Tactical shift
Passed, almost unnoticed, was this year’s 100th anniversary of the birth of Alf Ramsey, the only man to guide England to World Cup glory. He was born on January 22, 1920, and died, aged 79, on April 28, 1999.
Ramsey’s reputation has suffered from a mistaken modernist presumption that English managers were all tactical dunces by comparison with the multi-titled, multi-lingual foreign coaches who have bestrode the Premier League over the last 30 years.
Revisionists credit Herbert Chapman – or was it Charlie Buchan? – for devising the WM with a stopper centrehalf to combat the goal rush sparked by the offside law change in 1925. Probably Chapman and/or Buchan garnered most of the credit because the English league was the most visible.
But simultaneously, in Switzerland, Austrian coach Karl Rappan was devising the “Swiss Bolt”, in which the two fullbacks moved into the heart of defence and the wing-halves dropped into their full-back slots, creating the forerunner of catenaccio.
In the 1940s and early 1950s, as player numbering became universal, evolution brought new visible changes in South America. The numbers told the tale: in Argentina number four became the right-back with number two a centreback alongside the six; in Uruguay numbers two and three became the centre-backs; in Brazil it was the three who became the second centre-back, alongside five, while six became the left-back.
On both banks of the River Plate the old centre-half – the number five – remained a kingpin, hence a dynasty stretching from Nestor Rossi in the 1940s through to
Antonio Rattin in the 1960s.
Hungary, in the early 1950s, were an adjusted version of the WM with balanced winghalves and a deep-lying centre-forward. Manchester
City aped that with the
“Revie Plan” which involved centre-forward Don Revie dropping deep. After early success it became too obvious. By the time Revie moved on to Sunderland in the late 1950s he was just one more traditional inside-forward.
But the pursuit of novelty persisted. West Ham United were the first English club to copy the clearly-defined 4-2-4 with which Brazil commandeered the 1958 World Cup.
In the autumn of 1960, largely forgotten now, England followed suit. Walter Winterbottom persuaded his selection committee to give him the team he wanted with Wolves’ Ron Flowers dropping from left-half to second centre-back, Bobby Robson and Johnny Haynes running midfield, with Jimmy Greaves up alongside the centre-forward.
For one season results were spectacular, with six successive victories including wins by 4-2 over Spain, 9-3 over Scotland and 8-0 over Mexico. Then came a quarter-final halt at the 1962 World Cup and the Ramsey takeover.
Ramsey had achieved success at Ipswich Town with a lop-sided tactic: an orthodox winger and deep-lying schemer, Jimmy Leadbetter, on the left.
In 1965 a combination of injuries prompted the selection of Ramsey’s original “wingless wonders” in a 2-0 friendly victory for England against Spain in Madrid. From there it was only a small step to the wingless 4-4-2 with which he would win the World Cup a year later.
Alf Ramsey maybe gone but he should not be forgotten.