Same Old Quarters, Same Old Pens, Same Old England

 So England have fallen at the quarter finals again, and again on penalties, and it’s all Liverpool’s fault because we had six players in the squad and we only finished 8^th last season……  Well Kelly and Downing didn’t play, Henderson had about half an hour, Gerrard was England’s best player, Johnson was our only real attacking threat and Carroll scored as many as Rooney and Welbeck despite playing less minutes. And by far the worst England player at the tournament finished 2nd in the league last season, though he may have been saving his energy for when he teams up with Tom Daley at this summer’s Olympics….

 No, I think the real reasons for England failure lie outside of Anfield.

 It’s hard to say exactly what went wrong and where improvements need to be made (apart from ‘everywhere’) but, of course, I have my own ideas. I think one of the main issues is the lack of English players willing to ply their trade abroad. Who scored against England in their first game? Nasri. The second? Mellberg. Who did Ukraine turn to in an attempt to save the match? Shevchenko. Who was Italy’s biggest threat? Balotelli. The common link? They’ve all played or still play in the Premier League. We may know them as individuals but they know us as a group, as a team. They know our culture and our football philosophy, our mentality. It’s difficult when every time we play our opposition knows us better than we know them and it will always be an uphill battle unless this changes.

 Wayne Rooney is a star in the English league, but he plays against the same defences year in year out, likewise Steven Gerrard in midfield and John Terry at the back. If Rooney had played for Real Madrid for a couple of years, Gerrard for Milan and Terry for PSG then the core of the England team would have much more idea how our opposition will work, how they will react to going ahead, or going behind. It’s a bit like having a spy in the opposing team’s camp and it can only benefit England. At the moment we’re importing the talent into our league on a regular basis and we’re teaching them about us without us learning about them. Unless this trend changes I don’t really see England’s fortunes improving for a long long time.