How South Africa 2010 Highlights Premier League Inadequacies

Last night, Andres Iniesta’s goal deep into extra time allowed Spain to claim their first – and fully deserved – world title. 300,000 Spaniards danced and sang all along Paseo de Recoletos boulevard in Madrid into the early hours.

Approximately 1000km away, in Museum Square, Amsterdam, the very same goal led to scenes of the sort of despair and anguish that only football – and in particular the World Cup – can bring.  Grown men wept, hearts were broken and vuvuzelas were silenced as the Netherlands lost their third World Cup final in three attempts. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, the Dutch masters, following Spains victory, remain the only footballing superpower never to have lifted the biggest prize in world sport.

Despite the heartache and pain caused by the loss, the Dutch can look back with pride on a highly successful campaign where expectations were exceeded and the team won all but one of their matches – including a 2-1 victory over pre-tournament favourites Brazil in the quarter-finals. England, on the other hand, are left to reflect on our worst World Cup campaign in recent memory  – with the overriding question being simply “why?”

Why did we labour so badly against footballing minnows Slovenia and, in particular, Algeria? Why did a very young and inexperienced German side make our golden generation of players (most of whom are in their late-20s – early-30s) look like a pub team? Why did Wayne Rooney underperform so woefully, when he was supposed to stake his claim as the greatest player on the planet?

Many theories have been put forward explaining the shambolic performances, with every man and his dog voicing an opinion: Capello played the wrong system; there were splits within the camp; the players were tired; the players don’t care enough; the Premier League should have a winter break;  there aren’t enough English players playing in our top-flight; Emile Heskey.

Whilst all of these arguments carry weight and at least the majority undoubtedly played a role in our demise in South Africa, they are – for the most part - the same excuses which are trotted out every time we fail in a major finals. For the most part, the same excuses which every nation who went home disappointed will be spouting. I am here to put forward what I believe to be the single overriding factor for our continued failure at international tournaments. Say it quietly, but I don’t think that the standard of the Premier League is anywhere near as high as we all say it is. I don’t think any of our players (who, to a man, all ply their trade in the Premier League) are as good as we say they are.

Over the last few years, the English Premier League has forged a reputation as the strongest in the world, boasting the best players, most attacking football and richest clubs. This has been proven by England’s recent dominance of the Champions League where English clubs have made 5 of the last 6 finals, with the 2009 final being an all-Premier League affair, when Manchester United defeated Chelsea in a penalty shootout.

Whilst it is undoubtedly true that, as the big four of the Premiership, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have been able to compete at the very highest level with the best teams across Europe, the same cannot be said for the rest of our Premier League clubs. A look at results in the Europa League last season tells us that Everton (who finished 8^th in the Premier League last season) were thrashed 5-0 in the group stages by Portugal’s Benfica, before being knocked out over two legs by  Sporting Lisbon (including a 3-0 defeat in Lisbon); Aston Villa (6th) succumbed to Austria’s Rapid Wien in the play-off round and even Fulham (12th), despite performing near-miracles to make the final, were beaten by a far better Atletico Madrid side - the same Madrid side that defeated Liverpool (7th) in the semi-finals but could only manage a mid-table finish in La Liga.

Before the World Cup, the bookies favourites to win the World Cup were Brazil and Spain. Of all the players in the Brazil squad, not one of them currently plays for a Premier League club. Robinho is still on the books at Manchester City but is currently on loan at Brazilian side Santos and seeking a move to Spain citing his need for a challenge.  The Brazilians eventually lost to the Dutch, a side whose two outstanding players, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, play in Italy and Germany respectively.

A look at La Roja  is even more telling. Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas – regarded by many as the finest central midfielder in the Premier League - cannot get into a Spanish side that plays three central midfielders whilst Liverpool star striker Fernando Torres – again, arguably the best in his position in England – has looked, if anything, the weak link in the Spanish side at this World Cup and, indeed, was dropped for the semi-final and final in favour of Pedro Rodriguez Ledesma, a 22 year-old who has only broken into the Barcelona first team squad in the last year.

