England Turn to Allardyce

It has been just under a month since England’s shambolic defeat to Iceland and the subsequent resignation of boss Roy Hodgson. With a young squad that had promised so much and caused great excitement across the country, it proved to be another familiar feeling of disappointment for many England fans.

Whether you regarded Hodgson’s squad as talented or perhaps overrated will have mattered little after defeat to the Icelandics. Indeed, regardless of whether you think any of England’s previous tournament squads have been good enough to properly challenge is irrelevant when it comes to deciding Hodgson’s reign. Sadly many will conclude that it was an out right failure.

Penalty heartache in the quarter finals of Euro 2012 was as good as it got for Hodgson and from memory the performance that night against Italy was as poor as what was to follow in Brazil two years later. Defeat to lowly Iceland in the recent European Championships provided the third and final proverbial nail in Roy Hodgson’s England coffin.

And so the next man has been lined up and picked to take on arguably the most difficult job in football. Despite this though the new man still claims to have “dreamt about this job”.

The shortlist was hardly eye watering, with rumours about an offer being put forward to Arsene Wenger as interesting as it got. This isn’t to belittle the candidates who were in contention for the job. Both Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce have had wonderful managerial careers and often go under the radar when keeping teams in the Premier League with little resources.

But the mere fact that there was little competition or breadth of choices available shows that the task ahead to rebuild the English national side is far greater than many of us can imagine.

In the end it was Sunderland’s latest version of football’s answer to Houdini, manager Sam Allardyce, a man renowned for his no nonsense style football and the ability to get the most out of a team.

Whether or not Allardyce is ready for the job remains to be seen but there is a belief that his appointment will see England move away from dependence on the ‘talented’ regulars and instead pick players in form. Hardly a revolutionary idea but serious questions have been asked regarding the selection of Wilshere and Henderson for the Euros. We can now hope that players can no longer be picked on ability alone.

Indeed there is a sense that England might be able to finally form an identity under Allardyce. Playing 5 strikers, whilst bold, was never really the solution to difficulties in France. It appeared against Slovakia, Iceland and even Wales that England had forgotten the midfield entirely with Kane, Rooney, Sturridge, Rashford and Vardy all appearing on the pitch together at numerous points.

This was my biggest gripe with England’s poor showing in France. It was not so much the boldness to play 5 strikers at one time but the inability to use them tactically and astutely. It made the team disjointed, demonstrated by the lack of invention. It was almost like the plan was to put them all on and hope for the best rather than working out plan B.

The worry with Allardyce though is that he will produce an England side that is a similar blueprint to his normal sides – physically competitive, defensively sound and relying on a long ball/ set piece approach going forward. This approach has proved successful for him in relegation battles but whether this will please supporters who expect more than just competing remains to be seen.

Some might say that this approach is what cost Allardyce his job at West Ham who have shown that they have greater ambition than playing like relegation fighters.

But one of Allardyce’s priorities (there are many) will be to establish a way of playing that fundamentally gets England to succeed and progress further in major competitions. It’s all very well topping your qualifying group with a 100% record but the big tournaments have found England wanting.

“My job is to get the players in each position and as a team to win in whatever way needs to be done in any particular game.”

Fans will surely excuse an Allardyce style of playing if it means greater spirit and fight in big games. Its fair to say that England and Hodgson were overawed by Iceland taking the lead in the infamous last 16 match. The magnitude of what defeat would mean left the players confused and shocked, something they never really seemed to snap out of.

One would like to think that this wouldn’t happen under Allardyce’s management and if it did, he would find the passion and words (preferably strong ones) during half time to revitalise the players.

The new man has promised to make subtle changes and man-manage the players. He spoke about the need for immediate impact from players on the international scene, hinting that only players with form will be picked in the future. Lets hope this means greater chances for players like Noble and even Drnkwater who was somehow overlooked despite being integral to Leicester’s stunning charge to the Premier League title.

Allardyce’s first assignment will be to right the wrong’s against Slovakia and show that England possess the capability to breakdown their stubborn defence in September’s qualifier. He will know all to well that the pressure is already greater than anything he will have experienced.

