Franz Beckenbauer reads Soccerlens | England are lifeless
…At least that’s what I’d like to think, considering how well (and concisely) he’s hit the nail on the head.
Talking about the England side that met (and lost) to Germany in August 2007, Beckenbauer compared the England team to schoolboys and then this priceless comment:
“That was for me the biggest surprise. There is no life in this team.”
Oh, and how we bang our drums to that tune every time England’s finest strut their stuff on a football pitch. Where’s the passion, where are the fighters? Terry’s appointment as captain by Steve McClaren was a first step in instilling some fire into this group, but it has had little impact. There is too much respect and pride between England players, no one is shouting, no one screams for the ball and if someone makes a mistake, there’s no one around to give them a rollicking.
Some might argue that some players are leaders on the pitch and lead through example instead of shouting at each other, but that’s bollocks. Contrast Rio Ferdinand’s performances for Manchester United vs his performances for England. He rightly shouts at his players (except for Giggs, Neville and Scholes) and is a true leader on the pitch. When playing for England, Rio is quiet and he rarely shouts at anyone. Ditto for John Terry. Even Wayne Rooney, boy wonder turned savior turned damned good striker, is comparitively timid when playing for England.
So we have a situation where we don’t have enough fighters on the pitch, and if there are fighters, they aren’t showing that determination through their football.
So whose job is it to bring out the best from England’s stars? Whose job is it to motivate them?
Who’s not doing their job?
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Compare that to the French national team. I love watching France play. They have a flamboyance tempered with good tactics that makes them amazing to watch. Yet i have seen senior players argue with each other incessantly on the pitch (sometimes even when things ARE going their way). If i could have a dollar for every time i saw Zidane & Vieira or Vieira & Thuram in heated discussion about something during the run of play i’d be a millionaire! & its no secret that players like Zidane & Henry really don’t get along that well.
The thing with respect is that you can still yell at someone or get yelled & STILL have the same level of respect for that person. Isn’t that what professionalism is all about? Maybe the English team hasn’t learnt that yet. Or maybe the French team plays well INSPITE of all the on-pitch riavlry, in which case the English team suck purely based on talent.
I’m going to sue you for libel. I found this site through Newsnow and I’ve never read it before.
Who’s not doing their job? The fans and the media, for one. England have the most voracious press and the most impatient fans in the world, and it’s not hard to imagine how that would take a toll on the England players mentally. Imagine playing the game with the knowledge that any mistake you made would be seized on and mercilessly held up for ridicule. That’s one reason, at least, why England play too cautiously a lot of the time (after taking the lead in Russia, for instance) and why they play with so little joy.
Or are you saying that Steve Macca is afraid of the press? Sure he is
Ahmed - Steve Macca is afraid of the press the way a mouse is afraid of the cheese on the mousetrap. It just looks…so…so tasty…
All I mean is that it’s harder for players to play with confidence and toughness when they know they’re going to be killed in the press for anything short of a 3-0 win. They start to second-guess themselves.
But you’re right that it’s the responsibility of the team leaders to get the players in the right frame of mind, and blame for any failure there obviously has to start at the top, with McClaren. It’s his job to create an environment in which what goes on within the team seems more real and more pressing to the players than whatever’s going to be written about them in the tabloids. And the fact that he’s so blindingly concerned with his own press clippings may help to explain why he has trouble doing this.
Yes, it’s the players’ job to yell at each other on the pitch and keep their focus, and just about every England player could do a better job of this. But one of the reasons they struggle so much to do this is that their coach and their fans have created an environment in which they have a strong motivation to play timidly and not risk mistakes. If the environment changed I think we’d see the leadership qualities of the players emerge they way we know they could.
There’s probably another lesson England can take from the French team. During ‘98 & ‘06 World Cup the respective French national coaches Jacquet & Domenech built up a siege mentality, cutting the side off from the outside world & restricting media access severly, so much so it hardly affected the players’ privacy. It helped to create a militant & combative state of mind amongst the players, focused their attentions on the job at hand & probably went some way in player bonding & understanding (probably not so much in ‘06).
