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Sunday, June 27, 2010

World Cup musings - Reasons England are out of the World Cup

England are left reeling from their worst ever defeat at a World Cup and here are some of the reasons why...

Fabio Capello

Ever since the friendly against Egypt back in March Fabio Capellos value has been slowly deteriorating. The poor friendly dispalys against Egypt, Mexico and Japan were an indication of the rot at Englands core and Capello seemed unable to fix it.

This is a guy who is paid 6 million a year to negotiate our way beyond our ritual quarter-final departure. Well, he couldnt even get us that far.

His tactics were woeful. Rooney out of position, Gerrard out of position, refusal to accept that we needed a 5 man midfield at times to outmanouervre, as well as out-number, opponents at the highest level.

Depsite his stature within the game, he was unable to deal with the egos within the camp, something that proved to be a huge problem as players became aliented with each other and their manager.

Pace

Whether it be the rigours of the Premiership season, the age of the team or just the individuals selected, the England side were made to look foolish, particularly in defence, as the youthful German side rang rings around their English counterparts.

Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard struggled with the pace of the game and could not deal with the electric Mesut Ozil.

Furthermore, when England needed some urgency, neither of the midfielders were able to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Rooney

England's talisman has not scored since 30 March and for one of the best players in the world, he never delivered at this tournament.

Much will be made of his overall fitness but this has not hampered Lionel Messi, who was described prior to the tournament as physically exhausted by the Argentinian fitness coach, or Arjen Robben, who has played just 20 minutes of football in the last five weeks and yet still managed to inspire the Dutch to victory against Slovakia yesterday.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

World Cup musings - Missed opportunities create a tough route for England

So, the path is clear - Germany, Argentina, Spain and then Brazil if England are to achieve their dream of winning the World Cup.

44 years of hurt could soon become 48 despite yesterday's 1-0 victory over Slovenia, ensuring progress to the last 16.

The countless missed opportunities against the Slovenians, combined with the USA's late winner against Algeria, denied England top spot in Group C, thus setting up a Second Round match with the Germans.

However, it is not just the prospect of facing the old enemy that should strike fear in every English supporter. This is the half of the draw that we wanted to avoid.

Nothing illustrates this better than the USA's prospective opponents en route to an improbable final. First up is Ghana. Should they progress they will play the winner of Uruguay - South Korea. Not easy but eminently more winnable than England's prospective opponents.

Careless finishing in yesterday's match from Gerrard and, in particular, Rooney denied England a greater winning margin and, with it, top spot in Group C.

The emotion of progressing further in the tournament was tempered with Germany's win against Ghana and the words of millions around the country could be heard: "Oh no, not the Germans".

Nevertheless, it is not all doom and gloom. If England perform to their potential, and that's a big IF, then they could dispense with Germany.

What we need more than anything else is belief. A commodity that Germany have in abundance. If we truly have the belief, and that seemed to be there in the match with Slovenia, we will have an excellent chance of knocking them out.

We need to play with plenty of aggression and ambition as I can guarentee one thing about Sunday's game - if it goes to penalties we're out!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

World Cup musings - Changes a must if England are to progress

Listless, poor, dreadful and many more adjectives could be used to describe England's performance against Algeria last night but what has happened to the team since they qualified in such convincing fashion last autumn?

Goals

The goals have dried up since they thrashed Croatia 5-1 to secure their passage to South Africa. Rooney appears short on confidence, and maybe fitness too. On too many occasions England's talisman has drifted deep to pick up possession but what damage can he do 60 metres from goal?

Solution: Drop Heskey, and play Gerrard in behind Rooney. This means playing the two in tandem, in the positions they play so succesfully for their clubs.

Confidence

When Fabio Capello took charge of his first game against Switzerland in February 2008 he noticed the players lacked confidence whilst playing for the national team. The shirt seemed to hang heavy on their shoulders. Slowly but surely he gave the team the much needed morale boost they needed and they started believing in themselves again. This form has completely disappeared since the turn of the year and England have regressed to their former selves. USA midfielder Clint Dempsey noted after last week's 1-1 draw that England were "edgy". That feeling was enhanced last night in Cape Town as many of the English players had a heavy touch and their passing was poor.

