World Cup 2014: wildcards!

Speculation has already begun with regard to the players who will be replacing England’s “golden generation” – a generation which is approaching the end of its tenure as custodians of the nation’s hopes. World Cup 2010 has again exposed England as being too sluggish and inflexible to compete with the best at international level. England haven’t made a major tournament final in 44 years, and were made to look particularly mediocre by Germany this year. History suggests that England need to start playing a different type of football at international level if the pattern is to be broken. Players are needed that can help to embed a more contemporary footballing culture.

It’s not at all clear who is lined up to become England’s equivalents of German stars Memut Ozil and Thomas Muller. But several young players are tipped to make the leap to senior international level and these include midfielders Jack Rodwell and Jack Wilshere, and defender Keiran Gibbs. It’s also not easy to predict who will be joining Wayne Rooney in attack, but Frazier Campbell is one possibility. Below WCC explores a few wildcards that might make an impact at World Cup 2014.

Fabian Delph has only been lightly used at Aston Villa since Martin O’Neill signed him from Leeds. He’s a lightweight, but skilful and mobile midfielder. Although he doesn’t appear very robust, he is brave and committed. Delph is comfortable on the ball and likes to run at players. He could therefore develop into the type of contemporary playmaker that England require. Whilst he has been used centrally during his sporadic appearances for Aston Villa, it appears that he has the requisites to perform to good effect on the flank. Delph should hopefully have opportunities to build upon his reputation this forthcoming season.

18-year-old Phil Jones broke into Blackburn’s first team towards the end of last season, playing in their final nine games of the Premier League campaign. England’s centre-back position used to be one of England’s strongest and most settled positions. But it’s not clear who will step up to replace injury-prone Rio Ferdinand and one-paced John Terry. Jones’s appearances for Blackburn received favourable comment, and also coincided with a reasonable period of form for a side that finished 10th in the Premier League. Jones was confronted with Didier Drogba on his league debut and he acquitted himself well. He’s only 5ft 11” tall, so could offer something different to the large and slow English central defender template.

WCC devised a method of weighting Fantasy Football statistics, which set out to show players whose talents may be masked by the fact that they resided within  low performing teams. This approach showed that Jamie O’Hara’s performances over last season’s Premier League campaign were perhaps more significant than the brute facts suggested – O’Hara was on loan from Tottenham with relegated Portsmouth. O’Hara isn’t the fastest but he is a hard-working and tenacious midfielder who could perhaps become England’s Sami Khedira! He’s left-footed and can play on the flank or centrally. If O’Hara plays for a high profile Premier League team, then he could also be given a chance at senior international level.

Unable/Unwilling/Unloved!

To the left features a team of players who didn’t make England’s World Cup 2010 squad for one reason or another. We’ve included those who have been out of the reckoning for years – and those that missed out narrowly.
 
Perhaps the most notable inclusions (in this squad of exclusions) are Micah Richards and David Bentley, as both are fit and able – but unwanted! It appeared a couple of years ago they were likely to become first-team regulars. Richards burst onto the international scene under Steve McClaren and performed well in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. But there are apparently doubts with regard to his attitude and Fabio Capello has overlooked him. Bentley was lined up as David Beckham’s successor for right-midfield. But his career has tailed-off somewhat, although he was playing regularly for Premier League high-achievers Tottenham towards the end of last season.
 
Owen Hargreaves would certainly have made the 2010 squad if he had been fit, and he would form a good central midfield partnership with internationally-retired Paul Scholes. If Dean Ashton’s career had not been sadly ended by injury, then he could well have made the World Cup squad as a more rounded forward than Emile Heskey. Ashton’s fellow striker is Michael Owen who has experienced numerous injuries over recent years. And (despite an ongoing media infatuation) it didn’t appear that Capello loved him much either! Adam Johnson missed the party for South Africa narrowly: as one of England’s most exciting wingers he could be a regular by Euro 2012 – he’s also left-footed so a handy resource.
 
