He should have started Crouch instead

Sven probably thought about not wanting to lose so they could avoid Germany in the next game.

Sven was completely and utterly clueless. We would have won something or at least reached a final between 2002-2006 with a world class manager

@@Bcfc-rv7yi Tbf as England managers go, he was one of the better ones. Keegan was awful, McClaren was awful, Capello was about the same, & Hodgson was average.

I do like Venables' comment about building the team around them. Perhaps a 532 would have faired better, who knows? Hargreaves could've been the "anchorman" as Venables called it, with an extra defender to protect them. With Joe Cole & Beckham able to come off the bench.

He got it right vs Portugal ironically. Rooney losing his head and the dreaded penalties let us down that night.

@@Harryhas26 That was our only match that World Cup where we actually went for it

@@rohithraman6488 What could have been.

After Rooney got sent off England could only score from set pieces throughout the match.

The reality was, they couldn't play together because Lampard's all round game wasn't good enough. He couldn't run or tackle, and he was inferior to Gerrard on the ball as well. He played with players at Chelsea that freed him up to score goals, whereas Gerrard was the engine of Liverpool and England. Beckham was much the same, quality in the right circumstances, but needed everything to go his way. England needed variation; ball winners, pace, energy. All they had was players who could pass and shoot but there was no balance to give them the opportunity to show those qualities. Sven was a poor tactician and thought you could just throw good players together. He never had any game plan. What we saw against Portugal was that Hargreaves made all the difference. By that point, though, he was the only one playing, the other players couldn't get any momentum because we hadn't built up any cohesion in previous matches. Imagine turning up to major tournaments not knowing what your best team is.

Thanks a lot! No info about radio, unfortunately, sorry. I'll try and upload more footage after the euros if I soft through my dvds again :)

There is a bit of that. The players before Southgate (and I don't rate him as a tactician but he mentally improved them) had this mindset of the pressure being on and and being afraid to lose. Having said that, Sven never had any tactical plan and was always just hoping that good players would perform together. I know this because that's how he managed my club as well.

​@keithwellerlounge74 I mean he wasn't a bad manager. Won trophies at club level and his record with Lazio is what got him england job.

Look at our team from 2006. We were allowed to be biased

Don't be ridiculous just because you're a bitter Scotsman. Do you remember the teams that made the final? They were both mediocre sides, with their only world class players in their mid-thirties. This England team had several top-class players in their prime, pulling up trees in Europe, winning major trophies and breaking goalscoring records. Yes some of them were overrated, but the media had every right to expect England to do well at this tournament. There's absolutely no bias in this video whatsoever.