With the Liverpool man unable to
become England’s newest immediate hero due to injury who can fire us to a
tournament we now accept we have no hope of winning?
It’s been an odd international
break for England. With all the
withdrawals, close up snaps of Wayne Rooney’s gash and the prospect of having
to play Moldova the actual games have come across as an afterthought (or at
least until results on Friday left tonight’s game against Ukraine billed as a
kind of first place eliminator, ignoring the fact there’s still two games left
and they could always say, draw). It’s
also been strange thanks to Greg Dyke admitting that even if we get there we have
no chance of winning anyway.
Of course he’s right. The fact this made news at all is more
interesting than him deciding to say it.
I don’t think I know a single England fan who would disagree. It was treated by even the most unhinged of
the papers as a (relatively) sensible position to have taken. When Roy Hodgson came out a day later and
said he still believed they could win it everyone chuckled and it felt like an
opportunity being missed. Would we not
all be happier crashing out if everyone had been on message telling us to
expect defeat anyway? Now in the future
Roy might be in the unhappy position of being sacked for not doing what his
boss says is impossible.
Greg Dyke’s blast of sensible
thinking saved us from a week of fretting over Daniel Sturridge’s fitness. He’s the latest in a very long list of
players hyped before they’ve made any impact at international level, built up
into exactly what England are missing before invariably not being able to make
much of an impact at all. Jack Wiltshire
would be the last one. If Ricky Lambert
scores again tonight, thirty one or not he might be the next.
With all the noting of just
thirty percent of the players in the first round of the Premier League being
English it is easy to forget that the record of the national team has pretty
much always been as it is now. Outside
of two occasions helped by home advantage England have been to one other semi
final. Previously our failings were
explained by being too isolated from the rest of the world. Now apparently our players aren’t isolated
enough. We’re good at getting
there. In qualification terms since the
seventies we’ve only missed out on one World Cup and one European
Championship. In the last thirty
competitive games we’ve only lost twice (penalty shoot outs aside). Roy Hodgson has lost one since taking over
and that was a friendly defeat to a Zlatan inspired Sweden. We’re not doing that badly.
It’s moving up to that next level
that seems further away than ever. Decades
of hyping players having a good season as the answer, or in Sturridge’s case
about ten games in a row, has led us to where we are, simply a good international
team. The really successful teams tend
to be built from the bottom up. They
start with an idea and then have the means to grow their teams from there. It takes money, patience, desire and to be
blunt a shit tonne of coaches to carry it out.
It’s unclear how many of those the FA have. Spain started by making their coaches all
live within forty miles of their facilities to better coordinate their
ideas. They developed a style for their
senior team then had all age groups trained and drilled in it. The German’s developed a new athletic
attacking style for the senior team under Klinnsman then had their younger age
groups playing it. When players come
from the under 21s they step into systems they already know. If there is similar thinking with England
there is little apparent evidence for it.
If we look just at UEFA registered coaches England with about 3000 is
lagging behind Spain at more than 25,000 and Germany with over 35,000. This isn’t news. It’s been apparent for some time what needs
to be done.
Which is where we talk about how
it’s the Premier League’s fault. Which
of course it is but at the same time the FA have to realise that there is no
practical way to make them pick young English players over young foreign ones
(does anyone really think that any talk of quotas will fly against the most
powerful sporting competition in the world?).
Simply put the only way to get young English players onto the pitch is
to get them good enough in the first place.
That takes coaches and time. The only
way to do it is to change the culture.
Admitting how far away we are is a useful first step.
Anyway it remains to be seen what
an on form Sturridge can bring to England.
His transformation from a player at Chelsea who you could pretty much
guarantee to do the wrong thing to one who has become successful while being
even more selfish than ever has been impressive. Given that he will be standing furthest
forward in a team known for not being able to keep the ball should temper any
expectations. If England need a reminder
of why Greg Dyke thinks they’ll come up short again they should get one in the
surroundings of The Olympic Stadium tonight, a venue where the last time they
played James Milner passed the ball successfully thirteen times in sixty one
minutes. If we need a great English hope
we might as well continue to expect far too much from Jack Wiltshire, at least
he’s got a hope of keeping the ball better (and looked good in partnership with
Lampard and Gerard on Friday, albeit only against Moldova). If the past is any judge we’ll get there
somehow then come up against familiar problems again. If Greg Dyke is serious about changing it a
look elsewhere should leave him in no doubt about what is required.
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