Group Match 1: England vs Paraguay
In spite of their woeful opening match record, England were strong favorites against a modest Paraguay side. After all, never before have England had such a strong and all round side. With in form Crouch, goal poaching abilities of Owen, the best midfield in competition, a very strong defense and a reliable goal keeper one would have expected them to pack off Paraguay without much of trouble.
Yes, England won but their over all performance was certainly found wanting.
A precision marked Beckham free kick got England off to the best possible start. But after that the match fizzed out into a very boring affair. Apart from a couple of long range shots from Lampard and Beckham and just one attack of any real purpose from Paraguay, there was nothing much worth noticing. The second half was a similar story with England able to produce just 2-3 attacks of any real threat.
So why did this highly rated England attack failed sparkle against Paraguay? The answers is simple, Eriksson got it all wrong, yet again. Here are some of his tactical blunders which made England look a very mediocre side:
- Long ball to Crouch is not the only way to play!
9 out of 10 England attacks were in the form of long ball played from deep mid field aimed at Crouch with Owen running into space to collect the header. Though on paper this looks to be a very good strategy, time and again I have seen that such an obvious strategy works very rarely. I have seen it with Liverpool, I have seen it with Chelsea and now I saw it with England. The Paraguayn defense was covering Crouch and Owen quite well and whenever Crouch actually won the header, the referee used to call it a free kick against England. After seeing this strategy fail, Eriksson should really changed things around a bit and should have tried to play a more passing kind of a game. We saw that whenever Joe Cole, Lampard and Beckham got the ball in Paraguayn half, England looked threatening. But there were very few attacks through the services of Cole, Lampard and Beckham. In fact, in the second half, Beckham hardly ever touched the ball. Wake up Sven.
- When you bring on a left side winger, he needs a striker to cross the ball to!
England’s first substitute was a young talented Middlesboro star, Stuart Downing. I have no problems with Downing coming on but the person he replaced was Michel Owen. Now that was inexplicable. Downing is known for taking on defenders on the left flank and putting quality crosses. But when there is no striker in the box then those crosses serve no purpose. You just cannot play Crouch as a lone striker. He is good as a second striker but just lacks the goal poaching abilities. We saw on 3 or 4 occasions in second half that England midfielders had put in some real quality crosses into the box but there was no one to get on the end of it. Are u listening Sven.
- Hargreevs is a very mediocre player and does not deserve a place in England side!
The second England sub was Owen Hargreevs in place of Joe Cole with
15 mins to go. What was Eriksson thinking over here is beyond me. Hargreevs is a player who gives you nothing going forward and who is not a solid defensive
midfielder either. He is in the side just because the manager likes him. That’s not a good enough reason for me. From the substitution it was obvious that Eriksson had decided to defend for last 15 mins and settle for 1-0 victory. I have no problem with that thinking. The problem I have is with Hargreevs. When you have a person like Michel Carrick on the bench who is an outstanding defensive midfielder, why would you bring on a hapless and hopeless Hargreevs. He hardly got to touch the ball in last 15 mins. Are u thinking at all Sven.
I have nothing personal against Eriksson but it’s far too often that I have seen England side under achieve just because of their un-imaginative manager.
Individually speaking, Beckham after a dream start did not do much at all. Lampard hit 2-3 of his trade mark long drives but just did not see enough of the ball. Same applies to Joe Cole too. Owen did not look sharp at all and was time and again let down by his first touch. Crouch’s afternoon was spoiled because of some poor refereeing decisions. My Man of the Match was Steven Gerrad who controlled his urge of going forward and did an outstanding job in his defensive midfielder role. The biggest positive for England was their defense which was as solid as ever.
I still have a lot of belief in this England side and I think they have what it takes to go all the way. I just hope that Eriksson learns from his mistake.
