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| Jack Wilshere and England came to grips with reality |
They played like Barcelona.
It was all that
Jack Wilshere could say to defend the abject surrender that was England’s
performance in their loss to Chile this last month. At no point did he talk
about the fact that England were playing at Wembley, their very own home, neither
did he highlight the manner in which England were outfought, out-tackled, out-passed
and quite simply outplayed at the very game they invented.
The defeat while
not prophetic, or definitive by any means, exposes quite brutally the obvious
shortcomings of the current English squad. While they may possess some of the
biggest names in modern football, as a team, England never fail to ‘build you
up and let you down’. They say that a team is often molded in the image of its
manager. Roy Hodgson is the man entrusted with the onerous responsibility of
bringing back English football to its very best. The truth is though, that he
neither possesses the dynamism to inspire this crop of English footballers, nor
does he have the vision to inject some much needed life into the painfully dour
English national team. A manager must be well and truly capable of taking on
many different roles. He is the one who creates a team vision, sets goals and objectives and makes plans to
achieve them. He motivates the players to perform well and supports them for
their problems in and out of the sport. They view him as a role model and it’s
the ponderous responsibility of the coaches to provide continual support, look
out for players and watch their growth and development .The footballing world so
very often demonstrates the best and worst in management practices.
Football fans will most certainly recall ‘that’ disheartening
English performance in 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the almost dejected body
language and the inherent lack of passion. No decipherable link up, no real
desire to pass or shoot and expressions of dissatisfaction and depreciation. With the World Cup looming large on the
horizon, England seem to find themselves sunk deeper in a quagmire of their own
creation. Currently ranked 13th in the FIFA world rankings, England,
with the array of players that they have and with the Premier League, renowned for
its competitiveness, passion, aggression and physical attributes, to boot, seem
to flounder on the international level. There exists no distinctive identity in
the style in which England plays its football.
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| Phil Neville with his views. |
Phil Neville took to Twitter recently, bemoaning the general
lack of encouragement given to flair in the country, as illustrated by the
images above. It would be easy to blame the way football is taught by the
coaches to their students at the junior level for the decline of English
football. It is undeniably true that kids must be encouraged to try different
things, master the skills they have been born with and emphasis should be given
to ‘developing the player’ and not the team in the initial stages. It is vital
that coaches understand that just a traditional, conservative approach at the
junior level will not help in the betterment of the future of the player as
well as that of English football. It is imperative that at the youth level,
they should be taught passing, technical awareness, tactics, strategies to
tackle different types of oppositions, when or when not to show off their
skills and most importantly, a mentality of ‘playing for the team and winning
for your nation’. Also at the senior level in the league, some restrictions
might be imposed on the number of English players mandatory in a team. This
will help the English players get ample game time at the senior level right
from the beginning of their professional careers.
In the midst of
all these portents of doom and gloom, there might just be a sliver of hope yet
for English football. It comes in the rather unexpected form of Gareth
Southgate. The former Middlesbrough centre back, a solid and dependable exponent
of the English art of defending, was appointed as the manager of the English
u21 side in August 2013. While on the face of it his appointment may not have
seemed to have been revolutionary or any different from the safe, cautious
approach normally taken by the Football Association, much like the English game,
it is slowly proving to be an incredibly astute move. The under-21s are
currently in the process of qualifying for the 2015 u21 European Championships,
and seemingly bolstered by the arrival of their new manager, their points table
reads thus:
With 23 goals
scored and just conceded in 6 games, without defeat, things are certainly going
swimmingly for the Young Lions. While not absolute proof of the occurrence of a
paradigm shift, it does signal that there may just be some light at the end of
the tunnel for England. In recent weeks, the defeats to Chile and Germany for
the senior team indicate the vulnerability of the side, and more crucially
their inability to find any real spark for them to rally around and finally
begin punching above their own weight. In an attempt to bring a semblance of
hope to the situation, we take a look at some of the bright sparks who could make
the Three Lions roar again:
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| Luke Shaw is on his way to glory. |
Luke Shaw is a prodigious left back, a graduate
of the famed Southampton youth academy, and at 18 is already the club’s first
choice left-back, an integral component of their fantastic performances this
season in the English premier league under Mauricio Pochettino. With a
combination of injuries and indifferent form keeping Ashley Cole absent from the Chelsea first team, and Leighton Baines’ inexperience at the
very highest level evident from the manner in which he looked out of depth in
the Germany game, Shaw increasingly seems to be a long term solution for
England’s left back position, blessed with natural pace and footballing
intelligence. His primary strength is undoubtedly his superior dribbling, and
while he may not possess Baines’ attacking threat yet, he provides solid
defensive cover with 1.8 tackles and 4.1 clearances per game in the league, a
figure that compares favourably to Cole’s 2.4 and 1.6 and Baines’ 2.9 and 2.1.
