How England Can Win the Football (Soccer) World Cup (Golden Oldie)

(Picture Credit - FIFA com)

(A Golden Oldie but still true - please read on)

As most people know, England won the World Cup in 1966 (at home). Apart from that our best effort was reaching the semi-final in 1990. We have been dubbed a “Quarter Final Team”. Here is what we need to do to be Winners.

In 1966 England won the Soccer World Cup. It was our only such win. What must we do to win again? Here are some ideas.

We need players with Skill

Time and again commentators praise foreign teams for being more skilful than ours. This seldom worries them. The prevailing attitude is, “Okay, they have more skilful players than us, but they cannot match our formation, tactics, speed or fitness.” Yet the very basis of success in football is to have touch and technique. Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Spain... they all have sublime ball skills. They pass the ball around the pitch, thus making their opponents run themselves into the ground. “Character”, competitiveness and drive are useless without the ball. The Brazilians play “Fusball” – a small ball game that helps young players be “comfortable on the ball”. Quite simply, we need much more emphasis on ball-skills: and must practice them more.

Educate those young players

Generally foreign clubs “look after” their young apprentices and “cadets” much better than ours. They provide them with a proper schooling as well as a football education. I recall a TV programme about some Leeds lads going to a football academy in Auxerre, France and doing well. It is no accident that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (a Frenchman) produces more young talents than most. 

Competitive play is introduced by us at far too young an age. Reading about five year olds being “man of the match”, “manful defenders” etc. is frankly pathetic. Tales of parents attacking referees at junior matches, and the like, still abound I’m afraid. Instead, we should be letting kids develop their skills, with a smile.

Do not get hung up with formations and tactics

As I hinted earlier, we are obsessed with 4-4-2 being superseded by more sophisticated formations and other tactical niceties. For ages we argued whether Gerrard and Lampard could blend together in midfield. We lamented the lack of a good left footer ahead of Ashley Cole at left-back. Meanwhile Spain and the other top teams show a beautiful fluidity of movement. Players interchange and move about to create space for their attacks. The Dutch did this as early as the 1970s with their “Total Football”. Your “formation” should be merely a rough “shape” to keep things reasonably organised. 

We, unfortunately, get bogged down in the detail of that organisation.

Football formations are as old as the hills. We started with 2-3-5 (very attack-minded), went onto the W formation (which I will not bore you with), onto 4-2-4, then 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-5-1 and others. Notice the increasing emphasis on having men at the back. In the early 1960s the Italians introduced Catenaccio: ultra defensive football whereby you pack your own penalty area with defenders. Okay, so when a formation is new, it does bamboozle opponents for a while. Yet there is no substitute for actually being able to play.

An English Manager

I have every respect for Fabio Capello, our Italian manager. However, in the long run I don’t think you can beat having a fully committed English manager of England. That’s provided, of course, that said manager fully appreciates the value of skill and intelligence. Oddly we seem to need an Englishman with a “foreign” outlook on the game. I am sure Capello is aiming to hand over to such a man, eventually. Hopefully people realise now that we are not world-beaters by rights. Our Premiership is indeed packed with foreigners. Somehow we have to give our youngsters a chance in that league. First, though, we need to show our kids how to play.

Paul Butters

Tags:      football, soccer, England, win World Cup, skill, ball-play, developing youth

© PB 5\3\2011