baldysblog.co.uk

We all know that the England Team had a very poor World Cup Tournament in South Africa and last night they played their first game since then, a friendly against Hungary at Wembley. In the end England won 2-1, all goals coming in the second half.

I watched the first half but not the second which was quite brave really because if you support England, either you don’t watch it on TV live or, you watch it from behind the sofa. However, after South Africa, I watched with mild interest as I no longer felt that involved plus, at 9 o’clock in the evening, I had something more interesting to watch on another channel. However, from this match, the run up to it and the aftermath, there were a number of interesting things which I thought are worth a comment.

Pre-Match

As the current England Captain, Steven Gerrard gave the pre-match news conferences and was quite frank about the abysmal England performances and agreed that if he was a fan, he would have booed the Team too. He went on to say that the Team expected a hostile reception from the fans at the match and acknowledged that it would take a long time to rebuild the support of the England fan base.

However, the oddest thing was a journalist who asked Cappello whether David Beckham was likely to have any further role in the England Team.

The answer was blunt in saying something like: “Thank you but no, he is too old (35) and whether me or another Manager, the England Team needs younger players for the future.” He did soften it a bit later and say perhaps one more time at Wembley as a farewell to the fans.

One can only hope that he had “had that conversation” with David Beckham earlier, perhaps in South Africa but one also suspects, he might well not have and this seems to be the case from subsequent statements.

During the Match

As I said, I only watched the first half but despite being goalless, the Team played a lot better with flowing football, fluent passing and the ability to create openings if not taking advantage of them. Rooney was playing upfront as a lone striker though supported by Lampard and Gerrard however, neither Rooney nor Lampard shone in anyway and Rooney in particular kept getting the ball stuck under his feet.

To be fair he was heavily and effectively man marked but lacked the ‘footballing wit’ or skill to overcome that, inevitably he showed signs of frustration and aggression. I really can’t see him lasting in the England Squad because he seems temperamentally far too fragile when playing at the National level, in a key match he will end up being sent off leaving the team reduced to 10 men.

Picking Players

To me, one of the biggest mistakes that seems to be made by everyone from the FA downwards and in the Media full of ex-players earning a living today as journalists, is the foolish assumption that just because someone like say Rooney or Cristiano Ronaldo are “great club players”, means that they will automatically prosper at the level of the National Team.

Some do but, many fail to make the transition for a whole variety of reasons and perhaps as a rough rule of thumb, looking for talented players who are not yet the “star” at a Club and are therefore still hungry for public acclaim and success, may well be a better starting point than starting with looking only at “top flight, in form players”.

Post Match

In the end Steven Gerrard took the Captain’s role and hammered in two goals after England had gone a goal down and he was obviously “pretty stoked” to have done so. A point he made post match was that whilst they could all accept constructive criticism on poor performances, what really hurt was ‘unfair criticism’ like accusing the players of not caring when passionately, they do and to that I say, “Fair Enough”.

Fabio Capello

It was not just the England Squad that had a bad Tournament in South Africa, the Manager Capello had a total disaster and at the end, had absolutely nothing to say and was all too obviously out of his depth. But for an idiot at the FA removing a get out clause on Capello’s contract just before the World Cup so that it would cost them really big money to get rid of him now, I’m pretty sure he would and indeed, should have lost his job.

Capello has a great track record as a Manager but he is clearly the wrong man for this job not least because he is too lazy to improve his English. Listening to Capello trying to speak English is as bad as listening to Eric Cantona doing the same, the difference was, the “Great Cantona” spoke with his feet when he played, being fluent in English mattered not a jot whereas Capello’s job is all about communication and not speaking English properly is a really MAJOR PROBLEM.

Those who know me will be aware that I don’t speak any other language except my mother tongue and therefore in writing the above, I could be accused of hypocrisy but I can assure you, if I were earning over £1,000,000 pa as the Manager of the Italian Football Team, I would not only learn the language from scratch in 6 months but I would immerse myself in the culture too !

The Beckham Mistake

What I would not do is make the “Beckham Mistake” he did yesterday, culturally it came across as being totally uncaring towards someone who has served his Country well. Beckham screwed up in the 1998 World Cup, the fans blamed him for England’s exit from the Tournament and in the next domestic season, he took lots of stick from the terraces at every match but, he took his medicine and through his hard work, won the fans back. A “Prodigal Son or Repentant Sinner”, Beckham has earned a very special place in our English psyche, even among people who don’t follow Football.

Whilst in reality, the best Beckham could hope for are cameo roles in the future because of his age, because of his poor grasp of English and basic lack of any grasp of British culture, Capello just created another nail for his own coffin. Even the former football player pundits are starting to complain about Capello’s lack of coherent English. If England “stutter” in their early Euro 2012 qualification games, a couple of draws or losses, Fabio may just as well pack his bags now, whatever the cost, he will be gone because the FA dare not risk another Steve McLaren disaster.