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English football in need of a technical revolution

Roar Guru
24th February, 2009
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Roar Guru
24th February, 2009
34
1188 Reads

Brian Clough once said that “If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass in the sky.”

I’ve never apologised for the style of football I want to see, with more teams playing one-touch passing football with an emphasis on flair and invention.

Many clubs’ supporters are brought up believing in a particular style of football, and good attacking football was an Everton tradition. During our glory days anyway.

Brian Clough was a genius who always had his sides playing attractive passing football, both at Derby where he enjoyed his first great successes, and then at Nottingham Forest, where he enjoyed even more success.

The playing staff changed over the years but the style of football did not.

The debate on the direction of English football has raged on, more or less, since the 1950s. And part of it has been on style of play and players’ technique.

Traditionally, clubs like Everton, Tottenham, West Ham, West Bromwich Albion and Nottingham Forest were associated with attractive football in some form or another, and those clubs’ supporters were brought up demanding such.

As were Liverpool with their “pass and move” game, for that matter.

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And no doubt, in the 60s, 70s and 80s there always were English footballers whose technical gifts were the equal of any on the world.

In recent Championship seasons, this debate has come to the fore, particularly when WBA and Stoke City were vying for promotion. Mowbray’s West Brom side played the club’s much cherished one-touch passing game, while Stoke were considered exponents of the crude and direct “Route One” game.

And both sides, while struggling at a higher level, have still made a better fist of things than Derby ever did. But this is a moot point.

Certainly Mowbray hasn’t been helped by a lack of Premiership quality centre-backs and strikers.

If West Brom were the darlings of purists for their football last season, then this season’s darlings have been Swansea City.

Roberto Martinez, a Spanish journeyman footballer who achieved cult status at Wigan Athletic, took over the Swansea job in 2007, and in his first full season in charge, led the South Wales club to the League One title = their first promotion to the second tier of English football since the John Toshack era (in which Swansea briefly graced the old First Division).

Even if Leeds had not been deducted 15 points, they wouldn’t have overhauled them.

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They have been, quite simply, a revelation in this season’s Championship.

With just six League defeats thus far, only arch-rivals Cardiff City have been harder to beat with four defeats, but also racking up eight consecutive League draws, which I believe is a record.

Where Swansea have won plaudits is for their marvellous brand of one-touch passing football. It’s scintillating stuff to watch, not unlike the brand of football that brought Spain its first major trophy in 44 years.

If they were to manage what seemed improbable even at the season’s start and win promotion to the Premiership, then Martinez should emerge as a candidate for manager of the year.

Of course, with the debate on the direction of English football continuing to rage on, it’s become easier than ever to wish teams well that commit themselves to playing a more attractive “Continental” style of play.

Alan Buckley was able to do this in his first two spells at Grimsby Town, a side playing neat and attractive football with limited resources in what is now the Championship.

Peterborough United, under the management of Darren Ferguson, have been something of a revelation in League One and boast an outstanding talent in George Boyd, whereas even in the rough-and-tumble of League Two, sides like Bury and Exeter City have won plaudits for their footballing principles this season.

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English football is in need of a technical revolution, but it needs to start from the bottom upwards and not with the top clubs in the land.

Am I sounding like Craig Foster here? Absolutely not.

But while I have never been one to agree with Foster, it’s fair to say he isn’t totally wrong. He just has gone about it the wrong way.

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