Elsewhere in the team, Jonathan Woodgate’s career has been blighted by injuries, whilst former impermeable monolith Sol Campbell’s career must be nearing its conclusion. Wayne Bridge exiled himself from the squad for personal reasons, having been no.2 left-back for many years. In goal, Paul Robinson’s international career was damaged by a freak error against Croatia back in 2006. Robert Green may have suffered a similar experience in 2010!

If this team was fit, willing and loved, how would it have fared in South Africa?

England are Everton!

Should there really be such a substantial degree of dismay and disbelief when England are eliminated in the second round of a World Cup? A hubristic sense of national entitlement in these circumstances seems to subvert rationality. England made it to South Africa via a convincing qualification campaign and it was appropriate that a reasonable degree of hope accompanied the approach to World Cup 2010. However, the only time England have made the final of a major tournament was 44 years ago – and that was with the assistance of home territory.

The composition of the top teams in international football shows a high degree of consistency, and in this regard it is similar to major domestic leagues. Since 1966 there has been a ‘big four’ – Brazil, Germany, Italy and Argentina. And since 1966 these four teams have won nine of the ten World Cups – in fact, only two other nations have been able to make the final over this period. The two teams to threaten the hegemony have been the totaalvoetbal-inspired Dutch side who made the final twice in the 70s, and France who made the finals of 1998 and 2006. France also won Euro 2000, whilst the Dutch were successful at Euro ‘88. We can therefore consider these nations to be on the margins of the big four. In addition, Spain won Euro 2008 in some style and their current form suggests that they are in the process of challenging the orthodoxy. England on the other hand have done little to suggest they are about to break into the world’s elite.

Germany have made the final of a World Cup five times since 1966 compared with England’s zero. Yet patriotic hubris means that we enter a second round game against these international heavyweights expecting to win. Why does the second-round exit of a nation, which is peripheral to the international footballing superpowers, elicit such hand-wringing and finger-pointing? It seems highly likely that at any World Cup England will be up against between four to eight superior nations. This means that a second round or quarter-final departure is England’s rightful finishing point in terms of probability.

Of course it’s not just defeat, but the manner of defeat which is important – and England performed poorly over World Cup 2010 and the loss to Germany was heavy. But England weren’t a great deal better at World Cup 2006. It’s just that narrowly losing out on top spot in the group this year pitted them against a member of the elite a little earlier than usual. So surely all of the responsibility cannot fall on the shoulders of one man – i.e. the coach. Regardless of how much he is paid, Fabio Capello has circumscribed capacity to propel England into the global elite. There may be ways and means by which English football can steadily rise into the highest ability stratum, but it will take more than competent management of the international team.

It’s thus misguided to vilify the England coach for failing to singlehandedly arrest and then invert the weight of history. Regardless of who is managing England, their place in the international football hierarchy is quite clear – they are good, but a palpable distance short of the very best. Directing frustration at an allegedly incompetent coach, when England have predictably failed to perform above themselves again, is about as rational as an Everton fan ripping up their season ticket after they have finished sixth in the league. England aren’t Man Utd – they are Everton. But despite evidence indicating England’s second-tier status being clearly demonstrated over and over again, the sense of entitlement will never be diminished. If only that idiot coach knew what he was doing!

Musical Instruments and National Identity

Although the football on the field is now warming up nicely, in every World Cup there are always cultural talking points. The swarming sound of the vuvuzelas have divided opinion – some arguing that it’s not what they’re used to at football matches and at odds with the way they drown out the singing, and some stating they enjoy the sound because it gives the tournament a uniquely South African flavour. I tend to side with the latter argument. Whenever you hear a vuvuzela in the distance, either on television or on the radio (a collective noun has yet to be created to describe a group of vuvuzelas), you automatically associate the sound with the World Cup.
 
