Ohh MB fantasty football! I shall join both hopefully.
Bit late for mentioning this, but I've been reflecting on two recent national games - Team GB vs Senegal at the Olympics and the victory over Italy by the national team. I was at Old Trafford for the game against Senegal (Stretford end!!!) and as my best friend agrees, it was one of the worst games we've seen. Although Senegal were incredibly rough and played very dirty, there were opportunities wasted, unnecessary blunders made and a very obtuse and clumsy attempt to work as a team. The best thing about that match was the atmosphere from the crowd and my pictures!
However the Italy game was very different. It was a deserved win, England were brilliant and I was genuinely thrilled to watch us defeat the 2006 world cup champions. What has changed?
There are quite a few useful observations, not least being the fact that Roy is a far more suitable manager than Stuart! But what I think is important to realise is the fact that we're still relying on a lot of our older players. For the olympics, the team had to be under 23 minus three. And those three carried the team. The challenge is to get Cleverley and the rest of our rising stars to get up to the world class standard they need to be.
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