004   LIVERPOOL 0  - 3 REAL MADRID

(a masterclass in possession)

Liverpool got beat three nil last night in the Champions League, by Real Madrid. The truth is that Liverpool were dominated by the Spanish who could easily have scored six. Madrid attacked fluently and maintained possession with controlled ease, whilst the exciting Liverpool of Luis and last year seemed only to be a dream. Gerrard was slow and uninspiring and Baliotelli was ineffective. But a team is not based on individual players. Real play for each other and even with Ronaldo the world star on their side, their play was unselfish and humble, simple but imaginative. Contrastingly, Liverpool’s style of play seems to have regressed to the mediocrity and predictability of the majority of premier league sides, where team passing and possession take second place to relying on the skills of individuals. 

Last night, what I observed, when Liverpool gained a little momentum and attempted to counter attack, was that the players without the ball would selfishly, in an effort to find space, run away from the ball carrier. This mostly resulted in the player with the ball becoming isolated and then ultimately losing possession. Real Madrid do almost the opposite. Even when their players end up in confined and claustrophobic spaces, team mates converge on the ball and there is always, or more often than not, three or even four players nearby to support. Surely this basic (commonsensical) philosophic principle should be the aim of all soccer teams. Two players against one should always win. Three defenders against and an under-performing Baliotelli will almost always come out on top. It is essential that team players are close enough to support each other as play breaks down if possession is to be maintained.

But how do you get your players to stop running away from the ball carrier, in order to get ‘’on the end’ of a through ball. How do you change their mind-set so they saturate areas where the ball is, so that there is more of us than there is of the them? How do you help players to appreciate that when there are still four defenders in defensive positions, that may be a counter attack is not really on the cards and slowing down, keeping the ball and supporting each other whilst waiting for reinforcements is probably the best way forward? How do you reassure a player that retreating though not appealing is sometimes the best policy if not quite often essential?

Possession, as I have repeated ad nauseam (and I apologise if I am boring you!) is the key to increasing a team’s chances of winning. When you have the ball your opponents cannot score. It is simple mathematics. The longer you keep the ball the lesser your opponents have it and the lesser the chances are that they will score. If you have a good offensive philosophy and the correct players to implement it, the more possession you have, the greater chance you have of scoring. Therefore retaining/maintaining possession, whether from corners, throw-ins, free kicks or in-field play should be the aim, and the first thought of the team as a whole ALL THE TIME. The players in a team need to know and understand this. They need to believe too. It is the Manager’s role therefore is to create this belief. On the training ground, drills need to be designed and repeated regularly with not just emphasis on the actual keeping of the ball, but equal emphasis on ‘brainwashing’ the players into being convinced that keeping the ball is the right approach. Time in the class room needs to be a part of the daily routine too, to compliment these training sessions. All the players, the entire squad and indeed, ideally, the entire club need to be on the same wavelength with this type thinking, and when everyone is shooting in the same direction a greater rate of success is guaranteed.

003 Wayne Rooney - New England Captain

New England Captain: Wayne Rooney

Today I heard it announced on one of my podcasts that Wayne Rooney has been made the new England captain after Gerrard has stepped down.

This is the wrong decision - if you want to develop English football that is. This is also the wrong decision if you want England to play fresh, inspiring and exciting soccer. It is true that Wayne Rooney is an icon in English football..... unfortunately though, from the previous era of world football.

A captain is a leader and a leader needs to have certain personality traits. And the captain of the England national team needs to have especially elite personality traits. It is these values if you like, that will inspire the people around him - sadly, hitting a beautiful volleyed goal from outside the box has only short-term leadership potentiality. It is not just about being a great football player. A captain's role is equally important off the pitch. To lead by example in one's daily life is probably more poignant than the number of goals you score on a Saturday or Sunday. As a private in the army you are less likely to do what your captain commands if you know that in his private life he drinks and gets drunk and beats his wife. So by what values does Wayne Rooney lead his life? I don't know. I have never met him, so I am reluctant to judge. The impression he gives from the TV though (newspapers and photos are even less reliable) is not good. Nasty (a potential bully), stupid, undisciplined and worst of all unimaginative.

Easy to criticize, I know, I'm sorry and would love to meet the man myself to be proved wrong. There's also the argument or question rather; if not Rooney then whom?

