FOOTBALL (SOCCER!!) IS A SIXTEEN-A-SIDE GAME
I didn't watch England's game with Greece yesterday as my teams were practicing. However, I did see the team lineup before the match kicked off. I was surprised. Bellingham, Foden, Palmer and Saka are in the same lineup!! I would never claim to have the experience and knowledge of England's caretaker boss, Lee Carsley, but was it such a surprise that his team flopped? Successful teams are built on balance. Players share roles. I'm sure the game's history is littered with teams failing to live up to expectations by fielding all the best players in a starting lineup. This balance is crucial for a team's success.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, England has always had problems getting the best out of highly talented and skilled footballers. Back in the seventies, we had what I would label the 'Rodney Marsh generation': Stan Bowles, Alan Hudson, Tony Currie, Duncan Mackenzie et al. These players were 'mavericks', a term in football that refers to players with unique, often unorthodox skills and playing styles. Their eye-catching skills didn't fit easily into a rigid system demanded at the international level. In the following decade, we had Glenn Hoddle and John Barnes, maybe not mavericks, but richly talented players who could never reproduce their club form in an England shirt. Perhaps the one exception was 'Gazza'.
The current crop of England talent appears more amenable to playing within a team structure. However, so much talent is coming to the fore, causing a unique problem in modern English football. How can a manager play them in a current setup so that it works? Each player has their advocates in the media, but I have to laugh when I hear pundits say, 'The manager doesn't know his best XI'. We no longer live in the era of one substitute. Football is now a '16-man game ', a term that signifies the importance of the entire squad in modern football. There is every possibility of playing all these players. It's just a question of shuffling the deck differently to get the team to function successfully.
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A coach can use his subs to help his team plan work in several different ways. Jurgen Klopp, for example, would generally bring on three players around the hour mark. Typically, it was to refresh the style of his high-energy football. As a secondary consideration, it was a way to keep more players involved as we are constantly reminded, "It's a squad game."
I feel that Carsley is too aware of the media's narrative. He probably wanted to present an exciting attacking plan focusing on aggressive and high-scoring play to provide a case for his appointment to become permanent. Ditto, Southgate's failed experiment with Alexander-Arnold at the Euros. Was he aware of repeated criticism from pundits and fans? There was so much talent, but the football style was often dull.
I anticipate a more rational selection for Sunday's match in Finland. In the meantime, experts, it's a 16-man game. There may be ways to fit in all this talent. The days of the first XI have been dead and buried for a long time, so let's discuss how the squad can be utilized more effectively in a game. It may give more interesting insights and discussions when analyzing England's games.