Why is this current England team so much better than the failed ‘Golden Generation’?

MyOnlySolskjaer said:
James
Campbell Terry Ferdinand
Beckham Hargreaves Carrick A.Cole
Gerrard Rooney
Owen

James
Neville Terry Ferdinand A.Cole
Hargreaves Carrick
Beckham Lampard Rooney
Owen



​
Click to expand...

Both those would work. Could you really consider Hargreaves available though with his injuries? He'd probably be replaced with someone like Gareth Barry or Milner later on. Not totally convinced with Beckham on the right in front of a back 3 at the highest level either, but it would be worth a go.
 
Alex99 said:
They literally beat Germany last week.
Click to expand...

They’re rubbish now though because England beat them. Never mind that they were part of a group called the group of death and hammered Portugal, another good side
 
They seem like a unified group. And I think Southgate deserves a lot of credit for that.
 
Mr.Ridiculous__ said:
Ability on the ball. Look at the current England side pass around in ET last game. The golden generation would have hoofed it to glory
Click to expand...

They were against an absolutely shattered 10men Denmark team!
Let's not pretend this England team are peak Spain.
 
Cloud7 said:
A) You could argue there’s more depth in attack this time around. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember who there was past Becks/Rooney/Owen that were actually quality, but Kane, Sancho, Rash, Graelish, Sterling etc, there’s more to choose from, and all of them have different strengths for different midfields.

B) Overall the squad seems to be more balanced. There are players for each position that suits them, and there’s no shoehorning anyone in. For example Gerrard and Lampard were both attack minded CM’s and it always seemed to be a task to try to fit both of them in, which was made worse by the fact that England often played two up top which made the midfield situation with them even more precarious.

C) Luke GOAT Shaw

D) This part isn’t based on anything at all, but it just feels like the squad harmony is better in this team. Gerrard, Rio, Terry etc, I just can’t shake the feeling that maybe they weren’t the most happy to be around each other. You never get that vibe with the current crop.

E) Not to rain on the parade of how well England are doing, but by and large the quality of international teams right now is way less than it was back then. There are very few teams right now that are very good, which is fortunate that England have ended up being good during this period of time. Take for example Germany. The Germany of this euros was arguably the worst Germany team I’ve watched in my lifetime.
Click to expand...

Germany at the turn of the century were much, much worse.
 
The "Golden" generation never solved the Gerrard-Lampard-Scholes axis. Were too hung up on the classic 4-4-2.
Didn't have enough attacking options beyond the starting lineup.

Were against better quality teams.
And most importantly narrowly missed out. Pens, red cards, injuries etc.


This lot are more unified as a collective. Have a hell of a lot of attacking options out wide.
Have had decent draws, and avoided pens so far.
And not afraid to plug the midfield up with two stoppers.
 
They definitely look a more together group with less ego.

Though they've also had easy runs of games in both this tournament and the last, along with games in Wembley this time. Maybe the golden generation would have done better in that case as well.
 
Much better cohesion, better depth(England are honestly loaded with talent on the bench), and the players genuinely get along extremely well(i think this is often overlooked).
 
Don’t blame Sven-G, he was unlucky with penalties. McClaren didn’t even qualify for Euro 2008 with prime Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Lampard, Wazza etc.
 
I don't think this team is any better thant he golden generation. They've had a a ton of "luck" on their way to the finals, with Germany being the only big team they've had to face so far.

The defense is playing very very well, other than that, is it so standout?
 
More options from the bench, less filler players (Mills, Sinclair, Vassel etc) and less drama. I mean the Rashford of then was Darrius Vassel. Thats a massive upgrade.
 
Tom Cato said:
I don't think this team is any better thant he golden generation. They've had a a ton of "luck" on their way to the finals, with Germany being the only big team they've had to face so far.

The defense is playing very very well, other than that, is it so standout?
Click to expand...

Defending well is an important part of it though. One goal conceded so far. And that was a brilliant free kick.
 
sullydnl said:
They definitely look a more together group with less ego.

Though they've also had easy runs of games in both this tournament and the last, along with games in Wembley this time. Maybe the golden generation would have done better in that case as well.
Click to expand...

The ego thing is a significant factor, and I think people really understate this aspect.
 
Because Southgate won't give a flying kiss about integrating fan favourites into team instead he opted for highly hardworking players who will be useful in offense and defense.

Saka,mount,sterling,rice and philips nobody will be in fan's choice at the start of the tournament. May be team full of hardworking players can bring football home is my opinion.
 
One word - Dribblers.

The Golden Generation of England had some great players but lacked players who could run with the ball and put teams on the back foot. This England squad has that in abundance.
 
groovyalbert said:
True, although I think the overall depth in quality in international football has massively diminished over the last 10 years or so.
Click to expand...

Maybe but I think there is a real danger of nostalgia clouding our judgement too. Teams like Denmark and Greece won the Euros during that era. Turkey was a World Cup semi finalist. South Korea made the quarters or semi final.
 
Iker Quesadillas said:
Playing at home.
Click to expand...

This as well. Semi final, a hoard of English fans, at Wembley. Vs. Denmark.

Talk about underdog setting.

