England’s secret war
Disclaimer: This is personal opinion, so keep that in mind before you go off on a rant.
We know that the English media are a soulless, immoral, self-righteous and hypocritical bunch.
The amount of pressure they put on the players and the management makes it impossible for anything to be seen in a rational light, and this turns the fans against the team for no good reason (World Cup 2006 being a perfect example).
We also know that Steve McClaren doesn’t fit the bill. As an international manager your responsibilities lie exclusively in getting the best out of your players and being able to take hard decisions (such as dropping someone from the squad and making tactical switching mid-game). McClaren has failed on the first account and his only ‘hard decision’ of note has been to drop David Beckham - and considering that you’ve dropped a dead-certain match-winner, it’s a very ridiculous decision.
So what is the real problem?
Player power.
In Germany 2006, I kept wondering why the England players wouldn’t pass the ball to David Beckham. Becks saw very little of the ball, and while it is true that he’s lost pace, isn’t the player he was and that defenders didn’t mind taking him on one on one, that doesn’t mean you isolate your captain like that, especially when he’s open on the right while all your attacks down the middle and on the left are being easily deflected back.
Then came McClaren and Beckham’s axing. Surprisingly, McClaren chose Gerrard as his first-choice right midfielder, Lennon behind as #2 and Shaun Wright-Phillips as #3. McClaren never properly justified Beckham’s exclusion, considering that he had just dropped a match-winner to put a central midfielder in his place and picked a right-winger who hasn’t played well for 2 years in the squad.
England’s Euro 2008 qualification campaign reached its depths against Croatia, yet the team was not changed. McClaren kept picking the best 11 players, although you could easily see that this sort of arrangement works far better on a club level where the players play together almost daily in training as opposed to on an international level.
Then, before Israel, Pini Zahavi pointed to Beckham’s exclusion as a case of jealousy. I don’t put much stock in Zahavi’s statements, but some of it - especially the bit about Becks being an outsider in the squad - seems true from what I’ve seen in the World Cup.
Is it possible that McClaren dropped Beckham because he saw that Becks had lost the team’s support? Yes, it is.
But managers are paid to make tough decisions, and dropping Beckham was the easiest decision McClaren could make. It allowed him to put Lampard and Gerrard in the same starting XI, and it gave him a good PR boost at the start when the idiotic English media was calling for a ‘change’.
But this is not about Beckham. This about the players who are being picked regularly without results.
The hard decision would have been to give Lampard a break after the World Cup and play Gerrard and Hargreaves in the middle, Downing on the left and Lennon on the right.
The hard decision would have been to drop Peter Crouch and give Defoe, a better finisher, an extended run in the squad.
The hard decision would have been to give Lennon an extended run on the right wing, and to keep Becks as a backup.
The hard decision would have been to play Gareth Barry at left-back when Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge are not in the squad.
The hard decision would have been to play Wes Brown at right-back, considering he’s been with the squad for a long time and is a more natural attacking full-back than Phil Neville.
Sticking with the same team day in and day out is a luxury international managers cannot afford. At club level, you need to show your faith in players. On the international stage, the stakes are much higher and the players themselves need to step up and perform.
I still remember the time when Paul Scholes retired from international football - the party line was that he wanted to concentrate on club football, but the undercurrent was that with Eriksson refusing to drop Gerrard and Lampard, the midfield was woefully imbalanced and England were playing crap as a result.
The hard decisions are never made - the best team is not chosen. Liverpool play Gerrard on the right because Rafa wants to play two defensive midfielders.
If England were playing Carrick and Hargreaves in the middle, with Gerrard on the right and Joe Cole on the left, that’d make more sense.
But if Gerrard keeps cutting in from the right and both him and Lampard become cramped for space, what’s the point?
John Terry and Frank Lampard do not play anywhere near the same level of football for England as they do for Chelsea.
Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney are great friends, exceptional talents and both players have huge egos and hate being benched.
I would hate to think that the Lampard-Terry and Gerrard-Rooney connections were the reason behind England’s problems. These four have become undroppable, just as Beckham and Owen and Gerrard and Lampard were undroppable under Eriksson.
I hate to think of England’s problems being caused by player power - and I hope that it isn’t the case. But it is a possibility, and if it is true, then combined with McClaren’s failings, England fans can expect more of the same for a long, long time.
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Your views on his matter are interesting an probably all true.
here however is my take on the situation:
1. The English press and the media put too much unwarranted pressure on the manager and players. It’s no wonder they seem frozen during matches.
2. The English press and fans cant accept the simple truth. Their players are not as good as they think they are.
3. England need a manger who can drop all the under performing big names. From the captain, to Rio, to Lampard, Rooney and yes even Gerrard. There is all this talk about Gerard replacing Lampard in the middle but when did he last play well in the middle for England? It is clear the big name players are so sure of their starting positions they no longer bother. However if they were all dropped en masse and results changed. They’d realise that their is competetion genuine for their places and they’d perform. Remember how well Rio performed at the world cup? He wouldn’t have done so if Erikson had never dropped him for sloppy form.
