- The 28 players in Arsenal’s 25 man squad for next season…
- The 36 players that Arsenal are now chasing this summer!
By Tony Attwood
One headline recently read “Thomas Tuchel is guilty of orchestrating England’s craven World Cup demise” (NY Times) and maybe that is right, or maybe not. But behind the headline is the point that someone cfreated that England team playing that way. Rather like Arsenal winning the league, it didn’t just happen.
The article continued, “The German coach was supposed to be the master of big-game management but this felt like a self-inflicted collapse” and here we have the clue to the writer’s thinking. It “felt” like a self-inflicted collapse.” And “felt” is very much the key word.
Because for most of us, when we go to a match, it is the feeling of the match that we take away with us rather than anything that actually happened.
Now the piece continues by noting that also, “England reached some huge games under Gareth Southgate but it often felt as if they were frozen by passivity at crucial moments, unable to make the changes required to keep pace with cleverer opponents, forcing their eventual retreat. Not least in their last World Cup semi-final, eight years ago in Moscow, when they were 1-0 up with 22 minutes left before Croatia finally reeled them in.”
Such criticisms are common in football – as the viewer sees in retrospect a moment when, with the benefit of hindsight, it can be seen that one specific change to the team could swing the whole direction of the match. I doubt that it is much consolation to anyone, but writers often feel the same way – one slight change of a sentence early on could have changed the whole tenor of the piece, and persuaded readers more readily.
But life isn’t like that. We make instant decisions, and take the consequences. So maybe the “defeat to Argentina was a proactive disaster, a self-inflicted collapse, an entirely chosen retreat into their own penalty area which ended the only way it was ever going to….” Maybe.
Yet what is most interesting, I think, is that I seem to remember reading similar bits and pieces after the last world cup, and the one before and…. And maybe the problem it is the fact that England has a league made up of players from multiple countries. Or maybe it is that English players just are not that good. Maybe the tactics of English managers are not that good. Or maybe the England media are always on the players’ backs too much…
And that’s a thought. Maybe it is the fault of the people who regularly write about the England team and keep suggesting that somehow the England players combined ARE good enough, when they are not. Maybe if the England players were that good we would have more English players playing in Premier League matches, rather than bringing what appear to be the best players from other countries into Premier League clubs like Arsenal.
Then there is the matter of tactics and the fact that, according to some writers early on, the “game was precisely where England wanted it, with Argentina needing to come onto them and offering space to attack.”
And maybe it is simply the fact that it is not possible to have a vibrant, 20-team league where almost every match throughout the entire season is sold out, and where many clubs have years-long waiting lists for season tickets, while at the same time having a national team that could win the World Cup. Maybe, as I say, it is just not possible.
Or maybe we should take some of these journalists who seem to know everything there is to know about football and put them in charge of the team and see what happens. After all, they can invariably see how the game could have gone. Take this commentary for example:
“…England blinked. They turned down the opportunity. No pace from the bench, no Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke or Marcus Rashford, to pin Argentina back or kill the game. England barely had a single attack after going 1-0 up. One blocked Kane shot. One counterattack when Morgan Rogers hung onto the ball for too long. And nothing else. The rest of the game was played 20 yards from Jordan Pickford’s goal.”
So why is it that we don’t get the right manager? I suppose the answer to that is much the same as why it is that Arsenal didn’t get the right manager after Wenger and before Arteta. The board obviously thought they had found their man, but some 18 months or so into the appointment they realised what a cock up they had made.
But at least in Arsenal’s case they were able to switch mid-tournament, and we have been on the up ever since. Except now I come to think of it, it took six seasons of the club coming eighth, fith and second before we actually won the league. Some maybe we ought to give this England team a longer run. Maybe it does take six seasons to build a team. Except, England hasn’t really been winning stuff for decades…
So maybe better still, we should just give up on internationals. We seemingly have the best league in the world, so why don’t we just carry on playing in that, and just say that England can have all the players it wants, provided none of them is playing in the Premier League.
It is true, after all, that Tuchel and his mates did a lot of talking prior to the World Cup about how the wonderfulness of the Premier League was its speed and intensity, but somehow we never really got to see that in the WC. So could it be that Tuchel is not as good a tactician as that little huddle of two Arsenal men who debate changes during a match with Arteta?
Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely don’t want Arteta & Co to leave Arsenal and go and manage England. But I just wonder what would happen if the ex-manager of ManC had managed England. Would he have found the right players with English passports who could have gone out there and stolen the show? Somehow I am not sure.
Tony, I agree that the manager will and should shoulder the majority of the blame only if mistakes are made in selection rather than England on paper not matching the opposition in squad quality.
I did notice that our England manager went for some less experience individuals compared to the mature Argentine team selection.
I was going through the player profile list of the Argentina teams and was surprised at their average age being apx 28, they had a few more oldies than youngsters in their squad maybe giving them a mental edge.
Maybe experience at the later stages of the competition is key or not.
How many of the Euro 2024 England finalist players were used compared to Argentinas 2022 finalist players being used?
Perhaps at the later stages of the competition experience is more so a must, but as you say that’s down to how strong the manager is in ignoring media pressure and to be more tactically aware in not just physical attributes but as Argentina proved mental attributes more so at the later stages.
The manager has the power without hindsight to change things correctly, so he will always get the blame. IMO.