Solution: Get back to basics. The players need to be reminded of their qualities, even show them dvds of what they're good at. Also, playing players in the positions they prefer, ie Rooney up front, would help.

With these two key things fixed, England will surely get the win they need against Slovenia on Wednesday but there are a few other tactical tweeks that may be required.

Shaun Wright-Phillips should not be turned to as our saviour. In the last two games he has come on as a substitute and performed even worse than the player he replaced.

Furthermore, what has Joe Cole done to upset Mr Capello so much that he can't seem to get near the starting 11? With him, Gerrard and Aaron Lennon lined-up as a three behind Rooney we could play the 4-2-3-1 formation we see used throughout the Premier League. This would give us many more options going forward, whilst also enabling us to play our best players in their best positions.

Lennon deserves persisting with. Last night his delivery improved and it was a lack of a presence in the box that cost England dearly. On several occasions Heskey and Rooney were both seen deep in their own half.

Dispensing with Heskey would also encourage England to play a more expansive game following the justified accusations from Franz Beckenbauer that we had become a "kick and rush" team.

Also, the full-backs need to get forward more. Against the U.S Glen Johnson was one of our best players but against Algeria, he and Ashley Cole were rarely seen venturing forward.

Finally, some due respect needs to be given to the Slovenians prior to kick-off. In the build-up to last night's game Gerrard spoke of the need for a "convincing win". The only purpose these ill-advised words served was to increase the pressure on England, as well as motivating the Algerians. This comment would have been more understandable coming from a naive youngster but not the England captain.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

World Cup musings - Swiss illustrate perfect timing as Zurich awakes from its slumber

As we waited for this World Cup to come alive, little did we expect a Manchester City reject to provide the fillip this tournament was in desperate need of, scoring the winning goal in Switzerland's 1-0 win over Spain.

A similarly profound effect was had on the city of Zurich, Switzerland's largest city. The Swiss, not known for their wild partying antics (when FC Zurich beat AC Milan in last season's Champions League a polite ripple of applause could be heard throughout Zurich), took to the streets to 'party'.

When Swiss people go crazy it generally constitutes a second piece of chocolate or a little less lemonade in their panache (shandy).

However, Wednesday's result in Durban created something on a much grander scale. Langstrasse, a street famous for lap dancing joints and home to some of Zurich's dodgiest bars, was closed for several hours as people drank copious amounts of alcohol, waved the national flag and danced on the rooftops of cars.

Zurich hasn't seen this kind of commotion since Tina Turner opened a bank account here.

Now, to say the Swiss were going crazy on the aforementioned street might be being a bit flexible with the truth as, admittedly, most who were seen hooting horns (not the first time someone got the horn on this street, eh?!), drinking beer and waving the flags ferociously, were either Turkish or Latin American. However, this was punctuated with the odd smiley Swiss face, often painted in the national colours of red and white.

Even the local media got caught up in the excitement of it all. The Blick described the result as 'The miracle of Durban' and the nation was in a state of 'Jubilation', which has to be a first.

The reaction was as if they had actually won the whole damn thing but that is understandable as the locals know this could be as near as they ever get to doing just that.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

World Cup musings - Capello culpable

England began their campaign in the way they begin most tournaments. Start the game well, but then fade and, at times, be grateful for the point that would have seriously disappointed them prior to the match.

The Three Lions generally start with eminently winnable games but then fluff their lines after a bright start.

Think Italia '90 against Ireland, Euro '96 v Switzerland or in Japan in 2002 against the Swedish. Now you can add USA in South Africa to that list.

The reasons for the failure to grab all three points are multiple but in each there is one common factor - Fabio Capello.

