Mails: Did England take too many kids?

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Did England have too many kids?
Southgate was 100% right to turn down England!!

Why the f**k would he want to come into a job where pressure and expectation is now at an all-time high?

Deep down neutrals were hoping the Vikings would do over France too but…oh wait France didn’t bottle it unlike someone else!!

This could be why…

Here are the number of U22 players that each of the ‘big boys’ had in their squad for tournament.

England -7 (five regulars only Stones and Barkley didn’t play)

Germany -6 (2 regulars – Kimmich and Draxler)

France -4 (1 regular – Coman)

Spain -2 (neither played)

Italy -1 (didn’t play)

Belgium -5 (1 regular – Currasco)

Portugal -3 (2 regulars – Gomes and Sanches)

This could be the reason why we bottled it so badly against Iceland!! Because these five players didn’t know what the f**k they were doing at times!! Also the more ‘experienced’ players Wilshere, Lallana, Sturridge, Rooney were all out of position so they didn’t know what the f**k they were doing. We even had a manager who when was asked to justify his failures post resignation, also admitted to not knowing what the f**k he was doing there!

Secondly I couldn’t help but think the pressure was piled on to Rooney like Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, Hazard, and even Bale get from their national teams! Partly due to his dreadful season with Man United but I don’t think Cahill, Vardy and Milner had enough responsibility to lead the team. Also Joe Hart obviously needs tranquilising in a high-pressure situation! Just watch the penalty shoot-out against Italy four years ago to see what I mean!!

Only one man to blame for all of this!!

How the f**k does Roy not see all this? I think it’s because win, lose or draw he had his eyes fully focused on his retirement plan! The last thing we need is a manager who is in a similar stage of life i.e. Gus Hiddink, Luis Filipe Scolari, and other worrying names being circulated!

So the way I see it there is a clear criteria for the next England manager:

We need a manager who is:

– Good at getting the best out of the younger talented players by coaching and teaching them!!

– Able to take this mountain of pressure off of the national team that has been here since at least 1996

– Motivate these players to want to kill for England!!!

– Share the responsibility of the senior players to lead these younger players during the game!!

Joachim Low served under Jurgen Klinsmann before EARNING the privilege to manage the national team. I would not be surprised if Hans-Dieter Flick (Germany Asst coach) succeeds Low when he steps down!!

I think Southgate, G Nev and Shearer etc. need a similar career path for England to be successful. They need a charismatic experienced head coach to mentor them!
An England fan who is still feeling dejected a week later! (London)

That’s not how chaos works…
John Nicholson reckons football is chaos. But that goes entirely against the observable evidence that England are consistently crap while Germany, Italy and France are mostly pretty good.

Sure, one or two of them might have a dodgy tournament every now and then, but you know that even if they fail to get out of the group stages one year, they’re probably going to go back to being contenders next time or the time after that. Success breeds success.

Even in the most chaotic part of football, the penalty shoot-out, Germany will most likely win. The commentators in the Italy game were amazed when Germany missed a penalty, since apparently they hadn’t failed to score one since 1982. That’s not chaos, it’s innate superiority.

England almost never produces great international football teams. It also almost never produces great tennis players, gymnasts, sprinters, boxers, etc, whereas other countries have done so consistently for decades. The only sport where Britain really seems to have a marked advantage over other nations of late is cycling, and that’s probably because they’ve spent a fortune on bringing in the very best coaches and made them as accessible as possible to a wide range of potential talent.
Martin, BRFC

Penalties BEFORE extra-time please
Let’s face it, Shehzad Ghias in this morning’s mailbox is right: The current format means that extra time is (in the current format) generally speaking, a waste of time.

However, as previously discussed here in the mailbox, there is no need to scrap it – instead we should be playing penalties BEFORE extra time, with the advantage going to the team that won the penalty shoot-out.

No more will we have to endure two teams being cagey for 30 extra boring minutes, or ‘playing for penalties’. Instead we will have one team throwing absolutely everything at it – the other defending for their lives. The attacking team leaving spaces open perhaps? Who knows…but it has to be a damn sight more entertaining than it is now.

Also, no more blaming the last penalty-taker to miss! As it is the team’s responsibility to go out and win the match in extra time should they lose the penalty shoot-out.

Can we start a petition or something?
David Aina, Croydon

Why the Martial clamour?
To the bemused (and presumably Manchester United supporting) mailboxers asking what Martial has to do to get a game, it’s fairly simple. He either needs to be better than Griezmann or Payet (he isn’t), better than Coman coming off the bench (hasn’t put a foot wrong and is lightning quick) or grow a clear foot to provide the same aerial threat/physical presence Giroud/Gignac do.

