England fans: let off some steam here

It hurts. It hurts so much. Humiliation, depression, anger - you name it, we at TheGame feel it. So this is the place to let it all out.

He has been sacked, but tell us where Steve McClaren went wrong. Tell us who you think is ultimately to blame: McClaren? Brian Barwick? The players? Sven Goran-Eriksson?

Vent your spleen and let us know what you'll be doing next summer while the likes of Turkey and Romania are competing in the European Championships.

Maybe you even want to congratulate Croatia and Russia? Nah, didn't think so.

Whatever you want to say, spread yourself out on TheGame's slightly frayed leather couch and indulge in a bit of football therapy.

Just one rule: keep it clean.

Comments

[Raymond]

Reading all the comments about England's demise has been a real eye opener. The usual chippy Scots and Aussie comments are just as predictable, but there has also been so many nice comments from Italians and Germans. Yes Germans, our great footballing rivals! So refreshing. CU in 2010, hopefully.

In the long run this 'disaster' is the best thing that could have happened to the England team. This was a long-overdue wake-up call we needed. We had become fat and mentally indolent, gorging ourselves on our self-importance. JM for manager.

[Lello]

Sure it would have been more fun with England at the Euros but they just didn't perform well enough to qualify, and that is the stark truth so the media and fans need to get over it. Too bad England's elimination boosted the spirit of hundreds of croatian fascist peasants as seen on this forum

[JMather]

i say Tony Pulis for manager. that should sort out this second rate long ball we produced for 45 against croatia.
top marks to gerrard for his hoofs to crouchy
and as for the hoofs provided by Joleon Slowscott and Sol - top class.
and what can we say about crouchys knock downs that havent already beend said?
errr... they dont go to anyone and are only succesfful at under 10 level.

great game lads, anyone remember euro04 when we killed them?

[Steve Vickers]

A childrens game, played by overpaid morons and watched, it seems, by thugs.

Last wednesday made me smile no end, bring back Steve McLaren, more of the same please.

[Steve]

If the England fans want to make a difference, why not boycott Premiership matches? Changes would soon be afoot if Chelsea played Arsenal in front of the stewards.

[craig smith & tom walker]

we think scotland are the best and the englans players should take more pride and responsibility for their football and managers downfall. they should be more like the scottish team who are proud to wear the dark blue shirt

[Mick Hopkin]

Our game isnt technically upto scratch with croatia's. They out played us. Overated England players, partly due to an over-estimated price-tag, lack the ability when bunched in together. Quick passings great when there is the foreign talent to take on the rest of the game. How many English players fit into to the aresnal team? - Overpriced and lacking the skill?? i reckon

[eric Lyon]

england will never be at the front of major compatitions until they start to play football.
By this i mean attacking football. The game is won by scoring goals, nothing else. When england were two nil down to croatia we started to attack. low and behold we managed to claw back, with the help of the ref to 2 all. My next sentance reveals all about english football, I saw McClaren shouting and waveing to Joe Cole to get back and defend. Why?.When we had just pulled back level by attacking. Alex Furgason Manchester utd manager picks attacking teams. Win or lose they attack.
I know this is a simplistic approach but football is simple. What do the brazilians do other than play attacking football. Germany..the same. You might win you might lose but at least you gave it a go. I remember 66 . We attacked, then germany attacked...To end this ramble I would say this...Any english player who cannot pass a ball forward..should not be there. Joe cole will be a lonley figure.

[David, southampton]

I can't help but think that our long line of incompetent, knuckleheaded managers are all appointed by the same panel of businessmen. I know it's an often stated fact but Brian Clough's autobiography included a paragraph entitled, "what chairmen know about football"...it was a blank page.

I would like to know the statistics that show who was on the selection panel when each of the last ten managers were appointed and which teams they were connected to as I would very much doubt they ever appoint a manager currently in employment at any of their respective clubs.

These people are responsible for making the decision which, to all intents and purposes, moulds the product their company sells for the following four (hopefully) years and yet they can't seem to make the right decision, ever.

The problem, as i see it, is that they have no vested interest in the success of their product other than their own personal aspect of being England supporters. They have never been held responsible for the failure of the national team although you can bet everything you own that they would want more than a degree of kudos if we ever actually managed to win anything.

