A view on England's non-performance at the World Cup from the comfort of home.
It's Saturday morning, 5am, and I'm restless. I haven't really slept, my mind buzzing with constant "what ifs", my groin tight from kicking imaginary balls and the strange decision to go for a run in the wee hours has back fired because I'm left my with the realisation that I'm no fitter than Gazza, let alone Wayne Rooney.
So I'm still in a horrible mood, I'd kick the cat if I had one (don't do this at home folks), yet why? I expect a lot of you feel the same, so why do we have this burning inner frustration at the events of the last few days? After all wasn't our expectation supposed to be low for this World Cup?
Maybe it was because we were fooled into having hope again by the promise of a new youthful attacking era (we'll comb over the fact that thus far, only 226 minutes out of an available 1980 has been played by players under the age of 23).
Maybe it's because we felt the usual suspects were at fault again and we wonder why the manager persisted with them, but conversely we also wonder why the manager left a couple of the usual suspects at home because they were obviously the answer to our problems.
I expect its a combination of a lot of things, but the biggest thing that has annoyed me is how needless the journey home after 3 games is. True I'm a nobody, an armchair supporter who watches a game armed with a pint of cider and a packet of Doritos so what would I know, yet it seemed obvious during the two warm up friendlies and two games in Brazil that Roy's preferred formation had major flaws and simply didn't work with the players he had available.
It is recognised by everyone that England's defence was a weak area, and so Roy's solution was to go on the offensive. A brave and daring plan one might think, yet the way he's gone about this is at the expense of the midfield, a teams engine room, the key battle ground for any game, and so should we be surprised if we ended up getting exposed in both midfield and defence as a result?
There was the debacle of England's left flank in the Italy game, that again showed a weakness in the managers preferred system. I'm sure it was clear to everyone there was an issue here from very early on in the game, yet this was only resolved once Italy were in the lead, tired and retreated to their 18 yard line with about 20 minutes to go. You can't help feeling if Jose was given that situation he would have made a substitution after 30 minutes, it was that big an issue.
I would concede there is a wider debate to have about the development of our young players and getting them game time at the top level in the Premier League and abroad, but this shouldn't take away from the hear and now fact that with better coaching decisions England could have conceivably been sat on 6 points now.
Maybe you will think I'm barmy with that assertion, maybe that I'm being unfair pointing the finger at just the manager, not the "vastly over paid players", but then again Roy is paid well himself (2nd highest paid manager in the tournament) and in my mind the key things he could control, such as squad selection, team selection and formation contained glaring errors. You only have to look at teams like Costa Rica, Chile and France (what a transformation) to see what good coaching and decision making can do to sides.
Personally, I can't help feel Roy is no longer managing as he sees things, he's now manage a perception, managing how he thinks we think he should manage. This is surely evident in the way he's tried to impose this 4-2-3-1 system, almost as a way of proving to the press and wider public he's not a defensive and rigid 4-4-2 man.
He was briefly his own man when he selected Sterling through the middle with Rooney out wide for the opener, yet following the backlash from pundits and journalists alike who declared on mass "Rooney must play through the middle" (and in a quieter voice "or not at all") Roy backed down citing the largely unbelievable "tactical decision" as the reason for the change of heart. This is never a good sign and time may tell that our one positive performance so far was a defeat against a not so great and ageing Italian side.
My frustrations and protestations aside, the FA have declared they will stand by their man through to 2016, but then you wouldn't expect anything else at this stage with one game still to play.
However a realisation may dawn that with continued questions over the Managers performance to come over the next few weeks, plus the need to find new sponsors and sell tickets for the European Qualifiers coming up at Wembley, they will need to offer all England fans renewed hope and surely that can only be achieved by installing a new man? I'm sorry Roy, I know you mean well and would like more time, but then so did David Moyes!
Here's hoping for a better 2016.
Armchair Supporter
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