We’ve only ever won one International Football tournament, the World Cup in 1066, sorry 1966. And we were lucky to do that. Mediocre teams in a mediocre tournament. Lucky to beat Argentina in the quarter final, lucky to beat Portugal in the semi-final. Sure we had one or two great players, Moore and Charlton for example, but we were not a great team. And as a nation we’ve lived on the back of this success ever since.
Why have we never won anything else?… We’re not good enough!! But there are a number of reasons for this; reasons which I’ll examine in this 2 part article.
Why do we have such a successful Premier League, supposedly the best in the world, and such a mediocre international team ?
There are a number of quality teams in the Premiership but too many of them play football the English way. What is the English way; too fast, too many long balls, too many balls hit high with the midfield being bypassed too often. English players still play football without thought, too many English players have too little technical awareness and too many managers don’t allow players the freedom to express themselves fully.
The best football played by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool tends to be in the Champions League where the game is slower and the ball is played on the ground to players’ feet. Arsenal, in particular, displayed a fluidity in passing and movement which at its best was rarely surpassed last season. Football should be a game where the ball’s played on the floor and where players move into space to receive it.
How many times have you seen a premiership player, paid millions of pounds, meant to be amongst the best in the world, give away the ball by passing badly when under no pressure ??
Countless times. Why ? Because we play the game too fast and with no thought.
Until Premiership teams play consistently with thought and with tactical awareness we will never win another international football tournament. How many great players have come and gone, how many great players will come and go before we begin to understand that to win a football match at the highest level requires slow football, accurate passing and the ball to be on the ground.
The second reason that we will never win another international football tournament is that our players are, on the whole, less technically gifted than others. This is closely allied to playing too fast,our top players don’t have the time on the ball to develop sophisticated, innovative skills. How many of our best players have truly great skills? Terry, Lampard, Owen?
Not really. Owen hasn’t dribbled a ball since he scored against Argentina in the World Cup when he was 18 and Terry and Lampard are gutsy, courageous, brave players but top in terms of skill?
If you think they are what planet are you living on?
Where are our players with Brazilian flair, with European culture?
We haven’t got any! We must slow our game down, starting at school boy level and teach how to beat a man, how to control the ball, how to have the ball glued to our feet. Only then will we begin to compete again at international level.
If you think the first part of this article is rubbish or you hate me for my views, good. I hope you’ll read the second part due out at the weekend.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
this is simply noise
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
who cares about england? just becos you have internet and a keyboard doesn’t mean you should bore us with your country’s woe. do you know what talent Jamaica has? Cameroon? Nigeria? Thailand? Imagine if everyone has the same access as you do. this sounds so much like americans making noise over their present nascent football (er, soccer) teams…they don’t spend time to read up other country’s soccer stars…other nations know much about you people but you are too proud to research or talk about others….you might want to check why Cameroon hasn’t won the World Cup since that fool of a ref blew a penalty against them in Italia’90…ironically against England.