Sean Walsh's Blog: The Ruins and Rebuilding of English Football

The English. Revolutionary. Modern. Proud. Brave.

Rubbish at football.

Let’s face facts; this country’s ability to put a size five ball into a goal has been on the decline ever since the so-called ‘Golden Generation’ of the mid-2000s wrote itself into history’s great “What If” chapters.

Tactically, that England side wasn’t good enough to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Italy, France or Germany, despite matching and even bettering them man-for-man. In the last ten years though, we’ve grown weaker in both aspects.

Try and think of the last time you genuinely enjoyed watching England.

Hard, isn’t it?

The decline is usually swept under the rug until international tournaments roll around, where people inevitably go back on their claims that this will be England’s year, yet state they knew we would fail all along.

So where does the problem lay?

Many people were aggrieved that Sven-Goran Eriksson never managed to achieve anything major considering the weapons in his arsenal whilst leading the Three Lions, and since then, the already xenophobic culture in the country’s football has manifested into a serious, repressed problem.

Age-old philosophies and clichés continue to rule English football, and that’s ironically the result of this country’s sole success story – glory at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

Esteemed writer and pundit Raphael Honigstein wrote in Englisher Fussball that the “lesson learnt from (Alf Ramsey’s) success was that exceptional work-rate, team understanding and defensive impenetrability could overcome more skilful but less effective foreign sides”.

In layman’s terms, hard work triumphed over skill once, and it killed English football (for another great article on this subject, check out my friend Billy’s piece on the national game and predicting the mainstream rise of Mesut Ozil - https://tikitakatriangles.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/ozil-the-media-and-tackling-why-england-sucks-at-football).

Your average England supporter demands the manager to play 4-4-2 with speedy wingers, ball winners, and towering strikers. Ignore the evolution of the game on the continent though, as that stuff is for pansies and goes against your duty for Queen and country.

So for fifty years whilst the rest of the world has been winning trophies and revolutionising the game, England have been stuck with a stubborn finger firmly lodged in it’s anus trying to figure out why they aren’t joining the party.

Matters aren’t really made much better when we're currently led by Roy Hodgson.

Possibly the least inspiring man in football, Hodgson has never managed to get me out of my seat watching his team. His lies about picking players regardless of how big their club is irk me to no end, and the only reason he doesn’t play 4-4-2 is because of the lack of options for that system (I distinctly remember him playing Ashley Young up front at Euro 2012).

The worst part is that England genuinely have some good, exciting players, but he still manages to get them playing like a team mid-table in League 1.

We’ll unfortunately be lumbered with Hodgson until after Euro 2016 (at least), but his departure needs to kick start a new era of English football.

But who will come in and lead this country out of the wilderness?

Don’t kill me, but I think it should be this man…

This isn’t a joke, so hear me out.

Forget the David Brent mannerisms and dodgy dealings, and Brendan Rodgers is a good manager. Whilst his greatest team (Liverpool 2013/14) was largely attributed to the work of Luis Suarez, the system he implemented was devastating and it made that Liverpool side one of the most exciting teams I’ve ever seen.

Suarez told Squawka of his appreciation of Rodgers and praised him for Liverpool’s rise during his time at Anfield.

“When Brendan was appointed, I was excited. I’d actually spoken to him when he was at Swansea in Spanish, which I thought was a good touch. He was familiar with the Spanish way of playing, as he’d studied there.

“He was very clever and told me that Liverpool would play possession football, as it would suit me. He helped me with my runs, arriving in the area at the right time and coming in from wide – rather than just waiting in the middle – which benefited my confidence.

“Liverpool played a slower, more possession based game which suited me. We had a Spanish-style passing midfield, with the likes of Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson developing very fast”.

When he has the right players, Rodgers can create art. The beauty of international football is that he will be nowhere near a transfer committee.

I touched on the xenophobic culture England lives in footballing-wise, and it needs to be nipped in the bud before it becomes an irreversible effect of a contaminated population.

It’s okay to trust and believe in foreign ideologies, to explore different cultures in football. Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing and expecting different results – by that logic, this country should just be converted into the world’s largest mental hospital.

Rodgers retired from football aged 20, and never played anywhere near the top level. However, he became a student of the game, travelling through Spain and learning it’s footballing philosophies. Eventually, this led to being personally plucked by Jose Mourinho to lead Chelsea’s academy.

Behind Rodgers’s weird, repelling outer shell is a potential footballing genius.

We’re starting to see the dawn of a new generation of English player; one that is able and determined to compete alongside the skilful and tactically gifted players from abroad.

John Stones, Luke Shaw, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Ibe, Harry Kane – this country isn’t short of young talent.

A blueprint for success on the field isn’t actually that hard to conjure up, but what about off the field? How do we persuade the masses that it’s time to start from scratch?

In an ideal world, common sense would shine through, but that’s merely a pipedream.

Plan B then; we need better footballing education, and that comes through our pundits.

For some reason, Sky continue to employ the likes of Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness to give their ‘expert’ opinions on football is beyond me.

https://vine.co/v/O9YKz5qMxuu

Over on BT Sport, contrasting to the brilliant European Football Show is Saturday morning’s Flecth & Sav. Darren Fletcher I don’t mind, he’s just casting the role as presenter, but his idiotic partner in Robbie Savage should be nowhere near a football programme.

Each week, he spouts the most mindless, inane garbage, and it unfortunately catches on with some of the British public – John Terry rightfully criticised Savage recently, and hopefully this begins his demise from our TV screens.

Even Gary Neville, who is by far one of the best pundits this country has ever seen, has his flaws. Two decades of playing under one manager has made him oblivious to the benefits of other cultures, and this resonates through some of his minor beliefs.

Whilst his partner Jamie Carragher isn’t perfect, he at least played under the guidance of several continental coaches, learning certain concepts along the way.

Frank Lampard's guest appearance on Monday Night Football showed his own tactical insightfulness, and hopefully he'll have a place on television once his spell in the United States is over.

There’s also a budding generation of writers coming through too, studying foreign leagues and opening themselves up to new ideas. Hopefully they receive their rightful exposure in the future. For the meantime, give some of them a follow on Twitter:

@HugoNotLloris
@GaffneyVLC

England has the potential to be a footballing powerhouse once again, but it must adapt if it’s survive.