It’s time for Roy Hodgson to stamp his authority on the England team and prove he actually has some sort of plan to revive the team’s fortunes.
And to do so he is going to have to take some pretty tough decisions.
England’s performances since Hodgson took over have ranged from uninspiring to poor. They are playing with a style that places far too much emphasis on defence and shape at the expense of attacking flair and creativity.
If you want proof of that – assuming actually watching them wasn’t proof enough – then the fact that in four of Hodgson’s 11 games his team have managed just one shot on target should dispel any doubts. Truly boring football.
The performance against Poland on Wednesday highlighted this dullness. The players couldn’t pass, couldn’t dribble, couldn’t shoot and couldn’t have entertained their way out of a paper bag.
Yes, they weren’t helped by the fact they were playing on a pitch that was more like cold soup thanks to the previous evening’s roof debacle. And I’m sure the overnight delay didn’t help proceedings, whether or not sleeping pills were actually involved.
But the main reason behind their dire performance in Warsaw was the personnel chosen by Hodgson and the way he told them to play.
Which leads me to those tough decisions I was talking about. And the first one has to be to drop Wayne Rooney.
I am utterly fed up watching him underperform for England. Yes, he had a decent game against San Marino, but Carlton Palmer would probably have shone against the part-timers.
In the games that really matter, when England are crying out for Rooney to be the player we all know he is capable of being, he descends into mediocrity.
Apart from his lucky goal, he did nothing of note in Wednesday’s game. Nothing. And this is a player who some people have the cheek to put on a par with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Rooney needs to be dropped. Not forever or even for a prolonged period of time. He just needs to be shocked into the reality that his place in the England team is not a formality.
Assuming he is fully fit, then leave him on the bench for the upcoming games against San Marino and Montenegro.
Drill it into his head that he is not automatically in the team on the basis of reputation but that he has to earn the right to represent the Three Lions.
There are other selection problems too. I don’t see Phil Jagielka as a good enough replacement for John Terry; Michael Carrick would have been better off staying in his self-imposed international exile, and James Milner is little more than a workhorse.
However, of even more significance than the personnel being chosen is the way they are being asked to play. When Hodgson was first appointed, there were fears he would be too defensive and those fears have become an evident reality.
Fair enough, he has made England more organised and harder to beat. And he has to take credit for that, considering vulnerability at the back has always been an issue.
But that solidity has come at too great an expense. He has turned a team that has always been a threat going forward into one that is about as deadly as a packet of marshmallows.
The opportunity cost of this new, resolute England is too high. We now have a team which is as much fun as watching paint dry and as creative as a bucket of water.
Hodgson has to decide if his primary objective is to bore his way to Brazil in 2014 and then make the inevitable early departure. Because it is strikingly obvious that any team playing like a poor man’s version of the 1980s Italy will come undone against a team with half a brain.
Alternatively, there is a braver path for Hodgson to follow. And that involves him abandoning his focus on defence and getting the team back to playing the attacking football that comes naturally to them.
Allow the players to go for it on the pitch and learn how to win games 5-4 if need be. Put the excitement back into their play.
This may ultimately cost England qualification for the World Cup. True. But what’s the point in qualifying only to put in performances like they did in Euro 2012?
1
The number of shots on target England have managed in four of the 11 matches the team has played under Hodgson.
I’ve seen England fail at many tournaments over the years, and I much prefer it when they go out all guns blazing than slide out with a whimper like they did this summer.
As I said, Hodgson has some tough decisions to make between now and the next set of qualifying games.
The sad part is, I think we all know what his choices will be.
England fans deserved better
Meanwhile, talking about the England match, Fifa should bite the bullet and offer some sort of compensation to every England fan who turned up for the game on Tuesday but was unable to stay for the rearranged match on Wednesday.
If the postponement had been down to genuinely unavoidable circumstances, then fair enough. But the fact that the game was abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch when the stadium had a roof that could have been closed, means apologies are not enough.
The football associations involved have already said the 1,500 England fans who were unable to stay on will have the money for their match tickets refunded. But that’s not enough.
What about the travel, the hotels, the flights, the time off work? I’m fairly sure nobody really wanted a midweek night out in Warsaw just for the sake of it.
The whole postponement was a shambles.
But Fifa does have the opportunity to make up it for now by digging into its own pockets and offering those fans some sort of compensation for their wasted journey.
It doesn’t have to be hard cash, because they would never part with any of that easily, but at the very least they should buy them all free tickets to the next England match.
Although after the last performance I’m not sure whether free tickets for an England game qualifies as compensation or punishment…
The name game
It’s only a small blow in the battle to maintain football’s heritage, but St James Park getting its proper name back is still a happy moment.
Of course, this is only happening because Newcastle’s new sponsors – Wonga – didn’t want the stadium naming rights in the package they signed with Newcastle.
If they had, you can be sure the signs going up would have been for the Wonga Arena, which would have been a name of truly epic awfulness.
On the subject of Wonga, there has been some controversy over their sponsorship of the team, primarily because they are a company that specialises in short-term loans at high interest rates.
I can see why some fans might be a little annoyed with the club being associated with a company which could be accused of exploitation, but personally I don’t find it any more offensive than being sponsored by a betting company, for example.
And if you want to really scrape the sponsorship barrel then you need to look at Greek non-league football.
Voukefalas Larissa, in their desperation to keep themselves afloat amid the financial misery in Greece, managed to secure themselves a rather unique sponsorship deal… from the local brothel.
Their new kit is bright pink and emblazoned with the logos of Villa Erotica and Soula’s House of History. Pure class.
Unfortunately they have been banned from wearing it by the Greek FA, although the club is appealing the decision.
Makes the Wonga controversy look a bit pale in comparison doesn’t it?
Bitter Swede for Germany
Comeback of the week (if not the year) award has to go to Sweden for the way they turned around their World Cup qualifier against Germany.
Four-nil down with just 30 minutes left to play, everyone, myself included, was wondering if the Germans would go on to get a couple more or take their foot off the gas.
Well, they certainly did the latter. And jumped on the brakes as well, allowing Sweden tofight back with four goals of their own, the equaliser coming in the 93rd minute of what must have been a truly enthralling match.
That was the first time in their history that Germany had ever thrown away a four-goal lead, although as statistics go, that’s not entirely surprising.
I can’t imagine history is littered with international teams who have gone 4-0 up and then not gone on to win the game.
Even England have never managed that…
sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade