As a prickly Harry Redknapp faced journalists after losing
to Everton the incessant pressure of the vacant England job seemed to be
getting to the public’s choice. At a loss to explain the result beyond blaming
bad luck and insisting “we battered em second half” the Tottenham manager
seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated both with the questioning and
Spurs recent slump.
In the immediate aftermath of Capello’s exit Spurs seemed,
if anything, galvanised and determined to show Redknapp why he should stay as
they cruised to a 5-0 win over Newcastle. However, since the Newcastle drubbing
Tottenham have drawn with Stevenage, beaten them in a replay and lost their
last three league games to Arsenal, United and Everton respectively. The
defence, which had been the most effective in the league started looking as if
it was carrying an injured player, in Ledley King, and other key performers
Kaboul and Assou-Ekotto have disappointed in recent games.
The collapse at Arsenal was most mystifying with Redknapp
admitting even with his side 2-0 up after 34 minutes he didn’t have faith in
them keeping that score line through until half-time. Despite playing your
fierce rivals this admission and dearth in confidence seems to have
materialised since Redknapp was roundly touted as the favourite for the England
job.
Tottenham’s last three league defeats also highlight some of
Redknapps flaws as a manager, which up until the last few weeks had been the
best stock for an English manager worldwide. The 65 year old is widely regarded
as an excellent man manager (not a wheeler-dealer) who can get the best out of
players, which it is presumed he can do with a bunch of mediocre England
players.
Tactically though Redknapp must surely admit he is far from
the most proficient of the candidates for the England position. Once revealing
he told substitute Roman Pavlychenko to “run around a bit” before sending him
on against Liverpool, though to be fair it worked as the Russian scored, tactics
seem to assistants Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond. The recent
repositioning of Gareth Bale through the middle has failed to come off, with
the Welsh international looking far less threatening down the middle rather
than stretching teams on the flanks. Bale has many strengths but being able to
pick a defence-splitting pass is not one of them and as such his move off the
wing has coincided with Spurs slump.
There is however a manager with international experience and
a great tactical appreciation of the game who has seen his team turn on the
form since the England job became available. In terms of top English candidates
Roy Hodgson must be at least second favourite, edging ahead of interim manager
Stuart Pearce. With sixteen managerial positions, mostly abroad, Hodgson was
touted as the successor to Capello if he left after the mess in South Africa.
Since that time Hodgson had his hands singed in a short
reign at Liverpool, before the new owners decided they wanted their own man,
the ever looming figurehead of Kenny Dalglish. Given Dalglish’s position
upstairs at Liverpool it was inevitable that should performances dip, then a
desire for the fan-favourite to take over would make the position untenable for
Hodgson, as Sir Alex acknowledged recently.
AVB failed to get results at his biggest job, but that does
not mean he is a bad manager or cannot handle a ‘big’ team. Hodgson should not
be discounted based on one disappointing six month spell, by contrast Redknapp
has only won one trophy in English football and ended up bankrupting Portsmouth
in the process. Both are ‘journeymen’ managers to an extent, with arguments for both
men having a shot at the England job.
Redknapp is the darling of the English media, currently appearing to have the edge, but for my money Hodgson would mould the
England team into a more solid unit. England sadly do not have the players to
play like a Spain or Germany so the manager would have to turn the players into
the most effective team possible. Hodgson with his defensive nous and
experience of the game would turn England into an incredibly difficult side to
beat and working alongside a Stuart Pearce for this tournament, would have much
more of an impact than simply geeing up the camp. The overwhelming favourite
appears to be Redknapp but I hope the FA seriously consider the less media
friendly Hodgson and listen to what he could achieve with England.
No comments:
Post a Comment