AHC: International Football is between Leagues.

[V-J]

Haha, nope. If that was the case, english teams would sweep the Europa League, but that's what spanish teams have been doing in the last decade.

Nobody - nobody - in England takes the Europa League seriously (sadly so in my opinion) so it's hardly the most reliable indicator of quality between the two leagues. Clubs play to basically get out of the Europa League at the earliest opportunity, it's regarded as a burden when a club gets into it.

 

[richhossfloss]

Sounds like an english cop out for continuous failure. Chelsea won the big one but you all hate chelsea for playing a style that wins and not the english "running for running's sake" style

 

[Nicola]

To be fair, England's team is world class. They consistently make it out of the group stages and are always in the top 25 out of more than 190 teams. It just isn't world-dominating. And as a country, England has produced its fair share of superstars in recent years (Beckham, Gerrard, Rooney).

Although the fact that England and the US have had virtually identical World Cup results in the 21st century (despite the fact that England has a much more talented squad) has always been very confusing to me.

EDIT: Not to mention that the 2nd and 3rd most profitable soccer leagues are the Bundesliga and La Liga, so having a financially strong league doesn't exactly hurt your national team's chances either.

the english national team struggles becasue the English game is still domionated by 'Route One ' and english players struggle to deal with teams who don't default to ROute One esque tactics.

 

[Legend-in-Exile]

Nobody - nobody - in England takes the Europa League seriously (sadly so in my opinion) so it's hardly the most reliable indicator of quality between the two leagues. Clubs play to basically get out of the Europa League at the earliest opportunity, it's regarded as a burden when a club gets into it.

It's a competition for teams not good enough to get in the champions league, or not good enough to stay in the champions league.

Quite hard to get the blood pumping about watching second rate teams duke it out.

It's a burden because of the heavy schedule of games English teams already have. It's basically a wooden spoon.

 

[oldironside]

the english national team struggles becasue the English game is still domionated by 'Route One ' and english players struggle to deal with teams who don't default to ROute One esque tactics.

With all due respect, that is not true. For a start, only a third of the players in the EPL are English, which massively undermines Roy in his attempts to create a winning team. You can't make bricks without straw.

Secondly, if you are accusing

- Man City (much as I loathe them),
- Liverpool (I feel dirty writing anything positive),
- Chelsea (Have you ever seen Hazard play?),
- Man U
- Everton,
- Southampton,
- Spurs (God will strike me down for that one)
- the mighty Irons

of playing route one football, then you are either trolling or you just don't know what route one football is. It may not be tikka takka, but it has as much to do with Graham Taylor, George Graham or John Beck as high fructose corn syrup has to do with a healthy balanced diet.

 

[Nicola]

With all due respect, that is not true. For a start, only a third of the players in the EPL are English, which massively undermines Roy in his attempts to create a winning team. You can't make bricks without straw.

Secondly, if you are accusing

- Man City (much as I loathe them),
- Liverpool (I feel dirty writing anything positive),
- Chelsea (Have you ever seen Hazard play?),
- Man U
- Everton,
- Southampton,
- Spurs (God will strike me down for that one)
- the mighty Irons

of playing route one football, then you are either trolling or you just don't know what route one football is. It may not be tikka takka, but it has as much to do with Graham Taylor, George Graham or John Beck as high fructose corn syrup has to do with a healthy balanced diet.

English football players have played route one influenced football since their first pair of boots as Under 7s not helped by the use of full sized pitches for the youth game until very recently ... the english game still praises the big kicker and still sees the only way of progressing to be to boot the ball vaguely i nthe direction ofthe other goal.

 

[CthulhuFhtagn]

English football players have played route one influenced football since their first pair of boots as Under 7s not helped by the use of full sized pitches for the youth game until very recently ... the english game still praises the big kicker and still sees the only way of progressing to be to boot the ball vaguely in the direction of the other goal.

It looks like the top teams in the Premier League focus almost entirely on short passes. Maybe that's just how the English national team plays?

 

[oldironside]

English football players have played route one influenced football since their first pair of boots as Under 7s not helped by the use of full sized pitches for the youth game until very recently ... the english game still praises the big kicker and still sees the only way of progressing to be to boot the ball vaguely i nthe direction ofthe other goal.

Hair spllitting of the finest quality. I congratulate you.

"The English game still praises the big kicker and sees the only way of progressing to be to boot the ball vaguely in the direction of the other goal."

BS. Who are the English stars of the English game? Rooney? Overrated, but not a kick and rush merchant in a million years. Sterling? Are you serious? Wilshire? Oxlade-Chamberlaine? Milner? Noble?

Your vague generalisation may have stood up 15 years ago, but not today.

 

[Legend-in-Exile]

Hair spllitting of the finest quality. I congratulate you.

"The English game still praises the big kicker and sees the only way of progressing to be to boot the ball vaguely in the direction of the other goal."

BS. Who are the English stars of the English game? Rooney? Overrated, but not a kick and rush merchant in a million years. Sterling? Are you serious? Wilshire? Oxlade-Chamberlaine? Milner? Noble?

Your vague generalisation may have stood up 15 years ago, but not today.

With the football being played at Arsenal and Liverpool, and the number of England players at each team, I find it hard to believe England will default to Long ball. (Though neither team is really performing at the moment, I don't see them playing a hoof it and hope style)