Deluded Hodgson

[bhawoddy]

Playing the game is hardly a barometer of knowledge is it.

it helps though.........blatantly saying 442 is outdated shows a lack of understanding imo.

 

[Prince Monolulu]

Trying to defend the indefensible, not on a good foundation to start was he? Seems the pressure might be building.....

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

it helps though.........blatantly saying 442 is outdated shows a lack of understanding imo.

Gary Lineker said the same. He played the game. Is that better?

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Whilst the players he had aren't that bad on paper, none of them ever seem to gel and play as a team. The only positives seem to be where players from the same club interchange passes. I have never rated Rooney despite his goals to games ratio - I guess most of them are in meaninglesss friendlies against poor sides. I just get so annoyed st the thought that he will probably end up eith 100 caps - it's an insult to those great players who have already made it.
On the subjest of meaningless friendlies - bring back the British Championship each season. At least there would be some interest.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Finally the FIFA ranking reflects just how bad we have become - 20th just below Bosnia Herzegovinia and the USA sounds about right

 

[Pavilionaire]

Due to the paucity of talent in this country, many have looked to Rooney to be the potential saviour and thus have heaped enormous pressure on him ( which he can't cope with ) They overlook his consistent ability to fail to raise his game at the highest level and as each major tournament dawns, he is bigged up as our one world class player that we can pin our hopes on.
Frankly, I think he short changes club and country. Quick enough to claim his club lacks ambition, he slaps in hefty wage demands every 2 years but his contribution fails to match the support his club and fans give him.
His game doesn't seem to have moved on in 7-8 years and his fitness levels always leave a lot to be desired. In short, he hasn't worked hard enough at his game to become a higher class player.
He is past his peak now and its all downhill from here. Sure, you will get the odd cameo moment against a PL ' lower light 'but don't expect much from him now. Fergie always said that players mature at 25-26 and yet dear old Wayne is still talking about learning at nearly 30!
For all the big talk, I still believe deep down that he has a fairly fragile level of confidence. This may sound strange when you watch the apparently strong confident player on top of his game but his game does fall to pieces too often, when he can't even seem to trap a bag of cement.
Every time I hear the pro's talk about him they are always extolling his virtues, calling him world class etc. They obviously know more than little ol' me.

I understand your frustration with Rooney, but I can see it from his point of view too. 41 goals in 96 matches for England is a decent return, and 15 in his last 27 since 2010 indicates that the decline - if at all - has only been minor.

If he scores 8 in his next 10 he matches the great Bobby Charlton's record. Indeed, if he stays fit this is quite likely - our next 10 are against San Marino (twice), Slovenia (twice), Estonia, Lithuania, Scotland, Republic Of Ireland and Switzerland (twice).

The problem is NOT Wayne Rooney.

 

[desprateseagull]

why do teams need x years to 'rebuild', every time after a new manager, or important tournament comes along?

 

[jimhigham]

I feel like I'm done with England now. I came very close to jacking it all in after the Algeria match in WC2010. It wasn't so much the poor performance as Rooney's contemptuous dismissal of the supporters afterwards. It may have hurt his precious ego but he had precisely no empathy with frustrated supporters who might have saved up for their trip over a year or more.

Fast forward to 2014 and we have the unedifying spectacle of tumbling out of the competition at the earliest possible opportunity.

It isn't the performances as such. We really don't have a squad capable of making an impression on the world stage but so what? I supported Brighton all those years down in the basement with no prospect of success and had some of my most rewarding times following the team. What does for me is the sense of entitlement that simply oozes out of the England camp. Many of these people have probably been told that they were wonderful since they were 10 and cannot comprehend the world of the people that turn up to validate them every Saturday.

It just feels like watching a different species to me now. Enough. No more. 100% Albion.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I feel like I'm done with England now. I came very close to jacking it all in after the Algeria match in WC2010. It wasn't so much the poor performance as Rooney's contemptuous dismissal of the supporters afterwards. It may have hurt his precious ego but he had precisely no empathy with frustrated supporters who might have saved up for their trip over a year or more.

Fast forward to 2014 and we have the unedifying spectacle of tumbling out of the competition at the earliest possible opportunity.

It isn't the performances as such. We really don't have a squad capable of making an impression on the world stage but so what? I supported Brighton all those years down in the basement with no prospect of success and had some of my most rewarding times following the team. What does for me is the sense of entitlement that simply oozes out of the England camp. Many of these people have probably been told that they were wonderful since they were 10 and cannot comprehend the world of the people that turn up to validate them every Saturday.

It just feels like watching a different species to me now. Enough. No more. 100% Albion.

This.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I understand your frustration with Rooney, but I can see it from his point of view too. 41 goals in 96 matches for England is a decent return, and 15 in his last 27 since 2010 indicates that the decline - if at all - has only been minor.

If he scores 8 in his next 10 he matches the great Bobby Charlton's record. Indeed, if he stays fit this is quite likely - our next 10 are against San Marino (twice), Slovenia (twice), Estonia, Lithuania, Scotland, Republic Of Ireland and Switzerland (twice).

The problem is NOT Wayne Rooney.

