Part 1: Special Feature: England’s shortcomings against Montenegro outlined and highlighted
English media, football and everything else that is related to football is in an uproar once again following the national team’s goalless draw against Montenegro at the Wembley stadium. If it was some other team for example Italy
or even Germany, the roar would not have been so massive but because of the expectations related to English football, the three lions seldom find themselves in a state of bliss.
Quite frankly, England’s performance against Montenegro was pathetic to say the least, the team lacked ability in certain areas where fans expected the team to be brimming with talent. It has been a sad year for English football
actually, it is safe to say that the Premier League as well as the English national football team are on the decline but that is a discussion for another day.
England’s last performance which actually imitated the phrase “like watching paint dry on the wall”, came in their second group stage match at the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa against Algeria. Against Montenegro, England
were back to their blunt-self, a trend that they have to shed if they are to indeed succeed anytime in the near future. England’s first mistake was that they deployed both of their central midfielders in very-very defensive positions.
This deployment meant that Barry and Gerrard were actually playing just in front of Joleon Lescott and Ferdinand; such withdrawn tactics were actually the cause of England’s downfall because the distance between the front two and
the midfield two that England used was just too great.
Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch were isolated away from the rest of the team for most periods of the match, every time Gerrard and Barry tried to find their strikers; they had to go through a barrage of Serbian players, numerically
five in midfield and four at the back. The most astonishing thing was that Barry and Gerrard were in defensive mode for all the 90 minutes of the match, Capello failed to detect his team’s shortcomings and as everyone knows if you don’t know what’s wrong,
how are you going to fix it? The fact is that if Montenegro came to Wembley with an ambitious game plan, then Fabio would have been correct in using his two midfielders in defensive roles but that clearly wasn’t the case, Montenegro were content with getting
a point at the home of English football.
The second issue with the English team against Montenegro was Gerrard’s tendency to once again think too much of himself. When a player is in that certain frame of mind, he usually takes it upon himself to change his team’s fortunes,
something that is not bad necessarily but in Steven’s case it has become detrimental to his hopes of becoming one of the best in the world. At Liverpool, the strategy of playing through balls that are quite ambitious in nature and difficult in execution has
become a norm because there is a genuine understanding at the club that Gerrard is the talismanic captain.
At Liverpool such passes are easier to pull off because Gerrard also has a magnificent partnership with Fernando Torres. However when Steven tries the same thing for England without keeping in mind the fact that Peter Crouch is
playing up front with a disjointed Wayne Rooney, things actually go from bad to worse.
These Hollywood passes as they are more affectionately known amongst the midfielder’s critics were also another reason as to why England couldn’t get even a single goal during the game. Before the game, Capello had hinted at that
he would adopt a different style as he would start with Crouch and Rooney up front. He also mentioned the fact that there is a significant difference between Crouch and the likes of Defoe or Bent.
England fans were hoping that Gerrard was listening in to what was being said by the Italian manager but alas as it turned out even if he was listening in, he wasn’t acting on it. Gerrard kept on playing Hollywood balls up to Rooney
and Crouch to chase, both the strikers are not known for their pace and thus English attacks broke down time and again during the match.
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