I could write a much longer opinion on what I feel is wrong with the current setup and direction of the team, as I'm sure could many other people, but my main question is:-

Do you think England have developed any more as a team since Terry Venables was in charge?

I know he's not had the best of success in recent years with club teams, but he certainly showed us how England could play with strength, character, excitement and passion

Anyway, here's my view

We seem to be happy with sqeezing ourselves into championship finals, then accepting below par perfomances to get us into future stages.
We lack skill and common sense on the ball which encourages other teams to come onto us, yet we stand off and allow the opposition to come at us. There are many high profile, successful names within the team who provide individual performances, but don't cut it when we need them most and we rely on new kids on the block to dig us out of holes.
It is no good playing one off average games to see them through and accept this as making progress.

I think England needs a manager that not only understands the expectation of a failed nation, but understands the internal passion of the english game, it is no good instilling a calm and collective manner on the pitch, knowing that everyone around you can do their own job, we need a team that is going to fight for everyones causes and prepared to battle for what they want.

As Mark Lawrenson said, it was like ground hog day.

 

All I can say is that is down to us. Welcoming them back like heroes when they failed in Japan was absolutely shocking, saying we were robbed after the Portugal game and moving the blame from a team and manager that were utterly substandard.

We should take a more direct approach like the Italians, lob skanky fruit at them when they come off the plane etc. There is no motivation for them to win if they do not have to accept the blame.

 

Biggest question IMHO is, Why make a great attacking side like England defend one goal leads? They have great attacking players. If they're playing well at the start of the game attacking and score a goal, why change tactics? Why fix something that aint broken?

 

expectations are far to high and I personally blame the press/mdeia. England have only ever been in 1 major Final in their history and that was in 66 at home in the world cup. its not that the team has gone downhill its just that the expectation has grown.