England disrespected Defoe on too many occasions, unforgivable not taking him ahead of Walcott

Couldn’t believe Lampard and Gerrard missed their pens when they dispatched them with no remorse week in, week out in the Premier League. And Carragher stepping up WTF.

Calling up Walcott at 17 after playing no games at Arsenal was stupid. Sticking rigidly with 4-4-2. Tabloid media’s usual jingoistic pressures and of course because “Footballers Wives” and “Dream Team” were a thing in those days, the WAG obsession.

The problem was England were obsessed with how do we get all our players in the starting XI rather than what’s the tactic which best facilitates our best players

Joe Cole lives on the stairs to the weatherspoons toilets 😂

2006 had so many legends in one tournament. Although england had a decent squad look at brazil Italy france they were superior

Gerard and Lampard never gelled together and were over run in midfield. Michael Carrick should’ve been in there and Scholes should’ve been there too.

Honestly this question applies to England at almost every World Cup.

That incredible battle against Trinidad & Tobago. I think I fell asleep a dozen times

Might wanna reconsider Joe Cole as a pundit, said the same thing 6 times and took 3 years to say it. Painful.

I feel like they talk about this every week now

The awkward silence between Jake Humphrey asking questions and the replies is ridiculous

Simple, the manager had no clue and kept using that awkward, outdated 442 formation. Gerrard and Scholes on the wings, Lampard as a deep lying midfielder, Rooney constantly isolated up top and the criminal underuse of Defoe and Crouch. I don't buy the club rivalry logic, Barcelona and Real Madrid absolutely despise each other but Del Bosque found the right system and managed the players perfectly. Something Eriksson, McClaren and Capello failed to do.

Great interview. Beating both Italy and France in the semi's and Finals would have been tough though. Had we taken Jermaine Defoe it would have been a lot different though, as we would had an one other striker who was fit! Also at the time Rooney was a bit young to be playing up front on his own. He lacked the experience and he had been injured so very tough.

England have had some great squads, plenty of talent to compete, a big thing for me that people seem to miss is there are so many other countries who have top top players throughout there squads at each of these tournaments

In 2006 we were billed as one of the genuine favourites for the first time since 1970. I think this created a probelm for the squad, as they were used to being a quarter final team that hoped for a bit of luck, or rather to be in the second group of decent teams behind the real favourites. The players media strategy or natural reaction was to talk their chances up which caused the German media to label us "the self appointed champions"; but I don't think it was arrogance that lead them to talk this way but inexperience. This is the world cup where "playing with fear" came in, the build up and the top billing had a part to play in that. The other issue was that our top billing was based on a fully fit and available team, we ended up without Owen (who wasn't fully fit in the games he did play) and then an unfit Rooney. Imagine if Germany had been missing Klose and Podolski or Italy had lost Del Piero and Inzaghi? No team can lose two class strikers like that and live up to the pre world cup billing. Even with all that, we eventually went out to a Portugal team that couldn't beat a 10 man England, after the referee (who should not have been given the game) sent Rooney off because of a slow motion big screen replay that didn't show the whole story (Rooney was being fouled by two portugal players - the one hanging off his right arm let go and his weight righted itself cuasing the accidental "stamp" when the ref gave...a freekick to Portugal). Yes I know he sent him off for the push on the winker - but at the time it was generally accepted that was just the presentational excuse for the "stamp" the ref saw on the big screen.

I was just thinking yesterday as BT and Sky are clearly running out of content to post, who is going to cover the "Why didnt the England team of the 2000s win anything" topic first for the 373728th time?

Definitely Defoe should have been there

Honestly this shouldve won the world cup is ridiculous France: Zidane Henry Vieira Makelele Ribery Lirazaru Pires Trezeguet Brazil: Ronaldo Ronaldinho Kaka Adriano G silva R carlos Cafu Dida Lucio Italy: Cannavaro Materazzi Pirlo Del Piero Totti Buffon not to mention a decent Argentina team a really good young German team,the genesis of a Spanish team that would go on to win the next 3 international tournaments they competed in,it was always going to be a tall order. It would be more apt to say they shouldve won Euro 2004.

