England haven’t got a hope in hell... even if they manage to get out of the group
AS A former England captain and big England fan there is nothing I would love more than to see Roy Hodgson’s team reach a quarter-final showdown with W World Cup hosts Brazil.
What a tantalising prospect, facing Brazil on their own turf, in the spiritual home of the b beautiful game, in a last-eight match that could feasibly happen on July 4 in Fortaleza.
But if I was a betting man I would not risk money on England getting out of Group D, let alone making it within sight of the semi-finals. I’m not damning their chances completely. But let’s have a bit of realism and accept that there are three teams in the section who have a shot at progressing, and three into two doesn’t go.
I expect Italy to win the group. They have vast experience in their ranks. They’ve got players who have won a World Cup, with Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi.
England could definitely have had an easier start than a rumble in the jungle in Manaus with the Azzurri.
A point at least from the opening game is a minimum requirement, in my view, or an early exit beckons.
So England will almost certainly need to get the better of Uruguay. That can happen, of course it can. But is it feasible England could get beaten by one or both of Italy and Uruguay? Absolutely.
The Premier League is brilliant; excitement every week, fantastically popular. But it lets England down as a national team because there is no winter break. Teams enter World Cups already disadvantaged dvantaged because so many players are injured, bandaged up, drained.
I’m talking now as somebody who ho has seen this and lived d it. We all play with knocks ocks at times. We all play fatigued atigued on occasions. No o big deal. No problem. It’s part and parcel of f our profession.
But from inside experience of having been en an England player at two o World Cups, in 2002 and 2006, playing five matches s at each, we were ending the group stages physically cally knackered.
Fitness is a huge factor in performance rformance and undervalued alued far too often. Heavy y legs and weary bodies s are a real issue when the he turnover of games is so quick. No doubt some me people will say, hang on, what about all the foreign players who play in the Premier League and manage to shine? Yes, some do.
Carlos Tevez famously went back and forward to Argentina and did the business. Oscar, to name one Brazilian, plays a heap of games for club and country.
But exceptional people being capable of exceptional feats does not get away from the fact that, as a group, England’s players have a uniquely long, hard, domestic season.
Germany have fewer games because the Bundesliga is only 18 teams, and they have a winter break. Spain and Italy: lower tempo leagues, and winter breaks. France? Winter break and arguably less intensity than England.
On a more upbeat note, the youth and vibrancy of Hodgson’s squad excite me. I was a kid myself, age 19, when Glenn Hoddle took me to the 1998 World Cup, even though I didn’t play.
You get that call and your dreams are made – an opportunity to go to an event most people will never experience. And if you’ve got the right mentality you thrive on that.
If England are to deliver, though, the tournament has to start well, and that, for me, will entail stopping Pirlo’s magic. How? I recall one Champions League game against Milan for Manchester United at San Siro in early 2010 when Alex Ferguson put Ji-sung Park on Pirlo. He man-marked him out of the game.
Pirlo would typically make up to 90 passes per match. That night he was limited to 32. We joked later that Park did such a superb job that when Pirlo woke up the next mornin morning, Ji-sung was at the foot of h his bed! Balotelli is also a huge talent but Pirlo is c consistently brilliant a and if England stop him – unlike at Euro 2012, when he c cut us to pi pieces – then th that’s a start. I I’d hand D Danny Welbeck that task.
Getting something from Italy c could be the platform to progress, perhaps a secondround m match against Colomb Colombia or the Ivory C Coast. Then maybe that quarterfinal.
It’s ov over to Roy now. He’s had the co courage to select a raw, young squad. Now I hope he gives them a chance to play – and takes off the shackles. Fortune favours the brave.