The Identity Thieves

This World Cup's most successful teams have shed their national identities in favour of tactical innovations, led by - who else? the Germans

 

To Sunday then, and to two sides who appear to be dressed in each others kit. History counts for much in football, and the cultural elements of Germany and Argentina appear, like their shirts, shorts and socks, to have been jumbled up in the wash and pulled out by the wrong teams.

How, for example, have an Argentina side containing the likes of Messi, Higuain, Lavezzi, Aguero - that is just the forwards - won five consecutive games by one goal margins? They should be playing more like... Germany, who for all their offensive genius - witness that unholy thrashing again and again on YouTube - have looked distinctly average so far defensively.

Don't stop there, though. Pull the lens back further, and it quickly becomes apparent that in a country in revolt before the tournament began, mini-revolutions have happened all over Brazil. The hosts appear a good place to start, with Phil Scolari, arch pragmatist that he is, making a mental note of his creative resources and the psychological pressures on his side and deciding a more aggressive approach over jogo bonito would be the most likely path paved with gold.

He was wrong of course, but Scolari's changes are the archetypal smoking gun. His tactics should not be questioned - the resources at his disposal, in a country of 200 million, most definitely should be. Holland, the Seleção's opponents on Saturday night, didn't so much change their identity as develop multiple personality disorder, with coach van Gaal (below) unceremoniously dumping the famed 4-3-3 of Cruyff's era and deploying whatever suited the situation.

Van Gaal is not a typically reactive coach - he most went with 4-3-3 in his time at Barcelona for example - but in Brazil he flexed and maximised his resources time and again, culminating in the psychological masterstroke of deploying Tim Krul to unnerve the Costa Ricans. Manchester United fans will be salivating at the season in prospect.

Successful change naturally depends on resources - Brazil are clearly the key protagonists here but to witness England's quiet exit at the group stage despite a markedly different approach in their game versus Italy shows you are still only as good as your players and the system they play.

But this was the World Cup when to stand still was to die. Italy and Spain, two of the biggest names in world football, both went out early and Prandelli notably came in for some criticism when he reverted to a traditional Italian 3-5-2 versus Uruguay- and lost, having deployed a relatively successful 4-2-3-1 in the previous European Championships that got them all the way to the final.

As for Spain, their story is entwined with that of the demise of Barcelona, where tiki-taka is on the ropes after an almighty hammering from the Dutch and German powerhouses in international and national football. Down, but never out - they are both too good, and football moves too quickly, for that movement to have died out.

Sunday's final is a victory for the postmodern - bar Alan Shearer's bleating, everyone recognises Germany's reinvention in identity following their 5-1 thrashing at England's hands in 2001. These Germans recognise efficiency can be art, that speed is more beautiful than physicality.

Meanwhile the Argentinians have simply done the opposite of what everyone expected. A goal machine before the tournament, they recognised early that sides would hide away, lock the castle gates, pull up the drawbridge and throw buckets of burning faeces off the battlements, and simply not played in their customary style. Some breathtaking moves against Nigeria aside, Argentina have depended on their defensive triumvirate of Garay, Demichelis and Mascherano to stifle teams when they did venture forward. The result; a most un-Argentinian sequence of results.

What to expect on Sunday then? Unknown. Germany undoubtedly go in as favourites and despite some parsimonious results, the Albiceleste defence was never the strongest in the tournament. Ironically, in a tournament full of identity swaps, Argentina might want to rediscover theirs if their intention is to take the trophy in Rio.

Picture courtesy of Mirror.co.uk

The Premier League: A Trans Europa Success

English football does not simply need less foreign footballers - it needs more, and it needs the best, to improve at international level

One hundred and ten! proudly tooted the Premier League at the start of the World Cup. Can you guess what the number relates to? No, not the average percentage of debt to profit ratio for each Premier League club, although good call. It's actually the number of Premier League players involved in Brazil.

 

One hundred and ten. Like a lot of numbers, it feels significant. Assuming each Premier league squad boasts an average 23 players, as per this World Cup, that infers that nearly a quarter of all the players we watch week in, week out on Match of the Day et al are international players capable of playing in the world's biggest and best football tournament.

 

Rubbish, grouches the football traditionalist who's no doubt sick of seeing England getting knocked out early again, and perhaps mutters to himself that the English would do a lot better without these foreign international players clogging up their youth teams.



None of the 2014 Ballon D'or winners play in England

Would they? Nationalism is a funny thing and it has not infected sport in the same way as it has politics and culture in Britain. In England, we love watching Silva, Hazard, Oscar, Aguero, Kompany, Van Persie and Ozil. Football fans in this country are not overtly racist and it would be an interesting exercise to see who the average terrace fan voted for at the last European elections.

It's certainly true to say England has a problem with foreign footballers, but what it really has a problem with, as usual, is ownership and strategy. Of the last eight nations left in the World Cup, 37 players play in the Premier League. That's around 20% of the eight squads - and that figure's significantly heightened by ten French players and 11 Belgians. If you strip those two away, the figure becomes less than 10%. Compare that to the Bundesliga, on 38%, and La Liga, on 33%. Still the best league in the world?

 

Of course, you think, it's natural that if you speak Spanish or Portuguese - as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia do - you'll want to be around people like you. Spaniards, for example. Except that's also not true. Nine leagues are represented in the Brazil and Colombia squads, and seven in the Argentina squad. In England, Spain and Italy, the squads are represented by two, four and two respectively.

 

Travel really does seem to broaden the mind and it appears, superficially at least, there's little doubt that the English are simply too insular when it comes to their football. But the economics, unlike South American leagues, make it hard to resist playing in one league when it could set the player up financially for life.

 

The exception of course is Germany, who have 20 of their players based in the Bundesliga. But there is room to develop youth there, without risk of clubs going through the blender should relegation occur. The '50+1' shareholder model is characteristic of a philosophy which ensures financial fair play is pretty much already in place. In both Italy and Spain there are serious long term debt issues for various clubs - much like the Premier League. This year's Spanish champions, Atletico, are over £100 million in debt over unpaid taxes.

English football is simply a smudge on a broader canvas that reflects the way Britain has relied upon skilled immigration to add value to its most lucrative industries - for example, financial services. For the Premier League, see any building housed in Canary Wharf after close of business, when British citizens can be seen scrubbing at the City's skyscraping artifices.

The difference in football, unfortunately, is that the hired help is often better than the in-house. That has nothing to do with money - that, as can be seen in Colombia's squad make-up, is much more about determination and a strong sense of self-worth. The things an Englishman cannot buy.

Britain needs top foreign talent to improve still further, and a greater focus on buying top-bracket foreign players at cheaper players' expense would still mean great entertainment. But would the inevitable culture change mean a move back to traditional, outmoded English tactics? Moreover, would a change in the number of nationalities reduce the likelihood of Brazilians playing in England? There are many more, but questions like this are important.

 

No one can doubt that the English has improved immeasurably in the wake of David Luiz, Sergio Aguero, Fernando Torres, Nemanja Vidic et al arriving. All have given huge amounts. But if we've learned nothing and simply watched the circus as it passed through town, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Picture thanks to World Soccer