Joe flexing his iPhone 6s 😂

France, Brazil, Germany and Italy were better teams

The main issue was never having a World Cup keeper during these golden years:)

Taking young Theo Walcott to the WC 2006 was the biggest mistake SGE, as at that time England had decent top Strikers

What went wrong? Crouch decided to pull Brent Sancho's rass during a game against Trinidad and Tobago in the group stage

352 Terry, Ferdinand, Campbell Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham A.Cole Rooney, Owen

The 2006 England squad were the perfect example that having a squad full of individually world class players does not make a world class team. The players in this squad were capable of winning anything but when thrown together, there was just no chemistry.

That Walcott decision was bizarre. Sven never worked out how to play Lampard/Gerrard together. Rooney wasn't fit. Too much hype from the media.

How many times are they gonna go over this went too tournament’s under performed went out can blame management and Tactics but players weren’t up to it simple

Joe Cole was spot on with his analysis at the end,good player.

The thing they ignore during these conversations is that a lot of other nations had world class squads at the time too, with Portugal being one of them

This is the way I see it as an England fan. We had an amazing team but so did many others. Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany and Spain all had fantastic teams but obviously one was gonna win and others were gonna falter. That’s why 2006 was such a brilliant World Cup because there were so many legends and world class players in so many teams. We could’ve reached the final for definite but we simply took our chance and didn’t deliver whereas Portugal did. And then France knocked them out. The biggest mistake for me for England that year was bringing Walcott and not bringing Jermain Defoe since Spurs had an amazing season that season in 5th with English players like Robinson, Carrick, Lennon and Defoe all playing superbly. The other big mistake was not bringing Scholes idk why Sven didn’t select Paul Scholes when he had another amazing season. My starting 11 would’ve been this Robinson G Neville A Cole Ferdinand Terry Gerrard Scholes Lampard Beckham J Cole Rooney I wouldn’t have started Owen. Plus when Rooney got injured in the match vs Chelsea when Chelsea won the league, we knew we had to replace him in the line up for the first game of the World Cup. And our best options were Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe. We started Crouch against Paraguay but I would’ve not started Owen. I would’ve started Scholes and I still don’t understand why we brung Walcott and not Scholes or Defoe. That for me is what let England down. Regardless of what happened we did have a brilliant squad and reached the quarters when we got knocked out by Portugal. But then it all went wrong after 2006 when Sven stepped down and we had our worst ever manager in modern times, Steve McClaren...

Hats off to bt for the sound quality. Sky's interviews over laptops are aweful

Same problem since 1966 with every other England team to play in a World Cup - players not technically good enough on the ball to keep it in the right areas of the pitch, to defend well enough and score goals.

Everyone seems to forget, 06 was also Portugal’s golden generation not just England’s golden generation. Both teams were equally as good as each other. Portugal won cause of their composure in the big moment

A lot of Erickson's decisions were bizarre, his dodgy tactics and player selections could be infuriating at times putting Scholes on the left was one that springs to mind.

Sven tried to do with Walcott what Brazil did with Ronaldo at the 1984 world cup. And even though they were both 17 a massive difference was that Ronaldo had been playing first team football and scoring goals for Cruzeiro in the Brazillian championship whereas Walcott hadn't even played for Arsenal yet.

We had that silly 442 formation and also the fact that Gerrard and Lampard couldn’t play together

That italy team was an unbeatable one especially that defence. Even france 2018 and argentina 2022 squad wouldn't be able to beat them. Buffon conceded 2 goals only one was own goal and 2nd was a penalty. Lippi once said that defence wouldn't let pass even their mother to the goal😂😂

Lampard, Gerrard & Ferdinand have already covered this. They said they played as individuals rather than a team, and Rio had doubts lurking into the back of his mind constantly, and Gerrard was sick of the stuff going around the international games. England have been average to bad for over the past 20 years.

It's funny because I always thought the euro 96 squad was the best

There were some good sides in that world cup. England had a great squad at that world cup but so did many others. The france and Italy teams that made the final were full of superstars.

Ferdinand did say,they were more interested where they were going that night,

Great team on paper⚽️

Need all the players from 2006's opinions in a full call, the atmosphere and emotion would explain everything

Sven had absolutely no idea what he was doing. It's that simple, really.

Theo Walcott became a "top, top player?" ummm?

Why did we fail? simple we cant keep possession of the football well enough. The top players we had at that time were Brilliant individually for their clubs because they were playing with technically gifted foreign players. But when gelling them together for England it didnt work no cohesion at all.

