Fear for England's future, really?

As we have all come to expect England's performance against France last night was meet with much criticism , "Capello gets French lesson" (BBC), "Fabio Capello's experimental England gets swept aside by resurgent France." (Guardian). Some of this criticism may be deserved but much of it is premature and the idea that the future of English football is on the verge of slipping into mediocrity at international level is absurd, these players have played one match against a team with a lot more experience and better players, for now.

Was I the only one who thought that this was improvement?

I thought that Henderson was good, he did what he was asked to do and moved the ball about, he covered a lot of ground, was happy to help out in the defence and had a bit of bite in midfield.

Gibbs was ok, nothing spectacular, he had a few nice runs but the final ball wasn't good enough, but that's what you'd expect seeing as he hasn't seen much first team football because of Clichy and being injured.

Carroll didn't get the right kind of service, simple as.

I thought Micah Richards was immense when he came on, not a single attack down the right by the french that I can remember, and he looked good going forward.

Barry was boring, Ferdinand solid as was Jagielka once he was moved into the middle. Foster could have done more to stop the goal but it happens sometimes. I was a bit dissapointed with Walcott but that was due to other reasons that I'll talk about later. Gerrard was his usual self and looked decent.

What really got to me was the system the team were playing, not the formation, but what they did once they got the ball. If you've got someone like Carroll up front you can play it long, but with the players we have on the wings surely we should be crossing from the final third.
Why did it take so long for us to get crosses into the box? I just don't get why Capello sets up the team with our wingers cutting inside, its just stupid, Walcott should take on the man go down the line and cross, then Carroll gets a real opportunity to score, which he didn't other wise. This works fine for Walcott, but Milner, why was he playing wing? He shouldn't be playing there IMO he doesn't have the pace to take on Sagna so it was a complete miss match and a bad piece of selection. Once Young and Johnson came on they looked bright, especially Young he tracked back took on his man and looked really committed, but again we have the problem where they cut inside the cross on their weaker foot. Why does he make them do this!!!!!? The defenders can see the ball coming all the way making it easier to get into position and head it away, Carroll has to be looking behind him to see the ball, it doesn't make sense, if he's running on to it he can shake his marker and get real power on it, he never had the chance to do this because it was the right kind of delivery.
Also what we need is the attacking midfielder to break into the box to pick up knock downs, Milner didn't do this, Wilshere, Lampard or Gerrard would have.
And why could we win any second balls? Once the french defence headed it away they won posestion, we need someone to pick up headers coming out the opposition.

I saw an excellent example of this when I went to see Belgium play Austria in the last round of Euro qualifiers. Belgium are a team that are on the up, there is no doubt about that, they have some fantastic young players coming through I was most keen to get a look at several players including Steven Dufour, Axel Witsel, Romelu Lukaku and Edin Hazard. However there was one play that caught my eye who I was expecting very little from, a young man named Jonathan Legear, he plays for Anderlect on the right wing and this is the position he occupied for his country, and he did what a right winger should do. He hugged the touchline and took on his man. He did this every time the ball came to him and caused havoc in the Austrian defence, they simple couldn't handle him even though he doesn't have outstanding pace.

This is something we should see our players doing for their country, our wingers have some real quality so will cause problems to full backs, which may result in teams doubling up against them giving the likes of Gerrard more space. The only players who seemed willing to run at the opposition last night were Young, Johnson and Carroll. Both Johnson, and especially Young, caused some real problems to the French full backs because of their shear pace once the get moving, the same should be said of Walcott but he is either lacking the confidence to do so, or has been told by his manager to run the channels which hasn't worked against a strong international defence in a while.

All this doom and gloom is over the top, they're a good bunch of players and could have played better if they were set up different.

They weren't and I don't think they ever will be, not under Capello at least. So things need changing, but who can do it? Redknapp is the favourite and the obvious choice, but other managers should also be looked at. Although its a long shot man I'd like to see in charge, who would deffinatly keep things interesting, is Ian Holloway who with Blackpool is only thinking about doing one thing, and that's scoring goals which is surely the best way to win a football match.

Either way change isn't coming under Capello, so change should come for Capello.

How are some stars missed out?

“I was surprised, but I always say nothing surprises me in football.” Les Ferdinand.

Kevin Phillips. Ian Wright. Les Ferdinand. These are all names that will be familiar to anyone who has followed the exploits of the England team over the last decade and a half. Wade Elliott, Jimmy Bullard and Jermain Beckford are three other players who most people, with a reasonable knowledge of English club football , will recognise.

But what do this 6 players all have in common?

They have all over come the disappointment of being released from their first clubs after failing to earn a professional contract and managed to make a name for themselves in the footballing world. In fact they have all risen through the ranks of non-league and league football to earn themselves a place in the top tier of English football.

Ian Wright never played football at any level higher than Sunday league until he shocked the footballing world when he signed for Crystal Palace at the age of 20 in 1985. It was a huge risk for then manager, Steve Coppell , to take. And one that paid off. Ian Wright enjoyed a successful playing career at Crystal Palace and Arsenal amongst others, he also earned 33 England caps.

Les Ferdinand began his career at Hayes F.C. and ended it with 17 England caps and over 400 Premier League appearances.