If England are going to change. If England are to play football like Germany, Spain or the Netherlands we have to do things differently. Rooney as captain was as predictable as the way we play. If we are unable to be guileful off the pitch where we have time, there is little chance that we can be so on it.  We have to me more radical and open-minded in our approach. The leaders of English football have to set down on paper their beliefs, dreams, ideas and philosophy and then they have to be brave enough to stick to it, irrespective of the stick they may get in the media. There ought to be more than one captain - ALL the players in the squad are leaders in one way, shape or form (they are by defintion, as players for England, leaders in their technical fields in any case), so they should all be given a chance. At present I don't believe that the role of captain on a soccer pitch is that vital anyway (though this too ought to change). I have never seen any great effect of any good captain on their team anyway, even in the German squads of today and the past. So, why not in one game make Lallana the captain. In another game make Cahill captain, then in a third maybe Wayne Rooney. At best it will confuse the opposition (whilst giving different players different experiences), at worst it will match the present status quo; ie no effect. What is important for the captain is that he is given a clear and concrete role (or set of objectives) for both on and off the field, for the short term (the next match) and the long term (qualification or tournaments). Taking the captain's armband means partly taking responsibility for the development of the team and this means learning and spreading that learning to his players. If the role of captain is just about turning up for training and the on day of the match and shouting some encouragement or criticism when his frustration gets the better of him, then I'm afraid that I've wasted the last half an hour writing this - we can all do that – shout and screaming I mean, and the question as to purpose of the captain and who the captain is, is at best simply honorary and at worst academic.Wayne Rooney - England Captain

001 Keeping an Open Mind

Dear Bloggee,

Please be open-minded. (it is partly by being open to other ideas that will become stronger)

It's important. If you want to improve at something (and we are ultimately discussing the improvement of english association football) you have to be open to new ideas or new ways of doing the things you do. New thoughts and innovative ideas is what pushes us forward!

In the course of the last eight to ten years I have listened prolifically to footballing radio and podcasts. And being a football fan I have also watched a great deal of the Premier League, as well as other national leagues. I have listened to pundits and football managers, to officials from the english FA and to players themselves. From some of these observations I have come to the conclusion that we are doing the same things, saying the same things and repeating the same mistakes. When I say this I mean throughout the whole branch, all the stakeholder mentioned above and the media too. I can not think of anything which has fundamentally changed over this period.

My mate Einstein defined insanity (though I reckon that political correctness prevented him from saying what he really meant - ie stupidity) as...

This is where english football finds itself at present - in an ever regressing cycle:

1.    World Cup coming  (all are excited - new hope?)
2.    England qualify easily though not spectacularly.
3.    The media get carried away - "England - World Champions?"
4.    England qualify through group stages, but are otherwise uninspiring.
5.    England are knocked out (on penalties), but never impressed during normal play anyway
6.    The Media are in outcry and demand a "root and branch" investigation
7.    Nothing happens, people forget..
8.    Return to 1.

(am now editing after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - the above cycle has been repeated AGAIN, with the exception of step 4 - we did not qualify past the group stage)

I cannot bare a repeat of this frustrating cycle (Ha! Ha!). It's time to change. Time to think differently - EVERYONE. that is, who loves english football.

So, a little test. So little in fact that it may seem irrelevant. It's the principle here though that matters. A test to assess your potential for open-mindedness, if you like. If, the following declaration leaves you feeling uncomfortable, or perhaps it is something you could never even consider considering, you way wish to discontinue reading - thank you for your patience in reaching this far, and good luck to you with the rest of your life. If not however, if the following statement, does not offend you. If it makes you think "why not" or "so what" or even "what does it matter" then you, my dear reader are wonderful and I love you! Here it is then:

Throughout the whole of the rest of this blog I will be referring to Association Football, as SOCCER.

Can you live with this? It was Danny Baker on his 5-live show on Saturday mornings who first pointed out to me that SOCCER was actually the correct name for the sport we love so much, stemming from AsSOCiation Football. As a traditionalist and devout anti-americanist (soccer I thought was an american term - I am less prejudiced now, lots of friends from the US, you see) I was appalled. But after a little further rumination I thought 'why not, 'give it a chance', why not? How important is it really anyway?

The answer to this is that it's not important, not important at all. It's just a word. In fact it is a unique word, a word that makes the game standout, a word that trips off the tongue, more smoothly than football, and more swooshingly than a Brazilian wonder goal crisply striking the back of a taught goal net.

If you, dear reader can live with this one small thing, which I truly believe is more unpalatable than many of the radical ideas I am proposing later on, then maybe you can be welcoming of new ways to play football and maybe even spread the word and begin to discuss with friends, family and colleagues. If we leave the english FA and football leaders at the Premier League to continue as they are, if we do not express our dissatisfaction in constructive and imaginative ways then we are destined for more disappointments and greater ones too, as english football slips down the world rankings to, at best the levels of mediocrity, or worse the depths of wearying obscurity!!

Thank you for reaching this far. Please sit, relax and keep thinking..........

INTRODUCTION - The Mission, The Vision

I want english football to be entertaining, the most enjoyable in the world. I want it to be sophisticated and technically superior than other nations. I want it to be spectacular, looked upon with amazement and admired around the world. Finally I want it to be winning!!

I beleive that all of this is possible, ALL at the same time. None of these points are mutually exclusive of any of the others. You can play beautiful, exciting football AND still win.

With this blogg, it is my hope to begin a debate and hopefully by changing the way that people think about english football, so change the way we view it, with the result that we play it differently, better. Without development we die and english football has been stagnating now for too long.