People talk about golden generation but are they forgetting all the other teams. France for example had Henry, Ribery, Zidane, makalele, veiria.... Portugal had Ronaldo, figo, deco, Carvalho, Rui Costa Brazil had Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, kaka, Adriano, Robinho, Cafu, carlos Spain had Torres, Villa, Alonso, Fabregas, iniesta, morientes Shall I go on? All the other teams were also packed with world class players let’s not forget.

on paper world cup finalists. Preparation, injuries, the premiership were the reason we failed. lucky to get to quarters to be fair

Tbh I don’t think either of these have anything to be ashamed of. Crouchy’s record for England is incredible

Or Maybe england just aren’t as good as their fans believe...

how we / England didn't win the world cup in 2006 didn't seem right whole nation come together just like the 2018 world cup we get so close lately i just wish we could get that 2nd star in my lifetime

Also people always talk about bringing Scholes back but SHEARER retired just before that maybe he would have wanted one last swansong like Zidane. Would have been perfect for our striker crisis.

About six world cups occured in the delay between Jake and Crouchy's audio.

Would people say England in that World Cup was better, the same or worse than the Italy team that won that World Cup?

Brand Beckham's celebrity circus on tour.

It was peak individualism in the squad, no real motivation or strategy. Style over substance.

The team was simply not good enough, English hype is crazy as usual

Lots of great teams throughout that era 2002 to 2006, brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Argentina. Wrong manger too and too many big players never showed up.

We have players that individually are brilliant but as a team we are obviously lacking, also I don’t think the expectations put in them by the fans and the press don’t help, going into the 2018 World Cup people didn’t have those same expectations and look how well they did.

Look at the names in the Italian,french and Brazilian squads in 2006.

The same discussion is happening with ex Holland, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, etc. Lots of countries believed they could win. And the truth is it could be any of them:)

If I was England manager at that time I'd get rid of a couple of superstars like really mix the squad up and give a chance to great players that play for midtable clubs. I'd not play Gerrard and Lampard together that's for sure. One of them would be on the bench.

Italy's team was pretty good, I think it was better than ours.

England getting eliminated whenever they face the first big opposition at WC‘s 1982: Spain and Germany two 0-0 draws were not enough in second group phase 1986: Out at the quarter finals vs. Argentina 1990: Out to Germany on penalties in semis, also losing to italy in tge match for third place 1994: - 1998: Out in R16 to Argentina on penalties 2002: Out in the quarter finals vs. Brazil 2006: Out in QF vs. Portugal 2010: Out vs. Germany R16 2014: Out in group stage after being beaten by Uruguay and Italy 2018: Out in the semis vs. Croatia, also losing third place to Belgium 2022: Out in QF vs. France

England didn't too badly in that tournament ended top of the top got into the quarters that is not too bad all things considered.

The interview is actually 5mins long, the other 5mins is waiting for them to talk.

On paper, they had a great team based on how good the players were on individual merits. From how well they were doing at club level. After seeing and hearing players' verdicts and most recently, Sven's, on Sky Sports. It's all down to a collection of errors that made England doomed for failure from the offset. Which is why they didn't deliver on the pitch. Not playing to style or a system that complemented the players and the manager. Not playing to our strengths and utilisation of the squad. Examples being playing Paul Scholes out wide, and not taking the well-proven Jermaine Defoe to the 2006 World Cup. What also didn't help, was the internal rivalries from the players in the England squad with their club 'cliques' too. Like the Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea tables, for example. Who were more unconsciously interested in the clubs they played for than their National side.

Turned off after the first 5 seconds. ''We should have won they world cup that year''. No, we shouldn't. There were much better teams than us at the tournament.

Best squad since 1966? Wasn't even as good as the squad in the mid 90s mate

England's fortunes dissolved when Owen got injured against the Swedes

the one England team that could have done much better at a WC with better management was the 1982 team (injury hit with Keegan and Brooking) and better team selection, and the 1990 squad, that had WC winning potential if only Bobby knew how to play Barnes and Waddle together..the 2006 squad was a good team but ignored how good the other squads were in that WC...England played a weakened Portugal as well...(No Deco or Costinha)..

No chance we should have won this one! The big missed opportunity was 2002. Us and Brazil were the best teams left in the tournament, if we could just have found a way past them we would have played Turkey in the semis and a distinctly average Germany in the final. Should have won that one. By 2006 other teams had gone past us.

Ultimately has to be shown as a failure of management , in creating a cohesive system that would allow us to utilise the strengths of our world class midfield, as well as creating a comfortable and unified dressing room. If the players are comfortable on the pitch , relationships improve off the pitch. Also , criminal that scholes was left out , his passing ability and temperament would have acted as the midfield heartbeat of the team that the naturally attacking minded gerrard and lampard couldn’t quite do. Overall though , a great team needs a great manager , and sadly Sven isn’t a World Cup winning manager

Crouch was one of the few players who performed in 2006

The issue wasn't calling up Theo, it was then not even playing him

Robinson Neville Terry Ferdinand Cole Hargreaves Gerrard Beckham Lampard Cole Rooney Should have played that team and also should have taken Defoe over Walcott

Humphreys needed to steer this a bit more to properly cover it all off.

Pretty simple from 1998-2010 England's golden generation played golden generations that were better. Argentina (1998), Brazil (2002), Portugal (2004), Portugal (2006), Germany (2010). Who exactly were they meant to beat from those teams?

The management was poor, the right players weren't in the squad that were left out of the main team. There was always a way to play Scholes Lampard and Gerrard. Lampard in front of Gerrard and Scholes

Shouldve benched one of gerrard or lampard. This was the biggest mistake playing them both in same time.

British football media over rating average footballers ! That's what was wrong in 2006 . The trend of over rating average footballers continues in 2020

I honestly beleive if a better manager I.e sir alex was manager in 2002 and 2006 we would have won both. I grew up hating the bloke but no denying his man management which is what we needed more than anything.

They probably didn't know how good they were at that time and presumed there will be better players coming through and they would have another shot in 10 when in reality it was the same team with most of those world class players around 30 years old or above and the same reserves in some of their places. Between Rooney and wilshere there was no one. The big one was the wolly who started playing a prime stevie g out wide in his peak. At Euro 08 we could have had James, Richards, Rio, Terry, Cole, Carrick, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Cole, Walcott. With beckham, Defoe, Crouch, Hargreaves, lennon, on bench.

Did sven ever play another formation with England than 442?

Quite simply some of the players like the keeper, defenders were piss poor for international standards, and we had no proper left side! And we didn’t have a flair/Gazza sort of player

Italy were different class from england

No great mystery to this. Beckham, Lampard and Rooney were passengers on the pitch. Clueless Sven picked them on reputation alone, and England paid the price.

That midfield was insane. And that’s with no scholes. The talent was there but it was still going to be a challenge. It was by far a forgone conclusion. Owen and Rooney injured really hurt (no pun intended). Also, goal keeper was weak in comparison to Buffon. I don’t know how Defoe doesn’t get picked. They still might have pulled it off had Ronaldo not been a ________ (fill in your choice of words)

England will never be good enough, and it goes down to mentality, even England's best players crumble in the white shirt, they never truly show their club form in an England team, the mix always looks decent, but apart from the usual injuries etc, they just can't get it over the line. They don't ever appear to have a flexibility about their system.

England as a team will never play like any other squad everyone wants to be the hero

That was the year football broke me as a man

I think the only chance england had of winning in the 2000s was euro 2004. There were better teams than england in 2006 as to why we were knocked out in the quarters but I think if we won the shootout in euro 2004 v Portugal I think england would of went on to win that tournament and in the 90s when we lost twice to Germany on pens in 90 and 96 we just never had the luck then. Hopefully we can win the euros next year or win a tournament soon as it is frustrating at times to be an england fan lol

Poor Joe. He doesn't be well. "We just wasn't, was we?"😂😂😂

Had no strikers. Should have brought Defoe but had donut manager.

One person to blame Sven Scholes retiring at his peak Gerrard Scholes and Lampard midfield 3 wing backs Cole and Neville under Glen Hoddle that would of worked

I agree Defoe should have gone ahead of Walcott. I rate both players but Walcott was not ready at that time. But let's get real, Defoe was not gonna win the world cup over Brazil, France, Italy and Spain etc. How many of that squad can get in the team over Zidane, Henry, Makelele, Ribery, Vieira etc. Or Buffon, Cannavaro, Materrazi, Pirlo, Gattuso, Camournesi, Totti, Toni, Del Piero etc.

The best englans wc squad was 2010. Capello tactics were outdated.

When i watch this, i sometimes wonder if english football fans actually watch anything other then the premier league. Do they watch the Bundesliga, Serie A or La Liga? It always seems like "we have the best league, so our national team who all play there, should win the World Cup." It makes them very unlikeable.

The ironic thing is that if the doctors had learned from past mistakes, Rooney wouldn't have gone to this tournament and this question probably wouldn't be getting asked at all