Three competitive games, no defeats,
it's the start most managers dream for, especially those in an
England blazer. In fact, if Roy Hodgson was to resign tomorrow, he'd
be one of England's most successful managers for win percentage in
the national team's history. Yet even with this very good start by
England people are complaining because beloved England aren't very
nice to watch.
Now as much as that's accurate, England
are one of the more boring teams of the tournament compared to the
likes of Spain, Germany and even France however, despite lacking
flair other than flashes of brilliance from captain Gerrard and Theo
Walcott at least against Sweden, England are what they haven't been
for years, a well-drilled machine that are getting results which win
tournaments.
Why are we continuing this delusional
state that England have the same flair as Spain or Germany? Scott
Parker is no Iniesta, Milner is no Mesut Ozil even Gerrard is no Xavi
and it's quite ridiculous to believe England could play with the sam
flair and style as the teams tipped to win the tournament. If you
still believe England can win Euro 2012, the thing you should be
hoping for are the well-drilled containing results we were able to
get against France, Ukraine and to an extent Sweden.
Everyone seems to want entertaining
attacking football, with flair players we just don't have. The other
popular choice Harry Redknapp, created a very entertaining Tottenham
side last season, however, were they very effective? No. They dropped
a massive lead over rivals Arsenal and will be playing in the UEFA
Europa League next season. Were they very good against sides better
than them? No. They lost to both the top two twice and Arsenal once,
5-2 also. Besides did Redknapp's attacking, entertaining Tottenham
have English players? No. Luka Modric who pulled the strings is
Croatian, their striker Emmanuel Adebayor is Togolese even Gareth
Bale is Welsh! Only Scott Parker and Aaron Lennon from the midfield
were English, Parker is a defensive midfielder and Lennon didn't make
it into Hodgson's squad. As for the flair players of the other top
three? For Arsenal it's, Song, Arteta, Rosicky, Van Persie and
Walcott, only one of whom is English and is by the most inconsistent,
another Oxlade-Chamberlain is young and will grow (hopefully) into
another flair player. For Manchester City it's Nasri, Aguero, Silva,
Tevez, Balotelli etc. none of them are English. For Manchester United
it's Rooney, Nani, Valencia, Young, Giggs, Scholes etc. Scholes who's
English has retired from International Football, Young is having a
terrible tournament and Rooney (England's best player on paper) has
been suspended for two of our three games. Where is this supposed
flair?
Face it, we don't have the flair of
Spain and Germany, we lack Ozil, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Fabregas,
Schweinsteiger etc. We can't play attacking football because we
cannot keep the football like they do, now maybe with Rooney and
Gerrard's continuing form, England can look a little prettier with
the ball but to succeed in this tournament we have to be
well-drilled, composed at the back and contained. In some games we're
struggling to get that right, Hodgson was never going to play
beautiful FC Barcelona football, he was however going to get the best
results from our boys with the style he is best at, making sure we
are good without the ball. Can we beat Italy? I believe we can, Roy
knows how to beat Italy, he managed Inter Milan, he beat Juventus in
a thrilling turn-around in Fulham's amazing UEFA Europa League run-in
a few seasons ago. Give Roy some faith, we may not be good to watch,
but we can at least look like we wont be smashed 4-1 by Germany
again.
No comments:
Post a Comment