4. The time has come for England to think about the players first and the fans later. England simply don’t have the players for a 4-4-2 system. They lack exceptionally good left wingers and they really lack strikers (Please Defoe is NOT international class. Even Crouch is better than him at international level).
They should uses a system that suits the players. Like 4-3-3. A system Lampard plays best in, a system that can also accomodate Gerrard in the middle and Lennon on the right. With Joe Cole/Barry/Dyer attacking down the left.
that is my take on things…
Nice article Ahmed, I think that you’ve voiced what many of us have suspected. Here’s my tuppence worth:
1. Looking at the wealth of talent we’ve got, we should cruise games like Israel - even with certain players playing out of position. The is a real sign of lack of confidence from the players - too much passing the ball around square and not enough going forward. The two explanations I can think of is either they don’t practice & play enough together as a team, or they don’t understand/trust the managers tactics. On balance I’d say it’s the former - more England training sessions needed then.
2. Nobody should be undroppable - getting shot of Becks, whether tactically a right or wrong desicion should have shown the other ‘undroppable’ players that their England berth is by no means guaranteed. This hasn’t worked and now those that called for Beckhams head (including myself) are starting to think we were too hasty - although Lennon on the right seems the obvious choice to anyone that has watched him terrorise defences all season.
3.Gerrard and Lampard in the middle doesn’t work: Hargreaves or Carrick plus Gerrard OR Lampard is the tough decision Steve should have taken months ago.
4.Joe Cole on the left for me, I honestly can’t think of anyone else that is good enough - even if he’s not a naturally left sided player.
5.We have a striker problem - Rooney isn’t doing the business, neither is Defoe although he only gets on when it’s too late to do anything. Martin Jol had the same problem early this season when there were 50 chances a game but no goals. He stuck with his strikers and the goals came. Anyone of our strikers is good enough on his day - we just need to stick with them. Crouch & Rooney as first choice, but bring on Defoe earlier if it’s not happening.
In all I don’t see that England has that big a problem, but if Steve ignores a few fundamentals that are staring him in the face then frankly it’s curtains for him and our qualifying hopes because as you rightly point out - our media will have him and the team on a spit if things continue as they are.
I agree 100% with Keith Kaira II, why force a formation you dont have the necessary players for?
————-[ In Form Striker ] ——-
J. Cole——————————– Lennon
———————–Lampard——————
——-Gerrad————————————
—————Owen Hargreaves———–
Try playing Lampard as AMC and Gerrad right after him as Creative midfielder. Its better then having Steve out wide on the right. I wish the English FA would give me all that money, i’m sure i could do a better job then MAC.
Typo! I meant Gerrard!
Redondo, i think thats a good idea actually, apart from rooney normally doesnt play well by himself upfront. If owen was fit then i would say yes.
Ahmed, good thinking…
I’m not sure if you are spot in all places. But then again, I don’t think we know what is actually going on behind the scenes. I think, though, that biggest problem is the lack of respect for McLaren. Players know that they won’t be dropped and that might sometimes affect to their games.
Also - I don’t think there’s much between Gerrard and Rooney going on, but Lampard and Terry are different story. They have gone quite gung-ho to support Jose for instance. And it seems to me that they could have “grown apart” from rest of the team. And they, with Rio and Hargreaves, create the backbone of the team at the moment…
Well.. I just hope I get to see England in EURO2008 - I don’t really care how, as long as ‘we’ get to the tournament.
For me these are the 2 alternate formations I’d use for England:
4-3-3-:
———–Robinson——–
Neville–Ferdinand–Terry—Cole
———-Hargreaves———
—–Gerrard——Lampard——
Lennon/Dyer——-Rooney———Cole
4-3-1-2:
——————-Robinson——————
—-Neville—Ferdinand—Terry—–Cole—–
—–Lennon/Dyer—–Hargreaves—Cole
———————Gerrard————
—————-Owen———Rooney———————
SM will take England no where. He is a crap manager who has no clue how to tactically train a football team. He plays his team in a one dimentional style that even a nothing coach from Israel can read and counter. Five things need to be happen to get England back on track.
1- SM must go…NOW!
2- Rio must be dropped
3- Lampard must go. His selfish play works at Chelsea not in England. Gerrard is the best choice.
4- Make Gerrard captain.
5- Never ever pick A-Cole. He is a disruptive idiot. Bridge is the better choice.
Hey Norman, stop scousing will ya?
1) No, I disagree. I dislike Macca but don’t push him out unless a replacement is found. Push Venables out though, I don’t mind that. And no, Venables is not a replacement for Macca, with him we’ll be going sideways.
2) Rio? Disagree again. Our backline is fine, it needs an attitude adjustment and probably a new keeper.
3) Lamps is too good to be dropped. He shouldn’t be in the first-team, perhaps, but you can’t drop him.
4) Agreed.
5) Ashley Cole gets along quite well with his England teammates.