A weekend treat for all you England Football fans a new article by star writer Tom Too sweet Pitt Rashid... Overpaid. Egotistical. Uninterested. Unpatriotic. These are a few of the accusations regularly levelled en masse at the English national football team. The tipping point? The 2010 World Cup. England, with a spinal cord of world class talent, were expected to deliver. You know what happened next and you know whodunit too. Yet again, we crashed out of major tournament prematurely. Over the last 20 years England have had great teams. Think of the players we’ve had: Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer, Paul Scholes, Gary Linekar, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, David Platt, Wayne Rooney, John Barnes, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell. It goes on. On top of that, think of the players the England team never got the best of: Matt Le Tissier, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Andy Cole, Ian Wright… Michael Owen? Yet still, nothing to show for it. The focal point of the debate concerning our underachievement is a critique of our youth development system at present. Previously it had been that our exceptional players didn’t care enough to perform exceptionally for our national team. Before that? Our players were only any good when they were surrounded by a wealth of foreign talent they enjoyed at club level. The argument went that our players were consequently exposed as distinctly average players on the international stage. I would contest all these points. The logic of the current argument is that we are not producing players of sufficient quality to challenge at senior level. I disagree. We have always produced great players who have been coveted worldwide. Our players win all there is to win at club level and what’s more they are respected as great players by often foreign teammates. Just look at the way people talk about Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard abroad. Yet there is this stage fright; it’s even prevalent amongst fans. When we lined up to play Algeria in 2010, the lack of confidence in the golden generation was startling. A superior team with an impossible task; hearts and minds stuff. The problem is the lack of identity and cohesion. We don’t really have a national style. When you play Spain you know what to expect: tika-taka. Italy are going to be defensively assured, positionally astute and difficult to break down. They will have creative and physical central midfielders and powerful forwards and are dangerous on the counter attack. The South American teams play with pace, flare and love. What do we do? My charge is that we develop technically gifted players in possession of a full footballing vocabulary: tricks, flicks, finishes, passes, vision, understanding of space, stamina, timing. But our players seem to lack a cohesive style. I think this is what separates the greatest national teams. Look at the Brazilian teams of the past, the emerging threat posed by the Germans. They have an understanding. A unity. We have to understand what we’re good at and what we want to play like. Fortunately, we seem to have some good players coming through who have the right mindset. They excite on the ball. Wilshere, Morrison, Barkley, Zaha, Sturridge, James Ward-Prowse, Will Hughes. Typically, we’ve got some strong young defenders also; Steven Caulker, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Kieran Gibbs, Kyle Walker, Luke Shaw, Nathaniel Clyne, Andre Wisdom. These players have real potential. With some public encouragement and the development of an understanding on the pitch, these players can achieve. You might as well get behind them. If for nothing else, it’s more fun.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 16:58:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015