The players get the blame if they make passing or defending mistakes as the manager cannot control that part, but unless he knows the player is of sub quality during training exercises and should know that he is not experienced and mentally not ready for such a big step up semi final event, especially at such a late stage in the competition, where nervous decision situations whether to take chances in attack and mental experience and confidence are more commonly needed perhaps. Just an observational opinion regarding experience and decisions are different under higher pressure than what is normally ok, but I 100% agree with your manager assessment. IMO.
‘So in conclusion: ‘England is doomed to never winning the World Cup again.’
Is this whst you are saying?
Football “journalists” are always amazing with hindsight. They know everything after the event. In fairness, like the archetypal bunch of monkeys with typewriters, they will, very occasionally getsomething right before the event. Largely, however, we all know that their real skill is pretending they know evrything when they are actually less knowledgable than the average fan.
Very occasionally I will read an article and I wonder about the pedigree of the author who, seemingly, is proclaimed as an expert on coaching and tactics. When I google them, most have left some unheard of University a couple of years earlier with a degree completely unrelated to sport (or journalism), have written for a fanzine and then suddently become a “senior reporter/football analyst” for a tabloid I wouldn’t wrap my fish and chips in.
That’s why I only “very occasionally” read articles by sports “journalists”. I really should stop doing it altogether!!
Charles,
We will do it next time, keep the faith. On paper and world opinion, we did well to Finnish semi finalist. Proud of our brave team, they gave it their best for the fans.
I think if you look at the unbiased world opinion, they would say that reaching the semi final was our expected level, but also not a failure either.
We needed that turn of clinical luck, rub of the green, or that World Class missing jigsaw in having a piece of unsuspecting bit of individual brilliance from a level of a special Pele, Madonna or even Messi, which we don’t have, but we do have a team of lions that wear their heart on their sleeve, who tried their best for the fans and country.
Judging by the close score but not the actual play, it was a fine marginal defeat, a bit like us when we played PSG in the final, just a little bit short on the day.
We were just missing a single piece of brilliance or clinical luck, regarding the score line.
No shame, no failure, very proud, we will win it next time.
Keep the belief and improve on our nearly perfection team for next time.
No blaming anyone including the manager without true hindsight, as some decisions can make you a hero when they work or the unlucky scapegoat when they don’t. He made his decision without hindsight and flipped the calculated coin and was almost there. So close but unlucky.
They Argentina, looked physically fitter but that was not true, it was more about their experience, mental edge and their quick decisions that made them look fitter as their passing came naturally and positional play was from the experience of knowing each others move without having to think about it, which only made them look quicker due to their quick decisions through experience with one another.
This just tipped the tiny Fine margins and calculated anticipation in their favour, they were slightly edging they play long before the England manager made the sub changes, he is being blamed for.
If I am unbiased, and the manager took a gambling chance in the absence of hindsight.
So No blame, we did well and reached our level for this tournament this time, but I am confident we will win next time.
The positives moving forward is that we have a younger squad than the aging Argentina team, plus those non experienced English players that played will improve mentally with quicker decision making that comes with experience from longevity playing to tether, this is hopefully including the manager.
We will have the mature experience and the mental edge next time we play in 4 years time, which will give us the edge next time.
Let’s be respectful as it is just opinions right or wrong depending on our own facts and view points, but we all have one thing in common is that we all love our national team and firstly we all love Arsenal are we all want what’s best for our team and want them to win, but we sometimes seperate respectfully on how we should get there. Passionate views can be taken out of context, but all views should encourage variety and be good and healthy for debating . We all think we know, which is natural and the only truth is In the facts and past history, which site like this try to provide, but views will always be gray and differ, but facts are facts.In my humble opinion.
We are all brother gooners, and this is an mainly an Arsenal Site first and forever. England (and I am a patriot) unfortunately comes second to Arsenal news, where we have had a brilliant happy 12 months of great news and debates on this site compared to the Anti Arsenal Trolling Sites.IMO.
daveg,
some telling reasonable points made there .
This is my go to site. The opinions differ yet generally
there seems to be a genuine respect as we try to reach conclusions regarding our beloved team .
Internationals eh ? Personally I hate them , they impact on the Gunners and wreck our season more often than not. After that it’s best not to reference the talkspite pondlife , with their assessment generally being “Play more spuds and blame Arsenal whatever happens”.
England took 2 Arsenal players that were not 100% fit. Rice and Saka.
Englands quality fell when Rice didn’t play or went off. Saka performed quite well when he played.
Neither should of been taken.
It would not surprise me at all they both miss the start of the season, and we don’t see the best of them for weeks if not months.
Saliba was also injured and should not of gone as he has a back issue that may require surgery. he played very well for France but the injury finally got the better of him and he was taken off. I don’t know but I assume he will know have the surgery he requires so we wont see him for a while either.
Arsenal sacrificed 3 players for their Country and still certain pundits are piling scorn on us.
Nothing changes.
Nitram, precisely, a little bit of recognition and gratitude wouldn’t be a bad thing. Recently Sourness weighed in with his two penn’orth criticising Declan Rice a certain Mr. Hasselbaink explained the situation.
As I’m writing this that 3rd/4th place play off is being played and it appears to be ARSENAL 3 SALIBA LESS other team 0 at the moment . Tomorrow morning we will be told that those Arsenal players are inconsistent, and they got lucky in a meaningless game typical bottlers blah blah blah. in fact I’m hoping that is the case simply because I really would like to see those Arsenal players tell the world ” do you know what, I don’t need this , I’m doing a Benny Blanco and sticking two fingers up to England . And if that’s the case I would hope Billy Saliba also says “Stuff France ” too.
Stone me ! it’s Saka for a 4th