EXORCISE THE OLD DEMONS
England expects more than some pointless feast of Euro ’96 nostalgia
Since the 2006 World cup, Germany have won 18 matches at international tournaments. Spain the same. Holland have won 14, Portugal seven, italy a disappointing five. How many have england won in that time? Three.
Single-goal victories over Slovenia in 2010, and Sweden and Ukraine in 2012 is the sum of it. Switzerland, croatia, Belgium and today’s opponents, Russia, have celebrated more tournament victories in the same period.
england, meanwhile, have savoured heady triumphs in an equal number of matches as Turkey, the czech Republic and Greece. it is something for those getting sniffy about euro ’96 nostalgia to consider. The reason this sad little country continues to hark back to a golden age of two wins under Terry Venables and a semi-final exit on penalties, is that england fans have scant else to cling to.
They do not have Germany’s reserves of tournament success, nor a golden age that genuinely came to fruition, like Spain. They take solace from fleeting moments of hope and hype: from Paul Gascoigne in 1990, or Wayne Rooney in 2004, or 90 minutes against Holland in 1996 when it really looked like england could play.
england don’t play, that’s the problem. Think back to those matches with Slovenia, Sweden and Ukraine. Were any of them remotely memorable? Who scored england’s winner against Slovenia? Anyone recall Jermain Defoe?
The heroes of the victory over Sweden were a retro 4-4-2 with Andy carroll and Danny Welbeck the two big men up front, while the match against Ukraine is best recalled for a heroic John Terry clearance that wasn’t — the ball already a foot over the line when he hooked it away. Had the referee, or his useless goal-line official, spotted it, england would have been able to count tournament victories since 2006 without even needing fingers.
So the opportunity to hit the ground running in Marseille tonight against an ordinary Russian team weakened by injuries in important midfield positions is to be welcomed. So, too, is Roy Hodgson’s decision to abandon the midfield diamond that seemed to bring the worst out of everybody.
Whether his 4-3-3 is the answer remains to be seen. Once again, england arrive at a tournament with the manager throwing open the mystery box. if the starting line-up is as predicted — Hart, Walker, cahill, Smalling, Rose, Sterling, Rooney, Dier, Alli, Lallana, Kane — then for the second tournament in succession in the opening game, Hodgson’s chosen Xi will not have started before.
indeed, this Xi has never actually been on the field for england in so much as one minute of any match, let alone in one as important as the first tentative step in a tournament. For a pragmatic coach, Hodgson is given to placing particularly big bets when the pressure is on.
Of course, teams evolve with the intensity of final competition, and that may be the case here. not much point in the secrecy at england’s chantilly base — Hodgson’s players only strolled around the Stade Velodrome pitch last night in case Russian spies hacked their final training session with binoculars — unless england actually have the odd secret.
The score of the players’ darts competition, or what Gary neville considers a fair price for prawns — he bought some from a local fishmonger, but it is claimed he haggled over the bill — doesn’t really count. Who knows whether Hodgson has been cunning or simply indecisive, but maybe the uncertainty over england’s best or preferred Xi will prove advantageous.
if Hodgson is unsure of his team from game to game — it is unlikely the starting Xi against Russia has been in his mind for weeks, unless all three warm-up matches were an exercise in deception — then it is going to be doubly hard for the opposition to second guess.
is there a specific game in which Hodgson sees Jack Wilshere playing? Having lost his place at nine, and now 10, is Rooney out entirely if he can’t make this latest deeper midfield role work? Where champions start is not always where they finish, and england too often seem caught up in the energy around the first game, allowing any disappointments to dictate the narrative.
it is worth remembering that all of england’s three most successful tournaments — the World cups of 1966 and 1990 and the 1996 european championships — began with unremarkable draws against ordinary opponents: Uruguay, the Republic of ireland and Switzerland. Yes, england should defeat Russia tonight; but with 16 of 24 teams progressing it would not be a calamity if they did not, as long as the performance was strong.
There is some optimistic precedent to be found in Sir Alf Ramsey’s wingless wonders, who came late to the competition in 1966. Some argue that was the plan all along, Ramsey reluctant to show his hand and only fielding his preferred formation in the later stages.
Others believe accident as much as design played its part and Ramsey was trying to make wingers work, before the disappointment of the group stage made him abandon the idea.
Yet this team and its likely shape remains a departure for Hodgson if, as expected, Rooney does play a midfield role. He has performed there for Manchester United, but not england, and the one worry would be that such a late switch smacks of a coach sensing his captain’s waning influence, but unable to make the final leap in leaving him off the team sheet.
in Marseille yesterday afternoon, manager and player disembarked from an official vehicle for their press conference, late through the gridlocked cars inching home in time for France’s opening game with Romania.
‘i’ve never seen so much traffic,’ said Hodgson to a UeFA official, meaning he has erased Brazil two years ago as a painful memory.
Later he would go 10 rounds with a set of UeFA headphones as Rooney did his best to stifle laughter, but for the moment the captain marched on, hatchet-faced. Another tournament, and the debate centres around him. ‘Sempre Butcher,’ italian coach enzo Bearzot would say — ‘always Butcher’ — scorning england’s reliance on a certain breed of lion-hearted centre-half. ‘Sempre Rooney’ could be written on the side of the england team bus now, so much has england been about one man for more than a decade.
He bristled when told that Russia’s management and players do not think he is the player of old. ‘i don’t have to defend myself,’ Rooney shot back, eyes blazing. ‘My game has changed but, in many ways, it has changed for the better.
‘i know the qualities i have and the opinions that matter are those of my coaches and team-mates. i’ve played with people who operated in a different way later in their careers and some of them became better players. i played in midfield at United for some of this season and in many ways it was natural because my football is intelligent football.’
But Rooney looks careworn on occasions now, fed up with being asked to justify his place ahead of the latest young shaver.
Hodgson added that the worry of every manager is that the players carry the ghosts of past failures on to the pitch.
‘All we can say to them is that they are good enough, that we think they are good enough and that they should believe in themselves,’ he insisted.
‘Yet there is nothing we can say to them that will wipe the slate clean. We can’t help the fact that it is 50 years since we won a tournament, or 20 years since we reached a semi-final.’
The mission to redress that void begins tonight.