Its hard to know how much of his comments were tongue in cheek when he said “I am exceptionally lucky. Or am I exceptionally good?”. But there can be no doubt that his following comment summed it up perfectly – “I suppose that you’ll (the media and fans) decide”. Try as he may to remain calm and grounded, the true factor about his reign will be his record and ultimately, whether he can make this England team great again.

 

 

 

Diego Costa: ‘King of the Dark Arts’

Picture: Ben Sutherland

Magician, cheat, diver, world class – this rather paradoxical sentence sums up what has been an eventful few days in the Barclays Premier League. Surprisingly (or not), most of these words have been used to describe only one man, and in case you were too engrossed in the Rugby World cup to notice, the man in question is yet again Diego Costa.

Probably discussed about more often than the not, the much maligned Chelsea striker endured another interesting weekend where the topic of conversation was not his lack of goals but instead his style of play and gamesmanship.

His confrontation with Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny on the stroke of half time bizarrely ended up with Gabriel Paulista (I know, how did he get involved!) being sent off for a petulant kick at Costa. Watching at the time it seemed strange that Costa did not join Gabriel down the tunnel but as Match of the Day 2’s Martin Keown noted on Sunday, these dark arts employed by the Chelsea hit-man worked perfectly. An opposition player had been given their marching orders whilst he escaped with only a yellow.

Mourinho hardly helped clear up the matter in what quite frankly was an extraordinary press conference that preceded the game in which Chelsea went on to win 2-0. The majority of the time he spent wittering about badminton and of course the customary dig at his ‘good’ friend Arsene Wenger. Whilst we may at times dub Mourinho a genius, he certainly demonstrates eccentricities that make us wonder whether Nigel Pearson really was onto something when he ranted about Ostriches.

To the rest of us, it was clear to see that Costa had deliberately got Gabriel sent off. Although this is nothing new to the game, it did seem unjust considering Costa’s sins seemed far greater than anything Gabriel had committed.

Whilst it is easy to condemn Costa for his actions, it should be noted that Gabriel was nothing short of stupid for getting sent off. There had been previous between the two from their days in Spain and although Gabriel was admirably standing up for Koscielny, who had been grabbed in the face seconds before the clash, his naivety in reacting to Costa’s provocation more than likely cost his side the game.

Others have criticised Mike Dean for his part in the fracas. Chief of referees Dermot Gallagher told Sky Sports News that Dean should have done more to calm tempers down and was too quick to dismiss Gabriel for what were both cheap yellow cards at best. The referee’s job appears to be getting increasingly more difficult with all of this nonsense happening out of sight. Its fair to say it would be tough on Mike Dean to suggest he was culpable in this situation.

But as the fallout continues over the incident, the spotlight remains firmly on Costa. Perhaps more so now the FA have found him guilty of violent conduct which will now lead to a 3 match suspension. Although he may be a repeat offender, there is no doubt that Chelsea are a better side with Costa in it. Despite a lean start to the season, he plays a key role in most games, perhaps not in the way that many would like but his presence alone can be influential.

This provocative behaviour displayed by the Chelsea striker has become pivotal to the modern game and like him or not, Costa has mastered the skill well. As we wait to see if Chelsea will dispute the suspension given out, debate will continue whether this new element of gamesmanship has crossed the line. The idea of getting an opponent sent off certainly harms the spirit of the game and the play acting that we saw from the weekend was simply embarrassing at times.

So do we want this childish behaviour in the Premier League? No, of course not. However it is fast becoming something that we have to accept; something that is now part of our game and, say it quietly, important to partake in. Perhaps in time these dark arts will be put in the same bracket as time wasting – a well known side of gamesmanship which people now accept as inevitable.

But for now the petulance of it all should be condemned. It may well be a case of teams wising up to this new side of the game and simply being the ‘bigger man’ by ignoring it. Easier said than done in the heat of the moment, but Gabriel showed the highest price that can be paid for becoming involved with these games. Costa has of course got his comeuppance – with a reputation like his it can only shape referee’s perceptions of him in a negative light.

The FA have found him guilty of violent conduct and whilst this appears to be justice on the surface, it will do little to appease Wenger and his team who will feel it is too late. And to compound Wenger’s woes he will know that yet another defeat to Chelsea, albeit controversial, already threatens to derail whatever title aspirations Arsenal had.