I don't think is down to the manager, England's embarrasing results were because of the players more than anything. Although, the last coach did a terrible job - discarding David Beckham for no reason at all!! I mean, Beckham was in my opinion the best English player in the World Cup, the rest of them (Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, etc, etc..) were very dissapointing - specially Frank Lampard (how boring is he).

But as I said before - 'it is down to the players..' - the players have an attitude problem, you can see it in their faces they think too much of themselves. Too much talk not nearly enough game, and the English game must be improved - it's like they never developed with the rest of the world (football-wise). The only World Cup England ever won - Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton were the key players, neither one of them played the so-called English game.. at least not the modern English game (the one with 'long ball' tactics  as plan A) - Bobby Moore was renowned for great reliabilty and calmness in the defense, he wasn't about sending long balls 80% of the time, he was a great passer and his passes were mostly groung-safe-passes. The same goes for Bobby Charlton, a great player who played great football.

On the other hand, Now in actuality (year 2007) England haves good players who play poor football - the English game doesn't requires world class skills, it requires good athletic qualities, good physical conditioning, etc, etc.. - But this is Football, and in football the one who wins is, most of the time, is the one who distributes the ball better, the one with the most ball possession.. and with long balls as an established style it will be very difficult for England to accomplish that 'good distribution and ball possession'. - England should take note from Brazil - the game is won in the midfield - Brazil's priority is their midfield, and they give their best to controll the possession of the ball.. seems like the best tactic given that Brazil has won 5 World Cups.

So in my opinion, England can have any coach, but until they change their style of play - they will keep under-achieving, or worse not even qualifying for tournaments. England needs to improve on some aspects of the game - in particularly the use of a playmaker. Most of the best teams in Football's history had one great playmaker; Brazil had Pele, France had Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, Argentina had Maradona, Netherlands had Johan Cruijff, etc, etc..  An example that accentuates England's ignorance in this respect is - the wasted talent of Matt Le Tissier, a natural talent, extraordinary goal-scorer, good passer, and skillful dribbler - but a talent the England manager's' at the time thought off as a luxury that England could not afford. Something that made that famous statement ridiculous is that if Southhampton could afford such a luxury as Le Tissier, why couldn't England??

England preferred hard-workers with good physical conditioning as playmakers, something that remains the same today. That hard-working scheme has given nothing in return to the national team, England needs to realise that to win mayor tournaments they need a good-proper-team instead of just big-overrated-names playing together. Good proper teams require different roles, and different styles of players - like Pele's Brazil, or Zidane's France - Zidane was never a hard-worker, that was Makelele's and Vieira's job, and the same goes for Pele and Brazil. I know for a fact that England would choose players like Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard over players like Matt Le Tissier or Juan Roman Riquelme or maybe even Zinedine Zidane - that should've stopped a long time ago, and since it hasn't given any trophies to this day - it should change.

Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard - maybe England would play better football with only one of them on the pitch. Of course, England should 'also' practice better football; short passing, triangulation, much better off-the-ball-movement, and applying more pressure, among other things.. The England national team should acomodate talents such as Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard to play to their strenghts instead of having that talent fit into a given scheme (much like Louis Van Gaal did with Riquelme in Barcelona) that really isn't effective. After Matt Le Tissier, there hasn't been any English player with such natural and creative skills. Maybe if England becomes much more flexible on their tactical scheme, maybe then we'll see another Matt Le Tissier.. Until then, let's see were athleticism and physical qualities take England.

That is why i question Steven Gerrard's eligibility as that midfield man.

You're correct, France's Zidane, Italy's Pirlo/Totti/Gattuso etc, Portugal's C. Ronaldo, Brazil's endless stars, Argentina's midfield, Germany etc have all won tournaments through outstanding midfield players with more than half decent forwards/strikers.  England lack both striking options and effective midfield options.  Sven said it, give me the players and i will play them because he played all of them and as we can see at MAnchester City, he didn't enquire about any of those players he used.

Lampard and Gerrard are the best of the lot..it is not their fault and give them to proper managers like Mourinho etc. you would've seen them work together.  Too bad Gerrard didn't bite and go to Chelsea that famous season ...

