Bad miss by Bent, not sure how much of it came down to being on his left foot - he was trying to do the right thing and put into the top of the net, that way if there were any dying lunges from defenders it should have gone over their them and in. It's actually good finishing in principal but he screwed it up and got underneath the ball.
The other chance the ball just got a bit too far in front of him and the keeper did very well in getting off his line so quickly.
Both Young and Downing squandered good chances, but Benty will doubtless get a pasting because his was a something of a sitter. All strikers miss chances like that from time to time, even the very best. Had the rest of the team not been so shite for 60 minutes of the 90 it wouldn't have mattered. Not that knuckle draggers who come out of the woodwork on the weekend of an England game will understand that.
Agreed about Bent should have scored but you just get the feeling everyone was waiting for that to jump on his back. I was there today and a couple of morons behind me shouted "the new Heskey". Says it all really.
Part of me hopes England don't qualify. We are a poor team that plays poor football. Capello hasn't got the magic wand we need and comes out with a "we lacked energy" excuse.
Darren Bent to the world at large is as Kevin Lisbie was to Charlton fans. The perennial scapegoat.
Someidiot called Ian phoned 606 saying Benty was only an average premiership striker and that tosser Alan Green eagerly agreed.
Yesterday's was a bad miss but you are not continually the highest scoring Englishman in the Prem whilst playing for middling clubs if you are average!
Only Drogba and Rooney have scored more PL goals in the last six seasons (only by single figures as well) and they have been surrounded by a wealth of attacking talent and had superior coaching... not to mention the fact that their respective teams have carved up the division in the process.
On the other hand... Benty has had 2 years with us, one a relegation season wrecked by injury, 2 years bench-warming and having his confidence destroyed by Spurs yet still being their top scorer one of those seasons, 18 months in a diabolical Sunderland side and 6 months at Villa who have had their worst season since the O'Dreary days (though suddenly things seem to have picked up since January, I wonder why).
Shocking miss by Bent. He should have put that away. It won't do his reputation any good at all. It's time we got away from this infatuation with using foreign coaches. Since we've gone down this road the standard of English football is just getting worse and worse. I thought we were abysmal yesterday. An embarrassment actually. You compare us to Spain or Germany for example and we're just a joke. Got to start at the grass roots and get back to the basics of using British born players and coaches in our league. Until then it's going to continue as it is. A joke.
Part of me hopes England don't qualify. We are a poor team that plays poor football. Capello hasn't got the magic wand we need and comes out with a "we lacked energy" excuse.
Part of me feels that way as well. On paper that team shows how far the quality of English players has dropped over the past decade. I can't see any manager doing much better with the players at their disposal, however not that Capello is without blame, why on earth start Milner over Ashley Young?
all the swiss chances and both goals came from sloppy mistakes. another side that just comes to wembley and gets a solid unit behind the ball. with the injuries we had upfront, it was going to be hard to break them down, especially as bent is an in behind striker. he was very isolated yesterday but still had a couple of chances. on another day we win 4-2 and its all happy days.
its in our hands, we will qualify and we will go out in the QF's.
Gary, not sure it is an over reaction to yesterday's game. I've felt like this for quite a while regarding the national team, at the moment this group of players are not good enough to compete against the very best in the world, I agree we will probably qualify automatically however after that it will be the usual hype from the press and then the depression that comes with poor performances and getting knocked out by a far superior side. The talent just isn't there at the moment.
Taking yesterday's game in isolation though, the Swiss had more shots in total and more shots on target than England, and England only marginally had more possession. I'm not underestimating the Swiss as they have had a very good youth policy for a number of years now, have done very well at youth tournaments and now a few decent players are coming through. However at home we should still be beating every team in that group, is it 4 matches at Wembley now without a win? Not good enough
but these things wont happen over night. capello has changed to 4-3-3....involved parker & wilshire.
the wales game we dominated and looked like a good side, ok it was against wales, but the germany game wasnt even a year ago...do you not think we have made a slight improvement since then?
still have rooney, gerrard, defoe to come back into the side.
Agreed it won't happen overnight and yes he has changed things (he had to really) but still against middle of the road nations we don't look great. The problem as I mentioned earlier is that the quality of players is not there and you yourself have eluded to it by saying Defoe is to come back in. Really? Bloke can't even get in the Spurs side. As for Gerrard I have no doubts he will play but for me the central midfield isn't really a problem at the moment, I thought Parker and Wilshere actually complimented each other quite well.
defoes had his injury problems this season, was out for nearly 3 months and struggled to find form. think next season he will be back to his best and for some reason i get the feelin he would have put both of bents chances away yesterday.
i agree with the parker and wilshere combo, i like that, maybe remove lampard and replace with gerrard.
only person that worries me is johnson. the other 10 are imo good enough make england a top 5 in the world side if they remain fit.
