Goofle

I don't think anyone should have a problem with how Hodgson set the team up or how they played, because they did the best with the little variety in talents they have. English players are typically very one dimensional in terms of their attacking ability, and very few (all not able to play at the tournament for one reason or another) understand the art of possession, and play in a manor that allows your team to keep the ball for longer periods.

My problem is that this has been the case for a very long time, in fact, I can't remember a time when it was not a problem. Yet we still ended up going into our latest tournament with the worst England squad I have ever seen. I understand the five or six best central midfielders were not able to go (Lampard, Carrick, Barry, Wilshere and Scholes), but surely at this point in time English footballing culture should have matured a little, allowing us to produce more tactically and technically astute players that don't panic on the ball and also know where to position themselves in attack and defence, rather than sticking to the positions that they show on a graphic before the game, as if there is no room for flexibility on a football pitch.

I am not an England fan as I have stated, I don't really care how they do, but from a technical football perspective, and as an observer, I find them painful to watch at times, because I am watching players playing out of position (Gerrard) and quite frankly some god awful players compared to the top teams in the World.

The only way to change it is to focus less on the results gained (which are far from impressive anyway) and look at performance instead. Comments like "It could have gone either way" or "We were a penalty shootout away from the semis" seem to be ignoring the glaringly obvious lack in class that had been so evident throughout the match.

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