England are still stuck in the dark ages obsessing about the individuals we have rather than adopting a simple style of play that gets the best from the team unit.
As always we've gone into a major tournament over-hyping our best player expecting him to win games on his own, whether its Rooney, Beckham, Gascoigne etc
As always that one individual didnt win us the tournament on his own and we are calling him rubbish and looking for other individual scapegoats.
The answer is so simple. We have to learn to play a simple pass and move game AS A TEAM. Watch Italy last night or even Spain, they don't over-complicate the game. Whenever a player is in possession, 3 or 4 others go TOWARDS the ball to receive a simple pass. England do the exact opposite. When we get the ball, 3 or 4 players run AWAY from it expecting an amazing cross field pass or inch perfect down the line and we give it away.
Spain and other top sides don't actually play a complicated game, why is it so difficult for us to lose this obsession with individual brilliance and adopt a simple pass and move style? its not rocket science is it or am i missing something??
England havent moved forward in 30 years...
posted on 25/6/12
England STILL think that blood and thunder is the way to play at this level...
once again they are wrong.
posted on 25/6/12
i agree with you totally
posted on 25/6/12
Did youn see last night when Henderson came on ..... He passed the ball near the half way line to Gerrard i think, then ran off up the field and gerrard had noone to pass the bal too . that just summed up england ..The manager has their heads so full up with what their jobs are on the pitch they cannot be creative and do soemthing different
posted on 25/6/12
I'm afraid England need to lose this obsession with two wingers and a big man up-front.
International teams now play with tighter midfields that generally pass the ball (many times) over relatively short distances. England (on the other hand) have two wide players, who rarely get a touch and leave the two in the middle isolated.
Gerrard and Parker ran themselves into the ground. Pirlo barely broke sweat but was ten times more effective.
Pirlo had time on the ball, Gerrard was constantly rushed into the long ball - and gave away possession.
I'm not having a go at Gerrard, who for me (along with Terry) was England's best player of the tournament. But realistically, if you only have 35% of the ball, you will not win many matches against decent opposition.
We have to stop picking strikers like Carroll and learn to play a continental style of football. By this, I mean two holding mid-fielders, three central attacking mid-fielders and one up-front - 4-2-3-1. But this would mean a complete change of attitude from the manager, the FA and right down to kids playing footy at school.
We are a nation of footballing dinosaurs and in terms of International football, get closer to extinction !
posted on 25/6/12
Completely agree. We give back possession so cheaply at the moment. Our team is filled with players who have it drilled into them that the hollywood ball or dribbling towards the opposition is the only viable option.
It's not just this team or this manager's style either. I thought this group of players worked hard at the tournament and did us credit by progressing through their group.
It's english footballing culture that is to blame. Remember when Hargreaves first broke into the team and, not being schooled in england, started passing sideways and backwards and focusing on clever positioning and ball retention? Remember what the morons in the stands and the idiots in the press did? They bood him and pilloried him, and the same would happen today. It's no good wishing that we had players like Alonso, Hamann and Pirlo because I'm convinced they'd be so scandalously underated and misunderstood in the english game that they'd never get a look in at international level.
posted on 25/6/12
Agreed entirely with above. I think England over complicate the game. We bang on about the technical brilliance of Spain but ACTUALLY its technically easier to play a simple 2 yard pass than it is a 30 yard cross field pass. Also its easier to play lots of simple passes in the middle of the pitch when there are more players there rather than just the two, you need a few options. Its really not difficult is it?!
We have to adapt our game and understand we have to do the simple things first. England have NEVER done that. They look at an individual who has performed great for his club and hope they can reproduce that for the national side. We dont look at adopting an approach whereby we can mix and match players into a system and style that works rather than being completely knackered when a top star is injured or out of form.
Look at the Germans the other night, they changed lots of players but still retain a style of play which they all understood and they were just as good.