The English Cabbage Patch
As England endure yet another major disappointment on the international stage, Derek Ross lament’s the nation’s inability to produce a winning midfield.
By Derek Ross
Can England Grow A Midfield?
Yes, I can still feel your pain and share the harrowing descent into the abyss of despondency. The footballing nation of England once buoyant with aspirations is suddenly ensnared in a maelstrom of sorrow, and mightily pissed off!
However, I would ask you to consider for a moment if you will, a garden allotment. The owner of said piece of land grows very fine tomatoes. His onions often win awards at the summer fare. And his beetroot is the finest among all of his fellow allotmentees. But try as he might he just cannot grow broccoli.
For many years he has tried every trick in the book. He has tried different seeds, turned and re-turned the sod, asked for professional advice, watched other expert growers in this field and copied their methods, but the space reserved for broccoli cultivation remains fallow.
And so it goes for our national football team. Our tomatoes are our defenders. They grow everywhere like mint on a pavement. Onions are our central defenders, new ones full of promise sprouting up with gleeful regularity, and the beetroot of our strikers have been some of our sweetest harvests.
And yet the midfield. Ah yes, the midfield. That is our broccoli. The midfield, that fulcrum of the footballing cosmos. Within its bounds, maestros of craft and strategy weave an intricate tapestry of passes and feints their movements a sublime pas de deux of precision and agility. And yet as you read that sentence your mind doesn’t present you with images of Jordan Henderson, but with the image of a Tony Kroos, a Luka Modric, Kevin De Bryune or N’golo Kante.
England's 60-Year Dust Bowl
Since 1966 the England team’s midfield has remained a dust bowl of infertility. From that fertile plain from where Sir Alf and the boys lifted the Jules Rimet trophy, nineteen managers have tried and failed to emulate what remains the only bright star in a footballing sky darker than Victorian basement. But in the wake of yet another painful footballing drubbing doesn’t it beg the question as to what England even consider a midfield player to be?
After all, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are still lauded as being examples of our finest midfield operators. I would suggest that neither were midfield players at all, but attackers in midfield clothing. Their overriding preoccupation was to arrive in the opposition box and to score. Rarely, if ever, would they be seen knitting play from back to front, moving their team up the pitch or controlling the tempo of the contest. They were always looking to go forward themselves at every opportunity.
Paul Scholes is similarly lauded but once he pulled on an England shirt his effect on any England game was a pale imitation of the influence he would command in a Manchester United jersey. Contrast this with Luka Modric. You can count on one finger the number of times he pops up in the opposition box in any ninety minutes, and yet his consistent greatness is undisputed – as is that of other foreign midfield geniuses from Platini to Iniesta, to Xavi, or Pirlo.
These players knit the team and the tempo of the match together. They provide the vision and artistry from which their teammates benefit. We have all watched and sat in mesmerised anticipation of what they will do once they are in possession because we recognise their obvious skill and ability, and they didn’t even need to score a goal to prove it.
Does The Premier League Hinder The England Team?
There is no doubt that the Premier League is the toughest and most difficult domestic competition to win, filled as it with some of the finest foreign footballing imports that money can buy. Yet one might pose the question as to has this collection of brilliance stifled our own national team development when it comes to the main area of the game?
The best midfield players in the Premier League are without exception all foreign. Kevin De Bryune, Bernado Silva, Rodri, Bruni Guimaraes, Alexis MacAllister and Pascal Gross. English players by contrast are well represented in every other position except that where most games are actually won or lost. Southgate, who has done a better job than many would have initially expected, has decided to call it a day. I don’t blame him. But the appointment of the twentieth manager will do nothing to buck this ongoing trend.
Maybe the Premier League could pass a rule that two out of every three midfield players at every club must be English? Why can we real off the names of the finest central midfield players in the world today and not a single Englishman in the top ten? And when I say midfielders, I am not referring to a Foden or to a Maddison, a Saka or a Cole Palmer. And Jude Bellingham who is similarly not a central midfield player.
England Players Struggle To Emulate Their Foreign Counterparts
Yet the question remains as to why doesn’t the obvious ability of these foreign Premier League midfielders ever rub off onto some of our own?
As Spain slowly demolished Southgate’s men in the central midfield area, the England bench for reinforcements consisted of Adam Wharton (who five months ago was plying his trade at Blackburn Rovers) and Conor Gallagher who runs around the pitch as if he has been stung by a wasp. Kobbie Mainoo showed some promise, but in the final, he was so out of his depth that I was expecting the RNLI to arrive at any moment. Couple to this the glaring technical inability to retain possession of the football for long periods in the business end of a competition which continues to haunt the nation like Banquo’s ghost.
Regrettably, this status quo shows absolutely no sign of ever changing. Southgate may have departed, but the English central midfield remains the elephant in the hallowed rooms of the FA and the yawning chasm that still needs to be filled. Until this happens, the most ridiculous song in the history of international football will continue to be the national embarrassment it has long become. Somehow, we need to find a way to grow some Broccoli instead of endless supplies of cabbages.
Derek Ross is an occasional contributor for First Touch. He also writes for Soccer 360 and The Top Flight