Why do England continually fail at international level?

[Sammy Chung was King]

Here's how i see it. From a young age, players are learned to kick a football, but very rarely are they teached, that their whole body can be used in the game.
Abroad while our kids are being learned to kick a ball straight back to their mate, their kids are being learned the intelligence side of the game.
How to play in all the positions, which creates an understanding of what is needed on the pitch, to beat an opponent. They are also learned the tactical side, when a formation needs changing.Then they understand what the manager is talking about. Some of our players don't even know that at international level.

They have very little understanding of the game, positions and how they can effect a game so they can win it. The football intelligence that is built up from a young age, away from our country, means that they are in front of our players straight away.
If you try and talk tactics to even pro players in our country, i would suggest that many don't understand, and any work done on it is boring.
I was learned to play much like all of you, by playing the game myself, against older players, and learning by my mistakes.
 But i have always felt i could have been much better, if i had, had coaches that knew how to coach how to do things properly, and to talk to me and others about why you needed to do things a certain way.
 That never happened for me, and i am sure many of our players were learned the same way. We are intellectually far behind the foreign footballer!.

[Nudga]

Taught man, TAUGHT!

[Nudga]

Seriously though, I coach at U9s Sunday league level and rotate player positions.
I keep telling kids and parents the reasons behind it, of which there are a few but some parents don't get it.
They pigeon hole their kids into a position that they think is the child's best one and if you change their position during a game, you can feel the discontent from across the pitch.

[rtid88]

I think one of the main problems we have is that a lot of other countries players are happy to move abroad to improve their game and however English players are incredibly reluctant to do so because they can earn more money being sat on the bench in the Premier League or playing in the championship. The main reason for English footballs recent downfall is the Premier League, Sky and the money those two have brought into English football!!

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Lazy mentality. As soon as they attain a level they strive for it's cigar and slippers time whilst players of a different mindset continue to work hard on their game.

I think Fabio Capello mentioned something about the players not listening. Capello's frustration was obvious and he got to a point where he said sod it, do it your way!

Compare the careers of Ronaldo and Rooney.

[Muttley]

It's obvious why England have failed over the last 50 years....it's because Premier League teams haven't been able to play their youngsters in a 3rd rate competition for lower league teams.

Thankfully that is set to change from next season, so get your money on Englan at least Making the semifinal of the Next Wogld Cup!

[wing commander]

   There are many reasons some are long term solutions and will take a few years to filter through..The academies mentalities need to change with regards young players,apparently we have a smaller amount of qualified coaches to other teams in Europe..We also need to get more players playing abroad..English players stick to the comfort zone of the premier league,we don't have 1 playing abroad.Every other nation has players playing in different countries so these tournaments are not alien to them...
    Short term it's passion......Lets get some pride back....singing the national anthem,looking like it actually means something to the manager and for that reason I would go out the box and give Alan Shearer a run,he talks well and obviously has the desire and passion needed and I think he would do well....He certainly wouldn't moan that he doesn't understand why he has to do a press conference after taking millions for failure like that last idiot...

[DonnyNoel]

Jamie Carragher has IMHO written a brilliant piece on it (albeit for the Mail) in which he laments how clean and polished our academy system has become to the point youngsters who get signed by the big clubs play pampered football from the age of 12 (some of them even have agents). He goes on to call this England team "The Academy Generation". They play on perfect pitches and are overcoached to the point they don't think for themselves which he says has lead to consistent mental failures from the national team.

Arsene Wenger has kind of touched on it before, he says players are put into a comfort zone too early whereas continuing to play a bit of mixed age football and even street football would lead to this type of toughness.

On a personal level I'd also echo the sentiments above about younger players playing abroad (to the point I've mused if its worth the FA buying a small Bundesliga or Eredivisie team to send youngsters to to play) to help them develop technique over the kick and rush element of the premiership which, whilst it may be good to watch, seems to be too different to international and continental football for us to succeed on those stages.

I wouldn't want to go too knee-jerk in dismantling this current squad though - there's still some decent talent in their at a good age to develop I'd say.

[Sammy Chung was King]

There are quite a few reasons, but i just put the post as one of those reasons. The way i see it, our players lack-
TEAM ETHIC From an early age it is all about how well they are playing, whether they are top scorer, who got man of the match. From an early age they need to realise, that even if they are more talented, than their mate at the side of them, they will very rarely win a game on their own.
Opposition teams fear teams that play for each other, rather than teams who play everything through one player. If they want to win, and we all do, they will win more together, than apart.

VALUES A fair few years ago now, young players used to serve an apprenticeship, they got just about enough money, to get them to the and back home all week. Inbetween that all the dirty jobs, such as scrubbing the baths, cleaning boots etc, they were expected to do these jobs. It was a respect thing, where they had to earn the right to be in the same dressing room as the senior lads, who had also had to go through the same thing. The loss of this has led to lack of respect issues, and lack of hard work issues. It's too easy it's put on a plate, now, as soon as they play a few good passes, they are training with the pro's. It has to be earned, it would build up strength inside, to do all these things, and it whittles away the one's not prepared to work hard enough. While also studying a bit as well as the football training, it learns them to trust themselves that they can do a good job, it adds life skills.

COACHING I don't believe in the academy systems, where kids are picked at five years old, by the time they reach sixteen the fun has been trained out of them.
The money is in the game, the fa should be recruiting a foreign preferably dutch coach, who can learn the local village coaches to coach in a similar way to ajax do. Learning the kids about why they need to be in certain areas, and playing them in different positions so they become more intelligent, to what is needed, as nudga is doing himself. A good coach can make something enjoyable, while also putting in bits of information along the way. Coaches need to explain things more to kids. For example why a certain player keeps taking the ball around them, and what they need to to stop him. Make it so kids are thinking about the game, not just running on and seeing who can score most goals.
It's should be scrapped the whole coaching system. And the new certificates, should be made so people can afford them, it's a big concern, how many people have the amounts needed to pay for these?.
Coaches should be taking these, while training they're own kids, under a coach who is qualified. This would take out all travelling, the kids get a better coach, they will become better players than they are. And we would probably triple how many coaches can take the higher coaching awards. The fa, should be funded by the premier league tv money, they could cut a massive amount off what it costs. You could learn a whole areas coaches on a few pitches.

REWARDED TOO SOON
This goes back to a yts type scheme, an apprenticeship. They should be signed on this for two years minimum. And once they complete this, then the pay they are allowed to earn, should steadily go up. Say they are on £150 a week, once they appear for the first team, this can only at most be doubled, until they see out the first year of being a pro. The next contract the most that can be offered would be £600, each year it being able to be doubled, until they reach the age of twenty one, then it would be unrestricted.

 During this time, once they sign for a yts apprenticeship, then they can't leave that club for another until, they at least complete one year as a pro, or the club releases them from the contract. All clubs would need to agree to this, so there would be no poaching of players. It would be like signing a pro contract, if they don't fulfill what's in the contract, then they can be fined quarter, half or all of they're apprenticeship money.
This would create, by the time they sign as a pro, a more rounded, grown up player, who is ready to face the mens game. By the time they get to england level, you will have a tougher all round player, intelligent in the game on and off the field.