PAUL HAYWARD
Roy Hodgson is a bit old to have a mid-life crisis but his England squad suggests an urge to have some fun in an uncertain world. With his 23 for France, Hodgson has joined Sam Allardyce on the dancefloor.
The other day the England manager described his Euro 2016 contenders as “an exciting, hungry and energetic bunch.” With only three centre-backs and one specialist defensive midfielder, Hodgson has elected to go with the flow of youth from the last two Premier League seasons. Four-three seems a likely winning scoreline.
No England squad of modern times has been happy to go to a tournament playing cat and mouse – the patient, possession-based game of the great powers. English players mistrust their own ability to adapt to slower rhythms and prefer to stay true to native pace and pressing. They will not be asked in France to impersonate other nations.
Fashion is great. If you stand still long enough, it comes back round to you. And now England’s favoured style of up-and-at-‘em has returned to respectability after a spell when everyone thought they needed to play like Barcelona.
At home, Leicester City winning the Premier League was the clearest possible evidence that broadly ‘direct’ play could prosper. Not the atrocious hit-and-hope, put-it-in-the-mixer of the 1980s, but precise counter-attacking, with the ball moved boldly and surgically from back to front.
Personally, I have never spoken to a senior England player who wanted to travel to a World Cup or European Championship to play keep-ball against Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Argentina or Brazil. And of course the undoing of countless England sides since 1966 has been their inability to keep possession in big knock-out games. That, plus technical and temperamental flaws in penalty shoot-outs.
When Hodgson first took charge of England, before Euro 2012, he was a damage-assessor and make-doer whose task was to guide an ageing squad round Poland and Ukraine without embarrassment.
This, he accomplished. But England then went out and embarrassed themselves at the 2014 Brazil World Cup instead. Between those two competitions, the average age fell from nearly 30 to 26.
Now look Hodgson’s conversion to front-front football is complete with this squad selection. Only eight of his 20 outfield players could be described as defensive by nature – unless you include Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere, which few would. Neither is a like-for-like replacement for Eric Dier, who could find himself at centre-back if injuries strike (Gary Cahill already has a longstanding hip complaint).
Leaving Danny Drinkwater behind is arguably the biggest punt of Hodgson’s England reign, because it leaves Dier as the only reliable trained sentry for arguably the weakest collection of centre-backs England have dispatched to an international tournament. Both are returning from injury. James Milner is another potential deputy for Dier but does anyone really think he was born for that role?
To be anywhere near being crowned European champions, Hodgson will need the de-Martinez-isation of John Stones to continue apace, Cahill’s hip to settle down and Chris Smalling to channel Rio Ferdinand. Dier, meanwhile, may have to do the defensive work of two men, either at the base of a midfield diamond or in a 4-3-3, especially when the full-backs disappear upfield.
Again, England players are allergic in tournaments to self-restraint. It contradicts the Premier League norm and leaves them feeling vulnerable to superior technique and tactics. So Hodgson will encounter no internal resistance if he packs his team with door-openers. But there is no escaping the reality that Raheem Sterling and Ross Barkley are lucky on current form to be in France, while Drinkwater is entitled to wonder why his contribution to Leicester’s title-winning season has been overlooked by a country in need of defensive ballast.
The mass cherry-drop of Dier, Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Jamie Vardy and now Marcus Rashford will allow Hodgson to say he is giving the public what they want: boldness and enterprise. You would forgive his consternation too when people tell him he is being too adventurous, and is neglecting defensive balance.
It was not Hodgson, after all, who built a talent production line that has delivered only three centre-backs, and no specialist holding players, until Mauricio Pochettino reinvented Dier. The preoccupation in the English game with breeding No 10s and ball-retainers will not conceal the new shortages elsewhere. But where Hodgson will pick up the tab is in displaying so much loyalty to the players who helped him qualify, and in dispatching Drinkwater back to Leicester.
Another switchback ride is on the cards – this time, for different reasons. Remarkably, Hodgson will be able to summon Daniel Sturridge and Rashford to replace Kane or Vardy – with Wayne Rooney in that mix. But when a good team attacks around the edge of England’s penalty box, the country’s knuckles will go white.
Jose must not make himself the story agan
Just when it was about to get interesting, Manchester United’s video editors cut the dialogue and laid a Euro-pap track over Jose Mourinho and Sir Bobby Charlton chatting at the club’s Carrington training ground.
This agonising piece of censorship left us wondering what the grand old statesman was saying to the Man o’War. Mourinho might have said: “I forgive you, Sir Bobby, for questioning my suitability as Manchester United manager, for expressing reservations about the type of football I play and my supposed lack of interest in youth.” And from Charlton? Maybe: “You have a wonderful opportunity here to show you can settle into a job, and not start fights and embarrass the club.
“Manchester United are bigger than you, and if you accept that, and concentrate on your work, then you could pick up the thread laid down by Sir Alex Ferguson.”
The United job will make or break Mourinho’s reputation, after his implosion at Chelsea, which followed, let us not forget, political ructions at Real Madrid (in mitigation, the Bernabéu is a kill-or-be-killed scenario for managers).
What could Mourinho do right? Cull the bad signings made by Louis van Gaal (e.g. Memphis Depay), restore attacking impetus to the play, continue the development of youngsters such as Marcus Rashford and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and eliminate moaning and negativity in parts of this United squad. Under Mourinho, the target will be first place in the Premier League, not a top-four finish, and every player will be furnished with the information and direction to make the best of his career.
What could Mourinho do wrong? Chafe against Ed Woodward, the chief executive, and the owners; send the youngsters back to the academy, play needless mind games with Pep Guardiola across town, resume his spiteful onslaught against Arsène Wenger, obsess about referees and generally make himself the story when he ought not to be.
Mourinho’s character is endlessly dissected. His intelligence, on the other hand, should not be in doubt. But it will be, if he burns this opportunity.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário