I didn't, and won't watch England's latest game but listened to it on 5Live too. And for once I heard an 'expert summariser' (Mills, I believe) say what, to me has been one of England's problems for many years. With one or two exceptions, few players seem to want the ball. When an England player has the ball he's lucky to have one option for a pass. Usually sideways or backwards. At their best, teams like Spain and Germany always seem to have a minimum of two players looking to receive the ball, sometimes three. I don't know whether it's fear of being seen to fail, or the inner knowledge that, despite all the money and media-hype, they are just not that good, but too many players in a white shirt don't seem willing to help out team mates. You occasionally see it in League 2 but you don't expect to see the nation's 'best' players passing the ball to their nearest team member, and then stop running into space to be available for a return.
We have a media that is world class in creating hype, and raising expectations beyond what is reasonable from the evidence before our eyes, but a second or even third rate team. Maybe it's the former that's the real problem.
We have a media that is world class in creating hype, and raising expectations beyond what is reasonable from the evidence before our eyes, but a second or even third rate team. Maybe it's the former that's the real problem.
