Is Beckenbauer right about England?

[SI 4 BHA]

Has Capello made a difference or do we still play basic old fashioned footy?
Personally, I can't believe that we still start games at this level using the subtle tactic of a big lump up front and centre backs slower than a tortoise.

So glad to see that at least at the Albion, Gus seems to be moving in the right direction. Pity England can't do the same.

World Cup 2010: Germany's Franz Beckenbauer berates Fabio Capello's England - Telegraph

 

[Adopted Brightonian]

Stick those comments on the dressing room wall before the next game and that should fire the players up nicely.

 

[Hunting 784561]

Of course Beckenbauer is right.

Keeping the ball - possession football - still seems to be the hardest thing for English (and British) players to achieve.

Has always been like that, and I can't see it changing in the future no matter who the manager is, as this is a grass roots problem, its the ways our kids are taught to play.

 

[severnside gull]

Beckenbauer is German and will naturally try to put us down as it is more than possible that we will meet in the next round.........as a previous poster commented, stick it up on the dressing room wall and watch it backfire

 

[Northstander]

And what part of the Kaiser's comment is wrong?

 

[matt]

I couldn't believe how many times England's best players gave away possession against the US. When that happens, you can't build momentum and you can't boss a game in the manner we all wish we would.
Having said that, I hope we play Germany in the second round and stick it up 'em.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Yes...all very well being indignant but the assessment is correct.

 

[seagull_special]

Beckenbauer is German and will naturally try to put us down as it is more than possible that we will meet in the next round.........as a previous poster commented, stick it up on the dressing room wall and watch it backfire

conversely they could listen to one of the worlds greatest football legends and take on board what he has to say.

 

[Mendoza]

Whoever we play, we always look like long ball hoofatrons because every other country (apart from Scotland, Ireland and Wales) look more technically gifted than our squad

 

[Brovion]

He's got a point, but we ARE better than we used to be. I do agree with Smart Mart above, but I still think it's far too early to have an inquest and the usual hand-wringing over the state of English game.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Of course he is right. Within five minutes of Germany's opening game, even though they had been under the cosh in the opening minute, it was clear that they had a settled pattern of play. The same cannot be said of England. No rhythm. Hit and hope, Playing like strangers.

Beckenbaur doesn't strike me as anti-English and trying to wind us up. I remember reading a book where he was generous in stating that England deserved to have won the 1966 World Cup as they played much better than the Germans in the Final, and would have won the final even if Hurst's effort had been disallowed.

 

[The Wizard]

I actually quite like the fact everyone is now righting us off, no over hyping ect. Perhaps it might help?...

Heres hoping.

 

[Easy 10]

Utter codswallop from Beckenbauer, who pre-tournament was actually waxing lyrical about Capello and England, naming us as one of his favourites to win the thing. England are no more "kick and rush" than any other team in the tournament. Of course there's going to be a long ball played forward at times, just like every other team, but to blithely label England as "kick and rush" long-ball merchants as if thats our entire tactic is ridiculous. Most of the time our best attacking impetus against the States came from moving it through the midfield and finding overlapping fullbacks, there was plenty of passing and movement. At no point did we resort to just lumping it.

He's correct right insofar as there IS a shallow pool of english talent in the Premier League due to the number of foreigners. But this is a bit rich coming from a bloke who's national team is currently stuffed with Turks and Poles.

 

[SI 4 BHA]

Whoever we play, we always look like long ball hoofatrons because every other country (apart from Scotland, Ireland and Wales) look more technically gifted than our squad

That's true, but the question is why is that? Bringing in lots of technically gifted overseas players into the Premier League doesn't seem to have had any effect on the English lads!

 

[beorhthelm]

i think he has a point. as far as the backwards part is concerned, we have done so under Capello, relative to how Capello started. he had us playing organised football at first, but recently he seems to have allowed the old English game to re-emerge and dominate, rather than enforce his will on the team about how we will play. one irony of this is that most of the players dont actually play this way in the weekly club games, so rather than being a possible strength it is a weakness as its rather alien to them. i dont get it, why isnt Capello enforcing the structured, passing game?

those same players in the England shirts compete with and beat foreigners for places every week when wearing their club shirt, so it is not a case they dont have the technical skill or the talent.

 

[Bozza]

The man is a buffoon. Not so long ago...

Beckenbauer, who won the competition as a player in 1974 and a coach in 1990, believes England will be genuine challengers in South Africa, although they will have strong competition from other countries, namely Argentina and Lionel Messi.

"I think they go to South Africa among the favourites along with Spain, Brazil, Argentina, because, of course, Argentina have Lionel Messi who along with Rooney is the best player in the world right now," he said.

 

[Tooting Gull]

He's got a point, player-for-player other countries are more comfortable with the ball. I don't think he's anti-English, and has just answered a question honestly.

But with a possible last-16 clash looming that is a very bizarre thing to say during the tournament from such a high-profile figure. It can only make England play better. Best team-talk Fabio could give if we play them.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Here's the great Franz Beckenbauer in action against England

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[Marshy]

I actually quite like the fact everyone is now righting us off, no over hyping ect. Perhaps it might help?...

Heres hoping.

 

[Man of Harveys]

But this is a bit rich coming from a bloke who's national team is currently stuffed with Turks and Poles.

Right, enough of this - (and I'm not afraid to gleefully cut and paste this again if this issue crops up again): To maybe some people's surprise, Germany, like England, is these days a highly multicultural society. And, as it is in England, that gets reflected in the various family backgrounds of its national football team.

So if anyone is dumb enough to finger-wag about the level of - very much for want of a better term - ethnic "purity" in the German football team then, then unless you're a hypocritical humbug, you're also saying that the England football shouldn't be "stuffed full" of people with, say, any trace of Jamaican family background either. So no that presumably would mean no Ashley Cole, Emile Heskey, David James, Aaron Lennon etc etc ad infinitum. Utter, utter drivel of course. Unless you vote BNP.

And that's without even getting into the, erm shall we say, historically-complex issue of east German borders with Poland, which can leave someone like Klose to be born in what had traditionally been a culturally German city into a German family background but a city which (for obvious reasons) now lies in Poland.

So let's leave the fabulously-gifted and German as the Brandenburg Gate Gelsenkirchen-born Mesut Ozil - third generation German-born - alone eh? "I was born here, I've always felt at home here...I've received praise from Turkish Germans for my decision to play for Germany", as the young star classily said recently.

(oh and yeah, you totally got us on Cacau. Oh and sort-of on Podolski - after all he's only lived in Germany since he was two...maybe we can have him if you Englanders can have Hargreaves)