Maybe that’s the kind of thing the English team needs? Agreeably the main reason why it worked was the sheer power of the personalities of these 2 coaches & similarities of their approach to the game (Jacquet had recommended Domenech for the job). I saw a documentary of France ‘98 with the French team & in every clip Jacquet took no nonsense from players, told them to shut up & listen when necessary & psychologically built them up to the point where they were ready for war.
Similarily in the group game against S Korea at WC ‘06, Domenech substituted Zidane towards the end of the game (he was on 2 yellow cards & due to miss the next game against Togo) just to send a clear message to the players that EVERYONE has to pull their weight despite their superstar status. He also knew that Zidane was a volatile & abrasive presence to the other players despite his leadership qualities & it was a clear message to Zidane to shape up or ship out.
Admirably the players responded to the do or die situation & beat Togo 2-0 (without Zidane in a 4-4-2 formation) to qualify for the next round & Zidane returned to help thrash Spain 3-1. The rest was history.
If England can get the right coach who has the guts to drop big players EVEN if they don’t communicate well with their teammates, as well as stand up to the media horde & back his players no matter the circumstances, then they can go a long way in improving their chances. The only man in my mind who can do that is Guus Hiddink.
Any other ideas for managers like that?
SpiralArchitect - How about Mourinho? He excels at creating the siege mentality, stands up to the press (albeit in his own peculiar way), and isn’t awed by big names, as we saw with his burial of Shevchenko. My main hesitation about picking him for England is that he seems too excitable to thrive within the slow-paced schedule of the international season. Successful international managers (Hiddink, Scolari, etc.) all seem to have a quality of patience and deliberateness that Mourinho lacks. I’m sure there are exceptions, though. It would be fascinating to see what either Hiddink or Mourinho would do with this England team.
Brian -
I respect Mourinho as a coach & what he’s done for Chelsea & i agree he might not be used to the International scene. But another reason why i wouldn’t pick him is that he’s TOO passionate about the way he does things. Everything he does has got bombastic written all over it. He’s just as likely to throw tantrums ranting against the FA & the media, deflect blame when things aren’t going his way & attract too much negative attention & i feel that has also been to Chelsea’s detriment in times past.
His treatment of Shevchenko seemed to me more of a spiteful decision against the owner rather than on merits. Plus the fact that despite what everyone else thinks i don’t think he’s clinical enough in crunch matches & prefers the safety options that are sure-fire wins. This is not always the best approach in knock-out tournaments & probably wouldn’t suit England’s playing style.
He might be able to win a long seasonal competition but how would he be in a World Cup? I feel that the best kind of international coaches are ones like Jacquet, Hiddink, Scolari, Beckenbauer & (lately) Jorvan Vieira (who’s had successes with Moroccan & Iraqi national teams). These guys manage to create a wall around their players & absorb the criticism levelled at them in such a way that they successfully create the impression to the world that they don’t care, that they’re here to do a job & they will do it their way & succeed.
In contrast, i am in awe of Scolari. He is the kind of guy i like to think Mourinho will become in 10-15 years time with the kind of controlled volatility that galvanises his team into action at the right moments. Have you seen his press conferences? He’s almost sedate & absorbs all criticisms like a smiling fox while managing to control & focus his energies on developing his team. I remember in 2002 he dumped Romario from the national team despite the tidal wave of public opinion against him & dramatic/theatrical personal pleas from Romario himself. He just said a firm ‘no’, gave his reasons & got on with his job & won the World Cup for Brazil.
In short, i don’t think Mourinho is mature enough for such a job. Maybe he can coach Portugal in a couple of years time, who knows? But my ideal choices would be Hiddink & yes, Scolari as well.
I think Mourinho for England is an interesting one. Managing England is like a club manager having a squad of 50 players and no transfer budget. If Mourinho is that good he would do a good job. If he only looks good because of the Russian roubles he will probably do a bad job. I´d like to see him try it.
Firstly - Mourinho wouldn’t lumber himself with a selection of players so dovoid of skill, technique and depth in key positions so you can forget that idea. You must understand while he’s a good manager, he’s not a complete mug.
