Roy Hodgson: “I’m comfortable that, whatever way we want to play, we’ll be covered. Systems wins you nothing. Football players win you games.”
Indeed, the quote above is real. What is funny to me is that you can’t even blame Roy for making such a claim. The FA have created a culture in English football where systems, game-models & philosophies are neglected.
As England were eliminated in the Last 16 of EURO 2016 by an organised, spirited & rigid Iceland side, Roy Hodgson inevitably resigned from his post (about 8 minutes after the match ended). An England side who throughout the tournament, showed glimpses of collective quality such as the 1st half in the 1-1 draw vs Russia, but overall looked somewhat lost & tentative in their approach. Lacking solid, well-rehearsed ideas. They were somewhat playing possession-based football, but without the dynamic movement & penetration around the box needed to create chances against well-organised defences. They were somewhat attempting to attack with width, but link-up play between the wingers and the full-backs was hit & hope rather than well-rehearsed. Then they were somewhat looking to get behind the opposition defence on the break with long balls, but without success. There was never one philosophy or game model that England stuck to & played because one was never laid out in the first place by Roy.
With FA set to look for the next man to take the helm as manager of the Three Lions, there are lessons for the FA to learn from his stagnant stint in the job.
Where the FA have failed
I have always rejected the notion that Premier League Football is to blame for the downfalls of the England national team(s).
A huge problem however does lie in the Football Philosophy of English Football. A manager with a clear defined style & game model, who can implement players based on that game model is one major thing to look at. The no-nonsense British style incorporates a lot of traditional values that have been present in England since the emergence of football. Attacks are set up quickly and with few touches. This fast-pace mentality often leads to fierce fighting over 50-50 balls. Passes are direct, often sent over the defense and crosses are served from any situation. But we’re in 2015 & this style is somewhat outdated. Roy ultimately failed to give his team an identity. England fans had no rough idea of who would start matches, as we saw before the Slovakia game, literally anyone could play just for the sake if it. The decision to start Wayne Rooney in central midfield just 20 days before EURO 2016 pretty much sums it up.
But like I said before, Roy can’t be solely blamed for that. England’s lack of progressive & tactically modern managers is a big problem simply because The FA have no modern football identity or philosophy for anyone to fall back on. The mix of different styles in the Premier League, the arrival of players from abroad makes it impossible to maintain an fresh English football style week in & week out. But who can blame these PL clubs for buying foreign talent & hiring foreign managers? They want to be successful & the foreign blueprints of how players are developed & how football is played is much more likely to achieving that goal. These “foreign blueprints” stem from the years of planning from FA’s across the globe to visualize & develop their own football system. They know the style of football they want their national teams to play & the style of players to develop & required to play the style of football they’re setting out to play.
Their culture, beliefs & principles of how they feel football should be played attributes to creating a national football style.
The FA (full of corporate stooges who’ve never kicked a football at any level whatsoever) have failed to do this & therefore has played a massive role in England’s poor performances in International Tournaments. German, Spanish, Italian clubs all have similar components in their football style of play & the style of players produce in their academies within their leagues simply because there’s a solid football identity in those nations which is laid out by their national FA’s & all coaches, teams (Pro, semi-pro, youth & grassroots), schools & directors all work towards one cause in building the archetypal football players that fit best into their national football philosophy which eventually transfers into Mens & Womens national teams. But in England where football tribalism is extremely rife & clubs rely more on their club philosophy as there is no national philosophy, we’ve paid the price for it with the performances of our national teams.
Roy tried to build his team around Tottenham players because the national team has the most players from there & Spurs as a team play a recognizable & exciting brand of football. The case was the same during the 2014 World Cup with Liverpool. Now there’s nothing wrong with doing that. Spain’s core comes from Barcelona, Italy’s from Juventus & Germany’s from Bayern. However the style of football these aforementioned teams play is synonymous to the football identity in their respective nations. From Spain’s possession based style, to Germany’s positional play + aggressive pressing style, to Italy’s defensive catenaccio + frequent use of wingbacks & 3-man defensive systems. All part of the football identity of these nations & these methods are used by many teams in their respective nations from Professional level, to Semi-Pro, Youth football & grassroots level. So when Dortmund, Schalke & Bayern players for example, have to play together for Germany, they’re familiar with themselves as they’ve been bought under the same style & philosophy in different teams.
Back to England & Spurs. The free-flowing dynamism of the attacking play, compact pressing, build up from deep (via the use of passing triangles) that we see at Spurs under the fantastic Mauricio Pochettino are not concepts of English Football. It’s not embedded into the national football philosophy of English Football. Mauricio’s style are concepts of Spanish, Chilean & Argentine styles of football. So to expect the England team to do “Spurs things” because Kane & others can is really naive.
The Next Step
The FA’s next step is to work from top to bottom. To first (& most urgently) hire a manager, not for the sake of short-term matters but to hire a manager based on how the want the WHOLE nation to be playing football. From there, laying down a 10-year plan of a bold & progressive national football philosophy & for it to reflect on the next manager they’d have hired by then. A philosophy that’ll dictate how budding football coaches are taught to devlop players required to play the respective style & set out their teams based on the principles of the said philosophy.
Even a smaller nation like Chile, who a few days ago won their second Copa América title in a row against Argentina, are a great example of a nation who have taken such a step. From Marcelo Bielsa, to Jorge Sampaoli & now Juan Antonio Pizzi, the philosophy (vertical positioning/passing, fluidity & aggressive counterpressing) has been implemented in their football system & have built upon it. Now they are (in my opinion) the best national team in the world after Germany.
We can hope that the FA make such steps to getting English football to the pedestal we all crave fall. Patience, planning & risk-taking is required if we are to see English Football reach the echelons of Germany, Spain & others. It’s not impossible…
MallamGoal 