After England’s abysmal World Cup campaign, the question on everyone’s lips is where did it all go wrong? With what looked like a promising mixture of players, young and experienced, it turned out to be possibly the most disastrous tournament England have ever been involved in.
It all began when the England management team decided not to persuade the retired, John Terry, to make a comeback for the World Cup. This decision proved costly. The biggest concern of the English public was the lack of quality England had in defence. Worryingly, only one of the starting back four had ever made an appearance on the world stage. Apart from the small matter of the defence, England had an extremely exciting midfield and attack, which had a combination of pace, vision and skill.
Four More Years of Hurt
Unlike previous World Cups, the expectancy and hope was no where near as high, yet you could still sense the World Cup hangover after England disappointingly lost to Italy in Manaus. After playing well, England failed to deliver once again. Surprisingly, it was England’s midfield and attack who were poor, failing to contain the passing dominance of Andrea Pirlo who sprayed balls left, right and centre. As the England team headed into their penultimate game against Uruguay, the pressure was seriously on, England had to deliver. Unfortunately, their defensive frailties were well and truly uncovered by the infamous Luis Suarez, scoring two avoidable goals, Suarez almost single handedly destroyed England’s back four. The mistakes of both Phil Jagielka and Steven Gerrard consequently cost England the World Cup and sent them packing before, in some cases a second ball was even kicked.
Reaching their final dead rubber group game against Costa Rica, it was made very apparent England’s confidence had taken a devastating blow, they lacked precision and passion and failed to salvage any kind of pride, drawing 0-0. England looked tired, lethargic and demotivated. The long, turbulent season had clearly taken its toll on the players. Mistakes from certain individuals were costly, yet almost the whole team were to blame for this catastrophic World Cup bid. In all three group matches England failed to capitalise on their chances, many goalscoring opportunities were squandered, most notably the misses from Wayne Rooney. England lacked any kind of cutting edge. In midfield England were simply not good enough, Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard were seen as a great combination prior to the World Cup, having built up a formidable partnership at Liverpool, but unfortunately, in Brazil they were unable to produce the quality they’re clearly capable of. England were deficient in strength in depth, in the midfield department, Jack Wilshere and Frank Lampard were the only out and out central midfield replacements and neither played regularly last season. Likewise, defensively England were incredibly weak, although Gary Cahill had an outstanding World Cup, his counterparts did not, making far too many crucial errors.
The England team can’t be held solely responsible for the failure of the World Cup, Roy Hodgson is also to blame. Hodgson lacked ambition and creativity, arguably something that has been absent from the England set up for many years. Although the England manager took what was seen as a positive risk, choosing many young, upcoming players, disappointingly the risk didn’t pay off. The eye-catching performances of Raheem Sterling and Ross Barkley didn’t go unnoticed, however England missed the experience of players, such as Ashley Cole and John Terry. Mistakes from both players and team management led England to a premature exit, and it seems that the attitude of the players remains one of “club over country”.
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