A lot has been said about how bad England have been during this World Cup qualifying campaign and even the most optimistic of fans do not rate the national team’s chances in Brazil. Lets face it, a strikeforce of Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge are hardly going to strike fear into hearts of the likes of Gerard Pique, Thiago Silva, Giorgio Chiellini and the rest.
On paper England aren’t even in the same league as Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, The Netherlands, et cetera, et cetera. So something has to be done to balance the scales. Those teams are not going to be passed off the park or outmuscled.
Last season, West Ham demonstrated how possession is not all it’s cracked up to be, finishing 10th despite only having the ball an average of 44.6% of the time. By comparison, Wigan Athletic saw 53.9% of the ball and were relegated. Using big, strong centre backs to ‘bully’ opposing strikers and letting the opposition tire themselves out before hitting them on the break is a solution that could work wonders next summer.
The majority of international defenders won’t have come up against the Andy Carroll or Rickie Lambert types and this element of surprise would be in England’s favour. On his day, Carroll is unstoppable by any defender in the world (the FA Cup final in 2011 being a fine example) and gives England a dimension they currently don’t have.
People may complain “It’s not the English way!” but whatever happened to the adage “Old fashioned English centre forward”. It’s no coincidence that the best England have looked in the last 20 years is when Alan Shearer was playing.
At times it isn’t pretty, but it is mightily effective, and having the option either to go direct a big striker to hold up the ball or to pass the ball to quick wingers will keep the opposition guessing. And an aerial threat from corners and free kicks is a huge asset.
The ‘West Ham way’ and the ‘England way’ have been identical for as long as I can remember – mediocrity. West Ham look to be turning things around, maybe England should take notice – let’s not forget, the last time England won a World Cup was by playing like West Ham!
Abuse me on twitter @myers_whu
You ain’t got a clue fella
You could not be more right. This is the worst thing I’ve read in a long time.
Did you see our result last night mate?,Total humiliation!.