by sussexpob » Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:08 am
I also think that the Nigeria example serves as a perfect point for my belief on what causes this - English footballing culture.
Nigeria's main success has been physicality. Ethnically they grow quicker, develop muscle mass quicker, tend to be physically more strong... at youth level size really matters, and they can bully far more technical sides into submission. English youth football is like that in my experience, I played with a lot of vastly superior technical players who has skills, but were crumbled when playing with people taller or stronger.
The English mentality to play full sized, full team games from the youngest levels is abundantly stupid. Technical players got lost completely on those pitches, players don't learn the right skills, and learn the wrong type. The players that stand out are usually quick, hard working, powerful players. So by the time you get to 17-18 and a shot a professional football, Conor Wickham is apparently your best youngster because he is a huge unit, and your four potential Messi's all stopped playing football at 13 because they got ten bells of shite kicked into them.
I think this extends also to the style of football we play. We end up having less technical players, we therefore find it hard to break down inferior teams that sit and ask us to play through them, and often cant play with the directness that a German team has on the ground because we don't have the passing ability or touch.
We therefore end up lavishing praise on pieces of more noticeable skill, and totally ignore players who fit inside systems, or simply have technical abilities that don't form a positive stat on paper...... We had arguably the best playmaking midfielder in the modern game (not my words, Messi/Xavi/Zidane/Guardiola all though Paul Scholes was a genius) and shoved him on the left wing out of position, playing Lampard and Gerrard, far inferior players, in his specialised position. We did this because Lampard scored more goals, and because Gerrard shoots 50 times a match and occasionally scores a screamer.
English fans watch football like youtube clips. They rate players on a 25 yard goal scored instead of close control. They think a player who contributes nothing but 10 such goals in a season is a world class player. They don't understand tactics, and care very little for the science of the game. From every level up, its about the final score, not about how you play, or creating a style that is repetitively good. If anyone wants evidence of this, turn on the TV and watch your pundits speak... Robbie Savage's tactical analysis on the BBC website is embarrassing, he doesn't know anything about the game, but is a spokesman for it. This is replicated all over.
This in turn shows the lack of English managers in the domestic and world game. English managers are stuck in a pragmatic way of showing negative ambition for short term results rather than trying to install a system that is expressive and works. They are dinosaur ex-players, hardly any younger guys come through with any ideas to shake things up. Its mainly down to the fact that ex-players played the game like dinosaurs, and bring this back into the game. Hardly any managers in England are now like Wenger or Ferguson, guys who worked their way up from modest footballing backgrounds.
We need to change this culture, but firstly we need to acknowledge that it doesn't work. We need to admit that players like Gerrard are failures, over-rated players who just weren't that good.... but we dont. Even now the press are rumbling about what more he can offer us, at 34 years, after a miserable tournament. We took a 36 year old Lampard even though his club even didn't want him anymore.
Do you think if we cant acknowledge these players are finished at 34/36 respectively, and show the ruthlessness to tell them they are no good anymore(arguably also at their peak), we can adapt and change a system that is overdue an overhaul by 30 years?
Of course not. We will moan for a week, nothing will get done, we will blame everything but our own outlook on the game and our own systems, and then forget about it for 2-4 years till next time.
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And a hat and bra to you too, my good sirs!