World Cup qual. - 'Predictable' England blasted

Eurosport - Mon, 08 Sep 08:49:00 2008

Croatia boss Slaven Bilic has dismissed England as "predictable" and insisted he expects his side to win their World Cup qualifying group.

FOOTBALL World Cup qualifying Andorra-England Theo Walcott - 0

The countries meet in Zagreb on Wednesday with England looking for revenge after two defeats by Croatia saw them miss out on qualification for Euro 2008.

That failure resulted in Steve McClaren being sacked and replaced with Fabio Capello but performances and results have not improved significantly.

Bilic told the Sun: "England can't play good football because they play predictable football. I don't know why. I would know that if I was training with them and speaking to them.

"As a national team manager you have to talk to them. If I was England manager I would find out because, really, I don't know why they sometimes perform nowhere near what they can."

Former West Ham and Everton defender Bilic went on to outline the unusual methods he uses to get the best of out his players.

"Sometimes I lie in the bed with my players," he said. "I go to the room of (Vedran) Corluka and (Luka) Modric when I see they have a problem and I lie in bed with them and we talk for 10 minutes.

"You have to do it. Sometimes football managers think 'If you do that you're losing the distance and the authority'. No, you're gaining."

Bilic, who has insisted he will stay with Croatia despite interest from West Ham, also warned England his side have improved since their victory at Wembley last year.

"No one is fearing England," he said. "If anyone should be worried about Wednesday, it's England.

"I expect us to win the group. I expected that two years ago and now definitely so. My team is definitely better than the one that beat England twice."

Capello insisted he would not be setting out to try and play for a share of the spoils, instead putting the emphasis on collecting three points.

Capello conceded he did not enjoy Saturday's clash with minnows Andorra, who often put nine players behind the ball in a bid to frustrate England before two goals from substitute Joe Cole broke their resistance after half-time in Barcelona.

Capello said: "It was not easy to find the space against Andorra because they had nine players always near their penalty box. It was impossible to find the space and they were just running down the clock.

"Wednesday will be a difficult game but more exciting. I prefer the difficult games. Saturday against Andorra was a very dangerous game but I like the bigger challenges.

"Croatia are playing at home and they have to play forward. They have to try and score goals. They will be strong and the level of the quality of the players will be better and more dangerous.

"I followed Croatia a lot in the European Championships. They are a good team and, when they play at home, the fans help the players a lot. Their fans are very strong in terms of emotion and passion.

"But we are good enough to get a result and I have confidence in my team."

Capello insisted Wayne Rooney is not becoming frustrated at his inability to hit peak form for England.

Rooney has netted only five times for his country since the start of the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Against Andorra on Saturday he again failed to stand out against the part-timers, although it was his reverse pass that laid on the second of Cole's two goals.

But Capello believes top players need time at the beginning of a campaign to hit form and that Rooney will relish having more room to manoeuvre against Croatia.

He said: "The game against Andorra was not the perfect game for Rooney. He did one fantastic pass for the second goal and also one other in the first half for Theo Walcott.

"But he needs space. Rooney needs space to work. I hope in the next game, he will find the space against a team who will not have nine players behind the ball for most of the game."

Sporting Life / Eurosport

Comment 27 - 46 of 46

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  1. poor England,the croat will teach you guys another good lesson in football tonight.

    From priestley f, on Tue 9 Sep 2:44AM

  2. he he poorengland will finish in dust again,,.,..

    From amir d, on Tue 9 Sep 12:26AM

  3. Hello from Croatia. I agree with some of you who think that your problem is a TEAM (read: INDIVIDUAL quality). I think your problem is also that you have a lot of good players and your manager is having trouble to choose, and then he changes lot of players many times and he dont give a players inaf time to play together so that few extra class players (Roony, J Cole , Becks, Walcot, Gerard) are hawing a real hard time to perform like team, so every one of them is doing their best but this is still just a individual efort. By the way 3-1 is the score. Laku noć

    From mvanja, on Mon 8 Sep 10:34PM

  4. I think all england managers are the same frightened to drop players like Lampard and Downing and a few others. They play really good for their club but absolutley @#$% for england. Bring back Owen to play up front with Heskey. Plays alot better than Rooney these who does not which way we are playing!!!! What a load of rubbish we are need to improve for wed. Put a female in charge she would stand for any @#$% like the men do!!!!

    From sarahulme@..., on Mon 8 Sep 10:00PM

  5. I think all england managers are the same frightened to drop players like Lampard and Downing and a few others. They play really good for their club but absolutley @#$% for england. Bring back Owen to play up front with Heskey. Plays alot better than Rooney these who does not which way we are playing!!!! What a load of rubbish we are need to improve for wed. Put a female in charge she would stand for any @#$% like the men do!!!!

    From sarahulme@..., on Mon 8 Sep 9:55PM

  6. Former West Ham and Everton defender Bilic went on to outline the unusual methods he uses to get the best of out his players.

