FIFA World Cup 2010: Shortcomings of the England team, where did the team & coach go wrong
It was a big shock for a lot of people when England crashed out from the 2010 FIFA world cup knock out match against Germany, but it was not the much of a surprise as many would suggest. German Legend Franz Beckenbauer called the English team a HIT & RUN TEAM after their 1st group match against USA and he was proved right in the end.
The question that everyone is asking, where did the English go wrong?
The problem lies much deeper then what people think. It is not just that the performance of their top stars was lagging or there were a lot of players who did not look 100% fit for the world cup. It lies in the overall mentality of the squad.
In the last couple of years, we have heard and read so much about Steven Gerrard and his inability to adapt to different positions on the pitch. He is not a defensive midfield player. This problem is not just limited to Gerrard and Berry; it sure is a much bigger problem in the English ranks.
Gerrard is one of the modern greats of English footballer but whenever he is played in a position other than his preferred one, that is centre of midfield, he seems to turn into an average player altogether. Why is it that players like Messi, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Ronaldo, Essien and many others can handle this but the current crop of English players seem to considerably lack in the versatility department. Most of the English squad members are at sea when played in different positions.
Young English players should learn from Bastian Schweinsteiger. He has played his entire career on the left wing but when the German coach Joachim Loew gave that position to Lukas Podolski, he transformed himself into a midfield player, is excelling at it, and is the centre of all the creativity in the midfield. Would the English likes of Joe Cole, Shaun-Wright-Philip and Arron Lennon even imagine switching to the midfield if the game demands for it?
At different times in a match, a player has to switch position according to the demand of the game/coach. Christiano Ronaldo moves all around the pitch from midfield to either of the wings to striker’s position. Michael Essien has played at full back, right wing, defensive midfield and attacking midfield for Chelsea but with the English players its more like 1 player one position. During a game when the Coach sees that a particular formation is not working against the opposition, he changes his tactics/formation. However, he has limited option to what players he can change, so the on field players have to adapt to the different roles that the new formation demands. Nevertheless, this kind of switching looks far from the English team’s capacity.
Was it Capello’s fault that he was too rigid to change his preferred 4-4-2 formation or was it because he knew that his players are not capable to play in any other formation? Nevertheless, it was clear that the 4-4-2 system was not working. Why is it that Rio Ferdinand being ruled out from the world cup was such a big deal, and both Michael Ballack and his understudy Christian Träsch not available for the Germans was not a problem at all.
Now Capello has been given another chance by the FA to make amends to what was an awful world cup for him and the team. Is he strong enough to make the necessary changes? Well the whole of England waits to see if Capello has plan ‘B’ for Euro 2012.
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