we should have done with the teams and players at our disposal. We do not have bad players, our players were good enough to reach the semi finals, I really believe that.

However, there is no togetherness or team cohesion and there never has been. Do the players even know each other that well? How can they know each other and become good friends and team mates when the squads change so much? I'm not saying don't reward players who are performing at club level. However I think it's beneficial to keep the same spine throughout the team and just make subtle changes. Iceland played the same starting 11 in their 4 games so far, we chopped and changed to find a winning system which should have been found months ago.

All good teams are successful when they can buzz off each other and are willing to work for each other. At times it seemed like Kane and Sturridge were out there on the pitch for themselves. Sturridge will do his best not to pass and Kane will shoot from any given angle.

There is simply no need to use so many players. Have we ever known our best team?

 

[blademan89]

After having a bit more time to reflect and think about what went wrong, I've got to say the biggest issue any England team has had is team spirit and togetherness. Not just in this tournament, but tournaments before. In the majority of tournaments we simply have performed below par than we should have done with the teams and players at our disposal. We do not have bad players, our players were good enough to reach the semi finals, I really believe that.

However, there is no togetherness or team cohesion and there never has been. Do the players even know each other that well? How can they know each other and become good friends and team mates when the squads change so much? I'm not saying don't reward players who are performing at club level. However I think it's beneficial to keep the same spine throughout the team and just make subtle changes. Iceland played the same starting 11 in their 4 games so far, we chopped and changed to find a winning system which should have been found months ago.

All good teams are successful when they can buzz off each other and are willing to work for each other. At times it seemed like Kane and Sturridge were out there on the pitch for themselves. Sturridge will do his best not to pass and Kane will shoot from any given angle.

There is simply no need to use so many players. Have we ever known our best team?

Surely the obvious formation would of been the 4-1-2-1-2

Hart
Walker
Cahill
Smalling
Rose
Dier in the holding roll
Alii and lallana in midfield
Rooney just behind
And 2 of Kane,Vardy,sturridge up top.

That's surely what team he should of been playing if he was going to play the players he did. What I can't understand is how we went from imo a very good display against Russia which we should of won easily but after that each game just got worse and worse as the tournament went on. There must be serious issues going on behind the scenes at every tournament things are obviously being done wrong cos on paper over the years our actual team has not been worse than your Germany,Italy,Frances,spains. Yet we continue to just collapse at tournaments. The players clearly must not get on but we had 5 spurs players in this team who must get on basing it on there club performance this year. I'm still disgusted at what I saw on Monday I think we deserve proper answers the bastards need to stop being protected and stuck up for. I mean in the ground on Monday some absolute clowns were clapping them at the end ffs there worse than the players. I'm refusing to carry on going now until something changes.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

The players have no confidence. It's not passion. Who else in the tournament has made needless changes for rotations sake? You shouldn't have people still playing for places during the competition. In friendlies when they're trying to stake a claim they can get greedy, in the tournament for the most part they got scared. Nobody wants to be the man that gives the ball away with a forward pass that didn't find it's intended target, so pass it back. Nobody wants to be the player that turns the ball over because apparently possession is more important than creating chances.
Rashford didn't play with that fear, he came on with fuck all time left, and took on his man 3 or 4 times. He got past him a few times but couldn't make it count and one time he beat his man and stood on the ball. But if he's given the opportunity to do that for a full game he'll beat the man a handful of times and do something dangerous. He might lose it 10 times, but so what? Far better playing like that and having a mix of turnovers with chances than having a player take the safe option and play it back. They'll not give the ball away but they'll create fuck all. I suppose of course we could get 40 yard free kicks for Kane to smash into the top corner though. That'll work.

Yes, this was very much my impression. I think Hodgson deserves his share of the blame (didn't really seem to know what tactics to employ or even what personnel to start with) but this performance was simply baffling in its ineptitude. It's not as though we're incapable of playing football but you'd think the eleven who started against Iceland had never been acquainted with a football pitch before - it was that bad. If you can't master the basics (and I can only think that this is, for the most part, psychological and nothing to do with a perceived lack of PASSION) you're not going to stand a chance.

 

[Skinner]

I always thought Stan Collymore was English.

Dw I got it

 

[Vale on Trent]

Put yourself in Rooney, Walker or Rose's shoes after they were needlessly dropped vs Slovakia. Or even the shoes of Vardy, Sturridge and Kane who were completely messed about with. Would you want to play for the manager? Would your team spirit be high? Would you be feeling positive and raring to go? The answer is no.

You don't win a game in the last seconds vs Wales then completely try and lose all of the momentum and buzz.

 

[tinpot]