Another World Cup campaign has come to an end for England and we're already into yet another round of blamestorming. The pattern has been repeated for decades. England go to a tournament, in most cases don't achieve much, then there is a storm of criticism and a search for something to blame. The unwritten assumption in all this is usually that if this one thing had been changed, we'd have won the tournament.
But we've tried changing things. Take the manager, for example. We've had the people's choice (Keegan), the laid back foreigner (Svenn), the promising young English coach (McClaren), the stern foreigner (Capello), and now we have the experienced, well travelled English coach. The results haven't improved. The cry of 'change this' is mis-guided, we've tried so many things that surely we'd have hit on the right one by accident by now. If there was one thing that could be changed to fix it.
The other cry you often here is that the players don't care enough, that they lack passion. This is usually said by people who don't watch much football outside the big games. They seem to think that showing more passion and working harder would make the difference. Even if they were right about the lack of passion, working harder (or running around more) can be counter-productive. Take the game against Italy in Manaus. England's tactics in the game were to allow Italy possession then hit them at pace on the counter-attack. They played well but tired towards the end of the game. This was always likely to happen given the tactics and the conditions the game was played in. Showing more 'passion' earlier on would have led to the team tiring earlier and risking being taken apart late on by an Italy side with more energy.
The plain truth is that the England team is just not as good as we think it is, and hasn't been for a long time. We typically hover somewhere between 5th and 15th in the world, meaning we're a team who should average around the quarter finals or last-16 of the World Cup, which is what we do. In this World Cup we haven't had the results but I felt we played much better, especially against Italy, than in either of the last 2 World Cups. The difference in the results could be down to us simply having a much tougher draw.
If there is no quick fix, how do we improve things? The first thing to ask before answering this question is what is holding us back at international level? The current squad has a good balance of promising young players and experienced, proven winners (at club level). Several members of the squad have won the Champions League. But not enough. In some positions there is a worrying lack of options. For example at right back there is nobody near an out-of-form Glen Johnson, and we haven't produced a good defensive midfielder in years. This highlights the issue - there just aren't enough players of the right quality being produced.
The recent FA commission at least recognised this and identified where there is a problem preventing more players coming through (not enough competitive playing time in the 18-20 age range) but their proposed solution (B teams) would risk ripping apart one of the great strengths of English football - the depth and strength of the football pyramid. Instead of harnessing this to produce more talent that could rise up, the change risks its strength.
But at least the FA Commission identified an issue and proposed a bold and dramatic change to try and solve the issue. The challenge now is to find an alternative, better solution. Beyond proposals to produce more coaches (without answering how these would be funded and how they would be used), I've yet to hear a decent alternative.
Personally I would start earlier. I'd like to see the schools involved. Sadly there didn't appear to be much (if any) involvement from the English Schools FA with the FA Commission. This is a pity as this is where the vast majority of children first come into contact with anything like coaching. I'd like to see a new coaching qualification created for school teachers and set a target of having a qualified coach in each secondary school within 10 years. Flood the school system with coaches, raising standards from the very start of football careers. This could be done if the Academies were all required to train a certain number of teachers each year, with the FA also training teachers.
The truth is that, whichever solution is tried, there is no quick fix. Long term systematic failings in the English game require long term changes and patience to see them through. This is something Germany recognised in the late-90's, and they acted. They didn't stop when they reached the World Cup final in 2002, recognising that as a false dawn due to a team getting a very lucky draw, and they are now seeing the benefits. If English football wants to stop having blamestorming sessions in public after every major championship, it too needs to act and be patient to see it through.
