The FA made that proposal a few years back, but it was the lower league teams which blocked it, that should be pushed through IMO.

In a sane world that would make sense. But the lower league will continue to block it, just as they are against making each division 20 team leagues.

The tester will be the cup that has u21. (teams) invited. I believe Newcastle will be involved.

On the subject of telling the players what to do, we were working at an ex-players house, the day after Rooney had been sent off, a few years ago.
Amongst the many questions – why do they do such stupid things, when they know they’ll be sent off?
The reply was that a large minority of players are totally thick. They have done nothing but football since the age of 10/11. Clubs are not meant to pay any youngsters, yet envelopes of cash are passed, with the promise of a contract with the club when they are old enough to sign up. Of course, mum and dad then go on to make sure their son carries on his football, as he’ll be a millionaire by the time he’s 20.
Schoolwork is forgotten about.
Then, they get signed, they are absolutely loaded, and carry on being a child, as they know they can afford to pay for any damage/mess/trouble they cause.
Then a big game comes along, and the manager says ‘you stay on the left, once you get a chance, you pass it straight into the box’.
Then they get a mist come over them when they have the ball, and all previous instructions are forgottoen, and they think they can score, so, lose the ball.
But hey, what’s going to happen? They cant sack him as he’s worth £10m+. and the Manager will be saying the Lad had a bad day.

I think Sam is perfect for where England are at the moment, not where we think we are.

Hopefully he’ll surround himself with good, young up and coming coaches and they work together to great a more successful national team. I’m sure they cant be less successful than what they have been in recent history.

Let’s not forget it could have been worse. Alan Irvine isn’t in a job at the moment

Feeder teams in the lower leagues are a terrible idea.

They work in countries dominated by a few major teams & where the lower leagues have none of the history or support base that the English teams have but why would you want to destroy what makes it unique just to try something that will probably make no difference to the quality of the national team?

It’s another rubbish, lazy idea from the FA because they don’t want to annoy the Premier League with proposals that might actually work.

On coaching – that takes many aspects. There is pure technical coaching like how to kick and trap a ball which even the most ardent anti-football fan can see isn’t what’s needed – they all have those skills and deficiencies are coached at club level (yes, I know it goes awry sometimes but that’s mental pressure causing technique to breakdown and the same in any sport – golfers shank the ball, bowlers can’t hit the cut strip, etc.)

There’s coaching of the mental side – giving players the capability to perform under pressure. No matter what people say the intensity at National level is higher – most players play very few ‘win or go home’ games at club level, maybe at the sharp end of the season but in most of the year a poor result can often be fixed with a game a week later; no-one’s interested in cup knock out games any more, and aside from the latter stages of the CL there aren’t the same pressures. Sam will be good at this (or rather he’ll have the right people to help with this)

Then there’s team coaching – choosing tactics and fitting players into the tactic and executing it. That definitely needs coaching, defenders may need to read and react differently to how their club side operates; forwards may need to make different runs to the ones they make at club level. That needs a strategist, and a man manager to get players to buy into it and then understand how to do it.

I get most pissed off by people who don’t know the game who think you can just pick the ‘best’ 11, and send them out and assume they’ll work it out themselves. ‘How come a team from the PL can’t beat Iceland?’. If that was the case then Iceland can’t happen. Leicester can’t happen. You may as well hand the cups out based on squad value and FIFA rankings; and that’s what makes it great and a decent coach worth the money, because a side that executes a system best usually comes out on top, not the one with the best players.

And it works; otherwise how can Ranieri or Iceland or Wales achieve like they do.

Then there’s team coaching – choosing tactics and fitting players into the tactic and executing it. That definitely needs coaching, defenders may need to read and react differently to how their club side operates; forwards may need to make different runs to the ones they make at club level. That needs a strategist, and a man manager to get players to buy into it and then understand how to do it.

That’s the thing: If players are played in the positions at which they are best, they will know how to act, which runs to make, where to be at any given situation. The problems arise when you start playing players out of position, which is one of the problems England face.

IMO England managers have picked the players first, based on reputation, and then chosen the formation; this leads to the manager forcing square blocks into round holes and the players don’t know how to react. This is especially the case when playing in high pressure games, when players just either revert to type, meaning the system breaks down, or they just freeze, and nothing happens.

Junkyard – lazarus

he will stop you getting relegated

To where would England be relegated? Mars?

(if you do badly enough in the euros and world cup maybe you should be relegated to the scottish premiership)

they wont but the point was that he does not really set teams out to win his forte is making shit teams survive rather than transforming shit teams into winners/world beaters.

a side that executes a system best usually comes out on top, not the one with the best players.

Its not really the case. When was the last time we had a Leicester ? Even then they got the player if the year and most nominations so they still had the best players.

IMHO the team with the best players almost always win
Why are spain poorer now? is it because their system is shit or their players are worse than they used to be?
What about Brazil – shit players or shit system?

