Brooking, Coaching and England

England, as usual looked inferior in terms of basic technique. Brooking as usual blamed our youth systems and coaching.

Yet I find it hard to believe that the South Americans have the facilities in terms of youth coaches, quality of pitches, equipment etc that match those of the UK.

I think the difference is cultural and not unrelated to the weather. Though recently winters have been milder and pitches have got much better with technology. However our game is based on stamina and power. The hot weather countries, by necessity play more slowly, or at least stop-start and have time to develop skills.

When you see the foreign stars adapt to the pace of the EPL (which not all do - such as Forlan) do you watch a game and think Essien has better technique than Gerrard?

For some reason the English club style of football does not translate well to internationals.

Maybe the brief dominance of the champions league by the EPL has led to other Euro clubs adopting the faster pace game to compete, which may have done Italy and France no favours.

Is it still the case that no European country has won the world cup outside of Europe?

Posted By: Firstnews, Jun 29, 11:56:52