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.