HODDLE?!
hoddle?
dearie me
Yeah imagine appointing someone who had a 100% qualification record; had a clear idea of the pattern of play he wanted, but understood the need to change that during the course of the game as required; that picked players that actually suited the positions and roles he needed in each game, and made sure the players understood what was needed from them.
England looked a good side under Hoddle. He was unfortunate that he managed the national side at the time between the end of Gazza as a useful international player, and the emergence of that Rooney lad.
It left him with a squad that he could organise into a team capable of both defending effectively and playing passing football, but unable to find a way through a well drilled defence. If you'd needed more than a point in that Italy away qualifier for the '98 WC he'd probably have been screwed.
Most of England's problems in taking that step further in the international game, getting past the QF and SF stages come down to this one factor.
You have such a paucity of players in midfield and attack that have more than one effective option when they recieve the ball.
Gazza, (and Beardsley, Waddle and Hoddle himself before him) could receive a ball in midfield and have a choice - do I carry it forward and beat my man, or do I ping a pass to a teammate. It made him a fuck sight more difficult to defend against.
British football hasn't produced anyone that can dribble as well as Gazza since. Rooney's not bad, and after that Joe Cole I suppose, (although successive managers at club and national level have done their best to knock dribbling out of Cole's game).
Wide players in the British game now are pretty much out and out speed merchants like SWP, who don't have anything like that sort of close control. Beckham of course is the exception, but he's a one off. Not a winger at all (having neither pace or a single trick to beat a full back), but a fabulous long passer of the ball. Most of the so-called "crosses" that Beckham delivers are curving diagonal balls from deep positions. I can't remember more than 2 or 3 occasions when I've seen Beckham make it to the dead ball line and deliver a square or cut back ball.
I'm not certain what's causing this poverty of talent in the British game, not just the English, but I'm guessing that it might have someing to do with the way in which kids play football now.
When I was a kid, (I know I now run the risk of sounding like Ron Manager), most of the football we played was unorganised. It was casual games with gangs of mates on the street or any patch of grass. Kids would happily showboat during games like this and no-one complained.
Now, even for quite young kids of 7 and 8, football is some sort of organised event. (My nephew, who's 16 now and at the Ciren Academy, was playing and training with teams 3/4 times a week from about the age of 7.)
So we've gone from kids having the freedom to be flash, to them being coached in pass and move, pass and move, (if they're lucky and not being coached to knock it long to the big lad) right from the off.
I know that the FA has tried very hard to impress on those coaching kids that the emphasis should be less on competitive success and more on the development of skills but franly it isn't fucking working.
Brazil seem to manage it through the widespread use of Fussball de Salon in their youth coaching. Maybe that would be worth a try?
Poll