With a full squad available, on our day, we could compete with everyone bar Spain.
Bent can do a great job against lesser quality but isn't up to 'beyond the group stages' opposition.
Went to the game with my young lads who I have brainwashed into being Bent fans. The miss was right in front of us. They were both shocked, oppened mouthed, with hands on heads. I really felt for them and racked with guilt for filling there heads with such pro Bent propaganda I came out with something along the lines of 'even the great Benty misses the odd sitter'. If I was totally honest to how I was feeling I would have been screaming 'you useless overpaid f**"! '
''With a full squad available, on our day, we could compete with everyone bar Spain. ''
Oh come on! Didnt the world Cup teach you anything? DONT believe the hype. We dont train kids properly, mainly due to previous governments selling playing fields, we have one oft he lowest %ges of coaches in Europe and our national governing bodies cant agree on their priorities. Money or long term skills aquisition.
Oh and have you considered Germany might have quite a good call to be better than us?
Without wishing to get too political you will find that Thatcher started selling the playing fields, and the soul of the British people. No excuses can be made for the very poor standard of the national team. The EPL was sold to the highest bidder and the influx of foreign players has helped destroy our game at a national level. Venables had the last semi decent England team, and it will never return........we are poor.
''With a full squad available, on our day, we could compete with everyone bar Spain. ''
Oh come on! Didnt the world Cup teach you anything? DONT believe the hype. We dont train kids properly, mainly due to previous governments selling playing fields, we have one oft he lowest %ges of coaches in Europe and our national governing bodies cant agree on their priorities. Money or long term skills aquisition.
Oh and have you considered Germany might have quite a good call to be better than us?"
This sums it up for me. We need to realign our outlook on the national team. Whilst we arguably have one of the best domestic leagues in the world we nowhere near have one of the better national sides. Because of our overconfidence/ arrogance/ expectation we also build up pressure beyond ability and this also makes us a team that everyone wants to beat.
We need to restructure the way we do EVERYTHING from grass routes level upwards and stop throwing money at foreign managers (with excellent records but cultural differences that need bridging) and bringing out "Our Time Has Come" pre- tournament songs hoping they are an instant fix to returning the glories of 1966 (light years away in terms of how football has moved on). Encourage better coaching and domestic managers at the top level also.
As for fans we need to see ourselves as a Croatia, a France or a Sweden . We are not in the same league as the Spanish/ Brazilians or Argentinians technically and lack the mentatlity of the Germans or the tactical nous of Italian teams.
As much as it hurts to say it we arent as good as the media likes to think and they just build us up for a fall on the pitch and disappointment off it.
Sooner we start to expect less the sooner well stop being as let down...and well probably end up playing better for it.
Spain has come of age and are a thrill to watch, as were other great nations in their day in years gone by.
We must do what we do best, keep plugging away and if we have a group of top quality come through at the same time we should do well.
All this change the coaching nonsense is really annoying. Coaching is constantly changing, evolving. You obviously have no experience of it whatsoever RCT.
To say we are not in the same league as Argentina is quite ridiculous too, just look at our results against them. The games in Mexico, France and Japan were great epics.
This time next Year Rodders. Go roll up a fag and chill.
'' All this change the coaching nonsense is really annoying. Coaching is constantly changing, evolving. You obviously have no experience of it whatsoever RCT.'' It might annoy you but you may be missing the point. Its not about CHANGES in coaching, its about having enough (in England this means having TEN TIMES more) fully qualified coaches in the game so that quality coaching filters down to the age when the basic skills, such as keeping the ball, are engendered. This simply isnt happening to the degree necessary to raise our national game.
If you are happy 'plugging away' as you accurately describe the last few decades of team England football then, yes, we might strike lucky with enough players who succeed DESPITE our coaching network, to win a mojor tournament. In a way, though, I hope we dont because then it will all be forgotten and the country will slip into another barren half century.
What is better than plodding along (what happened to the root and branch changes voiced just after the last world cup, and the one before that??) would be to give more of our youth more chances to be better trained to reach higher levels which should reduce the number of foreign players in the PL and increase the pool from which the National team (and those of the rest of the UK, could choose from.
Then we might finally move away from Crouch Heskey and the like being thought of as world class players.
I'm not holding my breath though, despite the fact that the money is available to the FA
Comments
Bad miss by Bent, not sure how much of it came down to being on his left foot - he was trying to do the right thing and put into the top of the net, that way if there were any dying lunges from defenders it should have gone over their them and in. It's actually good finishing in principal but he screwed it up and got underneath the ball.
