ENGLAND: THE INQUEST The shackles are on. England need someone to say I’m going to showboat here and try a bit of individual skill’ STAN COLLYMORE
I’VE been trying to figure out why, by and large, nations such as Germany, Spain, Italy and France put teams like Malta to bed far sooner than England do.
And I can’t get past the feeling that it simply boils down to mentality.
They have players who are willing to do a trick, show some individual skill or nous, get the ball and run with it and go past somebody and be dynamic whatever game they are playing.
England have lads who do it week in, week out in the Premier League but it’s like they tense up and forget how to produce these moments of magic whenever they are playing for the national team.
It’s like the shackles are on, all of a sudden, when they join up with England, then off again the moment they get back to club level.
So the frustrating thing is we have plenty of players who can take responsibility but they just seem unwilling to do so.
Underdogs
The brightest moment of the first half in Malta was arguably Alex OxladeChamberlain’s little flick to release Harry Kane.
A goal didn’t come from it but it created an opportunity and gave the fans something to smile about. Players need to have the confidence to try those things more.
They need to say, ‘ I’m going to showboat here, I’m going to show that little piece of individual skill and endeavour that England teams tend not to’.
Funnily enough, we do seem to do it when we’re the underdogs.
Friday was the anniversary of that amazing scoreline from Munich in 2001 – Germany 1 England 5. We put in a great performance that night. I’m also thinking of the 2013 game against Brazil, when Jack Wilshere was excellent.
But against the lesser teams we don’t seem to have anyone who’ll say, ‘Lads, we cannot just pass the leather off this ball and finally the goals will come, one of us needs to produce that moment of magic’.
When England followers get a bit disillusioned it’s because we want to see a bit of a swagger, we want to see a bit of cockiness, a little trick, something, anything, and that was lacking on Friday in Valletta.
Instead, it just seems as if we get to international level and players start thinking, ‘We have to keep the ball, because if we don’t then other teams will hurt us with it’.
Hurting
But Malta aren’t hurting anyone with the football and neither are Lithuania, Scotland, Slovakia or Slovenia, with the greatest of respect to them.
You can’t blame Gareth Southgate for it either and nor was it the fault of Sam Allardyce, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Co.
All of them will have said and Gareth will be saying, ‘Just go and do what you