Off-topic, but I really hope they do away with this "multi country" hosting of the European Championships. The tournament is just more special when it takes place in a host country, its a spectacle for the whole nation to host the tournament, in its current format it's just fun for the locals around the stadiums.
 
A better squad but lesser first XI.

Plus a lot more luck.

That Golden Generation would have been punished for Pickford's mistakes against Denmark.
 
groovyalbert said:
I mean, you still have 5 world-class players in that starting XI. They just were never really up to it for England when it mattered.

The drop-offs in quality are pretty big, mind. 40 year old average keeper, injured forward, no wingers, and Upson. And look at those subs.
Click to expand...

That whole time period from 1996 to 2010 had some bad luck too. Penalties, Sol Campbell scored extra time goals which were mysteriously disallowed, Beckham injured his foot in 2002, Rooney got hurt during Euro 2004 when he was flying, Rooney got injured just before 2006 and then the soft red card with Ronaldo cheating and the wink and the ghost goal in 2010 against Germany which may or may not have mattered.
 
DixieDean said:
One word - Dribblers.

The Golden Generation of England had some great players but lacked players who could run with the ball and put teams on the back foot. This England squad has that in abundance.
Click to expand...

That's a good point.
 
Gerrard-Scholes and a defensive midfielder was always the way to go.
 
The individual players back then were far better but we had managers who didn't dare drop the big names. We had a team of individuals and couldn't put together a team that worked. I actually think the hopelessness of England these last few years has helped, nobody is too bothered who is in the team anymore. The manager has freedom to drop big names if they don't fit the team.

Then you also have to look at the opposition. There's no team in international football that would hold a candle to the sides that generation faced. The quality of football teams in general is currently in a trough.
 
The england side from 2002 to 2006 in major tournaments were quite unlucky. Gettinf knocked out to the best side Brazil in 02 and that too after seaman's howler, getting done by Portugal in pens in both 04 and 06. Yes there were probably ego clashes more then but still that side was good too.
 
The White Pele said:
We’ve picked a balanced team rather than star names.

Imagine if we had done this in 2004/2006 and had the option of bringing on Gerrard/Lampard and Beckham for the final stages of the game.
Click to expand...
Yes this is it.
6 months ago who would have thought Phillips would get in front of Henderson or Saka in front of Foden. Obviously he still has his favourites, Sterling even though he wasnt being a starter for City and it appears Grealish is maybe a pander to the public/media. If you count the Nations league Southgate has led us to 3 semis, which for a failed Premiership manager is a marvel in itself
 
It’s hard to say whether they’re better or not due to different circumstances... weaker opponents, easier draws, home games.

However they’re clearly a better unit than they were in the past and look to have a good team spirit which is definitely different to how it used to be and goes a long way. Also got more cover in different areas of the field and the manager isn’t trying to squeeze every big name into the starting eleven.

It’s hard to say if they’re better or not really.
 
11101 said:
The individual players back then were far better but we had managers who didn't dare drop the big names. We had a team of individuals and couldn't put together a team that worked. I actually think the hopelessness of England these last few years has helped, nobody is too bothered who is in the team anymore. The manager has freedom to drop big names if they don't fit the team.

Then you also have to look at the opposition. There's no team in international football that would hold a candle to the sides that generation faced. The quality of football teams in general is currently in a trough.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the managers were not good enough.

Southgate starting Phillips and Rice shows it all. Previous England manager's would not be doing this.

Carrick would have been perfect for the golden generation but was ignored so that Lampard and Gerrard can play.
 
They're not, they've simply had games all games at home in this tournament bar one, and played teams who were inferior or at the end of their cycle in Germany. Similar to the world cup except not at home. Didn't meet the same quality of opposition we did in 2002,2006,2010 etc.

Current team wouldn't have done any better than the so called golden generation did in the same tournaments I think.
 
English football is in a better place. Chelsea vs City in the Champions League, us in the Europa. With English players playing their part in both. Liverpool are in a far better place. Villa, West Ham, Leeds etc. are more competitive.

You could argue the rest of Europe has gone backwards. French, Italian and Spanish teams are all skint.

Also, this team don't seem like arrogant twats. And Southgate plays a system. Not names.
 
Because the golden generation...
1. didn't have enough grit and defensive energy in the middle of the park
2. had serious club rivalries and internal toxicity
3. played 442
4. were too fearful of mistakes following Becks' media massacre
 
I don't know if I'd say "better" but the reason they're most successful is because Southgate picks a cohesive team and clearly works on shape between matches rather than just picking the best 11 players and expecting them to work it out.

The "Golden Generation" spent 8 years or more trying to make Lampard & Gerrard work. They tried to make Paul Scholes a left midfielder. They stuck to the same 4-4-2 system for what, 10 years. They continually put players in positions where we asked them to do very different jobs to what they do for their clubs but expected them to be great at it.

Despite this, they were unlucky at times. To go out on penalties twice is unfortunate, losing Owen / Rooney to injuries mid tournament was obviously dreadful luck but there you see the main differences between the Golden Generation and this squad - depth. While the 1-11 team on paper is not as good as that side, the quality from the bench is ridiculous. We can replace the majority of the team without losing quality - heck in some instances we are putting a better player on than the one starting.
 
It's not.

The opposition is much weaker and they've lucked out with easier draws.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.