    "Sometimes I lie in the bed with my players," he said.

    WTF is going on there then

    From snorky2226, on Mon 8 Sep 8:36PM

  7. Come on England ... We Need to believe and we need to start tonight ..... You can be the best in the world, just need to bring it out.. Come on England PLay Football.

    From kieren.fitzgerald@..., on Mon 8 Sep 7:29PM

  8. I'm a member of England Fans and have supported the team passionately for decades but I've had enough. So much so that I've taken the 10/1 on offer for Croatia to win 2-0. We don't have a chance. It's over. It's not just the team, the whole system needs to be changed from the top down, including the FA nobs who will only appoint a "Yes-Man" as coach. Who picks the squad anyway? Surely the fact that it has barely changed since the suede (Deliberately misspelt btw) was given the boot leads one to believe that the coach is not, in fact, solely responsible for selection. It's pathetic. I've had enough.

    From BoBBie G, on Mon 8 Sep 5:06PM

  9. I know England are a bit @#$% and Capello seems to be using the same formula that doesn't work and I agree with the comment about playing the under 21 side. BUT i think we should be supportive of our national team whether they are @#$% or not. Before they've even kicked a ball the british press and fans are already acting negative about it and you can hear the sighs of the crowd at the games from the moment the game kicks off and i imagine that the players think there is no point. i saw more support at that crappy celeb soccer aid thing. At the end of the day England aren't as good as people think they are and we should be getting behind them

    From andywilde19, on Mon 8 Sep 4:58PM

  10. elly953 this a football article not the gossip column of an entertaining mag...methinks you've got the wrong page. either that or you're too dumb to READ!

    From maximusLAC C, on Mon 8 Sep 4:20PM

  11. Can someone tell me why were are still playing Downing on the left and not giving Ashley Young a chance??!! Downing has no quality.. he's a waste of space. Our team isn't a team, it's full of individuals that need to gel already! We will lose to Croatia... I'm sorry but it's a fact. Why because we play spineless football.. no creativity.. come on.. Andorra? Yes they played 9 behind the ball but you'd expect our 'stars' to rip them apart. Capello said he was happy with the chances we were creating.. @#$%. We had 3 chances... Cole took 2 and Rooney missed the other. Thank goodness for J Cole, he's sparred our blushes a few times now BUT yet despite this, Capello might not give him a start on wednesday??!! Are you f-ing kidding me?! What a joke. Have you seen our strikers recently? Or lack of? Rooney (if you can class him as that) Defoe (headless chicken) Heskey (waste of space) ... shambles. I say play our under 21's from now on. We'll have a better chance of qualifying and we might even see that thing call PASSION for once. Sorry to be so negative I'm just tired.. so tired.. God bless England.

    From maximusLAC C, on Mon 8 Sep 4:17PM

  12. Wendsday match will show if England players have learned something from the last matches against Croatia. I hope they will play better

    From dorin.balica, on Mon 8 Sep 4:17PM

  13. I think one of the best ways to improve english football is to improve the youth systems. We can complain about the way foreigners come into the league and ruin the english mans chances of first team action, but if you were manager would you pick an untried english man or one of the best foreigners in the world? if you choose the first choice you probably end up with the sack! With a greater youth system the players will be there and will FORCE there way into the first teams, we have a few now eg richards but not enough. It needs to start from school ground upwards, with football being a commitment u take upon yourself and not just something to get out of the classroom. It will never get any better thought with the current political stands ect so why not get behind the team now? we lose so what why should we be arrogant enough to expect a win or us to play beutiful football? were far from a team like brazil or even croatia were all kids aspire to be the greatest and the effort they put is amazing. our biggest efforts in this country is getting out of bed

    From spurs, on Mon 8 Sep 3:59PM

  14. LETS SHOCK THEM PLAY THE BRITISH WAY AN OLD FASHION CF TWO WINGERS /RH/LH IL&IR LB/RB AND A CH THIS WAS WHEN MEN WERE MEN AND PANSY WAS THE NAME OF A FLOWER

    From STANLEY C, on Mon 8 Sep 3:16PM

  15. I think the problem is the quality of their strikers. They cant rely on Rooney all the time. Some teams have 3 or so really good strikers but England rely on Rooney and other. If only Owen was at his peak then we would be talking of something different today.

    From xoshoc, on Mon 8 Sep 1:15PM

  16. they were pants full stop

    From skintus, on Mon 8 Sep 12:46PM

  17. garbage

    From skintus, on Mon 8 Sep 12:43PM

  18. Thats class, hahahaha

    From Harry, on Mon 8 Sep 12:29PM

  19. Thats class, hahahaha

    From Harry, on Mon 8 Sep 12:29PM

  20. yes i think the billic method of greater intimacy in the bed is the way forward for england, this will undoubtedly improve performance. capello being italian should be a master in the bed if not the football pitch.

    From Ender75, on Mon 8 Sep 12:16PM
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