Given the much-maligned Giroud has notched three goals and two assists in five games I think Deschamps is justified in not changing a winning formation to accommodate an untested player.
Simon (it’s not rocket science) CFC

Pogba or Kroos? Who runs around a lot?
My heart agrees with Ted that Toni Kroos would be a better signing for United than Pogba. However my head, swayed by wonderful insight from Martin Keown in the 5 Live pre-match drivel on Saturday night, goes with Pogba.

Keown was highly critical of Kroos as he doesn’t run around enough.

Get Keown into the new England set-up immediately and he can be first team coach in charge of ‘Running Around A Lot’.

Dan Walker was also wonderfully inept when trying to describe Conte as the “new bestest manager in the world” until Gab Marcotti reminded him that Italy were only in a quarter-final and to not get carried away with himself.
Plato, MUFC (Not really agreeing with Keown)

How transfers work, part 428
I understand that Ted, Manchester was merely stating who he’d prefer to see in/out at Man UTD, and he’s entitled to an opinion as much as anyone. However, he does try to make sense of the transfer policy (Pogba over player ‘x’, ‘y’ or ‘z’) without considering THE most critical part of the transfer process. It’s the murky world of football agents. I’ll let people draw their own conclusions but in case you are not aware, two of UTDs big summer signings Mrs Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan both have the same agent, Mino Raiola. As it happens, Railoa also represents Paul Pogba…of course the rumours could just be coincidence!?

There are loads of other examples of how much agents influence the modern game (see G.Neville and Valencia), but probably the most recent high profile has to be Falcao’s bizarre transfer to Chelsea last season, despite the wages and appalling season at UTD the year before…bizarre until you consider that both Mourinho and Falcao are represented by Jorge Mendes. Undoubtedly the most powerful and honest man in football since Sepp Blatter. You can imagine the conversation right now…

“Hey Jose, want to sign any of the star players on my books? Well I’ve got this lad called Radamel and someone needs to pay his wages for the next 12months…”

It’s wrong, but it’s how football transfers (and rumours) work in the modern day.

(I used CAPS to emphasize my point, that means I can claim this is an ‘exclusive’ right?)
Dave

Ox to the Saints?
Surely Southampton makes more sense Storey? Especially having just sold Mane.
Matt, AFC

Italy lucky with their keepers…
So Buffon has said he’ll play on until the World Cup, currently on 161 international caps. Looking ahead at Italy’s fixtures, they have 10 World Cup qualifying matches to play, plus friendlies. This year and the next, coupled with the World Cup mean Buffon is set to become the most capped international player in the history of (Men’s) football.

This is no less than he deserves as a great stalwart of the international team with a career at 18 years and five World Cups.

The only question on this is the quality of Donnarumma. Will Italy decide to look to the future and instead play him over Buffon?

I truly hope not, and hope Buffon hits the 184 caps he needs, regardless of Italy’s performance at the WC. After that, Italy can then look forward to another 20 years of one keeper owning the nets through the young AC Milan talent, how lucky they’ve been to have him come through at the perfect time, having two goalies hold that position potentially for 40 years between them.
KC (could have been Casillas but De Gea is 3 years too old/good)

On Petrov’s incredible comeback
I have been a keen reader of your website for a number of years. You actually were a great inspiration for me to start writing some articles of my own.

A couple of days ago, I wrote an article on Stiliyan Petrov’s incredible comeback from leukaemia. Being a medical doctor myself as well as an avid football fan, I couldn’t help but be impressed by his story.

I wanted to share this article with you, partly because of the effect the story had on me and also as a sign of gratitude for your inspiration.
Julian Delicata

This one is going in the file…
So, with Chelsea’s new-look front line of Diego Costa and Michy Batshuayi, how long do you reckon it will be before we get the headline ‘Batshuayi Mental’?

Sorry.
Neal Boland, LFC, Dublin

Please stop swearing, F365
I love F365 – I read it every day. It may be that I’m just noticing it more but isn’t there an increasing amount of asterisks about the headlines and taglines nowadays? In the body of a commentary or feature article fair enough but splayed all over the front page makes your site look like it’s increasingly conforming to a laddish football stereotype that over the years (and to it’s credit) F365 has managed to remain aloof of. You’re well capable of expressing your insights and opinions in better ways than just using four letters at a time.

Keep it down would you? How can I recommend a site like yours to friends if the first thing that comes up is a headline like today’s Mediawatch Headrest headline? Isn’t F365 for everyone – not just foul-mouthed nincompoops (or any other non-sweary pejorative term you may fancy)?

Keep rolling
Mark, Essex man in exile