So that's our involvement rounded off for another year and now I can sit back and actually enjoy the football from this point on, knowing that the best teams are winning games and progressing and cheering on enjoyable football. It wouldn't be right to let us bow out without a post on the subject though.
Yes the strike from Lampard definitely crossed the line, but wasn't given. Would it have swayed the result in our favour? We'll never know. I'm sure momentum would have passed back to England, whereas Germany could take heart from it not being given. That doesn't excuse us from the fact we were two goals down and conceded two more from a well organised, creative team who were quick on the break, wanted it more than we did and were prepared to work for it to get the win.
Since the finish of that game I've heard a number of arguments along the lines of "we're a better team" but it doesn't hold true. We're not a better team! The better team tends to progress through these events, and on a regular basis.
We were beaten by the better team.
Let us take a moment to review the facts. There is a percentage of the rabid fan base that likes to dredge up the England World Cup win in 1966 where we put one star above our national badge, coupled with the usual chants of "two World Wars and one World Cup" but that's more than a little dull now especially when you have the statistics at your fingertips. Since 1966 Germany have contested
six World Cup finals, winning
two and being runners up in
four (obviously); go
look at the statistics if this doesn't sound right to you. In fact while we're on the subject, at European Championship level they've won that
three times and been runners up
three times too (
stats here). That's
twelve major finals contested, with
five victories.
Since 1966, England have appeared in two competitive semi-finals.
France, Germany, Holland and Italy all get to finals with alarming regularity and now Spain are getting in the act too, deservedly so. Hell ... even
Belgium have a better record of reaching competitive finals than we do! All these indicate point to the fact we are not a good team. But why?
We have some fantastic players and those of us who follow a Premiership team get to watch them on a regular basis, and in a number of cases they play at Champions League level so we know they're good. We know there's a collection of quick, athletic and good footballers there ... it just seems to be taking this squad and moulding it into a team where we struggle.
I don't understand it myself, but I do know we played people out of position, and with the benefit of hindsight most likely played the wrong formation too. The biggest surprise to most people appears to have been the lack of impact made by Rooney on the tournament when other big stars took the opportunity to shine, but if you don't give your strikers the ball in space then they become ineffective. Yet again our problem was in the midfield.
We had a static midfield with no attacking verve and, in Gerrard, a left midfielder who looked bemused to be there and wandered infield whenever he could to try and get things going. Sadly this left enormous gaps for full-backs and wingers to exploit and it was only the genuine excellence and boundless energy of Ashley Cole (our best player of the tournament) that meant we weren't overrun every five minutes. Barry was well off the pace and pulled out of position on a regular basis, with only Lampard offering anything in the middle of the park but lacking in options to play it forward.
It's a damning indictment when one of the girls in the pub with us who has almost no interest in football commented that surely Rooney shouldn't be playing in our half of the pitch, and why wasn't he in their half. That was the story of all four games, where Rooney dropped deeper and deeper to look for the ball because it wasn't being played up field. During the Germany game there were several occasions when two defenders (Terry and Cole) were the furthest forward players, and that's not right.
Where was the quick running on the wings, or the darting run by the centre forward to give them options to open up the opposition? Trick question, as our strikers had become part of a makeshift six man midfield looking to get the ball back from the other team. It was like watching the rearguard actions from Liverpool during their 2000-2001 European fixtures when we scored a goal then desperately hung on for a win, just ... without the goals to win it this time round.
We need genuine change to either accomodate the players we have in a 4-4-1-1 as below, or loose 4-5-1 formation to provide a front man with plenty of potential running from midfield in support ...
Hart
Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole
A Johnson, Lampard, Barry, J Cole
Gerrard
Rooney
... or we revert to a 4-4-2 and take the brave step of culling our midfield, and instead of the age old problem of attempting to fit in all these great players, we drop them and use players best suited for the positions. Spain have a wealth of excellence in their midfield, but have avoided the temptation to put them all on the pitch at the same time because it wouldn't work. We would benefit from learning this ourselves and adapting to do the same.
We're not very good at losing, and frankly our attitude is shitty but actually, we're worse at winning. It tends to inflate opinion of ourselves into something unbearable, then when we
do inevitably lose the recrimination begins immediately and takes the form of a witch hunt. After qualifying for the World Cup with two games in hand, we were talking about giving Capello the keys to the country let alone a town, knighting him and possibly naming our firstborn after him ... now the media (and likely a large number of supporters) want him out the door or possibly nailed up on a couple of pieces of wood.
Who on earth would want the England job under these circumstances? Personally I hope we retain Capello, and that he wants to stay but things do need to change. In the meantime I'm off to enjoy the rest of the tournament without the unpleasant burden of unrealistic expectation on our national team's shoulders.