The English Press vs Graham Taylor

When a friendly loss was unacceptable

The English Press vs Graham Taylor

We took a look yesterday at the American reaction to England’s humbling 2-0 loss to the United States on June 9, 1993. Now let’s take a look at what the British press had to say.

I think this page says it all:

You’ve got to remember that England had looked extremely poor in its World Cup qualifying efforts up to this point. Taylor was already under a lot of pressure. But this 2-0 defeat to the United States, of all countries, clearly took the cake.

The letters to the editor seem to indicate that there was at least some variety of opinions on the matter:

But the general idea was clear:

Note, of course, that England technically were still in position to get one of those two qualification spots. They needed a good result against the Netherlands away from home to do so.

And, as you already know, they didn’t get that.

Having watched all of England’s 1993 qualifying matches, I really have to put the blame with Taylor. The tactics were awful, the team was never in sync, and the only player who could score consistently was David Platt. Platt was always going to get his goals — but it takes 11 men, not 1.