Algeria v England [OFFICIAL THREAD]

[Royal Lady]

Well, if I were the manager, I'd pick players like Zamora or even players from lower down the league - because I think they'd actually WANT to play for England and they'd have pride and passion something which I notice is emblazoned on the side of the England team bus. I got the distinct impression last night that Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard and co didn't really want to be there - there was no urgency, no fight - it was like watching Reading sometimes under Rodgers. Why we gave Capello an extended contract BEFORE the World Cup I don't know - but they'll be rueing that decision at the FA now I expect. Sure, we *might* get through to the next stage, but we don't deserve to and if we don't go through, non of the players will care less really anyway. They can go on their holidays.

This looked like being one of the easiest trips to the Semi Finals we've ever had, but we appear to have blown it.

[soggy biscuit]

Will England fans finally accept now that their team really is just not very good?

[soggy biscuit]

This looked like being one of the easiest trips to the Semi Finals we've ever had

Just can't seem to work out why the world says that England fans are arrogant.....

[Royal Lady]

This looked like being one of the easiest trips to the Semi Finals we've ever had

Just can't seem to work out why the world says that England fans are arrogant.....

That's not being arrogant, it's being realistic. If we'd had Brazil and Germany in our group for example, we wouldn't have given ourselves much of a chance would we. The group we are in *should* be one that we could get through easily enough. The way the other games have been played out could see us playing someone like Uruguay in the q/f - so if the team played to their best abilities instead of this shite, we *should* stand a good chance of getting to the semis - I don't call that arrogance.

[Maguire]

Will England fans finally accept now that their team really is just not very good?

I think we all knew that anyway. I don't get why every says we're arrogant - after a lifetime of underachievement pretty much everyone I know has zero expectation of us winning anything.

[floyd__streete]

The sooner England fans realise this and either get their heads out their arses and stop believing we should be winnign every match 20-0, or get their heads out the toilet and stop believing we're awful and have no chance, the sooner we'll stop acting like spoilt little kids throwing our toys out the pram and attacking our own heroes every time we don't get what we want.

Except no-one expects England to win every match 20-0, heck I don't even expect us to beat Algeria 1-0. What I did expect is for England to have a modicum of craft and guile to be able to force the Algerian goalkeeper into a meaningful save in an hour and a half of football.

And LOL @ our heroes. No heroes of mine, these cheating, spoiled millionaires. I only follow England nominally as an englishman, can't stand the players myself.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Will England fans finally accept now that their team really is just not very good?

I think we all knew that anyway. I don't get why every says we're arrogant - after a lifetime of underachievement pretty much everyone I know has zero expectation of us winning anything.

besides, it's not as if anyone with a degree of intelligence would have seen last night's display and thought it a true reflection of the ability of the team. It's not as if we were playing about as well as we could, but were found wanting.

And that's the thing that really grates. I don't know anyone who (despite the constant media references to the contrary) believes this team to be truly up there with the best in the world, but this kind of atrocious tournament performance is so common that nobody is really shocked by it. The players even looked like they were thinking of the headlines in the morning papers rather than the match. For all the bollocks we see in those tedious reports about how good "the mood in the camp" is, some days we blatantly take the pitch expecting failure.

[soggy biscuit]

This looked like being one of the easiest trips to the Semi Finals we've ever had

Just can't seem to work out why the world says that England fans are arrogant.....

That's not being arrogant, it's being realistic. If we'd had Brazil and Germany in our group for example, we wouldn't have given ourselves much of a chance would we. The group we are in *should* be one that we could get through easily enough. The way the other games have been played out could see us playing someone like Uruguay in the q/f - so if the team played to their best abilities instead of this shite, we *should* stand a good chance of getting to the semis - I don't call that arrogance.

England, Brazil & Germany were all seeded teams so couldn't be in the same group.

No one in the World Cup is a bad team or is easy to beat.

Uruguay are a good team and i wouldn't be all that confident of England beating them

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Why we gave Capello an extended contract BEFORE the World Cup I don't know - but they'll be rueing that decision at the FA now I expect.

please don't let us start blaming the manager. English players having been chronically underperforming in tournaments for years.

Maybe we should stop going on about '66 all the time. It's like a millstone round the players' necks.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Uruguay are a good team and i wouldn't be all that confident of England beating them

England wouldn't beat a League Two side playing like they did last night.

If England played like they did in qualifying, getting out of this group would have been a formality. It was the easiest group in the tournament.

[Royal Lady]

I blame him for team selection and tactics, personally.

[Jerry St Clair]

I only follow England nominally as an englishman, can't stand the players myself.

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

Club > country. Whether we like it or not. Dare I say, one of the reasons our players perform so well for their club is because they play with a wide variety of top class international players. In fact, are they any good at all? Average players in high performing teams?

Regardless, there really were some diabolical performances but special praise should go to Rooney and Johnson; a pair of rapists when it came to their touches.

If there is one scrap of comfort it's that we didn't lose and at no point did Algeria ever look like scoring, although the god-awful commentry would have you think otherwise.

Oh, and someone said this was the worst performance? Check out our EURO 88 campaign; that was BAAAAAAD.

[Schards#2]

This looked like being one of the easiest trips to the Semi Finals we've ever had

Just can't seem to work out why the world says that England fans are arrogant.....

This is a pretty dumb comment, even for soggy biscuit.

[soggy biscuit]

This looked like being one of the easiest trips to the Semi Finals we've ever had

Just can't seem to work out why the world says that England fans are arrogant.....

This is a pretty dumb comment, even for soggy biscuit.

And here comes the tag team..

[Schards#2]

Club > country. Whether we like it or not. Dare I say, one of the reasons our players perform so well for their club is because they play with a wide variety of top class international players. In fact, are they any good at all? Average players in high performing teams?

Regardless, there really were some diabolical performances but special praise should go to Rooney and Johnson; a pair of rapists when it came to their touches.

If there is one scrap of comfort it's that we didn't lose and at no point did Algeria ever look like scoring, although the god-awful commentry would have you think otherwise.

Oh, and someone said this was the worst performance? Check out our EURO 88 campaign; that was BAAAAAAD.

Without checking, I would imagine Algeria are rated far lower than anyone we played in 1988.

I remember Morroco in 1986 being desperate but we did only have 10 men for a half. I'd say this was as bad as anything i've ever seen from England at a tournament.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Club > country. Whether we like it or not. Dare I say, one of the reasons our players perform so well for their club is because they play with a wide variety of top class international players. In fact, are they any good at all? Average players in high performing teams?

Yes, they are good players.

Rooney is a key player at Man Utd, same for Gerrard and Lampard, yet those three were perhaps the worst players last night.

I do believe there's a degree of adjusting down, as the England team would struggle to get into a champions league spot, but suggestions that our top players aren't really all that good is ridiculous.

[Schards#2]

Just can't seem to work out why the world says that England fans are arrogant.....

This is a pretty dumb comment, even for soggy biscuit.

And here comes the tag team..

A dumb comment is a dumb comment regardless of who you make it to.

And that is a quite exceptionally dumb comment.

[soggy biscuit]

A dumb comment is a dumb comment regardless of who you make it to.

And that is a quite exceptionally dumb comment.

Take your personal vendetta elsewhere please

[Schards#2]

A dumb comment is a dumb comment regardless of who you make it to.

And that is a quite exceptionally dumb comment.

Take your personal vendetta elsewhere please

Jesus, what a tool