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| FIFA World Cup displayed on Trophy tour |
If you ever thought managing a club team was the hardest job in football, try being the Head Coach of an International team. When you are the Head coach of National team, you are put under even more pressure not just by fans and the media, the whole nation is looking towards you to deliver the goods for the country.
Due to the popularity of Club football being more popular in the sporting world nowadays, international teams hardly get much time to come together. The other thing about international team management is that you are dealing with players who come from the same country but play for different clubs. This is why you need to keep your head together and try to make those players gel together aa a team.
The other issue that International managers have is squad selection. If you look at Roy Hodgson’s final tournament, which was the 2016 European Championships, Raheem Sterling was the only out and out winger in the team, which meant there wasn’t enough quality in wide areas on the pitch, so this meant that Hodgson had to re-compensate and put Daniel Sturridge who is traditionally a left footed striker on the right wing.
What was also surprising was the fact that the Premier League has a full array of talented young English midfielders such as Andros Townsend and Danny Drinkwater who had just won the League with Leicester City, so some people may have thought that Roy would also pick players who were in form and not those who weren’t like Jack Wilshere who had just came back from injury.
Former England striker Alan Shearer backed up this point by saying “ we’ve had players who don’t deserve to be in the squad.” How on earth can he pick Jack Wilshere who hadn’t even started a game or played 90 minutes in over a year for Arsenal and only had 141 minutes on the pitch.’ So, he thinks that Hodgson got it all wrong in terms of squad selection.
If you look at Spain’s 2010 World Cup winning team, half of Vicente del Bosque’s squad were either from Real Madrid or Barcelona, who are fierce rivals in LA Liga and as well as being two giants of world football. But this did not affect their performance in Both South Africa and the 2012 European Championships as they went on to become the first European team to win back-to-back trophies in their exquisite ‘Tiki Taka’ style of football.
Tiki Taka or Tiqui-taca is a Spanish style of football of which is based on a team keeping possession of the ball. It involves lots of short passing and movement from players on and off the ball almost like a triangle of three players trying to out-manoeuvre the opposing team’s defence. This tactic proved to be the blueprint of their back-to-back success. Del Bosque was also considered as one of the greatest international Football managers of all time. The 69-year old had a win percentage of 88% in all matches including an undefeated European Championship qualifying campaign in 2011-12.
Barcelona are also good experts of Tikki Takka as they have really good technicians on and off the ball such as Messi and Andreas Iniesta.
Germany’s counter-attacking style of football under Joachim Löw has also been eye-catching to watch, especially after winning their fourth World Cup in Brazil in 2014. In spite of Messi winning the Golden Boot, Thomas Müller who won the Silver Boot and Manual Nuer, who won the Golden Glove, were the two players who stood out for the four-time winners during that tournament.
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| Funny Caption of Zidane's head butt on Marco Materazzi |
Marcello Lipi, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006. Relied heavily on his full backs to do most of their attacking play. Fabio Grosso and Gianluca Zambrotta proved to be the catalyst to Italy’s success in Germany. Their ability to put crosses into the box for the likes of Luca Toni and Francesco Totti were a huge success in terms of their attacking prowess. Although, the Italians did have a bit of help from Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi during extra time. Had the French legend kept his cool on the pitch, things may have been different in terms of the outcome of the match. He may have been a candidate to take a penalty in the shootout as well.
Lipi was just the second manager to win the World Cup for Italy after Vittorio Pozzo, who claimed successive World Cups in 1934 and 1938.
As for England, Although they had stars such as Beckham and Wayne Rooney, they were never able to grab a tournament by the scruff of neck and bring home the gold for the country. This was to do with many reasons such as injury’s and inappropriate behaviour on the pitch. Nevertheless, you could say that Cristiano Ronaldo did have a part to play in Rooney’s Red card against Portugal in Germany 2006, especially when he gave a blink at the England star as he was making his way off the pitch. But the former England captain later revealed that it was just banter and nothing else.
Steve McClaren was undoubtedly England’s worst ever manager. Having only won nine out of eighteen matches, The former Middlesbrough boss failed to make the Three Lions qualify for the 2008 European Championships. McClaren took over from Sven Goran-Eriksen after England’s World Cup quarterfinal exit in 2006. This was also the second time that England failed to qualify for a major tournament for 14 years. Graham Taylor was the first manager who failed to make England qualify for a major tournament. This was the 1994 World Cup, which took place in the United States.
