Pressure & Expectations for England

Cover image from - https://medium.com/brewingthoughts/englands-golden-generation-a-glorious-case-of-what-ifs-5772031e4cd1

In previous generations, it can be said that footballers' most pressure and weights of expectations always came on the international stage. Playing for your country was and still is a massive privilege as only a select few make it on the global stage to represent your own country in major tournaments or even friendlies. 

Not to say there was no pressure at the level, but the pressure footballers felt on the international stage during previous eras was much greater than at the club level. Especially in England, players have had added weight of pressure and expectations due to their rich history in the early development of football and its impact on the global stage.  

England has been starved of international glory with only one World Cup win in 1966. Since then it has been a constant downward of disappointment on the international stage as most of the great English teams have crumbled under the heavy expectations from supporters.

In recent years, 2018 - World Cup semi-finalists and 2021 - European Championship runners-up have given the English fans something to cheer about as it has shown that England as a football team is still one of the elites on the international stage. Although it can be argued those games mentioned, England should have won. With a young squad, the pressure was bound to get to them due to their inexperience in these sorts of environments, but now these losses can be turned into learnings for this youthful English set-up for possible success in upcoming tournaments.

Since this current generation of footballers are young and developing the expectations from fans for them are certainly less compared to the 'golden era' in the early part of the 21st century. Expectations lead to pressure and certainly with the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes, Beckham, Terry, Ferdinand, and Rooney the expectations for success for that team were astronomical. Hence increasing pressure on these players to succeed no matter the circumstances but ultimately that 'golden generation' failed miserably on the international stage with the pressure too hot to handle.

However, the current generation certainly has had less pressure compared to those legends. It doesn't mean they are bad footballers. There are promising footballers in this current set-up including Foden, Sancho, Saka, Trent, James, and Bellingham - the quality is definitely there but since most of these are young and developing the weight of expectation they have carried so far has been less. Although with their recent tournaments the pressure is going to mount as they are expected to go deep in tournaments, especially at the upcoming world cup in Qatar. They have already proved they are capable (seen in 2018 and 2021) thus the expectation among English fans will be high for these talented young footballers.