Take the most obvious disappointment from yesterday, the Robert Green blunder. Sure it was the West Ham goalkeeper's fault (I couldn't believe the way he held his hand up to admit blame, like his team-mates and the rest of the world needed to be told) but the decision to pick him was as inexplicable as the goal itself.

One of Capello's most perplexing statements was when he announced a year ago that he already knew who his number one would be in South Africa. At the time, that had to be David James as he was the man in possession of the number 1 jersey and Green had barely played for the national team.

Clearly the England manager had either been leading us up the garden path or changed his mind.

What baffles me even more, and did so at the time, was not to select the in-form Joe Hart for the friendly against Egypt in March, or for the full 90 minutes in any of the friendlies in May.

To throw Hart in against the United States for his full debut would have been a massive gamble. Yet had he played a few times already, we would have known if he was capable at this level or not. Surely his time has to come in the next game against Algeria.

The decision to select Milner was understandable but to replace him with Shaun Wright-Phillips was not. Joe Cole, who was one of the only England players to emerge with any credit from the last World Cup, was the obvious replacement.

Too many times Wright-Phillips mis-controlled the ball and the effort he had on goal mid-way through the second half was woeful.

But his performance hardly came as a surprise. Ever since the winger's debut under Sven Goran-Eriksson it has been clear that the weight of the England shirt hung heavy on his diminuitive frame.

Furthermore, he does not make the starting eleven for Manchester City, his place going to Michael Johnson. That Johnson did not make the squad and SWP did is another decision that makes little sense.

Then there is the Emile Heskey conundrum. Admittedly, he did well to set up Gerrard's opener but I'm sure Peter Crouch could have laid that ball on for the England captain to score. Then, when it came to Heskey's big moment, baring down on goal, he was left wanting, shooting straight into the grateful arms of Tim Howard.

I recognise we do not have many striking options (Heskey was 350/1 to be top scorer for the tournament and Japan have scored more goals for England than him in the last couple of years) but that leads me to my final point.

To make serious progress in this tournament we will have to play Rooney in his best position - at the top as an out and out striker. Too many times we see Rooney picking up the ball in the centre circle, too far from goal to do serious damage.

I recall Sir Alex Ferguson explaining that he played Rooney as a striker because he felt that was his best position, but also due to the fact that he had an abundance of good midfielders in his squad that he couldn't leave them out.

The same could be said of England. Our strength is in midfield and in terms of forwards, after Rooney we are struggling. I think in the group stage we should stick with 4-4-2 but when we come up against tougher opponents we have to play with Rooney up top and Gerrard in close support like he does for Torres at Liverpool.

The only problem I can envisage with this system is that it is not one we have played before. To not play this formation before is the final decision which could yet haunt Mr Capello.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

World Cup musings

With the sad news of Rio Ferdinand's enforced absence from the World Cup (following a tackle with Emile Heskey, of all people) I couldn't help but begin to wistfully think of absent friends.

Imagine an England squad with Rio in it, as well as Owen Hargreaves and Michael Owen, not to mention retiree Paul Scholes, then we would really have entered this tournament with real confidence.

As it is, a kind draw still makes the semi finals a distinct possibility but without our captain and a top quality holding midfielder, you would have to imagine a side like Brazil or Spain will knock us out (think back to England's friendlies against these two nations in 2009 when we were comfortably beaten and it paints a pretty bleak picture).

Still, where there is Wayne Rooney, there is hope.

Furthermore, England are not the only nation to be missing players through injury. Our old friends Germany, in particular, will suffer from the absence of Michael Ballack, Christian Traesch and number one goalkeeper Rene Adler.

Italy have severe doubts surrounding the influential midfielder Andrea Pirlo and then there is the Spanish. There must be severe doubts surrounding the durability of Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Andreas Iniseta after being out injured for significant parts of 2010.

Nevertheless, the 'golden generation' for England who gave us so much hope prior to the 2006 tournament still have one more shot at glory, albeit it minus David Beckham. For Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and possibly John Terry, this has to be their last chance at World Cup glory. If that is not enough motivation, then nothing will be.