Let The Players Know Who’s Boss

The next vital step for Roy Hodgson is to remember that he is the boss. He was the victim of player power during his time at Liverpool and there is an even higher risk of that happening again with England. There are a few egocentric players in the dressing room who feel they have more authority than is actually the case. By a few players I mean only one player. That one player is John Terry.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for Hodgson to get this dickhead under control. Terry needs to realise he is extremely lucky to be in the squad – hell, he’s extremely lucky to be allowed to play football while under criminal investigation. Hodgson made a mistake picking Terry over Rio Ferdinand. Not only should he not be allowed to play he’s also not as good as Rio. He isn’t as technically gifted, all he will do is throw in a hefty challenge. However, he has been picked and now Hodgson is faced with the daunting task of drilling into Terry’s peanut sized mind that he is not in charge, he’s just a member of the squad like every other player and he gets absolutely no fvcking say in how the team is run!

The England manager’s job (or any other manager’s job for that matter) should not be a democracy. If the players don’t like how it is run then they should piss off and let somebody else (who’ll be a hell of a lot more grateful) have a chance. The only player who should be allowed to voice his opinion, with regards to team matters is Steven Gerrard, the captain. If the players have any grievances they should report them to the captain and it’s up to the captain to pass those grievances on to the manager. What are the chances that most of those grievances would come from the aforementioned Mr Terry?

Ok so once you have your team in order and given them a good understanding of who’s in charge what’s next?

Don’t Give Opponents More Respect Than They Deserve

I don’t know about the rest of you but I am fed-up of managers and players talking about how poor opposition pose a threat and they have to be wary of them. The most embarrassing example of this that I’ve seen would be the Andorra matches during qualifying campaigns for tournaments. The likes of John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand etc. were doing interviews saying Andorra is going to be a tough game, they’ll be dangerous and we need to be careful.

Wrong.

You know why? Because it’s fvcking Andorra. They don’t have many (if any) professional players and they’re going up against players who are being paid £200,000 per week. There’s not going to be any contest there. If you go into a game with that mindset (of believing a team is a lot better than they actually are) then how do you expect to get a result. Instead of guarding against failure just refuse to fail. Go into that game thinking ‘everybody knows that we are far better than these guys so why don’t we show them just how good we are?’

Sure enough, in our game against France we have to show them a lot of respect because they have some quality players in their squad. They will be dangerous and we’ll have to be on it to come away with a win. However, don’t show that same amount of respect to Sweden because they aren’t as good, Ukraine even less so. People talk about how Ukraine iz going to be tough because they’re on home soil but we’ve beaten them in the Ukraine before.

You look at the individual talent in the England team and it’s clear to see it is well capable of giving any team a test. We beat Spain in November for Christ’s sake and if we can beat them then we can beat anyone! It’s not a lack of respect or arrogant to give an honest assessment of your opponents. It’s vitally important the players are given a reality check when it comes to how good their opponents actually are.

So that’s how England can stand a chance of success at the Euros. However, there is one thing that the FA can do to give England a better chance at future tournaments.