“The team we all admire and a manager we all respect calls his Borussia Way ‘English Football’. Our identity is staring us in the face!”
Gary Neville, SKY Sports pundit and England coach, 2014
As England bask in the afterglow of two Wayne Rooney penalties that eclipsed Sir Bobby Charlton’s long-held national team record, the next debate centres on whether any of this actually matters.
England totally flopped at Brazil 2014, although the record-breaking striker did notch his first World Cup tournament goal at the 10th attempt. Yet there must be dramatic improvement on all sides if the Three Lions are going to make an impact at the UEFA European Championships in France next year.
It’s last-chance saloon for Roy Hodgson to justify why he has the England manager’s job. Two easy qualifying stages negotiated aside, his successor is already being lined up and Hodgson has nothing to show from his tenure in charge.
Jurgen Klopp Would Drive Three Lions Back Into Football’s Fast Lane
Neville’s words, quoted, and the identity of the next England manager – not just the identity of the national game – are staring the Football Association (FA) in the face. Jurgen Klopp is seeking an “exciting project” and is not necessarily interested in joining a “top club”, he is also currently unemployed.
Project England would be a match made in heaven for the energising Klopp, whose open-minded approach could revitalise a nation largely jaded by its national team. Last year he issued a ‘Come and Get Me’ plea to every major football institution in the country who invented the game:
“England is the only country where I should work because I need language for my work. If somebody will call me about it then we will see”.
Recruiting the German Protestant for the national side would represent the greatest reformation in England’s football history since it invented the game’s rulebook.
England is, as ever, a footballing country in need of someone to inject the urgency of the 21st century world game and Jurgen Klopp is that man.
It’s no secret England will likely dispense with Roy Hodgson, whose side qualified effortlessly to the European Championships next summer in France as he did Brazil 2014.
Without any reassurances from the Football Association, Hodgson goes into the 15th Euros tournament – of which England have never won – in the same vein as Sir Bobby Robson to the Italia 1990 World Cup without knowing where his future lies.
He is back in the managerial shop window and the tournament represents almost the ultimate stage on which to showcase his worth as a top manager – and that is where the problem arises as Hodgson did not exactly cover himself in glory at Brazil 2014 – in fact the tournament was an abject failure for England.
Outclassed by Italy and his nemesis Andreas Pirlo again after a bright start, Hodgson’s would-be heroes were bullied out of the tournament by a Uruguay side who educated England on the realities of the modern game.
Afterwards, Captain Wayne Rooney urged England to be more “streetwise” in future:
“I look at the teams who have won this tournament and you can see that nastiness in them. I think we need to get that in us. Maybe we’re too honest. Look at Uruguay the other night, they stopped the game, they committed I don’t know how many fouls; clever fouls, really, to slow the game down. I think we’re a bit honest in the way we play. It’s small margins. But those small things can amount to a big thing, in terms of staying in the competition or going out. We have to learn that quickly and adapt to that.”
The game has devolved from the Corinthian gentlemen’s ideal, yet Jurgen Klopp’s worldly recognition, even love, of what direction the game has taken would prove the perfect antidote to England’s current naivety:
“What I love is not serenity football, it’s fighting football – that’s what I like. What we call in Germany – English football; rainy day, heavy pitch, everybody is dirty in the face and they go home and can’t play football for the next four weeks.”
Post-Brazil, against teams with true stature, the presence of spirited Geordies like Jack Colback and Andy Carroll are essential. They know what it takes to compete when the odds are against you, and their resilience can infect their team-mates.
The DNA of England’s team must change to incorporate those with an ultra-competitive spirit and the North-East must be reintegrated into the England set-up as the Three Lions have never won a recent tournament knock-out game without a Geordie in the line-up.
Moreover, England have won one World Cup and reached two tournament Semi-Final stages, a Euros and World Cup, with two or three Geordies in the team.
The way much-vaunted young ‘stars’ like Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling, and the wet-behind-the-ears team reacted to the adversity facing them in the Arena de Sao Paulo was painful viewing against La Celeste.
That is where Jurgen Klopp, a man with his finger on the pulse of the modern game, would be the ideal candidate to lead England towards the next World Cup.
Klopp’s experience at Dortmund – another underdog in comparison to the royal riches available at Bayern Munich, who cherry-picked his best players annually – will be invaluable at an England expected to punch above its weight every two years.
The 48 year-old masterminded two Bundesliga titles for the BVB in 2010/11 and 2011/12, four German cup trophies of various denominations, and an almost heroic Champions League victory in 2012/13 against The Bavarians of Munich.
That 10-goal star man Mario Gotze announced his 37 million Euro move to Bayern 36-hours before losing that epic Wembley final then missed playing against his future employers with a hamstring injury. This left a bitter taste in defeat and such transfer travesties would not be an issue in international football.
Klopp’s footballing style: intense pressing and speed-based counter attacking, would be a match made in heaven with the Premier League playing resources available to him.
England have attempted to ape the footballing kings of the moment, be they Spain and Barcelona’s tiki-taka brilliance or German’s dynamism. However with Klopp they would have a manager whose success is modelled on the great English sides.
Klopp would be a refreshing influence on English football and provide the tactical sea-change the FA have needed since Terry Venables was Manager, having guided the country to the Semi-Finals of Euro ’96.
The 21st century has so far bypassed the England national team. A footballing autobahn constructed by Jurgen Klopp would truly drive the three Lions back into the fast lane.
We might just have a chance of winning a penalty shoot-out too…
