Below I have listed five main areas that I believe were responsible for our dismal showing. Most of these should not be taken in isolation; they often overlap to paint a general picture of the problems we encountered.
1. Fabio Capello - as the manager the buck ultimately stops with him. Much has been written about the position of a foreigner as England manager. Personally I have no problem with a foreign manager taking charge of the team. There is only one condition. The manager must understand the pressures that the team are under. It is vital that a coach comprehends the overwhelming expectations held in relation to the national team. A foreigner will logically find this harder than a person brought up in English football. This is especially so if the foreigner has no experience of the national game, which was the case with Capello. Given his background, he may have overlooked the pressure on the team. His decisions to run the training camp like a military facility and to reveal who was playing two hours before kick-off exacerbated this pre-existing tension and made the team nervy. Evidence for this comes from Rob Green's howler in the very first game. Goalkeepers above all need certainty and consistency. Capello's policy of 'keeping them on their toes' was clearly flawed.
2. The Premier League - our domestic league has often been referred to as the best in the world. This may well be true. If it is true, the reason for it is because it attracts the finest players from around the world. The result of this is that home-grown players get squeezed out. We will come to a time when we need to make a value judgment about the balance between club and country. While having a fantastic national game helps to inspire young English players, in my mind the game (and indeed the country) would be far better served if we had a strong national team to look up to. Only this would generate the excitement needed to truly inspire people. Whether or not this may require limits on foreign players is a matter for debate.
3. English grassroots football - this is the problem that has become more apparent through comparison with other countries. The way the Spanish pass and retain the ball is something completely alien to English football players. I reckon that Gerard Pique, the Spanish centre-back, is a better passer of the ball than every English midfielder in our squad. These differences start at an early age. Kids in Spain, Brazil, Argentina etc are encouraged to develop skills and run with the ball. In England, young kids are placed in 11-a-side contests where the emphasis is on the full time result rather than learning and progress. Anyone who has seen the mental passion of a child's father at a junior's match can testify to this. Common characteristics of junior games are long balls being hoofed up field and a swarm of players following it. Is our national team that different? Look how we relied on banging the ball up field for big Emile Heskey to hold it up. Even the Germans, who based their game on counter-attacks, passed the ball with such speed and accuracy I have never associated with England. It is striking that one of the most naturally talented players in the English squad, Joe Cole, was left on the bench while "strong" players like Heskey and James Milner got the nod.
4. Risk Management - to be successful at sport, like many other professional fields, requires risk and bold thinking. None of this existed in England's world cup bid. Our squad was full of tried and tested players; there were no real suprises. An example of this came in the selection of Matthew Upson, an experienced but woefully out of his depth centre-half, at the expense of Michael Dawson. Younger talents like Darren Bent, Adam Johnson, and Jack Wilshire were all overlooked. Even Sven recognised the need to take risks when he picked Theo Walcott for the last World Cup. Again, maybe Capello would have been more likely to take a punt if there were more young Englishmen to choose from. The prioritisation of foreign stars makes this difficult.
5. Luck - yes, lady luck was not on our side. The biggest example of this is, of course, was the Lampard goal-line fiasco. How the linesman failed to see that I will never know. Also, why could we not have played a team with a dodgy goalkeeper? And Rio Ferdinand's injury significantly disrupted our defensive preparations.
The reality is, however, that we only have ourselves to blame. We will never become serious contenders to win the World Cup until we sort out some of these underlying problems. This must start with re-organising the domestic game so as to encourage national success. Any change would have to begin with grassroots improvement and end with potentially damaging reforms to the Premier League. The question we may end up asking ourselves is: do we really want to win the World Cup?
Spot on Matt, as ever. I really like the model of the Germany squad, which ouzes youth, vibrance, avoids the alpha male culture and is skilled enough to keep possession; something the English game should view with envy. This came as the result of a poor Euro 2000, which kicked the German FA into action and encouraged them to do some soul-searching and make effective changes. Capello has done little to change the age-old tradition of throwing the 'best' eligible XI into a team and expect the egos to magically bond. I also don't think enough English players care, for example Gerrard or Ashley Cole. Their passion for their clubs is undoubted, but the same passion is absent in the national game. The irony is that despite a new manager with a shining CV, and a team that, player for player can, on paper, match the world's best, we suffered our heaviest World Cup defeat to date, and made less progress than under old Sven. At least he got us to the quarters! Much to everyone's consternation, the conundrum continues; we can only collectively sigh and head back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteMike
Cheers Mike, do you agree with my views on the Premier League/national game balance and the foreign coaches dilemma?
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