Just how good were “The Golden Generation”

[WA Toffee]

If they had played Hargreaves or Barry alonside Gerrard or Lampard they would have done much better. Midfield was too unbalanced.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

English teams were doing well in Europe during that period with these players on the pitch, so they were all clearly good

They could have won something but just weren't able to put their club loyalties to the side long enough to do it

Scotland must have the same issue with Celtic and Rangers players

 

[Billy Dean]

English teams were doing well in Europe during that period with these players on the pitch, so they were all clearly good

They could have won something but just weren't able to put their club loyalties to the side long enough to do it

Scotland must have the same issue with Celtic and Rangers players

I think Scotland's biggest problem is that they're gash mate.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

I think Scotland's biggest problem is that they're gash mate.

I never see ex Rangers or Celtic players asked if the fact they played for such fierce rivals effected them at international level actually

We ask Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard and Ferdinand about club divisions all the time and they're never afraid to admit it. You never see it up north. It has to play a part in things surely?

 

[Billy Dean]

I never see ex Rangers or Celtic players asked if the fact they played for such fierce rivals effected them at international level actually

We ask Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard and Ferdinand about club divisions all the time and they're never afraid to admit it. You never see it up north. It has to play a part in things surely?

Maybe. Or it could just be that those England players were particularly up their own anuses and weren't interested in team play. Spain won a load of trophies despite an intense rivalry between Real and Barca so it can be done.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Maybe. Or it could just be that those England players were particularly up their own anuses and weren't interested in team play. Spain won a load of trophies despite an intense rivalry between Real and Barca so it can be done.

It probably helped Spain that both Barca and Real played largely the same way during that period. For England, United were largely 4-4-2, Chelsea were 4-3-3 and Liverpool 4-5-1, so it was harder to get people playing in a system. As I said earlier, their status made it very hard to drop Gerrard, Lampard or Beckham, yet you couldn't play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 with all of them in the team.