i love the long ball english game, wouldn't have us play any other way.

what we always say here is play to your strengths, our strengths are not stepovers and backheels or even quick passing, the english strength a is high pace, high tempo pressing game and i think we should play this at international football, the last 7 or 8 years in the champions league has shown me that played correctley this system can beat any team.

i've seen numerous times where british clubs just steamroll the opposition who are supposedly "better".

And the italian clubs always get beaten in england and most get beat in italy by english teams aswell when playing against a "direct" style

england should play this way with crouch or heskey upfront.

Does anybody else think the champions league is going to be more english clubs winning again?

before english clubs were suspended in 1990 they'd won 6 in a row and now we have had a finalist in the last 3 years and 3 semi finalists last year, with more quality foreigners coming all the time i think we could see history repeated.

bobbymoore:

And the italian clubs always get beaten in england and most get beat in italy by english teams aswell when playing against a "direct" style

id like to see the 2 national teams take each other on and see who wins. perhaps clubs may be able to beat italian clubs, like roma or lazio. but not juve, milan or inter. plus how many of the major clubs in the epl have prodominatly english squads???

what about today,why's england so shure that they gonna win?they may be happy if there's draw tonight

Alright, England are OFFICIALLY out, unofficially they were out already but  AT WEMBLEY?  England vs Croatia 2-3!  Home and away beaten by Croatia.  This will put to bed a few ideas about Brazil having it easy against Croatia in the World Cup and England's position on the international stage failing to qualify with Croatia and Russia in their group with a game to spare since Russia did England a favour and gave them hope of qualifying with a home game vs Croatia.

Yeah i love the long ball too, it's exciting and against World Class teams relatively ineffective, it puts teams in a groove ~ contain and pressure in attack.

The English teams are FILLED with non-English players who play England's style more effectively than the English themselves, that's why they can "steamroll".  Nonetheless, I strongly believe club football and international football are entirely two different brands of football and should be judged seperately because even though Liverpool were blazing a trail in Europe, England were not following suit, same with Man United's treble, Chelsea's emergence, Arsenal's unbeaten league run and CL final's run.   The same goes for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia etc.  It just doesn't translate into success for the national teams.  As I always say, if club success or league strength is connected to international success, then we'd rank the EPL rather low...don't you think ~ with Brazilian, Italian, French, German and Spanish leagues producing the majority of World Cup winners and stars and hence can be considered the best leagues in the World.

However, this is nothing to do with styles though.  I'll leave the World Class issue alone since it is too technical for this topic, but loosely speaking I'll agree thinking that Rooney is World Class, but not scoring in 4 years leaves questions i think.  Nonetheless, England do play typically English at the international level.

Most Italian teams are Italian, except Inter Milan who even wears the English Flag on their team shirt, but the English teams are not typically English with Arsenal having only Theo Walcott and Liverpool having only Gerrard & Carragher with only Chelsea and Man United perhaps considered English.

Does anybody else think the champions league is going to be more english clubs winning again?  We'll see, I wouldn't bet on it though because of one simple reason:  The EPL had 3 English clubs in the Semi-Finals, 1 in the Final and none of them winning.  So given that when they were 3 Spanish teams in a Semi-Final, 2 went to the Final and 1 won it all and the same for Italian teams, I am unwilling to trust English teams to repeat last year's success. 

In any case, as i said the club football is seperate to the national team and should be treated accordingly. 

problems with the manager tonight, obviously Bridge struggled today, he could have moved Barry to left back and brought on Heargreaves in the middle- playing Gerrard and lampard at the same time is just STUPID.

and to start the game with a 4-5-1 formation, when you're playing HOME???? no comment.

that's what i mean, when somebody comes out with a reasonable explanation as to why England FLOP, english fans simply dismiss it.. Are you gona tell me England were unlucky tonight?

the truth which England fans refuse to accept is, YOUR brand of football is SIMPLY not effective. If it was, England would have been in more finals than this dont you think? Like somebody said there is no cohesion in the team.. WAKE UP!!! there is a serious problem here and it NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED. stop kidding yourself.

Teee:

problems with the manager tonight, obviously Bridge struggled today, he could have moved Barry to left back and brought on Heargreaves in the middle- playing Gerrard and lampard at the same time is just STUPID.

and to start the game with a 4-5-1 formation, when you're playing HOME???? no comment.

that's what i mean, when somebody comes out with a reasonable explanation as to why England FLOP, english fans simply dismiss it.. Are you gona tell me England were unlucky tonight?

the truth which England fans refuse to accept is, YOUR brand of football is SIMPLY not effective. If it was, England would have been in more finals than this dont you think? Like somebody said there is no cohesion in the team.. WAKE UP!!! there is a serious problem here and it NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED. stop kidding yourself.

lmao i guess thats putting it bluntly and to the point. i agree with u 100% mclaren needs to resign to keep any part of his declining reputation. maybe he'd take ova birminigham?

the chinese dude wont let that happen lol

lmao i just read ...

