By Myles Palmer
It was all there in 90 minutes.
Star players more concerned about the Champions League…. a team playing Graham Taylor football with two centre forwards….showing all the flaws of Liverpool, the team Sven bases his style on….good players doing the wrong things, like Rio Ferdinand.
That was the first 45.
In the second 45 we saw the exciting youngsters who have brightened up the Premiership season.
Rooney and Vassell could get the ball to feet, hold it, use it, let others join the attack, play a bit of football.
Let’s face it, Michael Owen is never gonna create a goal for somebody else. Like Ian Wright, he destroys his partners.
I was surprised that Sven did not realise that Owen and James Beattie are incompatible.
If he can’t suss that out, how is he worth £2 million a year?
In the second half, Rooney and Vassell were willing to find space and get the ball,even in man-on situations.
Football is not rocket science, so why do managers get it wrong so often? Because the English don’t like passing the ball to marked men, and we don’t like running towards the ball, preferring to run away from it.
If you are scared to pass to a marked man, because you don’t trust him to keep possession, and you keep running away from the ball, looking for longer passes, you will never beat good teams.
Not this season, not this decade.
If you play that way, the options for every player, in every part of the field, are hugely reduced, so the passes available are few and predictable. That was why the Aussies cut short so many of our moves.
England in the first half were a team without options, without angles, without play round the ball.
Without Beardsley,Sheringham,Barmby, a half-striker, England are usually crap.
THE SECOND HALF wasn’t just a triumph for young,spirited players.
It was a success foir a different style.
Rooney,Jeffers and Vassell opened up gaps,possibilities, by playing with some nous, some disguise.
When Rooney dropped that crossfield ball over the left back’s head to Vassell, you knew England would start to play some football.
Rooney was trying too hard, as a raw 17-year old would, but he still showed us plenty.
He can get the ball in Sheringham positions and hold players off, a bit like Kenny Dalglish.If he could turn into an English Dalglish, he might save Sven’s job.
And Jenas is a thinking footballer who can play with anybody.
So Upton Park, 3-1 defeat by Australia, Sven’s worst defeat so far, was a perfect Polaroid of 2002-2003.
The first half showed us everything that is wrong with English football.
The second half showed us the way forward.
Sven lost a friendly and found two players, Rooney and Jenas.
Indeed, with Paul Robinson making one great save, you could argue that he found three new players.
February 14th 2003.
PS
Every time I say I won’t write this stuff late at night.And here I am again at midnight.But not as exhausted as last night, when I was almost in a coma and thought I might fall out of my chair.