Come across a good article. Thought I start with this since the world cup mania is about to begin...
http://www.football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746_6117373,00.html
Is the Premier League too physical?
Lovely Fernando Torres certainly thinks so, commenting this weekend: "I just can't imagine what state I'll be in within five or six years if I continue to play here - it could easily give me problems when I stop playing. The physical level is superior to all other countries."
It might sound like whimpering of a pampered Premier League player but Torres is no pussycat. He's a tall, strong man, quite capable of looking after himself. If he's feeling the pressure of being knocked about, then maybe it's time to stop and take a look at the nature of the football played here.
Players certainly seem to be injured in record numbers this season. Can it all be down to the fact that they're less physically robust and can't take a kicking like a proper man?
To someone of my generation, the Premier League doesn't seem very physical at all - rather it seems on its way to being a non-contact sport. So what''s Fernando talking about? Is he just being soft?
Actually, I think he's onto something. And it's all to do with us; the British football fan and what we expect from players.
We know that there is a significant majority of fans who judge the quality of players by the amount of sweat they perspire. In many quarters in British football, work-rate is the superior, macho brother of the more fey, nancy boy called creativity. Workrate is the solid dependable meat and potatoes type, whereas creativity is mercurial, unreliable and a bit too flash.
Just look at how many expressions there are for players who get through a lot of running - 'he's got a good engine', 'gets up and down', 'put in a good shift', 'can run all day'...
Work-rate is easy to see even for the most stupid fan. If your striker is pounding back to his own by-line to win a tackle, it'll get a massive cheer. If he shrugs his shoulders and decides he'd rather be nearer the goal to do the job for which he is handsomely paid, then some fans will accuse him of being uncommitted and lazy.
So all players and managers, wherever they are from, have to make a decision when playing in England - do you want to suffer the opprobrium of the majority of the crowd who just think running around a lot is the ultimate symbol of passion and commitment, by not chasing every lost cause and reserving your energies for when you've got possession, or do you bow down to the pressure and run yourself into the ground, thus making yourself more prone to get injured? When your muscles are tired, that is when they are at their weakest and most liable to suffer a tear or strain.
I suspect this cultural difference is at the core of Torres' remarks. In this country the physical aspect of the game is admired by press and fans alike. Defenders are lauded for putting their body on the line and throwing themselves into last-ditch, injury-inducing tackles, often only necessary because of lack of pace or poor positioning in the first place.
As much as I miss the brutality of 70s and 80s football which at times was more like watching open-air butchery, even I recognise that there were down sides to it, especially when it came to international football when England, forever relying on power and strength over skill, fell short of the mark when playing sides that put skill first.
Players like Bryan Robson were hailed as Captain Marvel because of his ceaseless physical effort and commitment. He would routinely throw himself into reckless challenges until something broke, dislocated or broke clean off. How well did England do when Robson played for England? Not very; one quarter-final only after he'd put his shoulder out and gone home.
For too long we've respected that kind of player too much. I'm not decrying Robson or his work - he played to the best of his abilities - but that type of player isn't and never has been enough at the highest level and yet kids are trained from an early age to think it is.
British football culture still coaches our youth this way and there's no evidence that it's changed. There is no young English Messi or anyone even close. Yes we can point to Aaron Lennon and Ashley Young as young skilful wingers, and that is much to be admired, but how long will they stay fit when they're required to go hammer and tongs at a defence every game. Putting your foot on the ball and slowing down play has been all but boo-ed out of the game in Britain. England fans even booed their own team when they first tried it under Fabio Capello.
We are institutionally short of creative players. We produce a lot of players in the Lampard and Gerrard mode. They're all-rounders who can run all day, tackle, shoot and pass the ball. First touch? Not bad. Ball control? Good enough. Can they dribble or beat a man with a bit of skill? Almost never.
