Part 2 of my reflections on why England did so badly at this World Cup
Another accusation laid at England’s feet is that the players are not technically good enough. As the BBC lays out in an article contrasting the English and Continental games:
[Chris Waddle] believes the helter-skelter pace of the Premier League does not equip players sufficiently for international football and thinks the country’s most talented stars should ditch their home comforts and head for Europe. [..] Not one member of England manager Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad in South Africa this summer had experience of playing club football anywhere other than in their own country.
English players may play in a less technical and measured style than their Continental counterparts, but they are not vastly short of skill. This is not 1953, and England-Hungary all over again. It’s not as if the England World Cup squad is totally bereft of players who have not tasted success when playing Continental opposition - four have Champions League winners medals (Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Michael Carrick, Wayne Rooney) and it would have been five if Rio Ferdinand had not been injured. A further five (John Terry, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Peter Crouch) have runners-up medals.
Regardless of nationality, the Premier League’s faster style of play doesn’t necesaarily hinder teams and the players within them (English or non-English) to impose on a Continental level - five of the last six Champions League finals have featured an English team; even in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, two of the last five finals have had an English presence.
It is true that the World Cup and Champions League are very different competitions - in particular, England’s end-of-season fatigue and the South African altitude may have combined to cause problems that did not arise in Champions League campaigns. Physical fatigue has played a part, not just in how teams play but in the number of high-profile injuries occuring just before the tournament started. But this is not a uniquely English problem - astonishingly, Lionel Messi played 63 matches this season before the World Cup kicked off.
Fatigue and differences in playing style may have played a small part in why England flopped, but they don’t go any way to explaining just how disjointed and shambolic England’s performances were.
