England Exits the FIFA World Cup 2010 at the Round of 16, what went wrong?
What was the major problem with the English? Why didn’t England make it to the next round of the FIFA World Cup 2010? Why didn’t they even compete with the Germans? Why were they totally out played?
The fact of the matter is that Fabio Capello has to take the blame for this debacle. One can’t say that everyone didn’t see this coming. England were horrible in their group matches, only just scrapping through with a last match win against Slovakia.
Capello’s mistake was to play a 4-4-2 system with England. It totally destroyed their team chemistry and 4-4-2 as a system can be easily countered and was essentially easily countered by the Germans.
With four defenders at the back who couldn’t bring the ball out of defense, four midfielders in the middle who were not playing in their proper positions and two strikers upfront, one of whom was again playing out of position.
Ideally it is common sense in football that if a team wants to win, they play their best player in his best position. Brazil do it with Kaka as an attacking midfielder, Portugal do it with Ronaldo by playing him on the wing, Netherlands do it with Sneijder by playing him as an attacking midfielder, this list can go on and on.
England however thought otherwise. Let us review their formation and lineup. Steven Gerrard played on the left side of the midfield, where he does not play for his club Liverpool, it is a widely known fact that Gerrard’s best position is as an attacking midfielder who provides support for the strikers. Despite his ability to perform best in that position, Gerrard was pushed to the left.
Lampard, who plays in a similar role to Gerrard, was played in a withdrawn role in the center of England’s midfield. Rooney another one of the English superstars has thrived on playing as a sole striker for Manchester United during the premier league season and scored over 30 goals by playing in that position, one would expect Capello to know that his star striker is best when played alone and upfront. The simple fact is that England’s three best players Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard were played out of position. When such a monumental mistake is made, the team suffers as England did.
Capello played a 4-4-2 system which is the oldest known formation in the history of football. In the year 2010, when formations, tactics and football itself has changed so much the regular 4-4-2 formation is redundant. German’s played a 4-2-3-1 system to nullify the English 4-4-2. They played with potentially five midfielders in the center and outnumbered the English by five to four. They scored most of their goals on the counter attack which also goes to show how much fitter the German players were when tracking back and committing intelligent professional fouls on their opponents to deny them any goal scoring opportunities. The game clearly exhibited why teams have moved away from playing a regular 4-4-2 formation and towards a more dynamic 4-3-2-1, 4-2-3-1 , 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1.
The bottom line is that England wasted its best players by playing them out of position. The defense was woeful as John Terry and Mathew Upson looked below par and their mistakes caused England to destruct in a spectacular manner. Midfielders failed to create anything and failed to mark their counter parts as well. The strikers were deprived of any service thus any expectations otherwise can be put to a side.
Someone has to take the responsibility for this catastrophic world cup campaign. According to several media reports, it seems as though Fabio Capello will be that man and rightly so. His tactical mistakes have cost England their quarterfinal place. English players in the end looked dejected, demoralized and depressed. It is the end of another very short World Cup road for England.
If English football is to bounce back, there has to be a change of mentality, change of hierarchy and most importantly a chance in the system and tactics of the team, only then can England get the best out of their best players in the squad, otherwise it is just equivalent to preparing for another disaster.
Tags: