This is the second part of my analysis of a few team from the World Cup. I had started off with France in one of my previous posts. Now its time for some English bashing.
England came into this World Cup as one of the favorites alongside Brazil,Spain and Argentina. I still do not understand why they were labelled as favorites. Yes they were on a good run in the Qualifiers.They were in a pretty simple group where Croatia were the ones they posed any threat. The matchups were hyped even further as Crotia beat them twice in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. A comprehensive beating of Croatia gave the English media and fans a sort of self belief that maybe they never had in the last 6 years.
The Euro 2008 debacle was long forgotten in the run up to South Africa. England now had a new coach in Fabio Capello, a man with pretty decent coaching credentials. He had managed a couple of Europes top clubs in AC Milan and Real Madrid.
This engine of this England unit is still based on England's golden generation of the 2000's, (they have one every decade). This set of players included Terry,Gerrard,Lampard and Owen. Michael Owen unfortunately had fallen out of favour with Capello. The hype was huge. Rooney was having the seasson of his life at United. Four months before the world cup things were about to change.
Rio Ferdinad got injured while on club duty, Garreth Barry is injured towards the end of the season, lampard a minor knock and then the major blow that I thought was the turning point. Wayne Rooney is injured in the first leg of the Champions league 1/4 final against Bayern Munich. He is taken off. He forces himself to play the second leg and then Van Bommel(I would dedicate a blog on him later), gets the better of him ina tackle. Rooney has to go off, United lose, their season derails. Such was his form last year that he could alone have taken them to league and CL glory. Rooney never recovered and so did England.
England's opening Group B fixture was against the USA, a good team coached by Bob Bradley. In their ranks they had a quite afew good players who plied their trade in the Premier League. England were still the favorites going into the game. Their captain for the world cup, Rio Ferdinand took the flight home before the first game. David Beckham suffered a really bad injury at Milan and was ruled out for 9 months atleast. He took his place on the coaching staff. Coming back from injury were Rooney and Ashley Cole arguably the only two world class players in the English setup. Gareth Barry figured in Capello's central scheme of things in the run up to the cup. His injury was a setback to their preparations.
Capello's team selection left a lot to be desired. With Barry out of the team for the first game, he preferred to play James Millner, the young midfielder from Aston Villa. Lest I forget, dropping Walcott from the 25 man squad which was announced caused the maximum flutters all round. Walcott plays on the right wing and he was competing for a place with the likes of Aron Lenon and Shaun Wright Philips. Lenon has good pace on the wings, but he would have been better off plying his trade in sprints rather than on the football field. His clubs performance in the league last season was also one of the factors that contributed to his call up to the team. Wright Philips continues to be a boy wonder, his height and his boyish looks at 32 maybe helps create this notion, but I think he will remain one all through.
So England start off the first game with Rooney and Heskey upfront, with Gerrard playing in a widish left position behind them. Millner links up play to Gerrad from the back. Lenon plays out right and surprising Lampard plays the role of the central midfielder. The defence consists of Glen Johnson on the right, the Liverpool man who makes good runs down the right but his crosses leave a lot to be desired. Tracking back during a counter attack is again not one of his favorite things. The central defence consists of Terry and King. Mr. Chelsea, John Terry was not having the best of seasons which was compunded even further by off-field problems. Ledley King was in inspite of his no practice only matchday football condition because there was no once good enough other than him to play in the centre of the defence alongside Terry. Ashley Cole played in the left back position. Cole is a super player, whose speed moving up and his ability to stop the best i business on the right side have won him accolades the world over. Inspite of all this he has never shown his best form for England. Cole's biggest achievent in his carrer was the way he took to Cristiano Ronaldo when the latter was playing for United. I remember game when ronaldo had to moved out right or to a more central position in matched agianst Chelsea to nullify the Cole threat. Make no mistake as CR7 was voted the World Player of the year that season. In goal for England you had Robert Green, the West Ham United man, a controverisal choice considering they had the eccentric David James and Joe Hart to chose from. Hart was coming off a brilliant loan season at Birmingham City, a performance that has seen him replace Shay Given as the first choice keeper at Eastlands.
Stevie Gerrard put England ahead after he combined well with Heskey. That I think was the only high point for England at the World Cup. USA equalied through a Clint Dempsey strike which I think was more of a Green howler. Robert Green it seemed had BP oil on his hands and the Americans slipped one through. Millner got injured in the first half(replaced by the boy wonder) and King was replaced by Carragher. The game was a disaster. Luckily England managaed to retrieve a point from it. They were plain lucky.
As I finish the first part of the English bashing I would like to ask a few things to M/s Cappello and Pearce.
1. Why was Walcott not included in the squad of 25 ? Are Lenon and Wright Philips better ? Didnt Capello watch Walcott play the Champions league game against Barcelona ?
2. With Barry not sure whether we would play the group games, why did Capello play Carrick in the warm up games only to replace him with Millner. Playing Carrick simply has its own advantages. The quality of Carrick's distribution is better than Barry/Millner on any given day. As for the defensive qualities, all of them can be rated at the same level. For me England sorely missed Hargreaves in th centre of midfield, his longterm injury meant he missed a lot of football.
3. Even after failing for 3-4 times at major competitions why wasthe Lampard - Gerrard combo tried out. Lampard somehow never manages to link up with Gerrard and Capello should have taken note of that. Gerrard links well with Rooney and the huge number of goals in the qualifiers gave Capello a false sense of confidene.
4. With all this central midfield option what harm would it have done Capello to bring Scholes out of retirement, something which he just did not have th guts to do.
5. This brings me to the goalkeeper. Why was Ben Foster in the reckoning, when he was having a horrid time at United. The first choice goalkeeper was never decided. Capello it seems gambled on Green right on the morning of the game but alas it did not pay off. Hart for me would anyday have been better option.
6. Micheal Owen may have fallen out favor with Capello. He may not play again as long as Capello is the boss. But if Capello was playing a 4-4-2 in the first place I would play Crouch because of his aerial superiority and his ability to climb over the opposition and score. With his pruned team he should definitely have played a 4-5-1. But again I do not have a coaching badge. How can Heskley play international football, the guy just dosemt have it in him. Crouch and Defoe are a million times better.
Will continue on the England story and also on the basic issue...
No comments:
Post a Comment