Why England is an overrated Football Nation?
England's Euro 2016 team was 'Overpaid, pampered and an embarrassment,' rightly said by the Evening Standard. After England's ignominious defeat at the hands of minnows Iceland, their reputation as underachievers has reached a new level. For the last 50 years England has consistently been touted to be favorites for different International tournaments. Hosting the so-called 'best league' in the world, one would expect their national team to dominate football. However for some reason they always seem to crash out, this time embarrassingly so. Their seemed to be a renewed optimism surrounding England's hopes this time around but for different reasons they failed. The fact that most of the teams in the Premier League are filled with International Superstars, the English contingents are made to look 'good' by their talented team-mates.
Overpaid, Pampered and an Embarrassment?
Moreover the Premier League may be the most competitive league in the world but when it faces the European Heavyweights like Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich, the top teams are blown away. The fact that there was only 1 English team in the Semi Final of the Champions League last year and none in the previous 4 years is testament to the fact that England has lost the X-Factor. The players do not perform on the international stage as well as in domestic football because they are all arrogant and cannot work well as a group. They lack unity. That may be because most of the best English teams do not have the best English players playing together for the whole year. If one looks at Germany and Spain, one notices how the spine of the team is based on the native country. The only reason the Premier League is good is because of the international talent on display. Harry Kane plays well when he has the services of Eriksen, not Rooney. Vardy needs Mahrez's creativity not Adam Lallana's.
The Best players in the league are all International players and not English
Another reasons for England's shambolic international displays is the fact that the best team is rarely picked. Most of the time, the manager *cough* Roy Hodgson *cough* 'shoe-horns' players into the team. He picks the big names but does not play them in their best position. Even though he was intent on giving youth a chance, he insisted on playing the ageing Rooney in place of the exuberant Delle Alli. In previous years, there has been a startling lack of discipline by the players. Thankfully they now have a strict disciplinarian in Sam Allardyce. He is however not the right choice as his expertise comes in avoiding relegation not in winning and playing attacking football.
England also suffers from a lack of a good manager. Lets face it, they have never had a manager to compete with Jose Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte and Wenger. That is the main reason they cannot get tactics correct and get the best out of the players. Because everyone overrates English players and expects them to perform well, there is always over-confidence and hope surrounding the nation's chances. That is why they tend to crash hard.
None of the best managers in the Premier League are British
So there they are, the main reasons why England perform badly at International tournaments. It is a combination of bad management, lack of teamwork and hard work as well as the players not having the service they are used to. They are also not played together in big teams as the teams aim at winning and not developing youth. Major changes need to be made to change the landscape of English Football, as Scholes said-
"In the Premier League in the last two years, have I really seen a game of high quality? A game that I've thought: "Wow!" It's difficult to think of any,The money's the most important thing these days about football because owners, the majority of them, are just interested in making money for their football club. They don't care what they see on a Saturday afternoon on the pitch. They're purely businessmen, whereas at Barcelona you have a balance between business and football. It's a club that is a cooperative owned by the fans, not by one businessman or a group of individuals. That's why they have the best players. And why clubs like that are the best teams." Perhaps the FA should consider finding a way to get more English players playing for top clubs and improving the quality of football.
-Zorawar
