Where to start?
I'd have put a lot of money on Gerrard retiring after this WC regardless of the outcome (look at my predictions post) i think last night confirmed it. He'll go after the Costa Rica game. Ditto fat Frank.
If England are out by the time they play Costa Rica, I'm all for giving the kids a game. I'd like to see Fat Frank get a run out as well. It'll be his last game and it's a dead rubber (for England) so why not give the guy a chance to say farewell properly?
If England lose to CR, Uncle Roy has to go. Maybe, if he plays all the kids then I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, but if he plays a strong side and still loses, bye bye Roy.
I don't rate him as a manager, I don't know many Pool fans who do, but the 5-10 mins at the start of the second half were the time when England should have been coming out, all guns blazing, playing at 100 miles an hour, blowing Uruguay away, and generally been ready to kill dead things. Instead you should have been three down. I don't know what Roy said to them, but it clearly had completely the wrong effect. But then does he look like the kind of manager who would be able to get you up for a big game!? Chruchill/Braveheart he is not!
I do agree John Terry and Ashley Cole would have made a big difference. Personally I would have taken and started Cole. He may not have played much this season (like Casillas and he was dead good!), but he didn't look rusty against Pool or Madrid in CL. Plus Baines has virtually no experience, If Roy wanted to start with Baines why did Cole start/play large parts of most of the friendlies up to the time the squad was announced? That's not to say Baines was the worst of the back four.
As for JT, the guys a ****. Let's not beat around the bush. He is a complete and utter bastard, and a racist as well. But he is exactly the sort of player England's back line needed last night. There was NO organisation from that back four. I remember, Butcher, Adams, Keown, Campbell etc all balling out midfielders who were ****ing about or other defenders who were sleeping, but last night there was none of that.
Mind you we all know why JT wasn't picked and I think it's a tad harsh to say we would have taken him now. Were he not such a ball bag and had he not had his issues with the FA, yeah, he would have gone. BUT we all knew he was unavailable for a year or more, so plans should have been made.
I think the non red card for Godin was probably about right. As I said last night, it was a foul and had he not been booked he would have seen yellow for that, but he had so he escaped. Annoying when it happens against you, but probably fair enough.
Where do England go from here?
Assuming Stevie G and FF retire there's a very inexperience squad left. The likes of Jay Rodriguez probably comes in, maybe Ricky Lambert gets phased out. It's in defence where England's problems lie and it's not an area with many young players coming through. Flannagan and Shaw are about the only two decent young defenders I can think of. Actually, I think Nathan Clyne is English, he's getting good reviews. Even at that, this time last year not a single Championship club wanted to loan Flannagan. Jones and Smalling have (respectively) stagnated and regressed massively since they went to Utd. I can't think of any young British defenders at Arsenal (Carl Jenkinson is far from international class). Chelsea or City don't buy young British players, unless it's to leave them to rot in the reserves, Micha Richards, Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell etc. Michael Dawson is 30 and hardly a massive improvement on what you have, and you had two of the Everton back four in there already.
Still as I said to Rich on his FB post. At least you guys get to watch your country in a WC or Euro Champs. I'm 35 and I've never seen my lot make one (I was too young in 86). A quick glance at our current squad lets me know I won't be going to see them in one any time soon. Unless Platini very kindly enlarges the Euro's to 64 nations. Even then I wouldn't be confident!
Ps, Edd, there were only a handful of foreigners in the PL in '94 and the England team then wasn't exactly good! Carlton Palmer pulling on an England shirt! :shock: