Football Friends Online – When 90 Mins Is Not EnoughBurton Albion youth Coach Scott Taylor gives his views on the England team - Football Friends Online - When 90 Mins Is Not Enough Burton Albion youth Coach Scott Taylor gives his views on the England team - Football Friends Online - When 90 Mins Is Not Enough

Burton Albion youth Coach Scott Taylor gives his views on the England team

Burton Albion youth Coach Scott Taylor gave his views on the England team, the Spain team and his style of coaching and here is what he had to say.

The England team is full of superb players. The golden generation of Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Terry and A. Cole all have a part to play in England’s future and then add in young players like Jack Wilshere, Joe Hart, Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott, Micah Richards and Ashley Young and right there you have an abundance of talented players all playing at a very high standard for their club.

The key is getting them to click. These players are living proof that there is no real problem with England’s youth development. We are constantly churning out world class players who are technically good enough the simple fact is the England team don’t play as a team.

Now you can ask the question; ‘are there too many foreigners playing in the premier league?’ I don’t think that is an issue. You could argue that instead of young players coming through from the academy, foreign players are bought, but as Arsene Wenger has proved brilliantly at Arsenal with the likes of Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs, or Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool with Jay Spearing, Jack Robinson and John Flanagan, if you’re young enough you’re good enough. How can Jack Wilshere training with Cesc Fabregas be bad for his learning? How can Jay Spearing training with Xabi Alonso (when he was at Liverpool) be bad for him? Most players that are good enough are given the opportunity to play.

You look at Spain and everyone keeps saying look at Villa, Iniesta, Xavi, etc and fair enough because they are the very best players. But the reason Spain plays so much better than everyone else is because the majority of the Spanish team play for either Real Madrid or Barcelona. I bet if you put the majority of the England team in Chelsea and Manchester United, then they would train together every day and the England team would be better off for it.

You compare the team player for player and you look at the likes of Pique and Puyol… Are they really that much better, if at all better, than Ferdinand and Terry? Xavi and Iniesta are too fantastic players but do they really make Lampard and Hargreaves (I know he’s always injured but he’s a great player at his best) look like amateurs? Villa and Torres, two of the best strikers of our generation, but are they better than Rooney and Gerrard? If they are then they’re not by much.

The England national team are just underachievers. There is so much pressure on them to achieve and time after time they just don’t. Not through lack of natural ability or lack of effort, they just make mistakes at the wrong time, whether it’s the players making mistakes on the pitch or the manager making mistakes in selection or tactical formation.

When I’m coaching I coach to get the best out of every player. I focus on what they are good at and I make them practice what they’re not good at. The England team is packed full of good players doing jobs they don’t want to be doing. Look at Gerrard for Liverpool. Wherever he plays, whether it’s behind a striker or as a box to box midfielder, he is always in a central position. England often play him in wide positions just to fit him in the team. We almost have too many good players and a manager with not enough ‘balls’ to drop them for the good of the team. What is the point in having Lampard and Gerrard in the same two man central midfield partnership? Everyone knows that balance is key for a team but still you get managers trying to convince themselves and everybody else that it can work.

Look at Real Madrid a few years ago they had world class players like Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Raul so on but these players albeit world class, were only as effective as they were because they had little Claude Makelele just sitting behind them doing the dirty work. That is a perfect example of getting the balance right in order to achieve success. I think when England get a manager willing to make big decisions for the good of the team then we will see a team capable of winning something. We have the base and the right foundations but it’s up to the people in the England set up to make themselves capable of achieving greatness.

I don’t buy into people’s opinions that we are not good enough technically, I just think we need to have the right balance. If we had the balance and we get beaten by a talented Brazil team or a gung ho Argentina team then so be it, that is football, and we keep going, working hard and going in the right direction. We were dismantled by Germany in the World Cup and it was embarrassing. That was a team with no balance and going in the wrong direction.

I think we are back on track again now with the inclusion of defensive midfielder Scott Parker as he adds that much needed balance. I’m optimistic for the future but I feel like I say that every time when I’m talking about England’s chances but then after the tournament has finished I’m there picking at reasons as to why the team were unsuccessful. I guess hindsight is a powerful tool.

Rufaro Fielding

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