England Football Post World Cup Where Do We Go?

After the abject failure of England it probably is not a time when many want to look at what should happen now. The familiar refrains that will be heard are: England should only play 442: The team should be built around Wayne Rooney: Lampard as this year's goat should not play again: We should never have a foreign manager who does not understand the importance of Shouting, sorry Passion…nada nada nada… But you know all those things are just repeating the mistakes of the past if not this campaign.

The key things to address are: Do we want to win it?: Ethos, how will we set about achieving it? Having one would be nice: Players who is it over for: Should we aim at 2010 not 2008?: Can we learn from others success?: Are our players that good after all? Should we base our campaign purely on the biggest names coming off 60 game seasons?

I think the first question is one that nagged at me all through discussing the tournament prior. England seemingly had its best ever talent pool with a squad rated 3rd in value and maybe higher by some of us. Yet it has never been a matter of talent, just look at Greece, for me England seem to perform best when underdogs - the team almost comes alive with 10 men.

The prove people wrong mentality expressed by a lot of players but principally Michael Owen is wrong wrong wrong…. What is it saying about his motivation? That it is fundamentally negative. Indeed I would contend English sides, club and country, now fail to win as often as they should because we seem to respond to adversity not just to go out and win/perform.

Teams like the Republic of Ireland, often with players who would not make an England 23, seem perfectly able to be tough to beat and go almost as far as England at tournaments. Indeed many teams do OK full of players who would not be considered by our big 4 clubs - where almost all our major players are selected from or their Spanish/German equivalents. I cannot help feeling for players who have fought all year for top clubs like Lampard and Ronaldinho this was a bridge too far. They said all the right things but ummmh ahhhhh did their bodies really have it left?

I also think the English are hamstrung by a press and public who attach their egos to players. I have been rather forcibly told Lampard did have a poor game against Portugal and cannot see the wood for the trees. The totally moronic Rooney/Ronaldo thing in the press shows a fascination with story lines, controversy and personalities that must feed into the team - who seem all too well aware of press and image these days, and have people to make them aware. After all the behaviour of Rooney however innocent led to a sending off and should be addressed not excused.

I am not sure our [England] natural desire is to win. This is the big job for the new manager and one that requires challenging people. Coaches of our national sides never use the drop unless forced to do so. Maybe a certain fluidity and dropping of big names will help give some players the need to prove someone wrong. The lack of a genuine desire to win is of course a massive handicap and probably renders the other issues mute nonetheless a recognition of what motivates them and using that surely makes more sense than picking the same team game after game and changing formations to try to suit them.

What should the new manager's ethos be? Frankly if we are to perform so badly lets play we'll get 1 more than you and at least turn some people on. Probably no less winning than the current fear of failure. That is of course exasperation speaking....

The ethos, whatever it is, should not be one that changes every time we have a bad game. One that is worked through and involves using friendlies to build the team. England for instance played a succession of pointless friendlies and one game v Argentina. Italy played more including Holland, Germany and the Swiss. Indeed many better African sides and Australia played friendlies in the UK yet we chose to play Jamacia, a pub XI effectively.

We have to accept that you build a team by playing. If that rules out making 9 of your starting 11 from teams involved in Champions League, Carling, FA and Premiership runs so be it. It is about players but not your precise 11 top players - pick those available to make a team. Leave out injured players is another good piece of advice. The history of the world cup shows the chances are they never perform or get injured again. Never mind the internal friction playing with a lousy Ronaldo must have caused Brazil say.

Put simply whether we attack, defend, play a back 3 etc etc key parts of the ethos have to be: using friendlies and competitive matches to build a team: team before individuals: being more flexible in selection, a best XI without height and effective pace should never happen: not being in thrall to stars or individuals - no one is bigger than the team. The elite players have no extra status and should be treated the same as anyone else - injured, dropped.

I would not like to end anyone's international career but certainly Beckham and Neville are older and injury prone. The former captain no longer does anything Lampard or Gerrard cannot do and his right side position would allow the addition of pace in SWP or Lennon.

Lampard had a poor tournament and is at an age, 28, where decline seems to set in. He probably is still a pretty complete player and hard to argue it is over for him having accepted Gerrard's performances in 2004 and qualifying. Nonetheless he might like to consider his own position. He will be 32 next world cup and OK France and Italy did well with older players but it is the the exception rather than the norm over many world cups. 2 more hard seasons with Chelsea later and it is hard to see him being better physically in 2008, accepting his form might be better, but he adds no pace to the side and with Gerrard younger, likely to play less games he might have to accept a bench position if he wishes to continue. Indeed dropping and swapping Lampard and Gerrard on form may work well. I cannot think of a formation whose idea it is to get 2 central midfielders into attacking positions - although Mourinho with Ballack and Lampard may be the man to provide it.

Those mentioned next were just plain never good enough. I have never thought Sol Campbell was any good and he certainly seems finished now. It is also time to stop picking players who are close friends with the elite who seemingly run the team. Crouch has few advantages of a big man, cannot hold the ball up, has no pace and seems to link poorly. Carragher is a poor centre half and a worse full back.

2008 or 2010 we should try to win every tournament. What is worrying is how we do not seem to have players coming through to challenge mediocre starters like Ashley Cole in easier positions like left back. There may be no better team developing behind this one. OK OK winning the Euros is not the World Cup but it would be a start.

Why England have failed to win up to now is not something I think we want to address in England. Why even after a qualifying campaign more bankrupt than even our finals performance we expected better this time is beyond me. Was Wayne Rooney hiding his form in qualifying like a Cumani 2 year old? no. To win needs the new manager to set out his stall and see it through. To not allow poor performances in qualifying to just be dismissed because of the result. He needs to ensure better preparation games than a bunch of teams not even making the world cup.

In short a thorough desire to win and I am not sure that is in line with the national psyche. The coach will have to take on journalists and all their pet favourite players and pithy asinine understanding of football. Unpopularity seems to be something England's managers fear nearly as much as winning I am afraid.