However, that incessant gung-ho style football will only make weak teams afraid and would only go unpunished by them as well.  Effective counter attacks would beat the long-ball football as well as simple possession-attacking football since they would always have only one or two players up front for the long ball out of defence.

They need a coach who will have the brain and the guts to select the best team, not the best 11 players.

Well similar to what i wrote for Spain,  the same applies...

England cannot continue to select players because they play for Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool and then fill the rest of the team with outsiders.  The coach/manager must realise that some good players play at other clubs and also must realise that he is selecting players to make a team not just like the EPL does to make money and profits.  If your best striker plays at Aston Villa, start him and not allow Wayne Rooney to play four years without scoring a goal or select Emile Heskey because he plays for Liverpool like they did before.  It is ridiculous how a striker who can't score 10 goals in a league is a national team's starting striker...Do some scouting...Italy's traditional formation is 4-4-2, but you know that they have used other systems ~ use the best system and be brave ~ grow a spine...If you have one striker and 40 midfielders than obviously a system like 4-5-1 might be better than to search all over the place for mediocre strikers to play a 4-4-2 because that's how England have always done it.

capello = coach of england. good idea.

their football may not be eye pleasin but the results will show.

I think Capello's the right choice, he got the brains to do what's right, the guts to do it , and the experience and serenity to do so whatever the critics and tabloids say.....

I don't know if the talk about Capello's football not being eye-pleasing or ugly is fair.  Mourinho's football isn't exactly pretty either, but the point is Capello's teams have not particularly played ugly football.  He plays the system that suits his players and England have not exactly been a nation who produces football that one can call not ugly or similar to the beautiful game.  Capello is ideal for England, because whatever he does will be better than most of the managers for England did over the last 50 years.

He's also ideal because he really do not have to care one way or the other what results are achieved and that may be cynical, but it's the truth ~ he's not English!

Players will be more compelled to perform for England than just play at Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea and to some extent Arsenal and automatically get their places booked. 

Another thing that England must realise is that they must not expect him to be a saviour like Jesus was, he cannot deliver trophies by simply being manager.  Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Portugal and other countries still have very good players that can beat England no matter who is coach or who is the starting 11.  Therefore, England must hold firm and be prepared for a long ride ~ it won't be easy and not because England is the "home" of football doesn't mean the world of football owes them anything, in fact, they owe the world a higher standard of football than losing to above average teams.

capello has vowed to learn english within a month b4 he meets his squad.

@ gregory, i said the football he will produce may not be eye pleasing cause some fans are very critical. for me, i luved him @ madrid. but he got the sack cause his football wasnt as good looking as barca's.

Understood, but i think real football lovers should appreciate great defensive teams as well as great offensive/attacking teams like Juventus back in the day who used to win 1-0 even with ten men or well, Barcelona's team with Ronaldinho in "form" a couple years ago.  Both will take your mind off scoring by the way they pass the ball around and uses so much team work...

At Madrid wasn't his best last season at least, cause i reiterate that it was more Barca's poor failings than Madrid's clear superiority.  This season is different a bit.  Capello, as some people noted, is not really a cup team coach, but his best teams were Juventus and Ac Milan i think, when he beat Barcelona 4-0 i believe i think it was him.

he still gets results. wherever he is

*Rumours*

- Capello is going to name Beckham as captain in Englands next international friendly. (For his 100th International) Terry to lose the captaincy afta that to either stevie or ferdinand.

- Carlo Cudicini to be an English International and one of their keepers. He hasn't played for Italy yet. So capello wants him.

Baldini: England Need More Technical Skill Franco Baldini - a member of Fabio Capello's team - has criticised the English players for a lack of technical skill, and insists the players will be working double training sessions while on international duty in order to reach the standard expected of England new Italian bosses...

Capello's right hand man was merciless in his assessment of England's lack of style; underlining that the coaching staff were doing their best to beat the long ball philosophy out of the team.

"We are trying to play more with the ball because the English culture is after two, three horizontal passes the crowd is asking for the ball [gestures through the air, referring to a long ball]," he said.

Why do people say that England have the best players in the World?

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