Well That Lasted Long

You may have noticed that like most football fans recently I have been a little bit quiet (and will most likely continue to be until the 13th July) thanks to the World Cup. And unless you have been living under a rock you will also have noticed that England's tournament has ended almost as soon as it began. Now you could spent hours going over everything thing that has gone wrong for England but the clear fact remains that we were knocked out by teams that were quite simply better then us and a rather plucky Costa Rica side. We have known about the tough group for months and after playing down our chances since the draw and talking about how this World Cup is simply going to be used as a test run for the younger members of our squad naturally the media responded with articles like this?

Yep, predictably the media have now launched a hate campaign against Roy Hodgson because his team lost to two sides who are undeniably better then England (just look at the world rankings) and then drew with a team that have the potential to be the shock of the tournament. It's obvious that Roy has made mistakes but there are two very simple reasons why he should keep his job. For one thing who is there whose going to be willing to take over who is better then Hodgson. You only have to look at the Premier League to see there is a lack of top quality English manager. Yes Alan Pardew and Steve Bruce have had solid careers and are doing well at Newcastle and Hull but neither have Hodgson's experience, especially in the top European competitions  (the closest thing in the club management to an international tournament). Sam Allardyce is already hated by many of the West Ham faithful, while Harry Redknapp has underachieved with a huge Queens Park Rangers squad who just managed to scrape through the play-offs for promotion. Another option been touted is Brendan Rodgers who, while having done an incredible job with Liverpool also lacks European experience, would surely be very unwilling as a proud Northern Irishman to leave his promising Liverpool project in order to take the almost poisoned chalice of the England Manager's job. 

The other main problem that England face is a lack of real star power. Looking at the Uruguay game there were only two major differences for me, one the work rate of the Uruguayans (as with all the South American teams) and two Luis Suarez. In a very even game Suarez was the man that made the difference and is arguably the reason why it is Uruguay going through and not England or Italy. At any level of football having one player who can win the game with one piece of brilliance is always a bonus but at a World Cup it's vital. England had plenty of chances to win all three of their games but just needed one Suarez like talent in order to get the results needed. I'm not saying there's not talented players in the England squad, Rooney has the ability to make a difference but does not perform regularly enough at international level to be the player England need him to be. Whether one of England's youngsters can step up and perform at Euro 2016 or the 2018 World Cup remains to be seen and until then I suggest the media stop messing on talking about whether or not Hodgson should be sacked and get behind the team (like that's ever going to happen...). Away from England though this World Cup has been thoroughly entertaining and is only getting better as we get towards the knockout stages, so don't expect to be hearing from me too often in the next few weeks!!