The vuvuzela itself originated in South America, and permeated the World Cups in Argentina 1978 and Mexico 1986. Originally made from an old bicycle horn, the instrument vuvuzela became a symbol of uprising and the working class both in South America and, now, South Africa (where it first made appearances in the 1990s). It’s now seen through a World Cup prism, but the importance of links between musical instruments and cultural identity cannot be underestimated. 

Take the Brian Boru Harp. The Clairseach (Gaelic harp) has been known as the Brian Boru Harp for centuries, and is seen as Ireland’s heraldic emblem. Brian Boru – an 11th century, harp-playing Highland King – sat atop the Irish clan system in mid-1000s, and the harp reflected a tradition where every clan possessed a harp player who would write songs and play them in honour of their leaders. These Planxties would entwine with political and social standing, and evolve down the years into a potent symbol of Irish nationalism and a way to keep Celtic learning alive in times of extreme repression.
 
But what happens when cultures clash? Music and national identity have become so entwined that countries and social groups who revere instruments and created the original music, have been quick to link globalisation with cultural essentialism – if you don’t come from a particular group associated with a particular instrument or musical style, you cannot perform it.

In Japan, concern has been raised that globalisation has seeped into their musical traditions. In their book, “Globalisation And National Identity: A Reflection On The Japanese Music Curriculum”, authors Yuri Ishii, Mari Shiobara and Hirom Ishii investigate national cultural identity with reference to educational policies for music and globalisation. They state: “Japan is often referred to as a society that provides a model of cultural hybridisation that is a phenomenon in globalisation. However, what actually happened in Japan was not hybridisation, but the replacement of traditional music with western music in the process of the re-construction of national musical culture.”

Ishii, Shiobara and Ishii implicitly place music and national identity together, and argue that the replacement of traditional music with a globalised approach has begun to erode national identity. But Simon Frith, writing in the excellent, “Cultural Identity”, sets out to counter these postmodern fears.  “The problem here is not just the familiar postmodern point that we live in an age of plunder in which musics made in one place for one reason can be appropriated in another place for quite another reason, but also that while music may be shaped by the people who first make it and use it, as experience it has a life of its own. The issue is not how a particular piece of music or a performance reflects the people, but how it produces them, how it creates and constructs an experience – a musical experience, an aesthetic experience – that we can only make sense of by taking on both a subjective and a collective identity.”

Placed within a new, World Cup context, the history and meaning of the vuvuzela is still intact, but it has provided a new aesthetic experience to football fans all over the world. 

Is the vuvuzela now ours (it will probably be coming to a ground near you when the new domestic season starts in August)? And do we really want it?

Panini ‘83 exposes Hoddle

Detailed visual analysis of historical documents can provide a rich source of insight into cultural phenomena. With a retrospective vantage point stirred into the mix, visual cues can attain a starker complexion once they have been weathered by the brutal march of time.

The Panini football album of 1983 provides us with a rich legacy of visual images. The acquisition of a new album every season was a key rite of passage throughout middle childhood – stickers would be purchased with pocket money and swaps would be made in the playground.

In ‘Football 83′ Panini decided to display full frontal images of the players posing in their kits: the previous albums used to show only head and shoulder shots. A few curiosities are apparent in the ‘83 edition: for example, Alan Curtis of Swansea appears to be wearing his slippers. But perhaps the crucial finding from a visual analysis perspective involves the picture of Tottenham and England midfielder Glenn Hoddle. Every other player photographed from top flight clubs has managed to pose for a picture, but for some reason Hoddle is not shown in this format and an ‘in game’ shot has been utilised instead.* The reasons for this anomaly can only be inferred but, with hindsight, Hoddle’s stand-alone status from the 308 other pictured players and managers offers some explanation for how his career developed. Hoddle was a talented playmaker who never replicated his club form at international level: perhaps this is because he was unable to have his mercurial whims satisfied when playing at international level.

