Quote ="ThePrinter"Thank god for Germany. Some people are so obsessed with individuals like Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo and even some England players, pundits and fans who ridiculously call Rooney a "world beater" that they forget that this is a TEAM game.
Did Costa Rica, Algeria or USA have great individuals, no but they put in strong showings due to playing like a team.....Belgium was a team full of good players but looked like strangers and were a tad lucky to get to the quarters. England were obsessed with getting Gerrard and Rooney in the team because of their individual abilities that they ignored that they didn't fit into the side and we made sacrifices just for their selection. It's only going to be more of the same as people are already getting excited about Ross Barkley being "the one" to take on the world. It's this issue what I call the "Gazza effect" that is England's main problem, an obsession of individuals instead of a team that works and fits together.
Last night was a victory for team football, not this idolising one player and BTW he has 10 guys clinging to his coat tails.
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You act like the Germans don't have star players, and you act like they haven't obsessed over the 'individual'. Only a week or so ago they looked very poor against Algeria. They lacked balance, their wide/attacking midfielders offered nothing and their midfield was pedestrian. Simply put, Germany shown what a decent coach can achieve if he understands his players and puts balance of star players. Rooney has been poor for England for years, but he's still accommodated in the side. Gotze is a £30m attacking midfielder, one of the Bundesliga's very best, but he's had a poor tournament and Low wasn't afraid to drop him for the sake of the team.
England could have a squad of bona fide superstars, but Roy Hodgson will never achieve results at this level, the man is mediocre and, like his time at Liverpool, he's there as a yes man to do as he's told and get on with it. We could have Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez and Ibrahimovic in the team, we'd still have t*ssers telling us how good Rooney is in the hole and we need to run everything through him, and Roy will keep doing as those t*ssers tell him. And to be fair to Roy, the fans and media seemingly love it. The results were a disgrace, but people are apparently happy because none of the players have come back and complained? The mood in the camp was 'better than South Africa'. Christ.
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