Their biggest asset is their work-rate and commitment. They are not subtle, graceful players, they are all-round grafters. Fantastic grafters, you'd be right to argue, but at heart grafters nonetheless. They are not football wizards and when we need a wizard to break a game in a quarter-final, we don't have one.
We rarely produce ball-playing centre-halves, preferring the Terry throw-your-head-at-it type defenders, who are praised for bravery but rarely criticised for poor retention, positioning and anticipation.
Contrast that to a player like Fabio Cannavaro who was one of the world's top centre-halves for years not because of his physical presence - he's under 6ft - but through brilliant anticipation and reading of the game. He played intelligently. But our footballers don't seem to do intelligent.
On the few occasions down the years when we do produce a really creative, really skilful player such a Joe Cole, instead of teams being built around him, he's marginalised, asked to play roles which don't suit him and in doing so, nullify the very qualities which made him so special in the first place.
Cole was potentially the player of his generation. Had he gone to Spain aged 16 he might have fulfilled his potential. He could have been our Messi but he's a million miles from that now after ten years in English football. Injuries - possibly the type of injuries hinted at by Torres - have interrupted his career and he's never had a settled position. His talent has been wasted in British football.
It's as though no manager and perhaps not even the player himself really knew how he could effectively operate in English football.
Only in this country are the craftsmen of the game called luxury players; a tag which every player with talent who wasn't a workhorse has suffered from in this country from Bowles to Marsh to Hoddl, to Le Tissier.
Would someone such as Modric, had he been English, progressed through our youth development systems? I doubt it. He'd have been kicked out of youth football and maybe out of the game altogether.
Our culture, and it does comes from the fans, is to blame for this. I love to see a player kicked up in the air, I really do. I love to see a sliding tackle clean out the man and the ball and put him in the stands. I applaud it. But it doesn't mean it's the best thing for our game.
If the very nature of the league is making a brilliant player such as Torres question the sense of playing in it for more than a few years, we shouldn't just dismiss it as a pampered footballer whining, it is in effect a criticism of the very culture of English football and by extension of you and me.
http://www.football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746_6117373,00.html
Is the Premier League too physical?
Lovely Fernando Torres certainly thinks so, commenting this weekend: "I just can't imagine what state I'll be in within five or six years if I continue to play here - it could easily give me problems when I stop playing. The physical level is superior to all other countries."
It might sound like whimpering of a pampered Premier League player but Torres is no pussycat. He's a tall, strong man, quite capable of looking after himself. If he's feeling the pressure of being knocked about, then maybe it's time to stop and take a look at the nature of the football played here.
Players certainly seem to be injured in record numbers this season. Can it all be down to the fact that they're less physically robust and can't take a kicking like a proper man?
To someone of my generation, the Premier League doesn't seem very physical at all - rather it seems on its way to being a non-contact sport. So what''s Fernando talking about? Is he just being soft?
Actually, I think he's onto something. And it's all to do with us; the British football fan and what we expect from players.
We know that there is a significant majority of fans who judge the quality of players by the amount of sweat they perspire. In many quarters in British football, work-rate is the superior, macho brother of the more fey, nancy boy called creativity. Workrate is the solid dependable meat and potatoes type, whereas creativity is mercurial, unreliable and a bit too flash.
Just look at how many expressions there are for players who get through a lot of running - 'he's got a good engine', 'gets up and down', 'put in a good shift', 'can run all day'...
Work-rate is easy to see even for the most stupid fan. If your striker is pounding back to his own by-line to win a tackle, it'll get a massive cheer. If he shrugs his shoulders and decides he'd rather be nearer the goal to do the job for which he is handsomely paid, then some fans will accuse him of being uncommitted and lazy.
So all players and managers, wherever they are from, have to make a decision when playing in England - do you want to suffer the opprobrium of the majority of the crowd who just think running around a lot is the ultimate symbol of passion and commitment, by not chasing every lost cause and reserving your energies for when you've got possession, or do you bow down to the pressure and run yourself into the ground, thus making yourself more prone to get injured? When your muscles are tired, that is when they are at their weakest and most liable to suffer a tear or strain.
