Odd though it may be to start a blog that is intended to be mainly about football with a title entirely connected with cricket. Football may have the man however it distinctly lacks the bat but I could think of no better way of describing the nature of this my first entry into the overpopulated world of blogs.
Opening batsmen in cricket primarily being solid and able to at the crease for a long period of time accumulating runs on the board and providing a good platform for the rest of the batting order, it seemed a fitting title. However a title does not make an article and the solid defensive stroke which will encompass this article will be a few issues of football's home nation. Why England well i can think of no safer zone in football than to pick holes in something that could almost be made out of holes.
England’s national team has come under scrutiny from former players, fans and the media and has yet again been thrown in at the deep end with the loss of Fabio Capello. Now although Capello's reign was not successful at tournament level it did provide a very successful qualifying campaign and an attempt to change England into more tactically aware side. However despite anyone's complaints about him I'm positive that a stable England going into the European Championships might have fared slightly better than one surrounded by uncertainty.
This latest in a cavalcade of major stories primarily being negative surrounding England is a theme that ideally needs to stop. The main issues seem to be more and more centred around coin toss decisions that the FA makes on a regular basis and that the fans get to either applaud or moan about usually the latter. Listed below are just a few.
- 4-4-2 or not 4-4-2.
- English manager or foreign manager.
- Keep the old stars or burn the old stars in a media witch-hunt and start again with youngsters.
- Make John Terry captain – Strip Terry of the captaincy and appoint another older player before making John Terry captain again.
All these issues are very different but have one thing in common. They entered the fact that England for a long-time has been unsure as to what its identity is. With constantly changing goals and doubt as to whether England's natural style of football is capable of winning major tournaments we need only to look to 3 of the most successful nations in world football for guidance. Brazil, Italy and Germany, what these three have in common is a sound belief that their style of football is the best style of football with no alternatives. This focus allows each of these nations system to improve instead of trying to continuously reinvent it.
Now instead of England looking upon these nations as one's to emulate in terms of their style of football we should aim to take on board their principles that they apply to their footballing identity. If England stuck to its guns and kept the system that is ingrained in all English players from a young age and then to manipulate that system with minor tweaks as opposed to radical wholesale change England's tournament performance is likely to improve significantly. For example Tottenham in their adventures in the champions league last year and the Premier league this year have shown that 4-4-2 is perfectly capable of beating the best even if touch and unreliable.
Even if England were to gain a stable footballing vision there is still one very large and difficult problem to solve. In the Premier league at the moment several under fire managers are receiving incredibly harsh criticism from their own fans during games. Now to any side under pressure whether bidding to qualify for the champion’s league or to avoid relegation they are going to receive a significant amount of negative attention from the vampiric media that haunt the English game. With this in mind the team requires more than at any other time to have the support of their fans. A change in attitude and no matter how bad the performance from a team their fans should still be behind them for a simple reason radiation. If the fans show an immense amount of support passion and enthusiasm some of that will radiate to the players on the pitch which can lead to an inspired comeback. Liverpool's comeback in the 2005 champions league final and Arsenals recent comeback at the Emirates against Tottenham both were fuelled by what can only be described as an awe inspiring atmosphere generated by their supporters.
If the England team knows their system and are confident with it then hear 40,000 lions roar off the pitch they are likely to roar along with them. Then at least England would go out in a blaze of glory instead of limping timidly out of every major tournament.
