Quote:
Originally Posted by Altair
You say it so casually Joe. I would say England had their 'best shot' in 2004 yes, the best squad they've had this century... but there were other countries in 2004 that were equal or better and they could make the same claim you made. In the end, Greece won.
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That 2004 England squad was really good, but they couldn’t get the balance right. The midfield was lop-sided and basically used 4 central midfielders across the pitch. There was also the beginning of the ‘Gerrard-Lampard conundrum’ which was never fully solved by any England manager.
Up front, we had Owen and Rooney (two out-and-out strikers) playing together, which worked pretty well in the tournament, but it meant Michael Owen having to sacrifice his goalscoring prowess. He unselfishly played deeper, foraging for the ball and accommodating Rooney.
At the back, we were all over the place. The two full-backs were fine, but you could tell that we missed Rio Ferdinand who was suspended at the time. It meant that we mostly played Terry and Campbell as our centre backs, and they were both a bit too similar.
In the end, Greece won the tournament because they had a system which suited the players they had, and they played without any pressure. Most of the teams they played, were teams who were the favourite in the game, and all of the pressure would have been on them. Greece thrived on that.