Have you ever had a pet kitten and hired a dog trainer to train it to bark? This is what is happening to the English national team now.
I was watching the match between England (ranked 6th in the FIFA ranking) and Israel (38th) and I was still left puzzled why Steve McClaren was selected as England’s manager, if not, why he still has not get the sack from the Football Association. Yes, I am very puzzled and surely all other England fans out there share the same sentiment as me. Yet I find it not surprising the results McClaren has been producing.
Steve McClaren is a coach with a very poor tactical sense. First of all, what happened to the match against Israel was England just pumping long balls towards their strikers in the hope that they might get a lucky break. Mind you, Rooney and Johnson are not the biggest men on the pitch. I can probably understand if Crouch (though I hate the idea still) is playing as a target man up front. Both Rooney and Johnson are so much more technically gifted in their feet, than winning balls in the air. Don’t tell me McClaren has not figured this out yet? Well, maybe there’s a possibility he has not.
Secondly, against a team like Israel who has the tendency to pack the penalty box with 5-6 defenders, why is England playing such a ‘narrow’ game? Aaron Lennon who is not a natural left winger is deployed on the left wing. Time and again he needs to switch the ball to his right foot before attempting a cross. Either, he will cut in towards the center to find tons of defenders awaiting him. Lennon, with his pace on the ball is probably the only English player at the moment to have the ability to bring some flair to the team, but that is only if he’s given the chance to play on his favourite right wing. Instead, McClaren positioned Steven Gerrard on the right midfield. How many times have we witness Gerrard straying off his right midfield position and into the middle? That effectively makes England lose another flank to attack from. Not to mention the fact that Gerrard’s most effective position is in the middle of the park dictating the play.
The only reason why Frank Lampard was on the pitch was probably because of the tons of Israeli defenders in front of the goalkeeper. He could just attempt a pot-shot as and when he likes and pray that one of the defenders deflect it pass his goalkeeper. If things are not looking right, he will then attempt an a la Robben blatant dive to win England a penalty which he will take and become England’s hero in the papers the next morning.
Carragher has outshone almost all other defenders in England with his recent performance, but McClaren has once again mixed up his tactical board and left the strong center back playing as a left back. Carragher might be a very capable center back, strong in his tackles and brilliant in the air, but he has not got a good left foot. He doesn’t do overlapping runs on the left wing and by putting him on the left of defense, he’s only limited to passing the ball back to Terry. Against a team with limited attacking capabilities like Israel (no offense to Israel), you don’t need a natural center back playing as a left back even though he’s half competent in doing that. You definitely can afford a natural left back though an inexperience one, in that position. Gareth Barry? Leighton Baines? Both are good and natural left players who could put good crosses into the box with their left foot.
Yesterday’s match against Israel was a devastating act of McClaren’s disastrous tactical screw-ups. If one is to argue that England dominated the whole match, well if passing the ball around the back four without any Israeli players attempting to close them down equates to dominating the match, I’m pretty much left speechless.
England fans, let’s start praying that someone out there somewhere will do something. You can own the most expensive and beautiful designer’s dress. But you will need to find the correct size to fit onto your body, because if the dress is too slim, you might risk tearing it apart.