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/65553,mcclaren-i-wont-resign.aspx

mclaren dusnt wanna resign..hahaha!!! poor england supporters.

ahmed tells me they're blaming Wenger for the foreigners on bbc sport forum.. God bless the english lol

Oh by the way, Bobby, I didn't say Italy was Miles ahead of England, but England are surely not in Italy's class either, since Italy's "Rooney", Gilardino, is not even Italy's main striker ~ that's an indication.  Totti and Nesta has retired from international football.  Imagine if that was Gerrard and John Terry...And you rate who you prefer from this starting eleven right now star-4-star, not the future, because the future may have different faces altogether.

Steve McClaren vs Donadoni ~  Donadoni- bare in mind Italy have Lippi, Ancelotti, Capello etc at their disposal

Buffon vs Scott Carson ~ Buffon

Luca Toni vs Wayne Rooney ~ Luca Toni

Iaquinta/Di Natalie vs Crouch/Defoe ~ Iaquinta/Di Natalie

Pirlo vs Gerrard ~ For argument sake - Gerrard although both are just as good!

Gattuso vs Gareth Barry ~ Gattuso

Ambrosini vs Joe Cole ~ although Ambrosini is great, i'll play and let Joe Cole

Camaronesi vs Shawn Wright-Philips ~ Camaronesi

Zambrotta vs Ashley Cole ~ Zambrotta

Cannavaro vs John Terry ~ Cannavaro

Panucci/Oddo vs Rio Ferdinand { Nesta would've been the comparison} ~ Oddo is good, but i'll let Ferdinand in

Barzagli{Palermo} vs Micah Richards ~ Barzagli

This is why I'd say that England are not in Italy's class: due to the calibre and quantity of quality players that Italy have at their disposal as opposed to England who scrape the barrel to find good players that can compete with these players in International competitions.  I have not even compared France and Spain.  What's more is that their players play all over Italy and not just at the major Italian clubs.

Bilic: Croatia Simply Better Than England Victory for Slaven Bilic’s Croatia at Wembley means they top the group, delighting the proud manager.

Gregory:

Oh by the way, Bobby, I didn't say Italy was Miles ahead of England, but England are surely not in Italy's class either, since Italy's "Rooney", Gilardino, is not even Italy's main striker ~ that's an indication.  Totti and Nesta has retired from international football.  Imagine if that was Gerrard and John Terry...And you rate who you prefer from this starting eleven right now star-4-star, not the future, because the future may have different faces altogether.

Steve McClaren vs Donadoni ~  Donadoni- bare in mind Italy have Lippi, Ancelotti, Capello etc at their disposal

Buffon vs Scott Carson ~ Buffon

Luca Toni vs Wayne Rooney ~ Luca Toni

Iaquinta/Di Natalie vs Crouch/Defoe ~ Iaquinta/Di Natalie

Pirlo vs Gerrard ~ For argument sake - Gerrard although both are just as good!

Gattuso vs Gareth Barry ~ Gattuso

Ambrosini vs Joe Cole ~ although Ambrosini is great, i'll play and let Joe Cole

Camaronesi vs Shawn Wright-Philips ~ Camaronesi

Zambrotta vs Ashley Cole ~ Zambrotta

Cannavaro vs John Terry ~ Cannavaro

Panucci/Oddo vs Rio Ferdinand { Nesta would've been the comparison} ~ Oddo is good, but i'll let Ferdinand in

Barzagli{Palermo} vs Micah Richards ~ Barzagli

This is why I'd say that England are not in Italy's class: due to the calibre and quantity of quality players that Italy have at their disposal as opposed to England who scrape the barrel to find good players that can compete with these players in International competitions.  I have not even compared France and Spain.  What's more is that their players play all over Italy and not just at the major Italian clubs.

good list. and ur still missing inzaghi, del piero, quaglierella, grosso, chiellini, zaccardo, ummz and there are loads more. but this is the english room.

soo, i heard mclaren got axed half-an-hour after the match. so was that expected??? i thought it would of been @ least 5minz afta the match lolz. the english board is at fault. they hired him from the start...

England out!

So is Mclarenn..

Today at  Noon Mclaren was sacked....

Unfortunate for him...

I cant bielieve the English are out....

Really...they cannot play as a team..

that is simple..

the coach has some mistakes but he wasnt the only reason

Hard Luck!!!

Lippi or Capello may be the replacemts..

But they will not be needed for after Euro 2008..

"and ur still missing inzaghi, del piero, quaglierella, grosso, chiellini, zaccardo...."  This is exactly my point that currently, teams like Italy, Spain, Brazil etc can afford to drop top players and still beat teams and win games, but England are behind in this aspect and it is not because of foreign players in the EPL.  It's simply that their players are just not that great....

McClaren was axed since England lost to Russia....lol ~ he was on borrowed time!  I want to put it to you and everyone:  Who ever believed that McClaren would've carried England to the next World Cup?  Not me for sure, i'm actually surprised he was even given a chance, much less allowed to last this long

Gregory:

Most Italian teams are Italian, except Inter Milan who even wears the English Flag on their team shirt

Just a little correction here: the English flag (known as St. George flag) was the flag of Genoa which was later adopted by English (to safely navigate throughout the Mediterranean Sea, at that time dominated by Genoa) and Duchy of Milan. In fact, even today, St. George's flag is known in Milan as "our" flag (mind that i live in Milan), hence Inter's shirts. :)

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducato_di_Milano

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa