Mike, I quite agree with all of your points. Although, I've always been against the idea of a foreign manager in charge of the England team... :roll: It's insulting, really, when we have several English managers (Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp to name do) who could do a reasonable job (ie. no worse than Kevin Keegan! :shock
for less than half of the money of which Eriksson and now Capello have demanded (£4m and £6m p/a respectively...
).
We know he's "insistent" in sticking with the same formation and playing Gerrard on the left but, when we were behind in the second-half, once again in this tournament, he took off our 'man of the first-half' (James Milner)! Yes, Joe Cole is the right kind of player to introduce but, you don't replace like-for-like when you need goals - lose one of the
three central midfielders!! :x
I've mentioned this before but, look at our starting XI from six/seven years ago... Give or take a few players (Johnson, Barry and Defoe) and it's essentially the same team. Look around and you'll see that just about every other nation has made changes, developed and improved (they're the ones going through to the semi-finals, and beyond).
When have you ever seen Gerrard, Lampard, Terry or Rooney on the England subs bench?! Far too many of our players are too "comfortable" with their 'unthreatened' positions in our starting XI. This needs shaking up! They go in to games with nothing to lose...
In fairness though, yes, you could argue that there aren't many 'better' players available in reserve... If we don't give new blood a chance though, how will we ever know? While he may've picked the "best" players (on paper), that doesn't necessarily make for a good team (Real Madrid and their 'Galacticoes', anyone?).
Lee Dixon made an interesting comment after the game about how we don't have a player like Germany's Ozil. Very true and yet, every successful team on the international stage has at least one creative playmaker like this.
For at least ten-years now, we've been left "hoping" that FIFA would introduce some form of technology to assist the referees in making decisions (regardless of their statement back in March; no-one is asking for this to "replace" the officials; only to assist). If it hasn't happened by now then, it isn't likely to happen anytime soon (at least, not while Blatter and co. are at the helm). It would take some form of strike action from the referees association and all clubs and major leagues in the highest European divisions before FIFA come close to feeling pressed in to taking action...
The simple fact is, controversy like this is what gets people (and not just football fans) talking about the game. Somewhere down the line, FIFA gain extra revenue from this - perhaps, a true sign of just how corrupt the modern game really is. It's the same reason that neither the FA or the Premier League will step in to introduce a restriction on the number of foreign players or a salary cap - if we can't attract the big-name international players then, our league is less appealing.
Back on the England front, I also believe it's wrong that we go in to these competitions "expecting" to win the tournament (all thanks to the media, there). We have a few very good individuals but, we're no world-beaters. Why couldn't we be content (and realistic) with a place in the quarter-finals? I would add that this pressure can't be helpful towards the players but, most of them have played in at least one Champions' League final...
I've seen some poor England games in the last nine-years; losing to teams including Macedonia and Andorra in the qualifiers... But, the performance this afternoon - in the knockout stages of the greatest stage in world football - beats them all, without question.