Archive for October 13th, 2010

What We Learned From Engerland vs Montenegro (0-0)


There’s A Big Vacancy (All Over The Pitch)

Rhino shows unusual close control ball skills while remaining unaware of flying Montenegran to his right

It appears that premonitions of the emergence of a decent Engerland side are somewhat, well, premature. While the superficial successes of the wins over Bulgaria and Switzerland appeared to suggest an improvement in midfield and attack, this thoroughly tedious and poor quality performance emphasised the poverty of Engerland’s ambition.

It was the same sorry story for Engerland. An inability to accurately pass the ball to a colleague, an inability to effectively control balls lumped up from the back, an inability to work the ball through midfield, failure of movement off the ball, failure of ambition. In fact a general level of failure that was utterly depressing.

You would have thought that after the dismal performance in the World Cup, the entire Engerland backstaff would have sat down and tried to work out an effective alternative strategy to improve the team. During the World Cup there was an interesting interview with Jurgen Klinsmann, about his tenure as manager of Germany and how he worked with both clubs and the national association to determine the footballing philosophy for the national team as a whole. Klinsmann was impassioned, articulate and intelligent about developing the team, but above all he was convincing. You suspect that English football is a long way from having anyone so effective in charge of the team.

Same Problems (All Over The Pitch)

We got a bit stat-tastic a while ago over some fantastic graphic that Umbro had come up with to illustrate the balance of play during World Cup matches. One of our conclusions was that in true Animal Farm style not all passes are created equal and that percentage of possession is not the be all and end all of game statistics. Engerland’s ability to maximise possession by passing the ball aimlessly around the back when given time and space by their opponents is not the same as, say, Arsenal’s or Barcelona’s ability to dominate games by intricate possession play in the opponent’s half.

As usual Engerland started out by maintaining possession, but wasted this opportunity by simply passing the ball around the back, bringing first Gerrard then Rhino back into the Engerland half in a desperate attempt to actually get the ball. Meanwhile the Montenegrans were content to drag their entire team into their own third and cede possession in favour of a tight defence.

Once Engerland had failed to create a chance from possession in the first five minutes (it’s hard to score from your own half they discovered), they immediately fell back to their old, tired failings, with first Gerrard, then Ferdinand quickly resorting to the 40+ yard hoof n hope pass. Now these have an approximate 20% success rate of actually reaching their recipient, with another 40% of balls flying over the heads of the intended target (victim?) and a further 40% simply giving possession to the opposition. Again this supposed master tactic resulted in absolutely no chances and definitely no shots on goal. The only reason Engerland persist in this is that they appear to be too incompetent to pursue any other means – namely effective close control and quick pass and move to break up close knit, well marshaled defences. When we did attack, Ashleys Cole and Young and Ian Curtis were neutralised by the lack of support they received and the inability of any players to actually get into the box or show up for a pass.

The paucity of Engerland’s ambition is best illustrated by the call up of Kevin Davies. Not only does he reinforce the belief that Crapello has some kind of aversion to youth (Kev is 33 and has no chance of being part of Euro 2012), but that he has an aversion to creativity. It took Kev about 5 minutes and one touch to confirm what anyone with a footballing brain could have told you years ago, as an international he’s a yellow/red card liability, with none of the goal scoring talent necessary to justify this risk. His stats were, two or three touches, two fouls, one booking, no shots or assists.

You could argue that if Crapello really wanted to investigate English talent in the ‘lesser’ Prem teams, he could have done a lot worse than call up Blackpool’s Gary Taylor-Fletcher (29), not least following his outstanding display against Liverpool and that excellent pass for their second goal, which split the entire defence in one go. You suspect that that kind of talent, rather than Kev’s ability to elbow defenders in the throat, might be what Engerland really want.

Or he could have grasped the nettle by subbing Rhino, who had another unexceptional, dreary game, with Wilshere, who seems to be doing the business for Arsenal, pulling defences apart, creating chances and, occasionally, scoring – three more things than Rhino achieved all match. Or pushing Gerrard (who is as wasted playing the holding midfield role as he is as a left winger) further forward, or finding an alternative for useless right back Glenda Johnson (who is as poor going forward as he is at the back).

As For The Montenegrans

They played the classic World Cup Mourinho Discipline, tight at the back, ready to give away fouls and bookings ahead of the 18 yard line, able to break fast when given the opportunity. Unlike Engerland, their close possession was effective, their control was good and it was only luck that they didn’t sneak a crafty one – nil over the English. They remind me of third tier World Cup sides like Greece, Switzerland, Slovakia and Slovenia, who combine effective organisation with tedium. Thoroughly anti-football.

Where Are We Going?

Make no mistake Engerland are in trouble. In Montenegro we have a team with the potential to upset Engerland in the same way Croatia did in 2008. Crapello seems to be placing his trust in the same old players with little tactical insight and no attempt to be preparing for the squad that will appear in 2012. And while his selection has been effected by injuries (Defoe, Wallchart, Jagielka, Zamora, Milner along with losers like Titface and Lumpy), he persists in selecting mediocre players who have little or no chance of playing in 2012. And while it’s important to ensure qualification before we get all excited about the team that’s going to play in 2012, we surely can’t continue to play Crapello’s Old Boys for too much longer.