The sport of horse racing saw fit to relieve the jockey club of a large proportion of their responsibilities and move forward with the British Horseracing Board when the aforementioned organisation's inadequacies became ever more apparent, so why can't football follow suit?

[scott carson´s fan club in berlin]

Get a keeper my fellow blokes from the island! Can´t be that difficult, can it? Just take any mediocre german 3rd league keeper and drown him with money so he´ll get an english passport...

[brian cooper]

Players were jeered on Saturday because the whole scenario stinks. For example: To get through on Wednesday we simply had to let NO goals in. Thus the goalkeeper was crucial - so we appointed an untried goalie??? Then we had to have a good defence. John Terry, English captain and the mainstay in any defence, was available to play but was not even on the bench??? How about attack? Why not put Crouch up front on his own with no-one to play with???? If England had wanted to lose this game then the way it happened on Wednesday was a perfect blueprint for such a result. Surprised we booed? the whole thing stinks!!!

[Michel]

scolari is the only one that can help you

[Michel]

England team is a bench of losers.
you maybe invented all the beutiful sports, but you suck in every one of them.Its all about genetics!
your splendid isolation created looser cromosoms. so don´t blame McClaren and accept that you are ugly loser till the end of time

Love Michel from Germany

[anjon]

Ours is a simple, beautiful game.

But to be successful at it, above all skill, fitness, and form considerations it requires the force of WILL.
It starts with the players-do they have the WILL? Those who select the players require different skillsets but to command the players' respect they must also have the WILL!

Our problem is not the state of the pitch; the number of foreign players, or the paucity of english talent in the club nursery systems-it is the Old Boys Club who select scapegoats to 'command' but for themselves require NO qualification for their positions other than a self appointing mutually acceptable social standing. It is clear that if there is to be any public housecleaning at all the axe must fall first on this OBC. But this level of social upheaval is never allowed to happen. In the face of any public outcry the politics of a backroom operating Old Boys' Club requires that they never acknowledge failure and certainly never ever resign. They pass that buck by quickly selecting a new goat so that their 'terms in office' continue essentially in charge and untroubled by any winds of change.

Our beautiful game must be returned to its public! The present system must be scrapped!

We must now control it as a public charter at the top and run by a panel of strongwilled but fairminded retired players who only want to give something back to their game-such men we have always had in abundance! They should deliberate and vote in full public view and serve without compensation for non-consecutive, five-year terms, staggered to offset such drastic change in the future as seems necessary now.

They shall pick the best candidate regardless of country of birth or other requirement except WILL and that person in turn shall pick the best 2010 team for England!

[Graham Dale]

Let us not vote for a new England manager,

Let us vote for a new English premier League that actually contains home grown talent through and through instead of names that you have to pronounce with a mouth full of water and start at the root of the problem.

[Adrian]

Over paid, ungrateful, spoilt individuals are our football players. Zero passion any more for wearing their country's shirt.

FA need root and branch review of the game top down, bottom up as the game has never been in a worse state.

[john]

Nina, you shouldn't comment on Croatian football with such little knowledge about the side. This is not the same side as in the WC2004, the fact that we now have Modric, DeSilva, Corluka and Petric makes this side at least 50% better. Tudor, Leko....were a major shackle around the legs.

As far as the game on Wednesday, the fact is that English players are technically sub standard, it's so obvious when you see players continually misdirecting simple passes, have lead feet on first touch and running around but never ending up where they should be. The problem is not bad strategy, bad coach, no passion and the rest of it, but goes deeper than that, it is the way your kids are coached (or over coached) with this skill sapping mentality of "get rid of it" football. Let them play, let them get familiar with the ball instead of giving them 2 seconds with it, and maybe then you would have players that don't end up looking so amatuerish when up against classy opposition who look like they were born with a football at their feet.

[besnysvist]

1,Blame Eriksson??he was one of the best coaches you could imagine.Look at Man City..but the thing is that he brought about 7 players you didn't even hear abut them in with himself.And how many of them were English??So,do you still think you have the best players??Coaches??