Clearly a great coach will make a shit team better but so will better players
I guess you want both

The issue with sam is he is largely untested with great players as he has rarely managed them and his tactics are largely based on survival in a league rather than winning anything

Can he adapt to actually trying to win? I dont know tbh

Its not really the case. When was the last time we had a Leicester ? Even then they got the player if the year and most nominations so they still had the best players.

It’s a mixture of the two, though. The Spanish team were great because they had the players AND played a system that made the best use of their skills. Likewise with Brazil, Germany etc.

A team of well organised, lower level players often come out on top against a disorganised team, made up of better quality players i.e. Iceland v England.

The moral of the story is to chose a style of play that gets the best out of your existing skillset, not try and teach new tricks to players in the heat of tournament football. Hence why I say that the England manager roll is more of a man management/tactician one, than of a football coach

yes it takes both as shown when iceland faced a well organised team with good players

As a West Ham fan I think he will be great for the England job.

The media portrayal of his teams as purely long ball merchants is ridiculous. If all you have seen of his teams play is the highlights on MOTD of Bolton v Man U then it might look that way, but in reality over a season it is nothing like that.

Yes he will want a big striker up top, and I imagine Andy Carroll will be the happiest man alive with this appointment, but there will be balls crossed in from wide just as much as there are long balls up, balls over the top, and playing through midfield. You would expect an Allardyce team to be able to score from open play against Iceland.

The “all he’s ever done is fight relegation” thing was one thing that I was worried about when he was our manager in the Championship, but he got us back up at the first time of asking, and although the play off final isn’t really counted as “winning something” I think it shows that he has got it in him to win things. The pressure was on him to get us promoted, teams would come to Upton Park and play defensively and for the draw, the reverse of his life as a PL manager, and then away from home we were immense that season and did enough to get promoted

The plot thickens….

Bruce…

I think big Sam will be the messiah of English football – seriously.
He will deal with the press the FA and the players. You don’t have to win a single game in 90mins to win a major comp = Perfect fit organised and plays to the strengths. Can see a few big names being left out for a better balanced squad. 🙂

The English game is already 30 years behind this will only add to it

@ voodoo

How so? Football, as a game, hasn’t really changed for decades. Of course, nutrition, training and recovery has improved, as has the technology involved in the game, but the fundamentals are still the same.

Where English football has fallen down is it doesn’t know what it is any more: the top clubs, even down to the championship, are dominated by foreign managers players and English football has been stripped of any kind of style or identity.

Everyone knows how the Germans, Spanish, Brazilians, Italians etc play. Even the last several England managers don’t know how England plays.

but in reality over a season it is nothing like that.

I watched his team over a season it really was like that

Long ball, hard to beat, direct football. Horrible from an entertainment point of view but effective in not getting relegated.

Long ball, hard to beat, direct football. Horrible from an entertainment point of view but effective in not getting relegated.

Portugal demonstrated this year that “effective” is all you need to win tournaments. I can’t help but thinking that a little bit of a down-to-earth approach and a humble mentality could do the England team a world of good.

The game has changed from 20 years ago ,speed of the game ,build of the players ,…things that haven’t changed is technique and ability of the average player is terrible in comparison to other countries players

Mikey …depends if you want to win tournaments or change the mindset of how to play the game from an early age and nurture the kids to learn the game the complete way
Winning is not always success

The game has changed from 20 years ago ,speed of the game ,build of the players ,…things that haven’t changed is technique and ability of the average player is terrible in comparison to other countries players

Yes, I’d agree about the speed, but then again English football is typically faster than most other countries, and therefore English players should be used to this.

I’m not sure I’d agree about technique, though: Yes, Spain dominated with highly technical football, but in recent years we’ve seen the intricate passing game being replaced by a more pragmatic, direct game that seems quite “English” in style.

It’s no longer enough to play keep ball: Plenty of teams do well by letting the other team dominate possession, and respond by pressing a high line and being efficiently direct when you get the ball.

Allardice got the job done with the rescources he had. He didn’t have £100m to spunk on a single player. West Ham played some good football under him.

As above Portugal are pretty limited, Greece won the Euros etc. No one players duller football than Jose’s teams. We keep hearing about teams who have to be good enough to win the world cup but we have to get out of the group and then past a quarter final first.

Is long term success winning one tournament (Greece)or putting things in place long term for a change of mindset ….Mikey technique in general is poor in comparison to most European teams but with a few exceptions ….most can trap it further than I can pay it !

West Ham played some good football under him.

then improved when he left and were more entertaining as well

If i feared relegation I would hire Big sam
If i wanted to win the league he would not be amongst my shortlist nor I imagine many other clubs/chairpersons list

Whilst a few teams have won at the euros – its still the exception IMHO- i cannot think of any team winning the World cup just by being organised. Those that dominate are just superb in all areas and not just playing a system well.

Most of englands problems are
1. brilliant in qualifiers shit at tournaments
2. Great players no system
3. Pressure /expectation and outcome. Sterling is a good example – he was shit but how much pressure will he feel next time? Will he feel like the fans value him – I can see why they dont but it wont help him play any better

Sam will do ok for no 2 less sure about 1 and 3