Five steps forward for England (Part one…of five)

July 5th, 2010 | by: Ethan Dean-Richards |

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How can we get success like this?

Tradition dictates that all value judgements made before an England World Cup exit be immediately reformed in the weeks and days that elapse following it. The regularity of the clamber has undoubtedly dampened its effect over the years and, as such, scepticism about the extent to which anything England will change after the latest knockout is justifiable: therefore for suggestions to be anything but fantastical they’re going to have to be minimal. Here are five that fit the bill (over the course of five posts):

1.) Keep the manager.

The CAPITALISATION mob need no excuse to slip some xenophobia into their World Cup blame game and they’ve certainly enjoyed throwing insults at Fabio Capello in the course of the last week. But the underlying insistence that an English manager could do better is strange and wrong.

No Englishman, available or otherwise, offers the level of experience or natural ability necessary to coach the failing national team. Placing an under-qualified candidate at the helm of one of the most fragile ships in world football is unwise in the short-term and only distracts from the systematic inadequacies which have led to a lack of genuinely high-quality English managers in the long- term.

Another - new - foreign coach then? Perhaps, but not yet. Capello’s England have failed once, but it is another unfortunate feature of the reactionary rubbish that comes out after any defeat that the manager is scapegoated above and beyond the players.

The former Milan and Juventus man made so many right decisions in South Africa: he was right not to answer calls for Joe Cole’s inclusion – the media was wrong. He was right not to trust a faltering, possibly injured Wayne Rooney up-front on his own – the media was wrong. He was rightly desperate to include Owen Hargreaves in his squad – clearly aware of danger of lacking a genuine midfield destroyer. A variety of factors combined to cost England, but not Capello.

Regardless even of that, consistency in itself, the part-time fan will not observe, so often breeds success in the place of quality. Another two years of Capello now brings World Cup experience (lest we forget that this was his first international tournament), consistency and quality – and saves a rather substantial sum of money too. The Football Association has already made one right decision.

Of course, Fabio is unlikely to stay on beyond the Euros, but the point about consistency still stands in that that tournament is a legitimate long-term goal in itself and the manager’s continued presence will aid the transition between the World Cup and said Championships.

*Please try the links – they take ages to find and usually (except for the odd self-indulgent one) enhance the ideas put forward

Part two tomorrow.

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Seif

Yes he made those right decisions; i was also desperate to see Hargreaves in the WC but he should have selected Adam Johnson ahead of Joe Cole for the finals.
Again i have to say that he made a big mistake when he omitted Zamora for the Egypt friendly when it was obvious that he was the best target-man in England; Zamora could then have changed his mind and cured his achilles earlier instead of sacrificing himself for Europa Leaga glory…
(I expect (some of) the following parts to discuss players and future squads…)
https://england.worldcupblog.org Ethan

Number 3 covers future squads. But we're also hoping to do a joint post on our ideal squads and lineups for 2012 and 2014.
Helen

To be honest there have been a lot of problems with the england selections and we were doomed before the plane took off for S/A.
Let me try and explain.
Goalkeepers No real issues with Green or James. Green dropped a clanger, but overall he was not alone. James did well and was one our best players. Hart at least got a taste of what is to come.
Defenders.
For a start we lost Rio, a big miss and we took King, who has been injury plagued all season and in my opinion should not have been selected, and of course was unable to continue after 45 minutes and out for the next two games.
So already a distrupted back four.
John Terry demoted as Captain would affect the player anyways, and his form dipped as a result, Capello was wrong, either leave him as Captain or drop him from the squad completely.
Ash Cole was also out of sorts for personal reasons and maybe should heve been replaced by L.Baines had he been in the squad after the first and second games.
Johnson, worried me loads, has done for a long while, he can not defend to save his life and thus proved against the Germans, he's not a world class defender and my pridicted weak link.
Upson did reasonable.
Carraghar, a credit to himself and one of a few players who did well desipite his lack of pace.
Overall a poor defensive display in the back line.
Midfield. What a shambles. Gerrard on the left is not a problem if he stays there, if he can't, get him off and put on Joe Cole simple. Never led the team as a good Captain should do, always going for the Glory shot. With at least eight attemps on goal he never hit the target once, and there were better placed players who could have hit the target.
Milner, should not have started having MISSED training followin a bout of sickness. Capello was wrong here, it cost us two Subsitutions on his poor selection with him and King going off at half time in the openner.
Lampard, did well enough to keep his place but well off par his normal standard.
Lennon, not himself, going inside instead of outside, Milner and Wright-P showing what can be done.
Barry again injured before and at the start of the campaign, it showed in his performances.
Up front.
Heskey, apart from falling over his own shadow or allways in an offside position I could not see why he went to S/A. Frankley he does not play WELL with Rooney so what was all that about.
Rooney, not a lot to say here, it was not the lack of trying the boy did, poor service from Midfield most of the time. Even I could see he was not 100% and would have yanked him off for fresher players.
Defoe, did okay.
Peter C, did better in 8 minutes than Heskey did in all his games.
For reasons best known only to himself Capello only took the four Forward players. Heskey is not known for his goals so really we only had three strikers, what might have happened then if one got suspended and one injured at the same time,I would have taken a fifth. Zamora has been said, I know Zamora he played here in Brighton so I am biased towards him of course. Bent Has also been thrashing them in.
Capello told us he would take on form and fit players to the W/C, its clearly not the case, had he done so, the likes of Hart, Dawson, Baines, Walcot, Zamora, Bent and afew more would be in the starting eleven.
Capello for me made a few mistakes from start to finish. I'm not crying for his head, the players were poor.
Capello needs to earn his money now and take us on into the Euro's with a fresh squad and idea's.