The Wonderfully Gifted Triumvirate of Cole, Lingard and Morrison Prove United > England
Maybe it’s just a personal opinion, but I hate it when the terms ‘powerful’, ‘big presence’ etc are used to describe a footballer. To me, they aren’t attributes that you should need to succeed in the game.
For many years, people have moaned about the English national side constantly underachieving and failing to impress at the big tournaments. A lot of the general ‘lionheart’ fans tend to come out with the same reasons for these shortfalls each time.
“No one looked like they wanted it enough.”
I am not what you would call a ‘fan’ of the national side, I’m really not fussed how they perform at any time and I’ve always followed United much more stringently than England.
Here are some of my reasons for this conscious decision: Firstly, the FA annoy me (and a lot of other reds) with their seemingly ‘Anti-United’ stances: Secondly, I don’t like to be associated with the typical ‘Ingurland’ fan and thirdly, quite frankly, I don’t enjoy the way they play.
“They didn’t show enough passion!”
To me, the English mentality seems to be so outdated and wooden that when the supposed “world-class” England players come up against their continental counterparts, they are left floundering and struggling to make an impact.
A few examples – how many times has ‘Mr England’ John Terry performed in a World Cup game which left you comparing him to former greats such as Desailly, Baresi etc…? How many times has Steven Gerrard inspired his country to glory and turned in a majestic performance a la Zidane? Even United’s very own Wayne Rooney has often shown his lack of temperament when it matters most.
I believe these issues come down to the lack of emphasis on actual football and technical ability at younger levels.
Whenever I watched United’s younger development teams, it is clear to see that the United style of play is drilled into them from a very age– clearly a trait which has helped the club be so successful at all levels during its history.
It is fantastic to see from the wonderful gifted triumvirate of Lingard, Morrison and Larnell Cole that you don’t have to be a big player to stand out when you have such supreme technical ability. But aside from United, I don’t see much hope for English players at these younger levels.
Too many times, players such as Micah Richards will be praised for being an “athlete”, or a “big, strong boy”. Is that really what the game in this country has come to? So when pitched against the fleet-footed Spaniards, or the tricky Brazilians, is strength really the answer to combat this superior ability? As a full-back, if you can read the game and understand the technical side, surely you don’t have to be strong or powerful to stick a foot in and prevent a players progress?
Around the ages of 11-16, a lot of boys will develop much faster than others and due to the typical English “win at all costs” mentality; a lot of the smaller boys will be left out in favour of the tall and powerful players whose size gives them an immediate, obvious advantage.
Therefore the development of the majority of these smaller players is hampered, regardless of their ability. All too often, the diminutive, skilful player is overlooked, rather than encouraged, as short term gains are sacrificed for long term potential.
Conversely, as we are seeing now, countries such as Spain encourage players to use the ball efficiently, regardless of their size, and we are now the likes of David Silva, Juan Mata and Andres Iniesta flourish across the globe.
Contrastingly, if you look up and down the English game, at all levels, you will struggle to find many players who would fit into the same category as any of the aforementioned.
Ever since Joe Cole’s potential had been and gone, smaller players have largely remained absent from the national set up as coach after coach has decided to pick athleticism over ability.
Instead, we have seen an abundance of players chosen because of their ‘high energy levels’ as, against high quality opposition, England always find themselves chasing the ball rather than keeping possession!
It is only now, as a small number of more technically focused Academies are seeing their efforts come into fruition, that the likes of Jack Wilshere, Tom Cleverley and Josh McEachran are getting an opportunity to come in and help propel England towards the technical standards of Spain, Holland and Germany.
At United, we have a mentality and a style which ensures ball retention is a key part of our play. A lot of credit must go to the coaching staff for embracing the right to play the game as it should be played and maintaining the vision seen by the greatness of Sir Matt Busby. We have a good number of English players at the club and have always promoted from within. As fans we are fortunate to have such a good quality foundation to build on and educate our players from.
It is this reason that many Reds will continue with their decision not to follow the National side as there is seemingly no enjoyment in making yourself watch a team with less ability than that which you watch every week.
