Bilic blasts England Cup display

[Mac 10 †]

Bilic blasts England Cup display

Croatia boss Slaven Bilic has called England's World Cup display in the summer "defensive and boring" ahead of the two sides' Euro 2008 qualifier.
 
Bilic, whose side will play host to England next Wednesday, criticised the squad of former boss Sven-Goran Eriksson for failing to gel as a team.

He told The Sun: "They were no good - they were nothing. They were so boring.

"I have never seen in my life such a great collection of players play as defensively as they did."

England crashed out of the World Cup in the quarter-finals after losing to Portugal on penalties.

But Bilic, who featured for West Ham and Everton during his playing career, said he was left lost for words by their overall performance.

"They just didn't play as a group, they played as individuals," added Bilic, who replaced Zlatko Kranjcar after Croatia's failure to reach the last 16 in Germany.

"And I really thought they had a great chance to win the World Cup.

"You can look back now and say the team had had a long season, they were under pressure, there were big expectations on them - but they are all just excuses.

"I couldn't even explain it to my nine-year-old son. I just don't know."

Even though Eriksson left after England's World Cup exit, Bilic is still not completely impressed by new boss Steve McClaren after the laboured 1-0 win in Macedonia last month.

"I can't understand why they played so defensively at the World Cup," he said.

"But they were the same against Macedonia, so I don't think it was all down to Eriksson."

Croatia head into Wednesday's match with one point from their opening Euro 2008 qualifier - a 0-0 draw with Russia last month.

[KURUPTION-81]

Im a huge england fan but i really wish people would realise england r not a good team there an average team.

[Mac 10 †]

Gerrard
Lampard
Cole
Beckham
Lennon
Hargreaves
Carrick

There weren't too many teams at the WC with a better midfield than that.

I think England could have gone on to win it had Eriksson got his tactics right and got the best out of the players at his disposal.

For instance not even taking Andy Johnson, Defoe & Darren Bent.  Any one of them coulda been useful to throw on but he ended up playing 1 up front.

[KURUPTION-81]

Gerrard
Lampard
Cole
Beckham
Lennon
Hargreaves
Carrick

There weren't too many teams at the WC with a better midfield than that.

thiose r all good players but only one player of those is the best player at his club and that is gerrard.The others r good but they have other players at there club who raise the performance of those players game if u see what i mean.They r surrounded by players who bring the best out of them and enhance there game especially cole, beckham and lampard. With england they dont have that, Imo lennon needs a lot of work to be an international player and carrick is not world class.

[Mac 10 †]

So you think Cole, Lampard & Beckham are passengers at their respective clubs?

[Javier]

No way did England have an average team.  The talent level their team has matches the talent level all the other great teams in the World has right now. 


EDIT: Except for Brazil of course lol

[KURUPTION-81]

So you think Cole, Lampard & Beckham are passengers at their respective clubs?

passengers isnt the correct term it makes them sound rubbish but i do think with england those players r expected to produce that piece of magic that will win england the game where as at there club its not the same, other players will step forward and do that.

[KURUPTION-81]

No way did England have an average team.  The talent level their team has matches the talent level all the other great teams in the World has right now. 

They r talented as individuals but as a team they dont gel, the balance is not right imo.

[Mac 10 †]

In my opinion England had the 3rd best starting midfield at the WC.

Behind Brazil (who can bench Juninho which no other country would do) & Spain.

Apart from those 2, England has the best midfield of individual talent at the WC.

If they all aren't playing well together and playing to the best of their ability - I blame the manager.

[KURUPTION-81]

In my opinion England had the 3rd best starting midfield at the WC.

Behind Brazil (who can bench Juninho which no other country would do) & Spain.

Apart from those 2, England has the best midfield of individual talent at the WC.

If they all aren't playing well together and playing to the best of their ability - I blame the manager.

The manager must take some blame mainly because he insisted on playing lampard and gerrard in the centre together. Any good team must have a ball winner in there midfield england during the world cup did not have one lampard, gerrard, beckham and cole, none of these players can tackle. When we did finally play hargreaves it was at expense of a striker which then limited us in an attacking sense.

England also dont have any world class wingers, beckham can put a great ball in but cant dribble. Lennon can dribble but cant cross where as joe cole continually cuts in from the left hand side and never passed the ball to ashley cole who wass over lapping so there was no delivery from the left. By cutting in all the time all he did was bring the ball into the centre of the field where england lack anyone who could player a killer pass.