I suspect this cultural difference is at the core of Torres' remarks. In this country the physical aspect of the game is admired by press and fans alike. Defenders are lauded for putting their body on the line and throwing themselves into last-ditch, injury-inducing tackles, often only necessary because of lack of pace or poor positioning in the first place.
As much as I miss the brutality of 70s and 80s football which at times was more like watching open-air butchery, even I recognise that there were down sides to it, especially when it came to international football when England, forever relying on power and strength over skill, fell short of the mark when playing sides that put skill first.
Players like Bryan Robson were hailed as Captain Marvel because of his ceaseless physical effort and commitment. He would routinely throw himself into reckless challenges until something broke, dislocated or broke clean off. How well did England do when Robson played for England? Not very; one quarter-final only after he'd put his shoulder out and gone home.
For too long we've respected that kind of player too much. I'm not decrying Robson or his work - he played to the best of his abilities - but that type of player isn't and never has been enough at the highest level and yet kids are trained from an early age to think it is.
British football culture still coaches our youth this way and there's no evidence that it's changed. There is no young English Messi or anyone even close. Yes we can point to Aaron Lennon and Ashley Young as young skilful wingers, and that is much to be admired, but how long will they stay fit when they're required to go hammer and tongs at a defence every game. Putting your foot on the ball and slowing down play has been all but boo-ed out of the game in Britain. England fans even booed their own team when they first tried it under Fabio Capello.
We are institutionally short of creative players. We produce a lot of players in the Lampard and Gerrard mode. They're all-rounders who can run all day, tackle, shoot and pass the ball. First touch? Not bad. Ball control? Good enough. Can they dribble or beat a man with a bit of skill? Almost never.
Their biggest asset is their work-rate and commitment. They are not subtle, graceful players, they are all-round grafters. Fantastic grafters, you'd be right to argue, but at heart grafters nonetheless. They are not football wizards and when we need a wizard to break a game in a quarter-final, we don't have one.
We rarely produce ball-playing centre-halves, preferring the Terry throw-your-head-at-it type defenders, who are praised for bravery but rarely criticised for poor retention, positioning and anticipation.
Contrast that to a player like Fabio Cannavaro who was one of the world's top centre-halves for years not because of his physical presence - he's under 6ft - but through brilliant anticipation and reading of the game. He played intelligently. But our footballers don't seem to do intelligent.
On the few occasions down the years when we do produce a really creative, really skilful player such a Joe Cole, instead of teams being built around him, he's marginalised, asked to play roles which don't suit him and in doing so, nullify the very qualities which made him so special in the first place.
Cole was potentially the player of his generation. Had he gone to Spain aged 16 he might have fulfilled his potential. He could have been our Messi but he's a million miles from that now after ten years in English football. Injuries - possibly the type of injuries hinted at by Torres - have interrupted his career and he's never had a settled position. His talent has been wasted in British football.
It's as though no manager and perhaps not even the player himself really knew how he could effectively operate in English football.
Only in this country are the craftsmen of the game called luxury players; a tag which every player with talent who wasn't a workhorse has suffered from in this country from Bowles to Marsh to Hoddl, to Le Tissier.
Would someone such as Modric, had he been English, progressed through our youth development systems? I doubt it. He'd have been kicked out of youth football and maybe out of the game altogether.
Our culture, and it does comes from the fans, is to blame for this. I love to see a player kicked up in the air, I really do. I love to see a sliding tackle clean out the man and the ball and put him in the stands. I applaud it. But it doesn't mean it's the best thing for our game.
If the very nature of the league is making a brilliant player such as Torres question the sense of playing in it for more than a few years, we shouldn't just dismiss it as a pampered footballer whining, it is in effect a criticism of the very culture of English football and by extension of you and me.