Secondly - While I agree with you about player responsibility and the role the press play in the team mentality I think you all ignore the way the F.A. run the English game and how that effect all below them.
These people at the F.A. live in constant fear of being exposed as dinosaurs of the game who knew very little in the first place. Rather than take tough decisions and then stick by them to the point where they may lose their own job over it, they just sack this one and get on with the next one. The reason this works so well for them is the press will be doing what they do and reporting the current problematic position the team’s in for a long time tus making any action seem fair and sensible. If those who consider themselves true fans of the game(but are in fact just tribal fans who care little about the national team and more about their own club)actually recognised their place in all this then the F.A. couldn’t get away with going from one joke to the next. All of which are their own mistake and abley supported by fans lack of vigilence and the presses constant feeding frenzy at any time things aren’t perfect.
The fear from the top of the F.A. for their jobs has so long be evident to me and it has become endemic in our game and filters down any England manager, who can never look up for support so just hopes the players save him his job. The players then lose respect and belief in the manager, all is lost from there and it’s just a matter of time before another aimless change is made.
We need our best players, being the best players in English club sides because very few would leave this country considering the money they can earn here even in lower Premiership teams. This means not allowing all the sides like Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea to just fill key positions with foreigners and forcing them to take only a few non-english players. This is not without precident as all the owners in Italy have agreed this in the past despite E.U. rules/laws and it resulted in them taking back the game and again instilling pride in their national side. But in England how can you ask a load of foreign businessmen who have been allowed to pay a pretty penny for English clubs(?) to then do things to the detriment of a PRODUCT they have bought thus not letting them build the brand worldwide and keep the cost of running that club down. These guys don’t come here for the love of English football (they’re not English!), they come for theor own egos and to help them in other businesses they have where they can have made and can make more real money. A premiership club is in no way as good as an investment as the stock markets when you have as much money as them and so the state of our game is all our fault and we get the National side we deserve.
LOL. We were, are and always will be ‘Stupid England’ all the time we go for blaming others rather than realising our m,istakes and taking action to sort them out. Blame get’s you nowhere if it’s just to deflect blame away from you own mistakes. Blame must be focussed to all who deserve it.
BTW… Rio Ferdinand is not a good defender at all. He’s fast and this helps him not be exposed as often as he would be. He’s lazy, unfocussed and has no need to improve his game. If he was at a club where he was truly one of the best players then he’d have more to do and you’d see it.
I ask you this. How do you sign someone for 30million and tell them they have to get better because they can’t defend for toffee. He answers “If that’s true then why pay 30million for me boss”. There’s your problem and there’s why Rio is arrogant enough to believe he’s good enough if he can earn 50k+/week. I think he has it in his locker to far surpass Sol Campbell, Nesta, Baresi and even the great Bobby Moore. But he never will because he’s arrogant and has gotten too much too fast. Yet another example of English football at it’s worst.
Mourinho would do a good job. He’s a pragmatic coach and would play a system that suits English players. It wouldn’t be pretty football, but it’ll get them to the quarter-finals. He excells in tactics and motivation, and these are the things that an international manager requires. He’s probably the only guy would who knows how to play Lampard with Gerrard. And he’s worked with Cole, Terry, Cole and Lampard before, so he’s familiar with the skill level of the average England international.
But he wouldn’t do it. He’s not a mug.
Stuart thank you for pointing that out. Rio is absolute shite, he can’t defend and his only saving grace is that he has got a decent pass on him. Nemanja Vidic does the dirty work over at United.
Same with Chelsea. What’s all this about John Terry being a brilliant centre-half? He’s passionate I’ll give you that, but even so his tackling leaves a lot to be desired. Ricardo Carvalho does Terry’s dirty, whilst JT makes one clearance off the line and is proclaimed God!
Best centre-half this country has produced in a long time is Jonathan Woodgate, but the poor bastard is always injured. If it were me I’d have a Campbell-Woodgate partnership (not Carra-which from a Red is pretty rich)
The job for inspiration though comes down to both Captain and Manager. End of.