So What's Wrong With Our National Game?

By Neil Ravenscroft
November 12 2002

The Premiership sides set out on the Champion's League adventure with great hopes this season, but, with one out and another on the brink, is it going sour?

We always like to think that our Leagues are the best in Europe, with the possible exception of the Spaniards, but this season's Champion's League campaign seems to be putting that into perspective.
Liverpool have gone out of the competition tonight, despite a great fight back, coming back from 3 nil down to draw 3 - 3 in Basle. Newcastle seem to be asking for a miracle tomorrow, needing to win in Holland and even Arsenal haven't looked totally convincing in qulaifying. Only Manchester United have cruised through the first group stage and they are the team struggling most in the League! The fact that their European adventure has gone so well might have something to do with Ferguson's ambitions and priorities than anything else.
The two crucial games for me that have shown our problems have been tonight's game in Basle and Arsenal's home game with Auxerre. In both, an English team which looks far better than the opposition on paper has failed, and both times it has been because the other team has looked technically far superior.
That is the malaise at the heart of the game here and the one which has to be addressed. Football at the most basic levels in this country has to be coached better if we are not to fall even further behind the rest of the World.
The worrying thing about my saying this, is that people have been saying the same things since we lost our dominance of Euopean football in the post Heysel period and there isn't much sign of things changing.
I know we get quoted at us that we are at a time when English football is on the up, with the crop of youngsters we have, but, to my mind, even they seem to be technically flawed. (Owen one footed, Cole can't defend, Beckham and Scholes can't tackle, Campbell can't pass, etc).
Despite the assault we have made on the Champion's League since its inception, I still can't see an English team winning it, unless it is Manchester United, with their Manager's single minded pursuit of the title and a crucial player in Veron, who looks more comfortable on the European stage.
I hope I'm wrong, however, and we get a Man Utd v Arsenal final at Old Trafford next May!