The Same Old Ways of English Football
"They came on in the same old way, and we defeated them in the same old way".
~ The Duke of Wellington, after defeating the French at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The French must be saying something similar about the
English now after their women’s football/soccer team comprehensively outplayed their English counterparts in a 3-0 victory at the Women’s Euro 2013 tournament, sending England
out with a solitary point from three games.
The failings of the women’s team against France and in their
other two games against Spain (2-3) and Russia (1-1) were depressingly familiar
from watching England men’s teams at international tournaments. The players
struggled to pass the ball accurately, their basic ball control and
anticipation was severely lacking and they often just lumped it up the field in
the vague direction of a big Number 9, thereby invariably losing possession.
They were tactically rigid and predictable, and wilted in confidence as the
French quickly imposed themselves.
The team’s admirable captain Casey Stoney told the BBC: "I
cannot say it is a lack of effort, we tried our hardest but we were found
wanting." Meanwhile injured star player Kelly Smith said: "It hasn't
been good enough. The quality is not there at the minute. Everyone has got to
go away and think about our individual performances and learn from it."
We have seen this all before many times from the men. We
have seen a version of it in the Under-21 and Under-20 age-group teams at
international tournaments this summer: plenty of perspiration but very little
inspiration.
As talkSPORT's England correspondent John Anderson said on Twitter, “Three England teams played in international competitions this
summer. All finished bottom of their group. P9 W0 D3 L6 F7 A17. Much to be
done.” Indeed.
There are many levels to the malaise afflicting English football
at the moment, and we can easily get lost in details without focusing on the
major issues.
There is the elite level itself: the fitness, teamwork, tactical
preparation and motivation. We can see from the last few Olympics that focused funding
and preparation of elite athletes can mask a multitude of grassroots
weaknesses.
But in mass-participation sports like football, this
focus on the elite level can only go so far. You need strength in depth that comes
from a healthy game at the grassroots.
This is not something we have in England (and I suspect
in the rest of Britain too). Where are the community five-a-side courts that
you find in Italy, Spain and France? Where are the youth coaches paid
enough to justify them taking pride in their work? Where does all the money
from the Premier League go?
The lack of physical and social infrastructure at the grassroots
makes implementing cultural change that much more difficult (though not
impossible by any means). But cultural change is precisely what England needs.
Up in the BBC commentary box at the France game, former player Lucy Ward derided the French coach’s use of poetry, literature and philosophy to motivate his players (despite one of the French players emphasising a few days before the positive effect it had). Meanwhile in front of her the French team were producing a display of imagination and inspiration that a Proust or Montaigne (or especially the ex-footballer Camus) would have relished – led by the marvellous Louisa NĂ©cib.
Our habits are deeply ingrained. When put under a bit of
pressure by opponents who invariably know us better than we know them (they often
speak our language and play in our leagues), we revert to type. While to
Spanish and French players (male and female alike) technical skills are second
nature, our players hide from the ball and leave colleagues to lump it forward,
thereby meaning we can regroup and ‘work hard’ to defend and ‘do a job’.
This sort of play is our second nature. We can say we
want to play a good passing game, but when the pressure is on and stakes are
high, old habits reassert themselves; second nature takes over. These old habits
go right down to the bottom of the English football ladder and provide the
schooling for most of our players at all levels.
One weekend a few months ago, I took a stroll across
Clapham Common in London, where I have played football since I was a little
boy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that of the six games going on there,
three were between female teams.
What I saw on closer inspection wasn’t so pleasing. With (male)
coaches on the sidelines bellowing those staples of the English football
lexicon, "Get stuck in!", "Get rid!", "Challenge!",
the two teams I watched proceeded to play a breathless version of the game
which seemed to disregard passing the ball altogether. This was ‘kick and rush’
at its worst, not least because the players couldn’t kick the ball very far.
These are the pitches where our players learn their
habits.
It is not an especially happy situation, but at least our
failings are being widely recognised in the media and even in the Football
Association. There are some silver linings to the many clouds, not least in the
FA’s appointment of Dan Ashworth as its new director of elite development. He
knows what the problems are and has some idea of what to do about them (for
some examples, check out this fascinating
interview with him).
But Ashworth is dealing with the elite level.
The grassroots is a different story. It is on Clapham
Common, where we often had to change by the side of the pitch after games because
the changing rooms had been locked, where serious change is needed.
Somewhere along the line, those bellowing coaches instilling
a fear of the football in enthusiastic young players need to be told to go and
find something else to do.
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