9 Reasons England Deserved An Early Exit At EURO 2016

It really pains me to see England crash out to an early exit in an international tournament yet again. Especially when it came fresh on the heels of the COPA America disappointment.

Among all the teams at EURO 2016, it is the only team that I can name each player at each position without having ponder for an extended moment. I know all the players from constantly watching the EPL, and the thrills they deliver on a weekly basis during the season were a joy to watch.

Yet the seemingly talented individuals failed miserably at the first hurdle of the knock-out phase… again.

They have let fans all over the world down by losing to Iceland.

Here is what’s wrong with the England football team set up and why their utter humiliation is well-deserved.

1) Over confidence

There’s a clear difference between real confidence and over confidence. And this can be easily observed from the press conferences before and during their short stay in France.

Players were talking as if they were writing their own prophecies.

Their arrogance have made themselves every opponent’s prime target. This motivates every other team to take it up another notch just so they can stuff that humble pie down the English players’ throats.

Beating England just seemed to add that little more pleasure.

Gareth Bale summed it up best when he said that England always hype themselves up before a ball has even been kicked.

2) Bizarre hubris

Nothing is a bigger display of hubris than in the case of Harry Kane taking corners.

I personally think that Kane is the closest thing to Alan Shearer since the latter’s retirement. But no matter how good he is with taking corners, his predatory instincts belong in the penalty box. Not the corner flag.

Roy Hodgson letting him take corners just because he liked Kane’s delivery in training sessions is as blatant as it gets. As manager, he should have known better. This totally backfired. At least he was man enough to admit the mistake and made the change from the next game.

So (over)confident was he about the quality of his overrated players to finish off set-pieces… that he removed the biggest goal threat England had from goal mouth melees.

Kane should have known better and insisted that his presence belongs in the box.

3) Kane playing in U21

There’s a lot of media coverage on how tired Kane is after playing continuously for 2 years without an extended break to recharge.

Although Harry insisted that he is not tired, how else do you expect him to respond to such questions?

It is like asking a drunk driver whether he is drunk. You already know his answer!

This goes all the way back to the end of the 2014/2015 EPL season when he was called up to take part in the U21 tournament when he had no business being there having already establishing himself as a senior international player.

Someone got greedy and wanted to use him to finally win a trophy for England even though Kane’s exertions were pretty obvious, he was nevertheless called up to play in those competitive soccer matches.

Finally, a young complete striker has arrived for England… and they choose to squeeze him like an orange…

Yet many other players who were eligible for the U21s but in the senior squad were excused. It was pretty obvious that Harry was being bullied for being a nice guy.

The EPL is already a pretty exhausting league that has no winter breaks. Taking away that post season rest is just pushing him a little too far. How can he be expected to be fresh as a mint during EURO 2016?

4) Using Tottenham/Liverpool tactics

Tottenham was playing some breathtaking football during the season. So did Liverpool in the latter part of the season. They both play with a high pressing game plan that is both entertaining and effective.

Roy’s plan was pretty much to mimic the tactics and strategy of these 2 teams and create a hybrid that would work for England. It turned out to be a bad decision.

Even more baffling was that England played with a different system throughout the qualifiers… and they won 10 straight games!

This tactical switch complete failed.

The national team don’t have the players to play such a system. There are no players like Alderweireld, Coutinho, Dembele, Firminho, etc, to make this set up effective.

What England do have is Jack Wilshere…

5) The case for Jack Wilshere

Can someone please remind me why Jack Wilshere was selected for the England squad?

Here is a footballer who has hardly played in the last 2 years. How could he be allowed to deprive other players who was good throughout the season of a spot in the squad?

In some countries, he’d probably be arrested for stealing someone’s spot.

This is a bad habit that seems to exist with many managers. They like to go with reputation instead of common sense.

The argument that his selection was down to loyalty as he did well during the qualifying rounds. Well, that is completely hogwash. Because if that was the case, why was Andros Townsend dropped?

Jack wasn’t even a starter for goodness sake. His place should have gone to more deserving players like Danny Drinkwater, Mark Noble, Andros Townsend, or even Michael Carrick!

The mentality behind decisions like this is truly mind-boggling… and it says a lot about how the back-room staff approached EURO 2016.

6) Wayne Rooney

Don’t get me wrong. Wayne Rooney deserves his spot in the squad simply because there are not many alternatives to choose from. But to play him in the first 11 is amusing to say the least.

This is the ultimate demonstration of favoring reputation.

In fact, I’d think that if Alan Shearer and Glenn Hoddle volunteered to play in France, Roy would have no problems dropping 2 other players to accommodate the big names in the first eleven.

Rooney was admiring his own cross field passes so much that he did it again and again even when the direct route seemed like the best option. I was literally tearing my hair out!

Good penalty, by the way.

7) Social media vanity

I don’t know if this is just me. But I get turned off by players going on social media and make bold claims before and after games.

Are they so vain as to need the world to know of their feelings all the time? Is getting all those likes and retweets really essential to the modern game? Is how they are perceived as individuals more important than how the team is perceived?

This is a man’s game. Please don’t let your need for social approval take over your heads.

I don’t even think it’s far fetched to suggest that many players think about how much more traction they would get on Twitter for scoring a goal rather than what a goal would do for the team.

Look at Ronaldo. He don’t cares what people think about him. He doesn’t please everyone. He has no need to explain himself. And he does his talking on the pitch.

8) Sorry plight of EPL

The EPL is the most competitive league in the world. So competitive that Leicester City can win it against all odds.

But seeing the heavily diverse nationalities in the league, It wouldn’t surprise me to see it renamed as the EUPL. Since Brexit is now a reality, that probably won’t happen.

The FA needs to come up with long term plans that make the grooming and development of English players a priority.

Or else players like Joe Hart will continue to be treated like royalty when they can’t even be mentioned in the same breathe as the best in the world.

9) Roy Hodgson

I admit. I like the guy. But if a job is given to someone for his likability, then I’d say give the job of Prime Minister to Rowan Atkinson.

I can totally understand the circumstances when Roy was appointed manager.

• The FA wanted someone English
• Roy had international exposure
• He was a likable guy
• He appears to be non-confrontational
• The alternative was Harry Redknapp. Enough said.

At that moment in time. Roy was probably the only candidate that ticked all the boxes.

But in 4 years of being manager, he failed to deliver results when they truly mattered.

There are a number of players who are capable of producing moments of magic and turn a game on it’s head. Dele Alli, Jaime Vardy, Daniel Sturridge, Harry Kane, even Ross Barkley. Yet Roy was unable to get them to play as one. You can see it when each one of them started to make outrageous shots outside the penalty box for personal glory. Those desperate shots were never a goal threat.

Ultimately, a combination of attacking incohesion, defensive catastrophe, and individual glory-seeking, was what led to the team’s shambolic results in EURO 2016. Few would argue that they don’t deserve it.