Kevin Phillips was released by Southampton F.C. in 1992, where he played right back in the youth team. He was quickly snapped up by Baldock Town, a semi-professional side, and converted into a striker. In 1994 he returned to the Football League, dipping in and out of the top two divisions and is currently playing for Birmingham City in the top flight. Between 1999 and 2002 he won 8 caps for England.

Wade Elliott was also released by Southampton, only two years after Kevin Phillips. In 1997 he joined Bashley F.C. and then moved on to Bournemouth in 1999. After a successful period at the south coast club he moved to Burnley where he scored the only goal in the Championship Play-off Final in 2009 earning his team an estimated 60 million pounds.

Jimmy Bullard started his career at Gravesend & Northfleet in 1998 who were playing in the Isthmain League. He then moved to West Ham and now plays for Hull City, via Wigan and Fulham, he has been heavily linked with a move to Scottish giants Celtic. He was called up to the England squad by Fabio Capello in August 2008, however he failed to make an appearance. He was also considered for the German national team, for which he is eligible to play for through his grandmother, prior to the 2006 World Cup.

Jermain Beckford was released by the Chelsea youth academy in 2003. He then signed for Wealdstone F.C. in 2006 he moved to Leeds United and has recently joined Everton.

These 6 men have all made incredible journeys that bring hope to many young players who have failed to make the grade at youth level, and have no doubt inspired great ambitions in some Sunday league players. But you've got to question whether the youth system in our country really works all that well and that perhaps clubs don't spend enough time looking round their local areas for talented players? Didn't anyone notice at the Southampton youth acamdemy notice that Kevin Phillips had a real eye for goal, and that his natural position wasn't right full back. How was Wade Elliott's technical ability over looked, as he is a fantastic dribbler and can put in a magnificent cross. How is it that nobody noticed Ian Wright potential when he was younger or his skill until he was 20?

Although all the examples are reactively old, I do not believe that a great deal has changed in the last 15 or so years when we look at youth development. In fact it is quite possible that due to the number of foreign players coming in it is beginning to degrade, and may even be over looked completely in the near future, it should be noted however that this two points apply almost solely to the Premier Division clubs, as this would be hugely damaging to small clubs who simply don't have the means of bringing in players from abroad and struggle to do so from closer to home as it is. If the Premier League academies were to shut down, the flow of young talent dropping down the divisions would be cut off and smaller clubs would be forced to keep more players from their own youth teams, who would otherwise have dropped further down the chain. This would mean that there were fewer players for non-league teams to pick up and these would eventually die out altogether.

Youth and non-league football is the life blood of our nation and take away the top flight academies would first kill one and then as a consequence the other too. And we'll be enduring a lot longer than 44 years of hurt.

England's Sliver Generation.

"England's World Cup ended in a mixture of humiliation and controversy as they were thrashed by Germany in Bloemfontein." Phil McNulty.

Since last Sunday just about everybody has been blamed for England's dismal performance in the 2010 and their subsequent exit, but some of the most popular seem to be how the FA and English clubs are failing to produce great young players, such as those found in the Germany squad. Another popular target, also linked to the previous one, is how foreign players are limiting the opportunities for our own home-grown youngsters. But how big an effect do these imported players have on football in England and is it always for the worst?

I think the recent fallout of young English players and other young British players is most clearly seen, not in the Premiership teams, but in the lower leagues and more specifically non-league. You might hear supporters of lower-league clubs talking about "gems" they've found in non-league and these kids must have come from somewhere.

Everybody knows how many kids don't get professional contracts at the top clubs and these guys often get picked up by small clubs and get the opportunity to fully develop and play first team football.

A great example of this is Charlie Austin's success at Swindon. He left Reading in 2004, at the age of 15, and after playing for several local or non-league moved from Poole Town to Swindon, after scoring an astonishing 48 goals in 42 appearances. He has continued in this rich vein goals scoring form at Swindon netting 19 times in 33 appearances.

Clearly something is wrong with the youth system if such a talented individual misses out and gets released, the reasons for this (According to Wikipedia, a far from reliable source) was "for being too small." which is ludicrous, Messi has a growth deficiency and was still kept on at Barca and Jermain Defoe is far from being the tallest man in the world.
This may be a valid (if not slightly strange reason) to release a player once they've reached maturity at say 18 or 19 but 15? I don't know about you but I've grown a fair amount since I was 15.

Going back to Charlie Austin he's now 6ft 2in (Again according to Wikipedia) not so small any more eh?

I think that having these foreign players brought in does have a detrimental on English players, but only up to a certain point. The quality of football in Leagues 1 and 2 has grown drastically as they can now pick up young lads with bags of potential for nothing after being released from the bigger clubs to make way for players being brought in.
The impression I've got from reading interviews from players who have experienced this effect is that they are much more driven and are just desperate to play first team football, especially after dropping into non-league. As a Bournemouth fan I can point out Anton Robinson as a prime example of this, he played every game last season in a highly competitive midfield for a team that won promotion, it was his first ever taste of league football.

Larger clubs need to be looking into the non-league system now, because there are some really quality players in there. I'm not saying they will necessarily develop into International players but it does show how not all hope is lost for the young Englishmen out there.