I've been thinking about this and it may or may not be true. It doesn't actually matter. I'm beginning to think it's not the individual standard that counts but more the collective understanding of how to play a team game. Part of that can be coached into a team. I read
a piece on the Italian team on Saturday morning that the coach has 6 mantras written on a whiteboard at the training ground, rules that players must follow.
The six football “commandments” pinned to the whiteboard at Italy’s Coverciano training base before they departed for Germany made no mention of PlayStations or headphones. What they listed instead was a series of guiding principles for how the European champions should defend their title on the pitch.
1) Continuous pressing. 2) Control the play (ball management). 3) Tied together (distances between teammates: short, close). 4) Ferocious reaggression (when the ball is lost). 5) Recomposition (get back to your places). 6) Order, study, and prepare (to get back to pressing).
I particularly liked 3. Sometimes the gaps between our lines are huge. I took a screenshot a couple of years ago when Ronan Curtis was on the ball, 25 yards from goal. It wasn't even a counter attack. There was nobody with 20m of him.
But whether it's coached or whether it's instinct based on years of growing up playing the game properly, the point is good teams do the right things as a unit. I thought when Switzerland visited us recently they bullied us into accepting that they were dictating the game. It was almost Subbuteo-like how they could manipulate where our players had to be on the pitch. This wasn't because they had X player who could tackle or Y player who could dribble, it was because they all knew what to do together.
So I'm rambling a bit now - confusing myself over whether it's cultural or coached (maybe it can be either or both) but this is what frustrates me watching Ireland. Even England with all their quality were unable to control a game they dominated early last night.
This is where I had sympathy with what I think Kenny was trying to do.
I remember Junior posting years ago here that there'll always be a bit of huff and puff about how Ireland plays. At times huff and puff was all we had though. And tippy tappy without any huff and puff will only ever end one way too. I'm reluctantly coming around to Kerr's view that under the two Dutch technical directors we were playing technically sound but soulless football at youth level. Lots of pretty passing but no "street football".
Another coaching quote I like is Ange Postecolglou saying he tells his Spurs players to play like they were kids. Try the audacious, be ambitious, express yourselves. I loved Bellingham's interview where he said football is what he loves doing most, it's what gives him joy, it's his release. Wes and Andy Reid spring to mind. Robbie and Duff too.
Above all so far in the Euros I've seen every player in the good teams really really want to be on the ball. If they don't have it they look for it. And if a guy senses his teammmate is going to receive it he's already there to be the next option. Usually it's two players sensing this, and others anticipate what's coming next.
I hate to say it but I don't see any of that that at all in our teams. With a couple of exceptions I don't think we have the courage to want to be the next receiver.
PS: I also loved this:
A mocked-up image of the manager in Thursday’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport showed him holding up an alternative list of commandments that included restrictions on when players could use their phones and a ban on players walking around with headphones on and “a stupid look on their face” – a direct quote from Spalletti, albeit not a new one.
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