*Official Euro 2008 Qualifying Thread* - Page 19

valenzuela · #**181** 11-21-2007, 08:16 PM

in to make fun of England

Suiteness · #**182** 11-21-2007, 08:38 PM

In all fairness to the FA, Big Phil was their first choice but he turned them down. He would have been excellent.

Now how the [censored] do you go from Big Phil to McClaren is shocking.

Iplayboard · #**183** 11-21-2007, 09:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]

Im not slating the manager for failing to win a trophy, but for failing to even qualify. England might not be world beaters but at the least we should have qualified from the group.

Yes Sven came in for criticism, some of it deserved some of it not.

The scope of Mclarens failure is well beyond any of Svens short comeings.

Also if a team is consistently playing below its capabilities then that is totally the responsibility of the manager. That is what being a manager is all about. A good manager gets his team to raise its game and uses tactics that fit the strengths of his squad. This is exactly what Mclaren has failed to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

England did fail, but several European giants (France, Spain, Italy,etc) struggled at times with qualification. Every World Cup or Euro there is often 1 or 2 powerhouses that don't make it. Europe simply has a lot of good teams.

National team success is somewhat complicated because expectations of a team are based on the accomplishments of the individual players competing on separate club teams. These players often have to play different roles on the national team.

The recent English team has been playing below expectations since 2002's admirable quarter-final defeat to Brasil. I think this has more to do with the expectations being too high than lack of finding the perfect manager.

It isn't the manager's fault that there isn't a single decent English keeper or that first choice strikers and defenders suffered a rash of injuries.

If England suffers from these same problems then they will continue to struggle regardless of their manager.

Luckboxxx · #**184** 11-21-2007, 09:44 PM

GG England, Go Russia, FTW!!!

HajiShirazu · #**185** 11-21-2007, 09:58 PM

Pretty funny, England's group had two countries I wouldn't be able to point out on a map and two countries I didn't even really consider to be in Europe, and they still didn't make it through. They ended with the same number of points as Israel, lol.

Pontuan21 · #**186** 11-22-2007, 12:13 AM

Enough about England, lets look at the teams that made it and their seedings for the draw on Dec. 2 in Vienna:

Pot 1: Switzerland (hosts), Austria (hosts), Greece (holders), Netherlands

Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden

Pot 3: Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain

Pot 4: Poland, France, Turkey, Russia

Possibility of a real "group of death" with Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France all in the same round robin group.

PartyGirlUK · #**187** 11-22-2007, 01:13 AM

This is the most even groupings Ive ever seen. All 4 groups are close in quality to each other. Could be some really tough groups as pontuan mentions, could be weaklings (Austria, Sweden, Romania, Russia ftw).

sharkstevie · #**188** 11-22-2007, 04:19 AM

I've got no one to cheer for now [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I was planning on cheering for whoever England were playing lolz

The once and future king · #**189** 11-22-2007, 05:40 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Im not slating the manager for failing to win a trophy, but for failing to even qualify. England might not be world beaters but at the least we should have qualified from the group.

Yes Sven came in for criticism, some of it deserved some of it not.

The scope of Mclarens failure is well beyond any of Svens short comeings.

Also if a team is consistently playing below its capabilities then that is totally the responsibility of the manager. That is what being a manager is all about. A good manager gets his team to raise its game and uses tactics that fit the strengths of his squad. This is exactly what Mclaren has failed to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

England did fail, but several European giants (France, Spain, Italy,etc) struggled at times with qualification. Every World Cup or Euro there is often 1 or 2 powerhouses that don't make it. Europe simply has a lot of good teams.

National team success is somewhat complicated because expectations of a team are based on the accomplishments of the individual players competing on separate club teams. These players often have to play different roles on the national team.

The recent English team has been playing below expectations since 2002's admirable quarter-final defeat to Brasil. I think this has more to do with the expectations being too high than lack of finding the perfect manager.

It isn't the manager's fault that there isn't a single decent English keeper or that first choice strikers and defenders suffered a rash of injuries.

If England suffers from these same problems then they will continue to struggle regardless of their manager.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you are really arguing that who ever the coach was, we wouldnt have qualified? That is nonsense.

clowntable · #**190** 11-22-2007, 05:49 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Enough about England, lets look at the teams that made it and their seedings for the draw on Dec. 2 in Vienna:

Pot 1: Switzerland (hosts), Austria (hosts), Greece (holders), Netherlands

Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden

Pot 3: Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain

Pot 4: Poland, France, Turkey, Russia

Possibility of a real "group of death" with Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France all in the same round robin group.

[/ QUOTE ]
My thoughts on best team from each pot:
1: Greece
Yeah whatever, I think it's close but they play a good and compact system and are easier to "overlook" than the Dutch. I'd hate to play them.

2: Imo the strongest pot. I like all 4 teams but overall I think the Czechs are a little stronger than the rest. Italy hasn't been all that impressive after the WC but their style is perfect for tournaments.

3: This is a funny pot. Rumania, Portugal, Spain are all teams I'd concider to somewhat lack the mindset for a big tourney. Germany played strong during the WC and during the qualifiers (they dropped the tempo a little after they were through) but overall I think it's the easy pick from this pot.

4: Hard for me to judge as I didn't see many games from either team but I think France will be slightly overrated. Turkey has the ability to either implode or explode, depends a lot on how they start and if they can get the emotions going. They will definitely be one of the most present nation when it comes to fan support. I think Poland lacks experience and overall firepower. They underperformed at the WC and I expect the same to happen at the Euros. I think Russia will be the team which depends the most on how they play game 1. Overall I'd pick France.