Collymore’s column: England – six out of 10 at Euro 2024, a massive inferiority complex and why Emma Hayes should be manager
In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including why England were only a six out of 10 at Euro 2024, why big name players must be subbed if they’re not playing well, and why Lee Carsley will be the new England coach despite Emma Hayes and Sarina Wiegman both deserving to be in the conversation.
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I’d give England a six out of 10… players such as Kane and Bellingham can’t be above being subbed
I’d give the overall England performance at Euro 2024 a six out of 10, because we got to a final which only two teams can ever do, but the performances to get there, and the side of the draw that we had… I think a six out of 10 is fair enough.
In terms of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham’s individual performances, I’m not so worried about Jude because I think that this was his first tournament on the back of the elation of winning La Liga and the Champions League and being the best player for Real Madrid.
I think that he came flying out of the blocks in in the first half of the first game at the Euros, but then the drop off in the second half of the first game was was noticeable. He’s got to manage his minutes, his emotional state and his physical state much better.
Harry had an excuse of already playing year in and year out, whether it be for club or country, in the Premier League, Bundesliga, at World Cups, pre and post-season tournaments, and I think he was genuinely knackered.
We’ve had this sort of problem before of course, going right the way back to Jimmy Greaves. He got injured before the World Cup in 66, Geoff Hurst comes in and scores a hat-trick in the final, and then stays in the side forever. It happened with Gary Lineker too, and Alan Shearer.
We had at least 10 strikers waiting to step into Shearer’s shoes at international level, but no one could get a look in even when he went 12 England games without scoring, which would be unthinkable now for any striker.
From my perspective, I’d like to think that the next coach would look at Harry Kane and say, ‘ok, you’re the number nine, you’ve scored a load of goals over the last decade, but if you’re not doing the business, we’re going to take you off at 60 minutes’ etc.
Gareth Southgate, to his credit, has smashed the glass ceiling now, and although subbing Kane or leaving him out entirely could have been done sooner, the precedent has been set.
In future, no matter the name, if you’re playing poorly, the national team coach has to have the bravery to make those big calls for the good of everyone, including themselves.
England have a massive inferiority complex
English football has a massive inferiority complex.
It’s always been the same for England for over 50 years. I think that there is this feeling of inferiority at international level because of our record and because of the hype. “It’s coming home, 60 years of hurt….”
People say that English players play well at their clubs because they’ve got foreigners around. That’s boll**ks. Phil Foden’s performances and Jude Bellingham’s performances were because of Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham, not because they have foreigners around them. Likewise, Harry Kane.
I can certainly say, thanks to my own brief foray with England, that you feel that you have to play this mythical thing called international football that is more cerebral, that is more intelligent, so you end up doing things you normally wouldn’t, and that’s where the passing along the back comes from.
It’s like you watch the Spanish, you watch the Italians, you watch the great Germans and they all pass it along the back, but English football doesn’t realise that there’s method to the madness. Spain will pop it very quickly into midfield and then their players, already waiting on the half-turn, are off on the run.
The general feeling amongst the English is that international football is some higher form of the game, and it’s not. Georgia proved that. Turkey proved that. You can go out and play in a way that is on the fruitful and exciting side, utilising your assets and getting results beyond your your ranking.
So from that perspective, I think we’ve got to have a look at what are the hallmarks of English football. One is tempo, two is intensity, three is aggression, and four is attacking, and I think we actually need to have those as cornerstones.
A lot of the guys that play for England now, they have seen the Barcelona of 2011 and the Spanish sides of 2008-2012, and gone “we need to keep possession and slow the tempo,” but that’s the antithesis of what the very best of English football is about.
If you want proof, every time that we went behind in the Euros, we upped the tempo, upped the aggression and got back in the game.
There’s a lot of talk about winning tournaments with 60-70% possession, but you can win a tournament with 40% possession. You can win a tournament with equal possession.
Ideally, if you’re Pep Guardiola, you win a tournament with 70-80% possession, and with exciting attacking play, but don’t forget that when Pep gets to sign the players that he wants, they are specific players to do specific jobs in specific areas of the pitch. The England national team is a markedly different proposition.
England should consider a woman to replace Southgate but Carsley will be the FA’s man
Emma Hayes and Sarina Wiegman should definitely be in the conversation to be the new England men’s first-team manager because they’re successful football managers in their own right, they know the FA system and the inner workings of it.
The reasons that they won’t be are because I think there will be a feeling inside the Football Association that ‘we’ve got the best group of players ever, and we don’t need experiments.’
How will a group of men react to a woman manager? Would they subconsciously think ‘no she can’t do the job, she’s only managed Chelsea Women’ for example, and that’s the reality.
Only one step above that would be Lee Carsley and I’ve got a sneaky feeling it’s going to be him. Why?
The FA’s St George’s Park system was designed to produce players and coaches for the elite level, and with Lee Carsley, they’ve done that from scratch. They’ve invested a lot of money in him to get to this point, and his England U21 team is, pound for pound, the best England team that I’ve ever seen.
They’re solid at the back, they pop it around everywhere, and play front foot, attacking, inventive and creative football. So, the FA system is shown to be working.
As importantly, it’s the antithesis of spending £17m on somebody (Pep Guardiola?) to come in at the last minute, grab a group of players and try and get them over the line at a major tournament.
The reality for England fans is that they don’t care that St George’s Park creates players and managers but they should, because all of the other European nations had managers that came through their respective systems. It should matter if we want to be a self sustaining football association.
Lee Carsley is a very good coach but the level of risk is that he’s never managed anybody significant and isn’t the big name – Steven Gerrard/Frank Lampard/Pep Guardiola – that people want to see. ’Lee who?’ some might say, as well as reminding everyone that he played for Ireland. Not very God save the King is it.
So, if the FA are going to appoint Lee Carsley, the England PR machine needs to get him out there. They need to put out an urgent, positively worded, press release, and get him on as many TV and radio shows, and in as many newspaper columns as possible in order to give him a fully rounded personality who England fans can get behind.
If England then spank Finland in their first Nations League game and then beat Greece away, all of a sudden we’re rocking and rolling and you create a personality that can start to walk alongside those aforementioned big names.
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