Corey Kenny
England haven’t won a thing, reached a final or been favourites for a major football tournament for 46 years. I wanted to find out why and although I haven’t come to a football epiphany, I believe I’ve found a fundamental problem with the mentality our kids are brought up with.
If you watched an episode of Monday Night Football at the end of August, you would’ve had the pleasure to watch a very insightful Gary Neville provide a real detailed analysis of how football has evolved in the Premier League. Now I certainly didn’t like Gary Neville when he wore a Man Utd jersey but ever since he’s hung up his boots and become a Sky Sports pundit he has certainly grown on me as a tactician.
That aside, he spoke about how the ‘Get that chalk on your boots lad’ winger has been transformed into a new modern day winger that plays between the lines of the CB and FB. These players were often described as luxury players but, I prefer roaming midfielder.
These are the creative sparks in the team, that are often acute in size but carry the burden of providing the ammunition to an often one man strike force. These are the players Spain have become famous for producing and they have won by playing with these types of footballers.
However, England have continuously produced the same type of wide man over and over again; one who is fast, gets to the by-line and crosses the ball into the dreaded ‘danger zone.’ These kinds of players have been spread throughout England eras and have never produced trophies in 46 years.
Let’s clear one thing up before I continue, I am talking about wide men, not central midfielders where the likes of Gerrard, Gazza and Scholes have carried a certain technical tag over their careers.
I may be wrong but, the only exceptions to a typical English winger over the years are David Beckham and Joe Cole. Beckham was still an out and out winger, he would hug the touchline, take a touch and whip it in to whoever was in the box. What he lacked in pace he made up for in unbelievable crossing accuracy. The fit Joe Cole was a brilliant technical footballer, he would roam around the pitch like the Spaniard and unfortunately injury stopped him becoming a real English talent for years.
Take a look at the best ‘hug the touchline’ wide men in the league: Bale, Walcott, Lennon, Johnson, Young, Valencia, Sinclair, Moses, Dyer, Milner, Wright-Phillips, Maclean, Downing (jokes aside), Bertrand and I’ll include the up and coming Raheem Sterling.
Now take a look at the best ‘roaming midfielders:’ David Silva, Nasri, Kagawa, Mata, Hazard, Ben Arfa, Taraabt, Cazorla, Van der Vaart and Dempsey.
Does anybody else notice the damning difference between the two? Every single one of the out and out wingers is English (or British to bring Gareth Bale into this) apart from Antonio Valencia. Okay Moses chose to play for Nigeria but he was raised the English way, Further on, there is not one English roaming midfielder.
This is the epidemic English football is facing, somebody more important than myself needs to notice this and make a difference, starting with the youth teams over a field on a cold, raining Sunday morning.
There are two players that I didn’t include on the list. Jack Wilshere first of all - he’s been likened to Spanish players time and time again but, I believe he is much more of a box to box midfielder, contributing with his superb tackling and awareness for the game and doubling up in the final third with his quick feet, eye for a pass and I’m sure he will learn to find the back of the net as soon as he returns. Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long to see the 5foot7 light up the E******s again.
The other player is another young English midfielder plying his trade in North London N5. His name is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. ‘The Ox’ sets himself apart from other players because nobody is really sure what his best position is as of yet. He has had many fine performances as a typical English winger, using his pace and strength to cause problems from wide. However, I have been equally impressed with the few performances I’ve seen him play in central midfield. His footballing intelligence shows maturity beyond his tender age and he could play the roaming midfield role I speak about if he gets the chance. I am sure he will become an Arsenal and England legend, he just needs to find what position his name will be in on the PFA team of the year in year out.
So, although there are players coming through the system, I don’t think any of these are the Silvas and Matas of this world and until somebody breaks the mould, I can’t see the England trophy drought ending anytime soon. We may have invented football, but football has changed and our invention is going to slip away from us unless we produce what we are missing.