Personally, I cannot wait for the next time that England implode and fail miserably in another major tournament as I am hoping that, as a nation, we will start to place the proper emphasis on developing players technical ability and, therefore, mirroring the Manchester United philosophy. Until that day, United > England.
Writen by Can They Score writer, Steve Williams.
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we hope sir alex will buy sneijder in january.
Apoyo totalmente tu opinión sobre la poca importancia que se le da en Inglaterra a crear jugadores habilidosos y con talento. Últimamente después de los éxitos españoles han salido al frente opiniones como de Trebor Brooking que dice estar impulsando la formación de futbolistas mas técnicos en la academias. Veremos si el futuro le da la razon.
Lo que no estoy de acuerdo es que el Manchester United sea un impulsor para formar talentos. La pobre reserva de jugadores ingleses se debe a la voraz ambición económica de la Premier League que ha inundado de jugadores extranjeros al fútbol profesional ingles, trayendo jugadores mediocres de menor nivel al de los jóvenes ingleses. A la Premier y sus equipos entre ellos el United no le interesa los resultados de la Selección Inglesa, solo le interesa ganar mas dinero vendiendo futbol mercenario al aficionado ingles.
Los equipos de búsqueda en el extranjero ya que los jugadores son más baratos, la FA parecen pensar que el problema es que hay jugadores extranjeros por lo que muchos han introducido la “cosecha propia los jugadores” regla – no puedo ver que la ayuda, la liga sólo se harán más pobres. El problema es que no hay suficientes niños Inglés talento para los clubes de buscar en el extranjero una alternativa – que normalmente es más barato.
(Translated to Spanish via Google)
i tell you what, i really agree with what your saying here although sometimes i feel that you need the right balance for instance, we do need better technical players, but in some positions i.e cb being taller and stronger can have its positives, im very excited about england next wave of talent tho, players like morrison cole and lindgaard added to the likes of cleverly and wilshere, jones and smalling, joe hart, raheem sterling, josh mCEachren, will keane these are a very very talented bunch, and only a few of them are actually big strong players, smalling jones joe hart ect, but all of them i feel have more then enough talent to be regulars,there are alot of mini maestros coming through the english game in recent times but for me, nowhere near enough, we would struggle to build a full squad of players like this in england yet holland germany and especially spain could put together 3/4 full squads of exceptionally talented players who many of them dont even stand at 6 ft look at spain. apart from puyol and pique, i cant think of one other outfield player whos a big strong player, i feel if the players we are developing reach full potential come the 2014 world cup and 2016 euros you could find that england do have a team filled with more technical players then strong players,e.g GK; joe hart, RB micah richards, CB’s smalling and jones LB; kieran gibbs CM jack wilshere+tom cleverley, LW/RW raheem sterling + ravel morrison LS/RS welbeck + rooney. NOW that looks like a good team in my opinion
I’d have that Spurs kid, Kyle Walker over Micah Richards. Maybe Fryers over Gibbs by then and Ashley Young on the wing. Is it obvious I’m a Utd fan?
P.s. Amos sub keeper.
I can see what you are saying in that we could probably do with 1 or 2 players who are taller/bigger/stronger, and the sort of lineup you suggested would be one I would support more – but the likes of Micah Richards at full back would be nowhere near a squad for me, I cannot believe he starts for City and I think if there wasn’t an English players quota for the squad he wouldn’t. Kyle Walker is better yeah, but again he isn’ t overly talented on the ball – have you seen it when he tries to do a stepover?! For full back positions we need to start doing what they do in other countries – get talented players who play in advanced positions to start working on their defensive game and move back in the field – i,.e. Patrice Evra, Jordi Alba, Dani Alves.
The English mentality assumes that every defender has to be hard as nails and doesn’t need to be talented just needs to “get rid of the ball” or clear any danger – and there we come back to the ball retention issue. I can’t see it changing for a long, long time. It’s difficult to change a mentality, especially when I have witnessed a Wembley crowd boo the team for playing the ball backwards and eventually to the goalkeeper – absolutely sickening.
Fantastic article. All of it so true.
Glad you liked it.
Do you think the game at international level is insurmountable over the next 5-10 years?
And, how highly do you rate our talented triumvirate?