Following his playing career Hoddle did progress to become England manager, taking the side to the World Cup in 1998. Controversially, Hoddle did not include England’s playmaker from that particular period, Paul Gascoigne in the squad. With confirmation of Hoddle’s aspirations to ‘lone genius’ status confirmed by Panini, it now appears that Gascoigne’s exclusion was never in doubt. Hoddle also aligned himself with some rather cranky ideas and practices which included association with a faith healer, Eileen Drury and filling the players with a range of substances from the local apothecary. Graeme Le Saux reports in his autobiography how he suspects that the use of caffeine pills led to him experiencing cramp in the second round match against Argentina.

If only the 1983 Panini album had been consulted, this could all have been avoided. Analysis shows that players such as Ipswich Town’s Kevin Steggles managed to conform to Panini’s reasonable request to pose for a snap. Maybe he could have led us to World Cup glory in 1998! 

* This point is discredited somewhat by the fact that one sticker is missing from my album - Jake Findlay the Luton Town goalkeeper. If anyone with the 1983 album could complete our sample this would be greatly appreciated. A scanned image can be sent to: dr.ted@worldcupcollege.com

The Capello Project: testing times

World Cup 2010 is following an all too familiar pattern for England. Hope has been quickly replaced by disappointment. Perhaps the disappointment is more acute in this instance as the qualification campaign was so emphatic. However, England are undefeated in South Africa! They performed adequately against their principal group rivals USA in their first game, and would probably have been victorious if an unfortunate Robert Green error hadn’t gifted the US an equalizer. England also contrived more penetrative attacks against the US than they managed throughout the whole of World Cup 2006! But national negativity has arisen following a dismal draw against Algeria. The performance was very flat and the players appeared to be beset by nerves: the collective showing was bereft of vitality.

The inevitable response to such situations is to apportion blame, and this usually falls on the coach. Fabio Capello fielded his Plan A against Algeria with Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard in central midfield, Wayne Rooney supported by Emile Heskey in attack, and Steven Gerrard a nominal left-sided midfielder. England are undefeated when adopting this approach and it had worked well over the qualifiers. It’s therefore something of a knee-jerk reaction to criticise Capello after one dreary showing. Following a poor performance, it’s all too easy to offer alternatives which would have worked better – as these won’t be exacted to the rigours of analysis.

The regular national past time of lambasting an individual for failing to turn a group of second-tier international footballers into world beaters is a little tedious. The specific attributes of the coach are always considered a hindrance to the team: Sven Goran Eriksson was the uninspiring accountant-type, Steve McClaren the flip-flopping wally with a brolly – and now Capello will be the obtuse, autocratic Italian.

The media/public consensus suggests that playing Wayne Rooney as a lone forward is the panacea; but after his lethargic showing against Algeria this doesn’t seem to be a sound course of action. At World Cup 2006, Eriksson was actually blamed for frustrating Rooney by isolating him in attack. As with all England managers Capello will be damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t! There is also some suggestion that Capello is wedded to 4-4-2, but he has used this as a flexible framework throughout his tenure and 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 have been visible at times with players rotating positions.

The next stage of the psychological damage limitation process will be to deliberate over structural and cultural aspects of English football, such as the surfeit of overseas players in the Premier League, and unsophisticated Anglo Saxon styles of play. But perhaps more contingent and isolated factors play a part. England’s qualification campaign gained confidence and momentum following a good win against Croatia and this was facilitated in part by Robert Kovac’s (appropriate) sending off. Alas, a Robert Green error prevented England’s World Cup from starting on the right foot and, accordingly, fear of failure and vilification permeated the side against Algeria. An emphatic victory against Slovenia is required for confidence to be restored. But the wheels of doom are already in motion: for all Capello’s sound and consistent team building, it only takes one unfortunate error to kickstart the fear/blame cycle. Positive momentum could help England to the latter stages of the tournament, but a squad permeated by negativity can only flounder so far. But, of course, when England fail it will be because Capello didn’t do the obvious and play a 4-4-1-1 with Rooney in attack and Joe Cole sitting in the hole blah blah blah…