Despite evidence to the contrary we, as fans, place the Premier League above the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga and behave as if we have a God-given right to have our share of the best players in the world, placing ourselves amongst the favourites at every competition going. Before our second round clash against the Germans, the talk was of how “England have the better players”  etc etc. Incredibly, after watching 90 minutes of our team being played off the pitch by a young, quick, passionate, inventive German side (who, in Thomas Muller, might just have found one of the great goalscoring midfielders of his generation), I heard former England players Alan Mullery and Terry Butcher claiming that “none of their team would get into ours”.

Two seasons ago, when Alex Ferguson had two fantastic young talents in his team in Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, who did he build his Champions League-winning team around? The Portuguese. And Rooney got in the team by playing on the wing. Upon his crowning as FIFA World Player of the year, Ronaldo signed for Real Madrid and continued to break goalscoring records in an incredible first season in La Liga. However, since Rooney scored 26 league goals last season (the same number Ronaldo managed in La Liga, despite playing  three games less than the Englishman) he is hailed by England fans – including respected former Golden Boot winner Gary Lineker - as “the greatest player in the world”, apparently overtaking Ronaldo.

Frank Lampard is another who, despite having a Premier League goalscoring record no other midfielder can touch, fails to shine on the biggest stage of all. He came into the 2010 World Cup finals on the back of 22 league goals for Chelsea but has now played in two World Cup finals’ without scoring a single goal. The difference? In the Chelsea side, Lampard exploits space created by players like Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Essien. He is devastating when he has the space to surge into the box but in the England side that space is simply not there. This means that whenever Lampard receives the ball he resorts to either a sideways pass or a speculative long-range effort, making him half the player. 

Former England player Gareth Southgate said “when [England] players play in the Premier League, they play with world class players. When they play for England, they play against them”.

Die-hard supporters (the sort that will not hear a word against the players, staff or anything to do with En-ger-lund) will point to Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Drogba and Kaka as other players who under-performed and that it is not fair to single out our players. True, those players were disappointing. However, Ronaldo was the only attacking player in an otherwise entirely defensive Portugal side, expected to win games on his own – and he did score at least; Messi failed to score but showed many flashes of the sort of genius not seen at a World Cup since 1986 when his manager wore the Argentina no.10 shirt; Drogba suffered a broken arm just prior to the tournament yet still scored against Brazil whilst Kaka – unlike Rooney, Lampard et al – was coming off the back of a poor domestic season and the Brazilian has not been one of the worlds great players for two or three years now.

This misguided notion that England have some of the greatest players in the world (can you remember a World Cup when we haven’t had several players with huge reputations who fail to deliver?) has been hugely damaging to our chances in tournaments over the years because it leads to a constant tweaking of the system, or the tactics, or the manager, without addressing the root cause – the eleven on the pitch. When Germany lost to Spain in the semi-finals of this World Cup in a tight affair settled by Carlos Puyol’s header, Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and midfielder Sami Khedira both admitted that “the best team won”. They also said the Germans would “come back stronger next time”. With a midfield consisting of five players 25 or under, there is little doubt this is true. Compare this with our 30-year-old captain Steven Gerrard who, after our second-round loss to Germany said “there is no way that was a 4-1 game”. He was right, it could have been six.

The German attitude is a healthy one, ensuring progress is made when they lose. Our attitude is that we have good players no matter what and when we lose it is the fault of the manager, or the referee or penalties, or Maradona. This is at best naive, and at worst, harmful.

It is understandable, of course, why we do this. We tell ourselves that we have some of the best players in the world because we want to watch the World Cup believing we can win it. We do not want to be also-rans that nobody gives a thought to from beginning to end. Where is the fun in that? This way, at least we can revel in glorious failure or moan that we wuz robbed.

There are other factors, of course. England fans have been saying for 5 years that Lampard and Gerrard are our two best midfielders but not our best midfield partnership, yet still managers continue to play them; anybody with  a pair of eyes can see that Emile Heskey is way out of his depth, yet still managers continue to play him; Lampards effort was over the line and might have changed the game and  John Terrys outspoken comments hinted at unrest and splits in the squad. However, none of these factors can excuse being held to a draw against an awful Algeria side or being handed our heaviest World Cup finals defeat ever against Germany.

As a footballing nation, we need to get out of this mindset that our best players automatically qualify as the best players in the world, and fast. Drumming into our players heads that they are fantastic talents to rival any squad in the world leads to a lack of focus off the field and, ultimately, failure on it.