The second in what I hope will be a long line of guest articles on the Hartlepool Vital website.
Balltofeet makes a provocative assessment of size.
There has always been a feeling that size matters. Just ask Sven! As the FA looks to a successor they have drawn up a short list. Not this is a SHORT list not a tall list! Surely it cannot include managers insistent upon playing a big man up front or a Viking or Anglo-Saxon warlord intent upon aggression.
Small mercies then for one manager who has been quoted in the press this week as saying ‘I want to see us playing football, that is my philosophy, my belief’ adding ‘As a manager you have to play to the strengths of the squad. If they were all six foot three, it would be in the air.’ This experienced philosophiser on the game concluded his application for football’s most coveted job by remarking ‘but we have good footballers at the club, good footballers with pedigree who can play football. Let’s keep it on the floor.’ Well such remarks call for an immediate summons to Soho Square and an interview.
Yet for years we in England have extolled the virtues of the traditional battering ram or bean pole centre forward or should that be centre forehead. Hero worship of Lofthouse, the now sadly departed ‘Osgood is good’ quote, Jeff Astle and the erstwhile Bob Latchford made us believe in the target man. Well the last fortnight must have confirmed the target man is yesteryears news.
Schooled in the late 1970’s at the Vic with the Newton and Houchen combo we have believed this was the way forward. Messers Borthwick, Baker, Howard – albeit successful away from the Vic, Lormor and more recently Daly were brought in to provide the answer. This is what the populace wanted. These were the strikers who could profit from the outlet ball, a euphemism for a 35 yard hoof, the textbook far post header from a winger cum provider or the less than scientific ‘let us win the second ball theory’. Such tactics once expertly marshalled by Howard Wilkinson at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds with Lee Chapman, Mel Sterland and Seaham’s finest, Brian Marwood, allowed teams to progress well and win the old Division 1 and some of these less than creative players collected England caps. However, this route 1 football pioneered by Charles Hughes in his coaching manual had become discredited by 1986 World Cup. Why?
1986 saw Mark Hateley as the favourite to lead the line in the Mexico World Cup, our success eventually fell to the predator and the foil – Lineker and Beardsley. Hateley topped up his tan for the rest of the tournament. This partnership brought even more success in 1990 with a certain Steve Bull confined to the bench. With Bearsdley and Lineker passed their best we did not qualify for 1994 World Cup because we did not have the staff! In 1998 it was an Owen wonder goal rather than any Shearer ‘back stick’ strike that made the headlines. Is 2002 remembered as they year of Heskey? This past week we have seen, of all teams, Liverpool lump it long to Crouch, with a one in twelve scoring record, trying to win a European game. Give me strength they were like the other ‘Pool on a bad day. Everton are another classic side. With Ferguson in the team they lump it long and have been relegation fodder, but with the more agile Beattie and Cahill they try and play their way through.
So with Crouch certain to get the World Cup the F.A have only one answer. Find a man who extols the virtues of one Brian Clough in his infamous ‘god gave us grass and now let us play on it’ quote in reference to a plastic pitch and some 1980’s ‘back to front’ kick and rush football! So who is this sorcerer who extols this new creed of ‘keep it on the floor’. These virtues were well known to the 1970 Brazil side, the 1988 Dutch masters and French of Zidane’s 1998 fame. Well you have guessed it. This club manager is not even tied to a contract. Dear F.A. your man is Paul Stephenson! He of course knows size does not matter, but he will not be appointed because he does not favour equal opportunities due to his anti 6 footers rhetoric. An England manager must be political correct about size – just ask Sven! Stephenson is the only manager unbeaten in all competitions this season. Get down to John Joyce now with thirty bob each way!
If England are successful in Germany it will not be because Crouch has come off the couch, but because Rooney has helped put some Cole on the fire!