The other chance the ball just got a bit too far in front of him and the keeper did very well in getting off his line so quickly.
Both Young and Downing squandered good chances, but Benty will doubtless get a pasting because his was a something of a sitter. All strikers miss chances like that from time to time, even the very best. Had the rest of the team not been so shite for 60 minutes of the 90 it wouldn't have mattered. Not that knuckle draggers who come out of the woodwork on the weekend of an England game will understand that.
Darren Bent to the world at large is as Kevin Lisbie was to Charlton fans. The perennial scapegoat.
Someidiot called Ian phoned 606 saying Benty was only an average premiership striker and that tosser Alan Green eagerly agreed.
Yesterday's was a bad miss but you are not continually the highest scoring Englishman in the Prem whilst playing for middling clubs if you are average!
Arseholes the lot of them!
It's time we got away from this infatuation with using foreign coaches. Since we've gone down this road the standard of English football is just getting worse and worse. I thought we were abysmal yesterday. An embarrassment actually. You compare us to Spain or Germany for example and we're just a joke. Got to start at the grass roots and get back to the basics of using British born players and coaches in our league. Until then it's going to continue as it is. A joke.
all the swiss chances and both goals came from sloppy mistakes. another side that just comes to wembley and gets a solid unit behind the ball. with the injuries we had upfront, it was going to be hard to break them down, especially as bent is an in behind striker. he was very isolated yesterday but still had a couple of chances. on another day we win 4-2 and its all happy days.
its in our hands, we will qualify and we will go out in the QF's.
standard.
the wales game we dominated and looked like a good side, ok it was against wales, but the germany game wasnt even a year ago...do you not think we have made a slight improvement since then?
still have rooney, gerrard, defoe to come back into the side.
i agree with the parker and wilshere combo, i like that, maybe remove lampard and replace with gerrard.
only person that worries me is johnson. the other 10 are imo good enough make england a top 5 in the world side if they remain fit.
Oh come on!
Didnt the world Cup teach you anything?
DONT believe the hype.
We dont train kids properly, mainly due to previous governments selling playing fields, we have one oft he lowest %ges of coaches in Europe and our national governing bodies cant agree on their priorities. Money or long term skills aquisition.
Oh and have you considered Germany might have quite a good call to be better than us?
Fair point below MAT -duly edited!
No excuses can be made for the very poor standard of the national team. The EPL was sold to the highest bidder and the influx of foreign players has helped destroy our game at a national level.
Venables had the last semi decent England team, and it will never return........we are poor.
This sums it up for me. We need to realign our outlook on the national team. Whilst we arguably have one of the best domestic leagues in the world we nowhere near have one of the better national sides. Because of our overconfidence/ arrogance/ expectation we also build up pressure beyond ability and this also makes us a team that everyone wants to beat.
We need to restructure the way we do EVERYTHING from grass routes level upwards and stop throwing money at foreign managers (with excellent records but cultural differences that need bridging) and bringing out "Our Time Has Come" pre- tournament songs hoping they are an instant fix to returning the glories of 1966 (light years away in terms of how football has moved on). Encourage better coaching and domestic managers at the top level also.
As for fans we need to see ourselves as a Croatia, a France or a Sweden . We are not in the same league as the Spanish/ Brazilians or Argentinians technically and lack the mentatlity of the Germans or the tactical nous of Italian teams.
As much as it hurts to say it we arent as good as the media likes to think and they just build us up for a fall on the pitch and disappointment off it.
Sooner we start to expect less the sooner well stop being as let down...and well probably end up playing better for it.
constantly changing, evolving. You obviously have no experience of it
whatsoever RCT.''
It might annoy you but you may be missing the point. Its not about CHANGES in coaching, its about having enough (in England this means having TEN TIMES more) fully qualified coaches in the game so that quality coaching filters down to the age when the basic skills, such as keeping the ball, are engendered. This simply isnt happening to the degree necessary to raise our national game.
If you are happy 'plugging away' as you accurately describe the last few decades of team England football then, yes, we might strike lucky with enough players who succeed DESPITE our coaching network, to win a mojor tournament. In a way, though, I hope we dont because then it will all be forgotten and the country will slip into another barren half century.
What is better than plodding along (what happened to the root and branch changes voiced just after the last world cup, and the one before that??) would be to give more of our youth more chances to be better trained to reach higher levels which should reduce the number of foreign players in the PL and increase the pool from which the National team (and those of the rest of the UK, could choose from.
Then we might finally move away from Crouch Heskey and the like being thought of as world class players.
I'm not holding my breath though, despite the fact that the money is available to the FA