Sandbach Shrimper
Life President⭐
Italy drew with Luxembourg before the tournament, lost to Costa Rica at the tournament and have now exited at the group stage of two successive World Cups, having won the thing in the tournament before that. How are they escaping the criticism that's being reserved for an England side that very few expected to get out of what has undeniably been the toughest group in the competition?
Some of the remarks regarding Hodgson, the players and the football on show are horribly revisionist. Pre-tournament, nobody was prepared to talk-up England and the general consensus was that we should be using the tournament to continue the rebuilding process. Hodgson has done that with the likes of Sturridge, Sterling, Barkley and Lallana being introduced to the team and built around more experienced players. The Costa Rica game is a continuation of that process with Jones, Smalling and Shaw also there.
Now we've gone out, it seems people are happy to revise their targets in order to attack Hodgson, when the reality is that he's just not the problem we have. Time and time again we've looked to hoist blame upon an individual, when really the problem is that as a collective we are not good enough. What can Hodgson realistically be expected to achieve with a group of players that have routinely failed? You can argue the case that they should be better, but where's the evidence? Because they play better in a domestic league? The two types of football are completely incongruous and shouldn't be used as a yard stick. Look at the troubles Manchester City have had in European competition despite their domination of the domestic league.
We criticise the FA for not setting a plan and sticking with it, and then criticise them more for not deviating from that plan at the slightest hiccup. It's always been the case that 2016 was to be the culmination of Hodgson's work. Judge him on the tournament we agreed to, rather than attempt to use him as yet another scapegoat for failure.
Well said. Some football fans are such reactionary fickle idiots.