The World Cup Beauty Pageant

No unfortunately not some mythical tournament where we send Cheryl Cole country-to-country to mud wrestle their own elected WAG representatives to the death (well, at least to ‘the naked’) but the age old debate between two polar enemies; the beautiful game and winning ugly.

Before the 2006 World Cup, England manager Sven Goran Eriksson took a lot of stick in the press for publicly rebutting accusations of his team’s attritional qualifying performances by saying that winning was all that matters. To date I still can’t get my head round why that was, because surely that’s exactly what you want to be hearing from someone in his position? True champions always find a way to win, and if that crucial deciding goal happens to involve a so-called ‘uncultured’ long ball, or a scrambled set-piece, then so be it.

This confusion around the nature of winning itself seems to stem from another related misunderstanding; the actual job of the manager, especially at international level. It goes without saying that no coach, however inspired, can absolutely guarantee victory. The game is full of so many variables that even with the greatest set of players on the planet, nothing is ever certain. What a manager can do though is build the confidence in the team to maintain a consistent level of performance that is at the top of that group of players’ ability range, because let’s face it, apart from maybe ten or so guys around the world, most top flight professional footballers are essentially the same standard.

So if you pick the right players, give them the chance to play together regularly, then as the team develops you’d expect to get the most out of them right? ‘The most out of them’ being fabulous one-touch passing and picture-book goals, as well as ultimately, victory. Well on paper England certainly appear to have the right players, they all seem to play together pretty regularly, and individually they occasionally shine, but all too often the result is still unbelievably turgid. It seems counter-intuitive to criticize 4-0 victories and the like, but entertainment and flair are definitely things that have been absent from England’s performances in almost the entirety of my life-span.

Now I could accept this if we had won the last 5 international tournaments, and exciting teams such as Brazil, France and Spain had consistently failed to reach the second round, but that’s not the case is it? Brazil have always had a fairly unique attacking approach to the game that others have been reluctant to adopt, yet their proven track record shows that you can be successful by actually playing football.

Whether it’s fear holding other countries back from this style of play, or the simple fact that managers feel their players just aren’t good enough to play this way, remains to be seen. It’s a difficult conundrum for a manager though, and somewhat of a catch-22 scenario trying to appease the public. Grind out 1-0 wins and you’re described as unadventurous and dull, but lose games while playing 4 flair wingers up front and all of a sudden you’re an unhinged failure.

Although I see the disciples of club management and international management virtually disconnected these days, there have been a few interesting cases in recent years that I feel are relevant here. The first involves Fabio Capello in a previous lifetime as the manager of Real Madrid. In 2007, after securing the La Liga crown for Los Blancos, Capello was sensationally sacked by the Madrid board for not winning the title ‘the right way.’ Real Madrid’s illustrious history dictates that success is achieved with style; simply winning trophies is not enough to keep fans happy and managers their jobs. Don’t think for one minute that Capello has done something to break English football though, our tactical conservatism was inbedded long before he took the reigns, and if anything, we have actually improved slightly in his time in charge.

Conversely, spare a thought for Arsenal fans, who for more than a decade now have been treated to a style of play more akin to ballet than football, but for four seasons now they have finished trophyless. Does this bother Arsene Wenger and the loyal fans? It doesn’t seem to, but the smug satisfaction that comes from delicate one-twos and backheels surely has an expiry date when historical expectation is so high.

Finally, the case of Jose Mourinho is an interesting one. Cast your mind back to 2004 when a Deco-inspired Porto romped to victory in the Champions League, making Mr Mourinho the number one target for all football club-owning billionaires. Contrast this exciting free-flowing style of play with that shown during Mourinho’s reign at Cheslea, and subsequently in Italy with Inter Milan. What is the one constant? Success; finding a way to win whatever the circumstances. This is probably the simplest distillation of what is means to be a good manager, the ability to adapt their style and tactics to get the most out of the players and resources at their disposal. To quote Mourinho directly, he recently defended the attritional style with which Inter won Serie A last season by saying that “(Serie A) coaches are more concerned with keeping their jobs than innovating new strategies for success.”

So what’s my point then? Sitting here now I want to watch England play proper football, I don’t care about winning because we’ve only ever won one thing ever and that was a long time ago. It has to be about looking to the future and refining our style of play at virtually grass-roots level, so that in a couple of tournament’s time our international team is good enough not only to win, but to win the ‘right way.’ I’m so bored of watching over-hyped egos, who passed their best in 2005, go through the motions that I virtually never watch England games anymore. More so than having a winning international team, I want one I can enjoy watching, and can be proud of. For players of this supposed level it shouldn’t be outside of the realms of possibility either.

Over the years Barcelona have fielded several of the greatest ever football teams, and do you know what their secret is? Not tactical whiteboards or set-piece routines or complex formations. Three words: receive, pass, offer. Repeat with me: receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer…