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"But the overriding problem we all face is that English football must change. And it has to come from the very top of the game. That means manager Roy Hodgson getting involved with coaches at every level working in the same direction.
"We do not know how to play football. We just boot the ball up the pitch and it gets us nowhere.
"We don't have the kids coached the same way - the right way - from a young age. As a result we have a senior team that is greatly underachieving.
"Look at the so-called 'Golden Generation' of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole etc.
"Man for man there wasn't a country on Earth that could match that on paper. But together they never produced because we just hoofed the ball forwards into channels and hoped for the best.
"In international football you cannot just hit and hope because you give the ball away. It's all about possession, retaining the ball, controlling the game. We need coaches who believe in that ideal."
Queens Park Rangers boss Harry Redknapp
- June 13, 2013 11:45am
We have to forget the ravings of most fanz and some of our coaches who always seem to engage in inane ramblings. We must recognize that the claims of great play in Mexico were not based on quality play but due to euphoria associated with gaining a draw in the Azteca. As far as our playing good football goes our performance was terrible.
We should also acknowledge that in terms of a TEAM on the make and improved physical efforts our squad was on the right track despite obvious player-personnel flaws.
We had individuals who attempted to retain possession - move and pass/pass and move - who were too many times poor passers. It appeared that just about the entire TEAM could not pass on goal. Naturally the outfield poor passing foretold that passing on goal would present tremendous difficulties. ...and so it was.
There were also additional problems as three-quarters of the first-four across the back...our back defensive unit picked up injuries. The replacement players in every position was man for man huge step down in quality. That poorer quality replacement players must be seen in light of the first-line unit needing to improve play to have the unit move towards required standards for play in these Hexagonal matches and the hoped for World Cup 2014 matches.
Our midfielders all experienced great difficulty producing play to retain needed possession. That struggle to assist on retention of possession stemmed from the aforementioned inability to pass properly and poor movement off-the-ball by all save Nyron Nosworthy, Adrian Marriapa, Ryan Johnson, Richard Austin and Demar Phillips.
The second tier of movers off-the-ball had only two players, Gareth McCleary and Jermaine Johnson in that rank...but these players had the huge negatives of not being able to make passes when needed. They were poor decision-makers much too often. They demonstrated great ability to beat one-on-one. There was not an opponent faced they could not beat and 90% of time did not get by...but after having done that work their next act was seemingly to give away the ball 90+% of time.
Additionally the constant giving away of the ball - direct result of poor movement off-the-ball and poor passing - often resulted in our named strikers being overworked on defense.
Our TEAM needs to improve more than 100 fold to turn in acceptable performances. Passing and movement needs to be improved by each player. A return to our last Gold Cup standard of passing would be acceptable as good starting point. Even a return to passing as in our last Gold Cup match v the USA, our worst passing performance in that tournament, would in context of performances in the previous 2013 Hexagonal matches be a breath of fresh air. We could then build on such a passing performance and TEAM-play. Anything less and we shall continue to be embarrassed in these World Cup qualifiers.
One thing has us scratching our heads, how could the Tappa and TEAM - even same players...individuals retained - of our past Gold Cup campaign take such a huge step backward and give us this current inept squad? ...in any case, it must be forget these last Hexagonal matches and a moving forward to necessary improved TEAM-play.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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