England, Alcoholics Anonymous, Reverse Engineering And The French!
Tony Bell
Instead of all the national mourning, imagine England had got the draw they needed against Croatia and were today contemplating a place in the Euro 2008 tournament.
It’s not difficult to believe that by now McClaren’s men would be in full cry with messers Terry & Gerrard proclaiming in the columns of the tabloids that England can now go on and win the tournament! No doubt there would be the usual comments about how qualifying was disappointing as well as promises of how we would put that right in Austria.
Endless quotes would fill the back pages on how many world class players we have, how “on paper” we have a great team and that “no team would want to be drawn in the same group as England.”
We have been spared all this by Croatia’s win at Wembley. Maybe now we will wake up and smell the coffee, realise the state the game is in and do that completely un-English thing (In sport anyway) - DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Which leads me to Alcoholics Anonymous - not a normal title in a football blog, but allow a little latitude and I will try and get to the point. We have all seen the scenes in the films or on TV when the drunk/gambler/drug addict seeks help. The first step is the introduction to the group and admit the problem. If the problem is denied then the recovery will never take place, or if it does it will be temporary.
This is where England stands at the moment. We have a huge problem. Like the drunk who has not made that first speech we mask it with paper talk from those involved in The Premiership and the England team. Not a week goes by without a pundit or a manager declaring that ………….. (Insert Terry/Gerrard/Lampard/Cole/Rio/Rooney/Owen) are the best in the world - Really? Are we sure? Because if they were surely we wouldn’t need a coach, just send them out on the pitch and let them play.
In the history of International football, England have won one World Cup (on home soil), they have reached 2 semi finals, the last of which was 11 years ago. This is NOT a good record! Some will argue that luck was against us in those semi’s - I argue that luck was with us in the quarter finals against Spain in 1996 (Spain having a perfectly legal goal ruled offside) and in 1990 when 2 pens saved us from defeat by Cameroon!
Since then we have had failure in quarter finals and last 16’s - When it counts, against the best opposition England have failed, and to my mind only Ashley Cole (his handling of Cristiano Ronaldo has been the best of any left back) and Rio Ferdinand (England’s best defender in 2 world cups) can consider themselves international class - not world class but the step down from that. The others - don’t make me laugh. Gerrard has 50 caps, can anyone remember a dominant game against decent opposition - Andorra & Trinidad do not count as decent by the way! - The same goes for all the others mentioned.
Its AA time - its time to stand up and say “We are England and we are not good enough!” That’s right. England’s players are not good enough. Their basic technique falls down under pressure. We surrender valuable possession far to easily. We lack guile, creativity and brains. We have become a long ball team.
Its not all bad. We can run, tackle and head the ball. We also “go till the final whistle” - but alas, as long as these are our strengths we will keep on looking to excuses like the ref or the manager to mask the fact WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Reverse Engineering is the process whereby clever people take a finished product, dismantle it, see how it works, then build their own, often improved version in order to compete. Basically it’s about nicking good ideas and improving them! What has this got to do with football? Well - If the goal (pardon the pun) of the FA is to produce an England team that wins a World Cup or European Championship, then perhaps it might be an idea to take a look at the teams that have won it recently, see how they produce players, see their tactics, their formations, their preparation, their league system and, well, copy it?
Looking down the list of country’s who have been successful and have regularly reached the last 4 of these competitions and anyone with half an ounce of football knowledge can reel off the names of Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy, France and Holland. It’s also safe to say that none of these countries employ a long ball to a big man so please take note future England manager, whoever it may be. The styles of these countries are actually quite different. Brazil are all attacking flair, Germany efficient all over the park, Holland may overplay some time (and self destruct) and Italy are more likely to defend than attack. There is one thing that they all have in common though - players who are comfortable on the ball, whose first touch is second nature, who pass the ball and move into space, players who keep possession.
In international football possession is crucial for quite a few reasons. The obvious one is that only the team in possession of the ball can score a goal. Pretty obvious? Not to an England team full of so called “world class” players who seem to think that we have to score within 4 passes of gaining possession. And they wonder why, in 85 degrees of heat, after 80 minutes of chasing the ball and busting a gut to get up to support Crouchie or Little Mickey Owen that we become fatigued and concede goals. Short sharp passes, movement off the ball, little angles all based around players with sound technique and the ability to pass the ball 10 yds and work the team as a unit up the field. Something you hardly ever see England do, but quite commonplace in successful international teams.
An international team playing England need only put our back four under pressure for a limited period and they know a long ball will not be far away. Whilst it may bring success against the lesser defences, teams such as Italy, Spain, Argentina and Germany have the world class centre backs who can deal with this tactic easily, especially if that long ball is to a 5ft 8in Michael Owen. They then have the ball back and England are back under pressure.