England’s most disappointing tournament came in South Africa 2010 under Fabio Capello. The Italian’s England side were placed in Group C which included USA, Algeria and Slovenia. On paper most you may have thought that the Three Lions would have sailed through to the knockout stages with ease, however, this was not the case as Capello’s side scraped through the group stage with two draws against the Americans and the Algerians followed by a 1-0 victory against Algeria. More fuel was added to England’s 2010 World Cup horror show with a 4-1 defeat to Germany in the knockout stages, especially when Lampard’s goal was controversially disallowed when the ball had quite clearly crossed the goal line.
A frustrated Rooney also had his say about England’s performance in South Africa, especially after the goalless draw against Algeria in the Group Stages. “Nice to see your home fans booing you’. This could have also been a sign that the players were lacking the support of the England fans throughout their performances during the tournament. Capello then spent two more years as England manager and then stepped down before the 2012 European Championships.
Euro 2012 was Hodgson’s first tournament in charge of the Three Lions. After making it though a tricky group of which included France, Sweden and Ukraine, England were knocked out of the tournament in the Quarter Final against Italy on penalties, which was their nemesis in knockout tournaments before Russia 2018.
You could also say that Brazil 2014 was also a disappointing World Cup. England were put in a tough Group with the likes of Italy who beat them 2-1 in Manaus and Uruguay, who also defeated them by two goals to one in Sao Paulo. England were technically still in it but they needed to win their last game, which they did and hope that Italy beat Uruguay and Costa Rica which they failed to do so.
The 72-year old was also in charge of England’s Euro 2016 campaign, where The Three Lions suffered a humiliating exit at the hands of Iceland in the last 16. Although, you could say that this was due to Hodgson’s bizarre tactics such as playing Daniel Sturridge, who is naturally a left-footed striker on the right wing, putting Kane in charge of set pieces and waiting till the 86th minute to bring on England’s quickest player in Marcus Rashford on the pitch. These were probably the three most brainless decisions of his managerial career.
Joe Hart, who was England’s first choice keeper at the Euros, also had a nightmare performance in goal against the Icelanders as he let in two relatively soft goals in which were easily avoidable. Match Of The Day pundit Alan Shearer described the match as ‘the worst performance he had ever seen from an England team ever.’ It also looked as if Hodgson did not have a clear game plan and therefore the players were confused about what system they should play in. Shearer also along with Gary Lineker described Hodgson’s England as tactically inept, meaning that the players did not show any skill or enough passion throughout the game.
Post Hodgson’s exit, Sam Allardyce had the shortest stint as England Manager before he was caught giving advice on the FA’s rules on how to circumvent third party ownership of players after his first and only game in charge. The former Crystal Palace manager was sacked as National team boss by the FA as a consequence of his own actions. The FA then turned to England’s Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate. Interestingly, Allardyce still has the highest win percentage of 100% as England Manager. But it held no significance whatsoever as he was sacked a few days after his first game. Capello had the next best with 76.19%, but he failure to deliver on the biggest stage of all is what forced him to resign as England boss.
Before Russia 2018, it had always been a struggle for Three Lions in major tournaments. Since 1996, England had never reached the last four of either a World Cup or European Championship.
Russia 2018 was also Southgate’s first tournament as England manager. This was England’s best tournament as they had never reached beyond the quarter-finals since Euro’96 when Terry Venables was in charge. England also achieved another historical feat in the Round of 16 against Colombia by winning a penalty shootout only the second time in 28 years, when the first came against Spain at Euro’96. Although, you could say that on paper, they had a relatively straightforward path through to the semis even though they were beaten by Croatia in the semis and to Belgium twice in the group stages and the third-place play-off.
England also finished in third place in the inaugural UEFA Nations League tournament. This was brought in as an alternate route for qualification in the 2021 European Championships as well as another opportunity for World Cup qualification . This tournament was also devised by UEFA to reduce the number of international friendlies played in a year. It was also used to make international football more competitive outside of the World Cup and European Championships.
Portugal was the first nation to lift this trophy after beating the Netherlands 1-0 in the final.
What was also good from England at Russia 2018 is the fact that Southgate had a system in which the players were able to adapt to. This was a 3-5-2 system with Sterling playing off Kane.
It was the complete opposite to Euro 2016, where you felt like there was a lack of understanding between Hodgson and his players, as there wasn’t drive or motivation from anyone to create a positive vibe in the dressing room. When this happens, it then forces the manager to make poor decisions in terms of their tactics or when to make substitutions, which can then ultimately result in a team being knocked out of a tournament in its early stages. One hopes that this could be the start of a brand-new era for Southgate’s Lions.
Zidane Head Butts Materazzi by Paolo Camera CC BY 2.0
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