From our sporting correspondent:
In Sport 3, I referred to the disappointing form of the England football team. Since then we have had the game against Israel, which caused tumultuous wailing and gnashing of teeth like you wouldn’t believe. Also the Andorra game, which did little to change the public’s perception of how things are.
“Aha!” I said to myself. “So I’m am not entirely out of touch with the mood of the nation.” Naturally I was encouraged to think further on the subject, and I am pleased to add my ruminations to the public debate.
I only watched about twenty minutes of the Israel game, so my eye-witness testimony is not of any consequence. However during that twenty minutes I saw England play some magnificent football, passing and moving as well as any team I have ever seen. No goals were scored, but the quality of the play suggested that the prognosis need not necessarily be all doom and gloom.
Nevertheless it is a fact that, over ninety minutes, your average England player does not perform as well for his country as he does for his club. Why not?
It could be something comparatively simple. Perhaps the players don’t train together for long enough to develop the rapport which exists between club players. If that is the case, the top brass are to blame and should be compelled to do whatever is necessary to rectify the situation.
However it is probably not that simple. The weakness could be in the area called motivation. The English players do not bound on to the park as though they are in love with the occasion. There are times when the body language of some of them suggests a visit to the dentist rather than participation in a fiesta of sporting excellence. I’m not entirely surprised. When was the last time that England was consistently performing at a level which entitled the players to get a real buzz out of the occasion? 1966? No wonder their demeanour is sometimes rather funereal nowadays.
Another weakness which I suspect exists in a number of the players is a fear of making mistakes. How often does one see a player bound forward with the ball at his feet, look up and survey the possibilities in front of him, and then tamely pass the ball to the nearest of his colleagues? Anything to get rid of the ball and with it the responsibility. if my reading of the situation is even half right, the England team has a problem in this area which needs to be addressed without delay.
So what’s to be done?
If I was the manager, I would discuss the situation with Terry, Gerrard and Rooney, and I would invite them to play a bigger part in planning and preparation, and to to exert much more influence on the field of play. In my opinion, those three could do for the football team what Jonny Wilkinson and Martin Johnson did for England’s World Cup-winning rugby team. The latter pair showed an intensity of commitment, a standard of performance, and a complete absence of fear which inspired the rest of the team, who found that they wanted to be a part of the action more than they had ever wanted anything in their lives. There is no reason why the same philosophy, practised and preached by players of the same calibre, should not work the same miracle on the soccer field.