Five Improvements that could make England World Beaters

Once again England crashed out of the World Cup in the early stages. We shouldn’t be so surprised, since 1966, our World Cup record is pretty unremarkable. Only once we progressed as far as the semi finals and we have failed to beat in the knock stages any of top eight football nations, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Holland, Spain, Portugal or France.

If England is serious about winning the world cup this decade, the FA must face up to real problems holding England back. I have no doubt England can become world beaters, here are my five steps which would help make it happen.  

1.      Elect ex-footballers on to the FA board, not just businessmen

If I had a sick heart, I would go see a cardiologist, not businessmen. So why don’t the FA get involved the people who know the game the best, ex-professional footballers, currently we have none. This is why we have a major problem is this country when it come making footballing decisions. Why is it left to Dave Richards, a business man, to make the decision whether or not Capello should be sacked? Ex-Professional Footballers understand game better than anyone, including the fans. It is vital several ex-pros join the FA board. They are best placed to identify what is needed at grassroots level, shape future vision of English game and take the correct steps to get there. 

2.      Develop the next generation of players

England must produce players who are technically better than those at present. There are two among many ideas the FA must implement to achieve this. Firstly, allow the best young trainees to join the best academies. Surprisingly, all children under thirteen’s are limited to playing for clubs one hour from they homes. Meaning a promising player discovered in Cornwall could only join Plymouth Argyle despite being good enough to join Manchester United or Liverpool. This limits the potential of our future players. Secondly, building the football academy in Burton could be a huge benefit to the game if they follow the principles similar to Clairefontaine in France, focusing the improvement of the player’s technique, strenght, pace and the pshycolgical side of the game. We have give England’s talent the possible chance to break into the first team for their clubs.

3.      Win the 2018 World Cup bid 

Winning the world cup bid would be a huge boost for the national team. Like the Olympics in 2012, the world’s eyes will be on England. I believe the FA will be under pressure by the fans and the media to address our root of England’s problems to aviod embarrassing ourselves. Not only that, England fans are the best in the world, home advantage would be as significant as 1966.

4.      Play players in their favoured position

Let face it, not everyone can wait eight years to turn England into a decent team. But we can at least play decent football by playing players in there correct position. What is wrong with playing Barry and Carrick in holding midfield position, then choose Lampard or Gerrard play with the freedom they crave behind the main Striker. It is unbelievable that you can have the two most talented attacking midfielders in the world in one squad and we manage to play them both of them out of position. Look how Messi plays for Argentina, look how Mesut Ozil plays for Germany, Kaka for Brazil, Wesley Sneijder for Holland, they all play in the hole, the whole team is built around them. It is not just Capello though, McClaren and Sven both consistently failed to pick the right players in the right position. It is frustrating when the man in the street could pick a better England team than the manager who is paid £6m a year to do for him.  

5.  Make English managers betters

Finally, we have to produce better managers who are not scared to change the tactics when things are going against them. It is all well and good committing 4-4-2 for every game when every opponent has different strengths and weaknesses to negotiate. Would you drive with roof down regardless of the rain? The best managers can win a game by making bold decisions, Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho are masters of this. I think Capello and Sven have proved that England needs an English manager to do the job, especially going to major tournaments. It is question of communication, its vital the man in charge understands his players, verbally, emotionally and be capable installing confidence, getting the fighting spirit going on the pitch, ultimately getting the best out of the team. Look at the affection shared between Maradona and the Argentinean squad, look how Dunga has improved  Brazil defensively, how Low has got Germany playing exciting attacking football.

At present, experienced English managers capable of taking the England job are few and far between, in fact, only Harry Redknapp comes to mind. It is difficult to change this because it comes down to the individual, either way, the FA needs to address it. To win the World Cup, England will need a top class manager, at the moment Roy Hodgson (Copenhagen) and Steve McClaren (FC Twente) are the only English managers to win a top flight league title in the last ten years.  

Right now, England’s national team are in dire striates; tactically archaic, technically limited and worse still, there’s a server lack of talented players or managers coming through. In my opinion, if we avoid fixing the heart of these problems immediately and do the usual thing of blaming Capello or questioning the desire of the players, we only have more sub-standard campaigns to look forward too. At present, England are not underachieving, we are simply not good enough.