iSporter Rick Liebling believes that the England national football team are not underachievers at the FIFA World Cup 2010, but just not very good and the presents the proof as the absence of English players and coaches at the UEFA Champions League finals.
Wayne and Fabio discussing summer vacation plans.
I’m in London right now, meeting my new Dare colleagues and celebrating the company’s 10th anniversary. As you can imagine, much of the talk revolves around the English National Team and their rather tepid performance in the FIFA World Cup. The pundits, journalists and former players, along with the everyday fans, all have opinions about the current squad.
A lot of the conversation centers on how great the English Premiership is, and why English players who star in that competition, along with the Champions League, don’t carry that quality over to the World Cup. I’m of the opinion that England doesn’t underachieve at the World Cup, rather the England squad just doesn’t have that may good players.
Over the last six years, English teams have made six appearances in the Champions League final, featuring more teams, more times, than any other country. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool all making at least one appearance. Only Italy has put more than one team in the final over this time. Sounds good, right? But something is amiss when you look deeper into the stats.
Six English teams in six years has produced 20 English players. More than any other nation, but just over three per English side.
That’s right, English teams average about three English players. By comparison, 14 Spanish players have featured in the last six Finals and two Spanish sides (Barcelona two times) have played in the game, so seven Spanish players per side. A significant difference.
Italy has seen three sides and 11 players over the same time period – about the same as England. Aha you say, England poor in the World Cup, Italy won in 2006 so, Rick, your theory is disproven already.
Well, when you look carefully you’ll see that in 2006-07, AC Milan made it the Finals with seven Italian starters, just 10 months after Italy won the World Cup. In 2010 Inter Milan won the Champions League without one Italian starter! Italy crashed out of the World Cup one month later.
Let’s look at some other countries. Holland, still alive in this World Cup, and though they haven’t had a club side in the Champions League final they are the only country to have at least one player (12 total) in each of the last six Champions League Finals.
You know what other countries have put a lot of players in the Champions League Final? Brazil (13) and Argentina (9). Germany, who are doing quite well in this World Cup, thank you very much, haven’t had a great run in the Champions League recently. Until of course, this year when Bayern Munich, and five German players, featured in the final.
Here’s something else to consider: Twelve teams – six of them English! – and how many English coaches? Yep, zero. Spanish (3), Dutch (2), Italian (2) and French (1) coaches? Plenty of those. Those teams have won a World Cup and European title, and been a World Cup runner up. Coaches from Scotland, Portugal and even Israel have been featured in the Champions League final.
So here’s what I’m seeing: English players are under represented based on their clubs appearances in the Champions League final. Clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are English in name only. English coaching is way below par.
English fans and media should recalibrate their expectations. Success should be advancing beyond the group stage, and that with a little luck. Anything beyond that is gravy.
(Rick Liebling is a marketing communication professional. You can read more of Rick's work here.)
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Adam Bayfield
said:
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... decent article, but this is an enormously simplistic explanation. the champions league final isn't the be all and end all - you can be a world class player and not be in the champions league final, it depends which club you play for (eg David Villa has never been in a final, but nobody disputes his status) you also tread on your own point somewhat - yes, England have 'only' produced 20 Champions League final players, which is probably too few considering how many teams they've had in the finals, but it's nonetheless way more than Holland, Germany, Brazil etc. so if your uncomplicated explanation is accurate, England should still be better than all those nations |
a guest
said:
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... Adam, Thanks for the comments. Yes, numerically England send the most players... because they have sent the most teams. Holland haven't had a team in the finals, yet their players have featured every year. And they've had coaches in the final as well. Maybe I should have phrased it this way: Are non-English players the ones driving English teams to the finals? It's certainly not English coaches and I think you could make an argument that a lot of non-English players (Henry, Drogba, C. Ronaldo, Xabi, etc.) have been responsible for English clubs being in the Champs League final. So English fans and media have this high expectation (We have the best league, so we should do well at the World Cup) when in truth the EPL isn't an English league at all, it's a local Champions League feeder system. |
Adam Bayfield
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... this is an argument that's often trotted out, and it sounds convincing in principle, but the trouble is, you run through this year's England team, and you find Gerrard, Rooney, Lampard, Ashley Cole, Terry, all of whom have been integral to english sides' runs to champions league finals, and all of whom would waltz into the USA, Algeria, Slovenia or even Germany starting lineups. you could argue, with some justification, that they are slightly overrated, but few would claim that they are not exceptional players. English expectation (such as there is - my experience is that english people are far more pessimistic about their team's chances than people in the rest of the world think they are) stems from these individual stars, not the overall quality of the EPL, which everyone realises is predominantly down to foreign talent |
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