England’s terrible midfield almost makes you forget about their terrible defence

I’m not sure when it was collectively decided that England had some world-class midfielders and all they needed was the right system.  It’s now beginning to look like either a case of willful blindness or a crafty practical joke by the sports media.

For example it is a widely accepted ‘fact’ that Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are excellent world-beating central midfielders, but for some reason just can’t play together.  This received knowledge has been the source of many pub conversations up and down the land, of much gnashing of the teeth come major tournaments and a useful point to blame when said major tournament ends in failure.

The trouble is neither are particularly useful at international football.  They represent the typical English commitment to hard-work, power and commitment.  Top international teams often instead work best when they have the whole good-technical-skills-and-tactical-discipline thing going on.  Lampard and Gerrard, on the other hand, tend to wander off where they please in games.  Gerrard in particular crops up way out of position, and considering he can barely pass I think he’s only maintained his reputation because of his ability to lash one in from 30 yards.

This does, in part, explain the rise of Scott Parker to England regular.  My club loyalty to Parker doesn’t hide the fact that whilst an excellent destroyer of opposing attacking moves he doesn’t then go on to create a lot in attack.  At Tottenham he plays next to Luka Modric who is one of the world’s finest creative midfielders.  Play Parker with Gerrard, as happened against Norway, and it’s a waste.  By the time Parker has won the ball, Gerrard will 50 yards away patrolling the opposition box.

In a situation like that you would have to rely on your wide players to carry the ball forward.  Unfortunately for England their wide players in Norway were Stewart Downing and James Milner.  Perfectly adequate wingers who would be useful for upper-midtable sides, but against an opposition even as weak as Norway they were crowded out.  Even after the introduction of Theo Walcott there was no spark from the wingers.

Part of the problem is that at international level England seem to be wedded to a static 4-4-2 formation, like lines of redcoats marching in to cannon fire.  Whilst most of the top international teams use a formation that is roughly 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 (depending on the phase of play) any attempt by England to introduce more tactical fluidity is greeted with sniffy suspicion.

Which is terribly odd, as the majority of the Premiership sides the players play for do have the ability to alter their tactics in this way.  The trouble is many of these English clubs no longer see the need to train their youngsters to do this.  Need a ball-playing midfielder?  Well, we could train up a local lad which will take 5 years.  Or we’ll just buy that French 19-year old.  Yeah, we’ll do that.

That’s the major reason the England midfield is so terrible.  The skills that are required for success in modern international football simply don’t exist within English players.  The lone exception to this is Jack Wilshere who, unfortunately, has spent the entire season out injured.  To be honest the FA should write this European Championship off and concentrate on the elite development of younger English players, because the current crop of midfielders just can’t cut it.