2,next thing is that all European and South American countries with with good national football team have at least two or three other ballgames teams among the world top class.EXCEPT ENGLAND!..I am not counting rugby...but volleyball,handball,basketball,water polo...and I think there must be some reason...skills,passion..
3,Give credit to Croatia. Country with 5 milion people can't produce Suker,Boban or Bilic every year,but ecept Holland 2000 tey have qualified for every single tournament.

[Hammer585]

I am English, and accept fully that we are not at Euro 2008. We are not there due to lack of heart, hunger, quality, intelligence. We do not deserve to be there. On the night against Croatia, the England team were shameful and the Croats taught us a lesson that we'd do well to learn from. Picture Slaven Bilic, on the touchline, animated, focussed and marshalling his troops. Picture McLaren.....sat 'lost' under an umbrella!!!!! Says it all for me. As for the foreign hordes bleating about our arrogance, then maybe they should meet normal English people and not judge us on the rantings of a mainly immoral headline-hungry press. Not so hard to see where the rest of the world are coming from is it?

[Bruce]

I think everyone needs to calm down. All those fans from other countries need to bogg off and be greatefull that the English shared the game with them in the first place and that they are now able to enjoy the game. It seems strange that everyone wants to run down the English football game yet they all want to play in the English Prem League. I live in New Zealand and if you think the press are arrogant in the UK then you wake and smell the English Roses because you don't know a thing. Yes the English failed to qualify but so did a lot of other countries. So to all those football fans from around the world I say, worry about your team and we will worry about ours or are you all upset because you are really England fans!
To the English football team I say, Look at the way the New Zealand Rugby team prepared for the world cup and never take anything for granted. Look at the English Rugby team who were ridiculled a waste of time prior the RWC and yet they rose above and got to the final.
To the FA bosses I have two words: GO HOME.

[Paul from Canada]

This is not a new thing. It goes back fifty years. With the exception of 1966
England has never been able to win the big game. They do not have the mental preparation.

[Alex Cresswell]

I love the fact that the croatians think they are all of a sudden the best team in the world because of victory over mediocre england side. It was our poor level of playing that gave Croatia victory, Croatia didn't play that well. Certainly I would not be overjoyed at englands performance if it had been the other way around. Let's face it the all the goals were gifted to you by england, if I were you Bilic I would be looking at croatian performance and thinking that it simply won't be good enough to beat the likes of france and germany.

[J. Cassels]

"Everybody hates us" so the chant from English supporters goes. No we don't. What the world hates is the media hype and especially Motson and co. who, as soon as the draw for competitions is made adopt a "who will we meet in the finals" attitude. For the past few years it was obvious to the outsiders looking on that this English team were a side of overpaid no hopers.

[alex]

may be if you guys had a UK team - this could halp :)))

[Nina]

Hi,

i've been reading fans' comments about the game since wednesday and i just want to console the english fans: the ball is round, you are at the top, then the rainy days come...it's always like that for everybody. we (croatia) felt it last WC when we didn't pass the group and lost to australia. it was terrible feeling, the coach was to blame, the players, the game... true, most of our team now are the same guys that played in WC, but now they believe they can do it. since bilic came, it is a whole new team, spirit and belief that we have the talent, knowledge, and heart to win the game, any game. before the game with england, there were some people who said we would win, but most of us, even bilic and the team, said we only have to do our best and see what happens, after all it's england and wembley.
looking back at some of croatia's best sportsmen and sportswomen, i can tell you that only when they played with heart and belief that they could do it, they did... ivanisevic, janica kostelic, handball team, waterpool team, basketball team (in the past)... we are small country, and nowhere near so many professional sportsmen as in bigger countries, but it was always the heart and beliefe that brought us to the top. all the money in the world, arrogance and putting-down your opponents will not bring you the joy of winning, just bitter disappointment. it all comes down to basics - you have to love it, live it, breathe it, and it will come. our team has it now, and i hope they keep it for EC next summer, and don't get too cocky, otherwise the same thing will happen as it did to england. but, on the other hand, we have bilic now who has that specail flare and managed to get the whole of croatia on his side (which is quite a success, as we are not that easy..), but is also very down-to-earth kind of guy who knows that the heads have to be cool, but the hearts fired up - he is quite unique in our football circle.

anyway, just get that spirit back in your team and i'm sure we and the rest of the world will be again cautious when it comes playing against you...