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| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I went home at half time, because the PA in the pub was damaging my ears and I'd rather lose my hearing to techno than to an obviously doomed England performance.
To answer your question Marcus, in this particular instance it was rather obviously because we had no presence in the centre of the park. The Uruguayan midfielders were pressing aggressively in the centre of the pitch and preventing Gerrard and Henderson from being able to get on the ball and control the pace of the game. Consequently, we were unable to slow the game down or speed it up when it suited us, and all our play came down the flanks. Generally the pattern of the first half was lots of very scrappy play with no real spells of calm possession for either side. I didn't watch the second half but I can't imagine it was much different. When your defence is as weak as ours you need to be able to take pressure off them by maintaining possession.
Part of our perennial failure is this inability to exert control over a match - most of England's best players, past and present, are quite explosive players who can suddenly do something spectacular. There isn't really a culture of measured play and English coaching doesn't emphasise the technique required to come short and play the ball quickly and calmly under physical pressure in tight spaces, traditionally focusing instead on explosive and physically rugged attributes like strong tackling, long range shooting, long balls and crosses. It adds up to a national side that consistently can't take a game by the scruff of the neck and always seems to end up playing high stakes games in a state of desperate mania.
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I find this a truly insightful and poignant analysis; I actually can;t believe so little has been said in this thread about England's absolutely pathetic presence resulting in the the worst WC result in over 50 years.
That last sentence in your paragraph is the anvil around the neck of English football that they just cannot ever seem to play themselves out of. The thing that almost staggers me the most is that this is nothing new - as long as I can remember tournaments (Italia 90') we have always played this way and not a single coach or captain has ever done anything about it.
I say almost the most staggering, because for outrageously ridiculous money, fame, praise and status we give our footballers, they play like nervous amateurs whenever it really counts. I hope at some point English football and it's "stars" get taken down several pegs both in terms of what they're worth and how they are perceived, both domestically and internationally.
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
The real problem, however, is simply a complete lack of nerve under pressure which I believe finds its roots in the collective post-colonial neurosis that characterises the English national psyche. We used to rule the world, we used to bully all these other nations and we even invented the game of association football which is the one medium in which we can now test our international might. We should be the greatest in the world! But of course we're not, and football instead becomes a re-enactment of our fall from imperial grace. I read a stat that we've lost gone out of something like 6 of the last 8 World Cups to former wartime enemies, usually Germany. No coincidence there. |
I'm not sure about this, and I don't really give the players enough geopolitical or intellectual presence to suffer from post colonial guilt; Personally, even with the pressure of "we invented the game", I think it's more because they are treated like gods in the UK but reality is swiftly reminded to them whenever they have to step up to the plate and deliver.
I'm glad that Shrek got the monkey off his back, and that StevieG made a couple of beautiful long passes, but other than that, England were abysmal.
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