Thank you and goodbye
How can you explain what happened to England at the World Cup? Obviously I was a little tired and emotional when I gave my immediate reaction yesterday, but now, in the cold light of day and with the benefit of a good night’s sleep, I will try to be a little more sensible about it.
There are three areas to look at. The coach, the players and English football in general.
The Coach
Fabio Capello has had a wonderful career as a manager and he has taken club sides to win Serie A, La Liga and the Champions League. The England job is his first national team manager’s position and this was his first tournament.
He took over from Steve McClaren who had done an abysmal job as England manager and left a disorganised, dispirited and ill-disciplined group of players. Capello instilled discipline, organisation and confidence very quickly and although his team were outclassed by Spain in a friendly, he led them through a really encouraging qualification campaign that included some excellent performances.
He seemed to have a settled squad and know exactly what he wanted and which players could deliver it. He made it clear that he would only pick players who were playing for their clubs and in good form.
Something went horribly wrong for Capello in the build up to the tournament.
Inexplicably, in my opinion, he persuaded an ageing and out of form Jamie Carragher to come out of international retirement. He selected him and the ever injured Ledley King and left out the in-form, confident and youngish, Michael Dawson.
In what appeared to be a desperation measure he also tried to persuade Paul Scholes out of retirement at the last minute. Whilst nobody can deny that Scholes is still an excellent player, this seemed to be the action of a man who had lost his nerve.
Team selection at the tournament was strange and despite his insistence that players in-form for their club’s would make up the side, Emile Heskey and Shaun Wright-Phillips featured prominently despite hardly getting a game for their respective clubs.
Arguably England’s only two world class players, Rooney and Gerrard, were played in positions that they didn’t want to play in and were asked to do a different role to the one they do at their clubs which is what made them world class in the first place.
Capello also refused to budge on the age old question of the rigid 4-4-2 adopted by England but shelved by every top team in the world some time ago.
On the positive side, Capello showed some passion and dealt quickly and firmly with the potential ‘player uprising’.
The players
When England beat Germany 5-1 back in 2001 the following players were in the team. Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, David Beckham, Steve Gerrard, Emile Heskey. Also in the squad at that time were Joe Cole and David James. Frank Lampard made his England debut two years prior to that game.
Those eight players, the golden generation, have tried to win World Cup 2002, Euro 2004, World Cup 2006, Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010. They have never got further than the quarter-finals. They are not and have never been, the golden generation.
The coach may have played the wrong players and played others out of position, but he certainly didn’t tell them to pass the ball badly, shoot wildly, fail to control the ball and allow the opposition all the time and space that they want. The players were simply not good enough. Their technical inferiority was very obvious for all to see and the famous spirit and passion was non-existent.
The media and the people of England always have ridiculously high expectations of their team and despite history and logic proving otherwise, always think they are good enough to win the tournament. I didn’t think we would win it this time but I did expect a great deal more from the players than they delivered.
OK, the team is probably not as good as the media hype would have us believe, but they are certainly a good deal better than they showed in South Africa. David James did OK. Beyond that it is hard to think of anyone who performed as they can and do for their clubs.
On the positive side…no, nothing.
Football in England
The top three teams in England are Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. In their first choice starting elevens there are three, five and zero English players respectively.
The top two teams in Spain are Barcelona and Real Madrid. In their first choice starting elevens there are seven and six Spaniards respectively.
That means that thirteen Spaniards are playing at the very top level in their country and in Europe, whereas only eight English players are.
The Spanish starting eleven at this World Cup includes eight players who play for their top two clubs. England’s line-up yesterday included just four from England’s top three clubs.
The facts speak for themselves. The Premier League has become such huge business that players are attracted to the country by the ridiculously high wages and the high standard of competition. Unfortunately one inevitable side-effect of having a multi-national, world class domestic competition is that the national team will suffer as a result.
Italy have also had a terrible tournament and their best team, Inter Milan, contains no Italian players. It is a similar story with them.
I don’t understand how Spain can have a competitive and watchable league, pay ridiculously high wages and still have great Spanish players in the majority and a great national side. Whatever it is they do, England need to do something similar if they are ever going to be serious contenders on the world stage.
That’s it, I shall not mention England again and I will give the teams who deserve great credit for what they are doing the time and attention they deserve. Ghana, USA, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Paraguay, Uruguay. They are all much more deserving of media attention than England.
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