James Lawton: England lacked flair at Wembley compared to the Germans

 
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31 May 2013

The hardest question at Wembley this week did not concern the performance of England, even though it just happened to be another soul-destroying example of deeply entrenched mediocrity.

More relevantly, we needed to examine the basis of any expectations that had included the possibility of Roy Hodgson reaching his first anniversary in the job without the appalling sense that he was attempting to scale Everest in his carpet slippers.

As he is obliged to do so regularly, the urbane Hodgson put on his bravest face.

There were positives, he insisted. England’s efforts acquired a degree more coherence in the second half and, yes, he would keep faith with a Wayne Rooney whose occasional touches of superior talent did nothing to dispel the idea that he is at least a thousand miles away from what might have reasonably been expected from him at the peak of his career.

But the more he spoke the more you were reminded of the reaction of a cynic when an agitated throng pressed Fabio Capello for an explanation for an especially appalling performance.

It was the 1-1 draw with the United States in England’s opening game of the last World Cup finals in South Africa. Il Capo muttered his disappointment and when he had walked into the chilly night the interrogators were asked: “What did you expect, Swan Lake?”

We keep expecting it and we keep being disappointed. We persist in thinking Hodgson will come up with the magic formula that has so relentlessly eluded his predecessors since Sir Alf Ramsey found a way to beat the world 47 years ago. We must be mad.

The problem is not a consistently underachieving team but a ruined culture.

This week the evidence had rarely been so overwhelming. In the, relatively speaking, wondrous all-German Champions League Final 12 home-grown players, minus the outstanding, injured Mario Gotze and Toni Kroos, started a game that was never less than compelling either in its style or its competitive character. Had it been an all-English final comprising the last two Premier League survivors, Manchester United and Arsenal we would have seen a total of seven English starters if Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger had repeated their final tournament selections against Real Madrid and Bayern.

It got considerably worse if you have happened to see any of Germany’s 4-2 victory over 10th-ranked Ecuador in their friendly in Florida on Wednesday. Germany, coasting to World Cup qualification, fielded a reserve team but were still crackling with their usual conviction and fluency while scoring four goals against a team rated 29 places above the Republic of Ireland, who of course were able to resist the best Rooney and his team-mates could throw at them in the second half.

You might say it was the end of a long and draining season, a mere friendly, but the same was true for Germany after announcing such a profound edge over the rest of Europe in club football and showing their routine authority on the international stage. It was still another reason to note a never-ending accumulation of English despair.

Hodgson has said almost as much as he can without further inflaming the sense of a fractured football society. He has, albeit guardedly, voiced some of his deepest concerns. In the wake of Euro 2012 in which he did as well as could have been expected, give or take some gratuitous claims on behalf of Rooney who should have been excluded after coming to the tournament two games late through suspension and plainly some way from working fitness, Hodgson pointed out the scandal of having so few players to choose from in the Premier League.

His exasperation also peaked over the lucrative post-season tours of financial behemoths like Chelsea and Manchester City — plus Tottenham — so shortly before that time he had been ordered to squeeze in the game with Ireland and Sunday’s visit to the ­Maracana against Brazil.

Hodgson was on much less secure ground when he skated over England’s potentially catastrophic failure to press home their advantage in the recent qualifier in Montenegro, who despite a population of not much more than 600,000 are such a potent threat to England’s return to Brazil next summer for the more significant action of the World Cup finals.

Captain Steven Gerrard explained England had simply stopped playing against the pocket state while Hodgson offered the thought that his men were not robots. He would have had a harder time making the point at Wembley, where so little of England’s play against the Irish was without even a glint of inspiration and, with the notable exception of that of the perennial Frank Lampard, still less relish.

Hodgson also left his guard down when responding to the criticisms of former England captain Gary Lineker, who claimed the team had gone ­blundering back to the dark ages.

“Borussia Dortmund,” said Hodgson, “played 4-4-2 in the same way we played 4-4-2.” They didn’t, of course. They played with wonderful verve. They played football of purpose and unity and coherence that came so close to surviving the power of a Bayern who were not only taking the great prize of Europe but two of their best players.

The truth is that it is so long since we expected from England seriously competitive football at the highest level of the game. We do not dance to the music of football time and until we learn a few rudimentary steps the cynic is right, Swan Lake will always be a fantasy option.

Ashes needed lighting by Oz hard head

There is a haunting aspect to the presence in this English summer of Ricky Ponting in the colours of Surrey, especially in that he has found so much of his old relish for cricket now that he is no longer fighting the dying of the light on the Test stage.

England have been coy about discussing the Ashes series and Ponting’s successor Michael Clarke is also demure about drawing out the battle lines of the great old contest. We are in a state of phony war and for no earthly reason.

Clarke, it is true, has had a daunting task in re-animating the Aussie cause but he could hardly have had a stronger endorsement than the one which came from the hard-headed Ian Chappell.

It declared, “Michael Clarke is quickly establishing a well-deserved reputation for brave and aggressive captaincy. His approach is based on one premise of trying to win the match from the opening delivery. This should be the aim of all captains but it is not.”

After Alastair Cook’s caution at Headingley, this could provide the seed of some considerable contention — and about time, too.

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