We need players with technique and players who can pass the ball, who look comfortable with the ball at their feet. These may be different skills to those needed in the fast and furious Premiership, where dynamism and athletic ability have more sway. Gareth Barry is a classic example. Often considered too slow but eventually, when given a chance he has been among England’s better players.
In order to produce these players we have to look at the grass roots of the game. Teach the youngsters to take pride in skills and not in a big boot up front. How many people reading this remember their school days when the big guys played centre back and kicked it as far as they could and the quickest guy in the school played up front or on the wing. They chased the ball and had a shot.
Its still happening now. I watched in utter dismay a couple of months ago when a “coach” of an under 11’s team castigated his centre half. “You are one of our biggest players and you are passing the ball 10 yds. Get the ball up field.”
My heart hopes this is an isolated incident. My head says it probably happens every week in most parks in the country. How will we ever produce players comfortable on the ball, with a good touch, if this is what we teach our 11 year olds?
On to my last point - The French! Why the French? The last time England failed to qualify for a major final was in 1994. It just so happened that the French suffered the same fate. Unfortunately that’s where the similarity ends. The French put their faith in their national academies. Clairfontaine is the most famous of these but there are actually 8 of them spread across the country. Clairefontaine was the first of their academies. The idea came about in 1976 (another time when England were in the international doldrums) and is now seen as the best football academy in the world. These are the areas that the academy’s focus on
• Making the player’s movements faster and better
• Linking movements efficiently and wisely
• Using the weaker foot
• Weaknesses in the player’s game
• Psychological factors (sports personality tests)
• Medical factors
• Physical tests
• Technical skills
• Skill Training (juggling the ball, running with the ball, dribbling, kicking, passing and ball control)
• Tactical (to help the ball carrier, to get the ball back, to offer support, to pass the ball and follow the pass, positioning and the movement into space across the country).
Do these sound like areas English players need help with? Whilst the French reap the reward with a World Cup win, a further final appearance and a European Championship win, England have just one semi final to show for their efforts. While the French play attractive attacking football and have produced some of the great players in the last 20 years, England still have not produced 1 left footed attacking player! It is easy to hold up the likes of Henry & Anelka as famous superstar graduates but it’s the likes of Thuram, Gallas, Makele, Petit and Vieira that interest me more. They may not have all come through the academies but they all display the attributes taught by them. Is it any accident that whilst the French are enjoying international success, England are way way behind.
What are the FA doing to replicate the French system? Well 30 years after the French had their epiphany England gave the go ahead for a similar project based in Burton. In typical English/FA fashion we have the site, the pitches are laid, but the project is on-hold due to money problems. The total cost of £50m seems too much for the suits at the FA who seemed quite happy for the cost of Wembley to spiral from £600m to over a billion - a bit like building The Louvre but cutting all arts courses at schools and universities.
Looks like English crickets decision to ignore a national academy whilst the Aussies went right ahead has been pretty much mirrored by their counterparts in charge of football - great decisions guys!
England need to wake up and wise up fast. We have produced talent in the past, natural footballers. The argument that English payers are not naturally talented does not hold true. Hoddle, Gascoigne, Scholes, Le Tissier, Barnes, Beardsley, Waddle to name a few from the past 20 years, the 2 Cole’s, Rooney and Ferdinand of the current squad all have the ability but we need more, many more. We need players for whom touch and technique are equal to that of the world best, whose weak foot is not actually that weak, who can pass and move, who can beat a man with pace or a trick, open a defence with guile and nous. We need midfielders who can set the tempo of a game and keep it ticking over and defenders who have something else to offer other than a big boot up front.
The game needs an overhaul from the very youngest age. If that means changing the rules at that age then so be it. A head height rule? A pitch split into thirds like netball with the ball having to travel through all sectors to go forward? 2 touch competitions? Whatever it takes to rid our country of the Charlie Hughes POMO (Position of Maximum Opportunity) mantra that has plagued English football for years.
Give Arsene Wenger £10 million a year wages, carte blanche and as much money as he needs to put a 10 year plan in place for 6-16 year olds. Then have the guts to back him and stick with it. It works! At club level Ajax, Arsenal and Barcelona are great examples. Whilst the French system is probably the best from a country.
Stand up England and admit the problem. More importantly do something about it. Invest in the future. Look at what the other countries are doing and copy it. Once the technique is there then the qualities we display naturally will turn England into world beaters. The determination, the grit, the will to win - these are qualities that most other countries struggle to match. Put this with skills and England will actually justify their perennial tag of favourites. Add those together and we will be world beaters.
But we must act quickly. Otherwise we will fall further behind.