But he has only scored 1 goal at a WC. It's all very well smashing them in against San Marino but he needs to deliver on the biggest stages. Suarez played in a pretty ordinary team but he managed to show what can be done with world class talent and pedestrian team mates.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I deluded Hodgson a few years ago when i chanced upon a list of septuagenarians in the Runneymede district. I first hammily deceived his wife as an eager, yet clearly unstable Chinese Jehovah's Witness. She quarter-filled a tumbler super-clean water as i surveyed the scene and analysed the wealth of those within, whilst remaining in character as trickling-eyed, inconsolable Wang Qiang. I left with the blueprints of my intentions. A fortnight later i returned, thankfully with the dithering but likeably humane Roy at the door as he slightly confusedly tackled some of the complexities of a football management game on his Kurio 4S Touch Tablet. I was this time a gasman, the profession everyone goes for for the first time on their conmannery of the aged, and rightly so, reporting on a leak called in by his ever-inebriated neighbour Su Pollard. I'd spent 10 days before in a permanent frown to try and bring weathered years to my brow yet to be lived, and with Roy torn between signing Taribo West or Tonton Zola-Moukoko, his inspection of my disguise as someone in his age-range was somewhat feeble, and into the manor i very gingerly hobbled. I tinkered and oiled and hammered and tweaked, and left the property with a warm anecdote from Roy about an evening spent out on the town with Brede Hangeland and 2009 Eurovision Winner Alexander Rybak, and my toolkit half-filled with his wife's rubies and a 97-98 Watford shirt signed by Ronnie Rosenthal.

 

[Milano]

should pay Brendan Rodgers a ton of money to manage both Liverpool and England

I said this before the World Cup. 'Could' it work?

Hodgson is a fraud. Liverpool sussed him out within months and their fans within weeks. Nothing is ever his fault. He is the master at lowering expectations. It's getting silly now though, he is patronising England fans. The way he approached that Costa Rica game was scandalous, fans paid huge money to get out there and he plays the B team.
The way he wasted the two friendlies before the World Cup.
Why go to a diamond 4 last night? Why not last May? He had 5 Liverpool players in his starting line up vs Italy so he plays 4-4-2, the one formation Liverpool and most of the other top 6 clubs don't play.
He makes Rooney captain, this making him un droppable, and then moves the one really exciting prospect England have in Stirling out wide to accommodate him, you saw what happened when Rooney went off and Sirling went central.
I could go on.
The man is a dinosaur.

 

[The Camel]

Wenger for England.

Brilliant tactician. Superb at developing young players. Must be getting jaded at Arsenal, he's been there long enough.

The obvious choice as far as I'm concerned

 

[driller]

I think that quote is shocking. And after the game Rooney said he is still learning. Learning what exactly? He should be at his peak now. There were players at the ages of 22 and 23 tearing up the world cup..and the self-styled 'big man' of English football is still learning.

Maybe he means learning to read

 

[atfc village]

But he has only scored 1 goal at a WC. It's all very well smashing them in against San Marino but he needs to deliver on the biggest stages. Suarez played in a pretty ordinary team but he managed to show what can be done with world class talent and pedestrian team mates.

Rooney's 41 in 96 is a good record ,But Malta's Micheal Mifsud has 39 from 103 in a team that loses most of their games .Does this mean Mifsud is world class as well?

 

[The Camel]

Rooney's 41 in 96 is a good record ,But Malta's Micheal Mifsud has 39 from 103 in a team that loses most of their games .Does this mean Mifsud is world class as well?

Bloody hell, Mifsud is only 33.

Feels like 20 years ago he burst onto the scene with Coventry. Was actually 2007.

 

[Pavilionaire]

But he has only scored 1 goal at a WC. It's all very well smashing them in against San Marino but he needs to deliver on the biggest stages. Suarez played in a pretty ordinary team but he managed to show what can be done with world class talent and pedestrian team mates.

And I put it to you that the real problem with England is not that one man isn't world class, it's that the other 10 aren't even decent international class.

 

[yxee]

I understand your frustration with Rooney, but I can see it from his point of view too. 41 goals in 96 matches for England is a decent return, and 15 in his last 27 since 2010 indicates that the decline - if at all - has only been minor.

If he scores 8 in his next 10 he matches the great Bobby Charlton's record. Indeed, if he stays fit this is quite likely - our next 10 are against San Marino (twice), Slovenia (twice), Estonia, Lithuania, Scotland, Republic Of Ireland and Switzerland (twice).

The problem is NOT Wayne Rooney.

I challenge you to give a defence for Rooney that doesn't rest on his goal tally- most are in in friendlies or 5-0s against San Marino.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I understand your frustration with Rooney, but I can see it from his point of view too. 41 goals in 96 matches for England is a decent return, and 15 in his last 27 since 2010 indicates that the decline - if at all - has only been minor.

If he scores 8 in his next 10 he matches the great Bobby Charlton's record. Indeed, if he stays fit this is quite likely - our next 10 are against San Marino (twice), Slovenia (twice), Estonia, Lithuania, Scotland, Republic Of Ireland and Switzerland (twice).

The problem is NOT Wayne Rooney.

I agree.
The problem is the fans level of expectation for Rooney. There is always anticipation
that he can carry the whole side through tournaments and he can't. It is too much to expect from a very good club player who is no more than decent at International level.
His goal record is good but it would be a very sad day for me if he equals or overhauls the great Bobby Charlton's 49 goals for England, particularly as he has featured in at least five tournaments, never gone past the quarter finals and not produced the goals when they have really mattered.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

"We'll find it hard to bring attendances back to very high levels because the opponents we're playing won't excite the public," said Hodgson (BBC Sport website)

Er, no Roy - it's because England are s**t and none of the players try, so what is the point
of bothering you misguided moron.

No, he is right.

International football has to change if it wants to be number 1 again, who wants to see England Vs Norway?

This break is completely pointless and rubs the whole of Europe up the wrong way, the seasons have just started, the window has just shut and we have just had a fantastic world cup - why do we need more, I imagine the players are sick of it as well.