England vs Spain

Defending is a very important part of the game i know that but telling 10 out of 11 players to get behind the ball is not a tactical master class, especially coming from an Italian. It's a simple order that anyone can do and it's what most teams do when they come up against better opposition these days.

A tactical master class what Pardew did against Stoke - he highlighted areas where we could stop Stoke's attacks, from closing down/getting in their faces and being physical to the throw-ins, matching their aerial ability, wingers covering the fullbacks to stop any crosses from coming in etc.. and most importantly, getting your players to believe that they can do it, and it all adds up to a tactical master class!

I want to see us competing with the likes of Spain because you can beat them if you attack them and we didn't do that. We didn't seem to know what we were doing when we had the ball then we did when we where without the ball, which reminds me of an interview when Butt questioned Fat Sam on his tactics "So what do we do when we have the ball?"

 

Fabregas was my favourite

"You want teams to have a go at you and test you and see what happens."

which translates as

"We want teams to play us at a style of football that is more suited to us, so that we can thrash them because we're supposed to be world No.1's and its only right. I'm very bitter we were tactically out thought on this occasion and feel the only fair solution is everyone to play in the style of Barca so we are guaranteed to win."

 

England do not posess the talent to beat Spain in an attacking game of football. So attacking them would have eneded in a heavy defeat. Therefore for us to win we have to think outside of the box. You are completely underestimating the meticulous preparation that has been done by Capello and his team to achieve this fantastic result. It was a tactical masterclass. A defensive one but a successful one. Being Italian it may well have been loosely based on the famed Catenaccio system which has been adapted to suit the modern game several times over the years. It is every bit as valid as an attacking formation and certainly takes a great deal of tactical discipline. You clearly have ignored the tactical postioning of players the other night when you claim it was 10 behind the ball. you can put 10 behind the ball all the time and still get tonked 10-0. The tactical masterclass comes from preparing your players to take up key postions at certain times. They need to repeat this over and over and not lose concentration. It is extremely difficult to achieve because of human nature.

It shouldn't remind you of fat sam and nicky butt at all because we were trying to retain possession (unsucessfully albeit due to the swarming Barca style pressure Spain play) Fat Sam simply hoofed 60 yard balls to Owen and Martins, the smallest strikers in the league regardless of opposition. Sometimes in football you have to accept you're not in the same league as the opposition and have to adjust your tactics to win. We did this and yet our manager still gets slated. Its the old English mentality of "we can't learn from anyone, we're the best" We're not, we're not even one of the top 6 teams in world football and it will take a monumental slice of luck to win at a major tournament. We just have to accept we're not that good technically and need to improve. Trevor Brooking has realised this and set about changing the way we play the game but as it did with Spain, you can wait 15 years to see the benefits. I'd love to see us improve the technical aspects of our game to compete with Spain, but it is wholly unrealistic and irresponsible to try and play this way at present.