He has also put in great performances for Southgate’s men, and given his long
term potential, could soon set aside the left back spot on the senior team as
his very own.
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| James Ward-Prowse has been highly influential |
Another
Southampton player who has grabbed eyeballs is 19 year-old wideman James Ward-Prowse. With a league-high
37 successful crosses this season, leaving Steven
Gerrard a distant second on 28, Ward-Prowse performs brilliantly an aspect
that the current crop of English side midfielders consistently fail to deliver
on: delivery. His ability to find with astonishing accuracy the men in the box
is a fundamental component of the attacking threat that Southampton have
carried this season. This is something highlighted by the fact that their
primary hitmen, Jay Rodriguez and Rickie Lambert, have made it to Roy
Hodgson’s national squad. With the much-maligned delivery of the likes of Theo Walcott and Ashley Young, and given Andros
Townsend’s overwhelming desire to cut in and shoot, Ward-Prowse might just
provide an almost necessary source of fodder from the wings, especially as
England are not particularly known for their ability to play through the centre.
He also brings with him certain assets that the others do not possess, for
instance his fantastic set-piece taking ability, demonstrated by his corners
and free kicks for Southampton this season where once again his delivery has
been exceptional and instrumental. Incidents such as his free kick delivery for
teammate Jose Fonte’s headed equaliser against Sunderland have led former Southampton
and England legend Matthew le Tissier to hail his right foot as being ‘on par with David Beckham’s’. While
that may be a tad premature, there is no denying that Southampton have
unearthed another gem who shall serve England brilliantly in time to come.
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| The devil in him : Ravel Morrison |
In English
football, genius always seems to be marred with a dollop of rashness and
hot-headedness, and a generally tendency to be wildly unpredictable. Keeping in
the tradition of Paul Gascoigne and Wayne Rooney, this season has witnessed the
arrival of Ravel Morrison, the former Manchester
United wunderkind who finally seems to have cooled his heels and settled
down at West Ham. An attacking player who can feature down either flank or lurk
just behind the forwards, Morrison has skill and pace in abundance and an eye
for goal too. This coupled with an innate ability to produce a devastating
final ball, has catapulted him to the status of a firm fans’ favourite amongst
the Hammers’ faithful. All of 20 years of age, already having 3 goals and 2
assists this season, he produces on an average 1.3 shots, 0.8 key passes
and 1.8 dribbles per game. Add a pass accuracy of just over 86%, and throw in a
dash of the sheer impact he has on a game, illustrated by his terrific
13-minute cameo against fellow strugglers Fulham, and you understand the
delectable genius waiting to explode within this young lad. His obvious and
varied repertoire of midfield abilities could provide the solely needed spark for
the current English side, which though well equipped with industry, could do
with his brand of arrogance and attacking flair, as demonstrated by his
Cantona-esque upturned collar.
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| Barkley: Attacking Midfield |
Everton are
enjoying a fine season under Roberto Martinez, playing attractive, eye-catching
football. A player who has been central to their new style of play is 19
year-old English central midfielder Ross
Barkley. Bringing with him flair and an eye for goal, Barkley averages 2.9 dribbles and 2.5 shots
per game, fantastic figures for someone plying his trade in midfield. He represents
precisely the type of attacking midfielder England require to tuck in behind
Wayne Rooney and marshal attacks for England, as they are often found lacking
in terms of goals from midfield. Also vital is his ability to get pass players, something which
doesn’t come all that naturally to England’s current midfield. For instance, Steven Gerrard(0.5 and 1.6), Michael Carrick(0.3
and 0.4) and James Milner (0.4 and 0.6), all essentially deep lying central
midfielders, lack the ability to take on their man and beat him, instead preferring
to pass the ball on. Jack Wilshere (1.2 and 0.9), while adept at getting past
his man, is again more creative in his play than representing any direct goal threat.
This reduces the midfield’s penetration in the final third of the pitch
considerably, and leaves the isolated forwards to receive the ball and thereafter
attempt to get past the defenders. Thus, England’s midfield struggles to
directly affect an attack, something that Barkley could rectify in the long
run.
With such talent
hovering around the edge of the English national team, waiting to break into
its ranks, the day might come sooner than we expected when the Three Lions well and
truly roar again.
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| Take a leaf out of Joachim's book Roy?
and
Somdeep Dey - follow me on twitter - @Red_deyvil
or email us at
tbegame@gmail.com or follow us on twitter - @tbegame
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