By Myles Palmer
A FEW OF THE 500 things I was too tired to type here on Wednesday night.
One : the England team, all through history, makes individuals look bad.
It did under Robson a lot, it did, especially, under Taylor and Keegan.
With Venables and Hoddle there was a collective method, so the team was usually quite solid and tried to pass the ball. Often their teams looked full of team players, a good sign.
I reckon Sven at Gothenburg was an Anglophile who loved a long ball.
When he came here he was in heaven. Because he found two great quarterbacks, Beckham and Gerrard,who could launch 60-yard passes.
But when he clocked the skills of the players he realised they were far below the skills in Portugal and Italy.
So he made his mind up to use a dynamic 4-4-2, a methodical percentage game, playing to what he saw as England’s strengths : determination, power, pride, fighting spirit.
He copied Liverpool’s tactical shape. He relied on Owen’s goals.
Unfortunately, Owen is an enigma – and when Owen is bad,England are awful.
Two: the skipper should be a defender or a central midfielder.
Rio Ferdinand should be England captain. If he is injured, Sol.
Against Macedonia Beckham scored the equaliser. And he played a big part on the second equaliser. When I saw Gerrard shaping to hit that 20 yarder, I knew he would score.
But Beckham tries too hard, becomes manic. He needs a captain to tell him when to cool it.
Three :it’s time for CHRIS KIRKLAND who was a superb goalkeeper at Coventry before he landed on the Liverpool bench.
Kirkland should ask for a move. Simple as that. He is easily the best young keeper in England.
Buffon started young, Casillas started young and Kirkland should start young.
Generally, Sven is far too conservative.
He fawns round his big names. He is fixated by stars, too dazzled by big stars to ever build a balanced team.
England don’t dribble like Simon Davies, like Craig Bellamy, like Ryan Giggs. They never take anybody on !
It’s safe football, dull football, risk-free football, increasingly clueless and anaemic.
Tord Grip found Sven a player like Bellamy, like Davies : a little guy called Darius Vassell.
Vassell played and did well,but he got the chop because he was not a star.
Vassell is more skilful than Owen, more two-footed, more comfortable in wide positions, a better passer.
Sadly, Sven has lost the plot, as all England managers do.
He doesn’t shout or point. Or even, it seems, talk to Steve McLaren during the game.
Sven should have realised last year that England in 2001 need to be more like Wales are in 2002, using players who take people on.
Dribblers, ball players, create unusual situations.
You can persuade dribblers to pass, but you can’t teach a reflex player like Scholes how to dribble.
Interviewed on Sky by Clare Tomlinson after the game,Sven looked shattered.
I’ve never seen him like that. He was shocked and scared, his fabled composure evaporating before our eyes.
He said,”We shall not start to cry yet.”
Gawd! After taking four points out of the first six he is talking about crying?
OK, both Macedonian goals were gifts. The first, Seaman should have tipped over that corner.
The second came after a sloppy square pass by Gerrard, and then Campbell miskicked his clearance. Sol was not himself. That stomach upset took a lot out of him.
Bringing Sol back when he had been ill and not training, rather than sticking with Southgate, was another example of irrational star-worship by Sven.
He took Wayne Bridge off too soon. Owen stunk the place out but he is a star, so he stayed on.
LOOK AT WALES ! Look at Mark Hughes!
How can Sparky be a coach?
He was a player five minutes ago. But, like Rudi Voller, he knows what to say to a player. And he knows how to make a team greater than the sum of its parts.
How? By picking a bulldozer and three dribblers.
Hartson, the target man, supported by Bellamy, Davies and Giggs.
It’s a balance that makes sense, a sensible blend of brute force, finesse and pace.
While Heskey is a bruiser who can sprint, Hartson is a bruiser who can play.
Oh, to have been in Cardiff on Wednesday night!
This was what football matches are supposed to be like.
Bellamy plays in Davies, instant low crossshot beats Buffon, one nil, crowd goes crazy, Del Piero’s free kick deflects in for 1-1, Giggs hits the bar with a free kick.
Then, after 72, Hartson splits the defence with a killer ball through the middle, Bellamy spurts in, skips past the spreadeagled Buffon – and sticks itin for 2-1.
What a finish by Bellamy! Romario himself could not have scored more sweetly.
And 72,000 were there to see the most electrifying Welsh win in living memory.What a night, what an atmosphere, what a moment !
Grown men weeping tears of joy, as well they might after decades of disappointment supporting Wales.
Yes, Cardiff was the story of the week, not Seaman’s latest blunder.
THE FA SHOWED no testicles in banning Roy Keane for five games.
Four and a Worthington Cup game, actually.
Keane claims to be the only footballer honest enough to tell the truth in a book.
But when called to account for admitting pre-meditated assault on Alfie Haaland he told the disciplinary hearing : It wasn’t me,it was my ghost writer who wrote that.
Roy bottled it! He blamed somebody else! What a cowardly defence!
And what a cowardly punishment.
Let’s face it, Kenyon and Crozier are pals. The FA talk to Man United every day, I’m sure.
We all expected a whitewash, even to the extent of banning Keane while he was injured. At least they didn’t do that.
The appeal, if there is one, will be by Keane, not Man United.
The FA did better on their Slovakia coverage, persuading the papers to write about THEIR RACISM and not about OUR HOOLIGANS.
That’s the kind of spinning that keeps New Labour in power.
The exemplary Paul Hayward redressed the balance the following day.
His Telegraph piece said there are now 1,100 banning orders in place on thugs who have to hand in their passports five days before England’s away games.
Should have written all this last night but I went to Spurs v DC United, a benefit game for old Spurs players.
Klinsmann is 38 now but still better than Michael Owen.
A 24-carat superstar, a model pro, a gentleman who can still race around like a teenager.
If I was picking a team to play for my life, a team from the last 20 years of English football, the first four players would be Tony Adams, Stuart Pearce, Patrick Vieira -and Jurgen Klinsmann
Gazza was slim, played cleverly against a fit Yank side.
It was 0-0 at half time, no tackling.
Chris Waddle came out for the second half and within 20 seconds hit a phenomenal early cross onto Sheringham’s head eight yards out. But Teddy headed the ball straight up in the air.
After 84, DC’s No 24 Wade Barrett nipped into score the only goal of the game.
On 86, the PA announced the Text Man of the Match : David Ginola.
The Text Man of the Match? A new one on me.
After that, Gary and I went home.
18th October 2002.