When an England team reaches the finals of a major international tournament, they inevitably suffer the same old illnesses.
The weight of expectation, and an intense media pressure along with the circus that goes with it – the England team at Euro 2016 is being shadowed by a 430-strong press core, the largest number of journalists following any team at this year’s tournament. It usually leads to plenty of poisoned journalistic pens when the team serve up the usual turgid and uninspiring fare.
This time, however, England’s strange relationship with their media has led to an interesting mix of positives and negatives over the first three games of this tournament. And one man who knows more than most what it’s like to taste such contrasting emotions in the glare of an expectant media is Stuart Pearce. Pearce, spoke to us as an ambassador for Carlsberg’s ‘If Carlsberg Did Substitutions’ UEFA EURO 2016™ campaign.
As a player, he was part of the England sides that reached the semi finals of the World Cup in 1990 and the European Championships on home soil in 1996, yet failed in the group stages of Euro 92 and didn’t even qualify for the 1994 World Cup. He’s also managed England’s Under 21 side at major tournaments.
By all accounts, England’s seniors have played well at this year’s installment. They’ve dominated possession in their group games, created chances – 64 shots so far – and they’ve generally been attack-minded and stylish. Yet the reward of five points from three games has only been good enough for second place in the group.
‘We didn’t get the rub of the green against Slovakia and generally in the tournament, but we’ve played against teams who have got men behind the ball and got their blocks in. We’ve maybe lacked a bit of a cutting edge in setting up those chances, too’
England’s cutting edge has indeed been missing – 64 shots may have been created, but not enough of those have been from unmissable positions. Their attacking players are on form with their clubs, but haven’t replicated that at this tournament. It’s a familiar story, but the result is that England have one of the worst chance conversion rates (only three goals from those 64 shots) in the competition.
But an even bigger worry for England is how they set up as a team. Knockout football is, after all, about getting through; scraping through, if you have to. At Euro 96, England made it all the way to the semi finals, but after beating the Netherlands and Scotland in the group, England only scraped through their first knockout tie against Spain on penalties. Had they made the final, they would have had to beat Germany on penalties in the semis, too.
So the positive for Pearce is not so much the fact that England have played well, but the fact that Roy Hodgson is beginning to get a feel for his best team, even if the negative is finishing second in the group.
‘England go into any game knowing that if the players on the pitch don’t have an impact, there are plenty of players who can have an impact off the bench, there’s not much between the players in the squad in terms of quality. The key for Roy Hodgson going forward is to be able to formulate a team that picks itself, that the players dictate the team selection, not the manager.’
There are positives to take from that disappointing draw. None more so than that Hodgson now knows which team is his best. He also knows which players don’t seem up to the rigours of this particular tournament. ‘The back six now picks itself,’ says Pearce, clearly unimpressed with the performance of Ryan Bertrand in his old hunting ground, left back, whilst Joe Hart and Eric Dier won’t be displaced from in front of and behind that back four.
Yet international tournament football is different from what we’re used to in the club game. The starting eleven isn’t necessarily the most important thing for the management team to get right. The group dynamic is just as important – and just as that media circus following the England team might focus on the team selections, Pearce believes the manager’s job is also to focus on the players who aren’t playing.
‘There are lots of players in the squad who have been to Under 21 tournaments, been to Olympic games, so they know what it’s like to be at training camps for five or six weeks. They know that the spirit within the camp is vital, and even more important among those who aren’t in the starting eleven. The morale has to be kept high, making sure those players are ready if needed.’
That sort of mentality only comes from experience. And this particular England squad doesn’t have a lot of caps – England’s is the youngest squad at the tournament. The inclusion of Marcus Rashford, in particular, has polarised England fans. 17 minutes against Wales is the only tournament experience that the Manchester United youngster has under his belt.
‘I disagreed with his inclusion all along. He should be with the underage teams this summer, playing in tournaments.’ For Pearce, a man who has a vast experience with the England underage set-up, there’s nothing like playing tournament games. ‘You and I can sit on the bench all day. There’s no pressure on the bench,’ he says dismissively. Though I argue I might feel the pressure more than he would.
There is some sort of consensus that bringing young players into the national squad early has a positive effect. Especially when it’s at a Euros or a World Cup. After all, sitting around a hotel for five weeks is just as important a skill as being a good footballer at a tournament, and it’s often overlooked.
But by giving someone like Rashford the experience of simply tagging along for the ride, you may find yourself actually stunting his development, giving him a false experience of what’s actually happening when you’re involved at the Euros; and more crucially, a false expectation of what will happen at future tournaments he will be involved in.
‘With young players at international level: they should be called up to the squad only if they’re going to play. The only way you can get a real experience is by actually playing games.’
The problem now is that the games that England still have to play are laced with added pressure. And added difficulty.
‘The implications of that will only be known when we’re actually playing games, but if you look at what happened back in my time when we reached two semi finals, the draw was probably slightly helpful to us, playing the likes of Belgium and Cameroon in 1990.’
This time, England’s potential route to the final looks fraught with danger. Iceland in the last 16 is as favourable as the 1990 draw – more favourable, even – but satisfaction with the opponent is short-sighted. England will be on the same side of the draw as France, Italy, Spain and Germany. Getting past the quarters will be an achievement.
Pearce is clearly worried what this will do the players’ psychology, ‘When you look at the reaction post-Slovakia, as the players walked off the pitch, you could tell there was enormous disappointment that they hadn’t won the group.’ The disappointment of missing out on the simpler side of the draw is palpable.
The margins are so fine at this tournament. Drawing two games they should have won has seen England faced with a hard draw, but against teams like France and Germany who haven’t looked totally convincing so far in this tournament – is that an advantage?
‘But you have to remember, the one thing France and Germany have shown is that they’ve been able to comfortably take charge of their groups. And when you consider that if it wasn’t for that late goal against Wales, we could be on three points with our fingers crossed.’
So how do you lift the players for the now-daunting task of progressing further in the competition?
‘You remind them they won 10 out of 10 in qualifying, that they’re unbeaten in the group stages, and even Wales who won the group aren’t unbeaten. There’s enough quality and youthful energy in the squad to have dominated all three games, and especially towards the end of all the matches.’
There are plenty of positives for England, despite the obvious negatives and consequences of finshing second in Group B. It’s clear that England have played well, and it shouldn’t be a hard job to remind the players that they’re actually quite good at football. But the draw now means it’ll be that bit harder.
‘We’ll take whoever comes, we’re out of the group and now we have to take whatever comes in our direction.’
And it could well be Portugal, France, and Germany, Italy or Spain flying in the direction of Roy Hodgson.
Stuart Pearce surprised tradesmen with a delivery of Carlsberg as part of the beer brand’s latest stunt, ‘Bulk for Beers’. Follow @CarlsbergUK to discover how Carlsberg will be substituting the ordinary for the extraordinary for England fans over the course of the tournament.
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