George's first performance as coach of the England national team resulted in a four-goal victory against the South American powerhouse Uruguay. There is no doubt that this excellent record is enough to silence many who have been chattering about his appointment as interim coach of the Three Lions.
However, for those trolls and keyboard warriors, no matter how dazzling George's leadership record is, they can always find something to say. Of course, George chose to ignore these people. After all, the fact of defeating Uruguay 4-0 has convinced the vast majority of the media and fans to create a good enough public opinion environment for the Three Lions preparing for the World Cup. George does not need to worry about this small group of guys who can only find faults. Effortless.
Of course, unlike the fans who were cheering for the national team's outstanding performance and the media who were changing the direction of the trend, George did not ignore the Three Lions' goalkeeping crisis because of this victory. After all, Robinson's performance in this friendly match was really difficult to reassure George!
In addition to personal ability, the most important thing about the goalkeeper position is concentration and stability in the game. Why can Barthez control France's No. 1 national goalkeeper all year round despite the impact of Coupet, Landero and others? It is precisely because this bald goalkeeper who has repeatedly performed well in the club has performed extremely steadily in the French national team that other competitors have no chance to play!
Let’s look at these candidates for England. Kirkland is plagued by injuries and his competitive status has seriously declined; Robert Green and Scott Carson seriously lack top-level game experience, and their fame depends entirely on public praise; in contrast, the big players who occasionally make mistakes and can only hang out in mid-range teams Guard James and Paul Robinson are already considered the first echelon of English goalkeepers.
Some people may point to the example of Peter Hilton, the legendary goalkeeper, and think that a weak team can produce a good goalkeeper. But please don’t forget that after Hilton squeezed out Banks early in his career, he became the main goalkeeper and demoted Leicester City, which had previously finished seventh in English League One, in just two seasons. It took two full years of hard work in League Two before leading the team back to League One. After that, it took him nearly ten years to achieve success, and together with the legendary coach Clough, he created the miracle of Nottingham Forest!
And now that the Bosman Act has been implemented for many years, how can any team have the patience and be willing to give a young goalkeeper so much time to trial and error and slowly improve? David James once had this opportunity, and Liverpool also showed great patience. It's a pity that he didn't cherish it at the time because of his talent. Eventually, he and other members of the Little Tigers were kicked out by Houllier, who was new to the job.
Local talents lack the time and opportunity to train and upgrade in high-level competitions. Their personal abilities cannot be improved and their self-confidence cannot be built up. Naturally, they cannot take over the mantle left by legendary predecessors such as Banks, Hilton and Seaman. The club's general lack of patience after the arrival of Bosman's era and the unscrupulous public opinion environment of the British media exacerbated this evil effect, which ultimately led to the England national team having to face the goalkeeper position after Seaman retired. dilemma.
If the England national team wants to go further in the World Cup, or even win the Hercules Cup that has been absent for forty years, then the goalkeeper position must be stable enough. At the very least, similar to Green's slip-and-go mistake in his previous life and Carson's misjudgment when facing a probing lob, this phenomenon of goalkeepers always making low-level mistakes in games must be eliminated!
A clever woman can't make a fool of herself. When there are no system plug-ins or modifiers that can modify the attributes of real players, it would be too much to ask George to find a goalkeeper among local players who is comparable to Seaman and Hilton. It's hard to force someone to do something. Therefore, George could only do his best to obey fate. Knowing that these choices were not reliable, he chose the bigger one from the shortest, appointed Robin Xu, who was in relatively stable form, as the number one goalkeeper, and prepared to play in the national team before the World Cup. Give him a good upgrade during the training camp!
After leading the England team to cleanly defeat the Uruguay team and initially establishing his authority in the national team, George, who finished the post-match press conference, immediately returned to Tottenham headquarters to prepare for the next game—— Three days later is the game against Blackburn. With Tottenham currently leading second place Chelsea by only three points, George does not want to capsize at this time and give away the lead that he has finally won in the standings!
It has to be said that the depth of the bench carefully built by George for Tottenham has shown a great advantage at this time. Unlike Mourinho, who no longer makes changes easily after deciding on a main lineup, George, who is well aware of the abilities of his players, often rotates the starting lineup based on the player's status and the intensity of the schedule. No, in the 28th round of the Premier League with Blackburn on March 5, George made a startling starting list!
The starting goalkeeper is Casey Keller; Evra, Dawson, Phil Neville and Stephen Carr line up in the defense; Mendieta, Davis and Speed form the midfield trio. ; The frontcourt trident is Larsson, youngster Lennon and Darren Anderton, who has entered semi-retirement!
There is no main player in the starting lineup except Evra, and seven of them are over 30 years old. Even the goalkeeper, the position with the least physical exertion, has sent veteran Casey Keller instead of letting Che. He went to be Tottenham's last line of insurance. Even with the advantage of home court and the excellent results of his main rotation tactics in recent times, George's formation is indeed audacious in the eyes of many fans and experts!
What these fans and experts don't know is that according to the original plan, George was not even planning to put Evra into the starting lineup - compared with Baynes, who played a full 90 minutes in midweek, on the national team match day, Evra, who sat on the bench for a full ninety minutes, obviously had no physical problems. Since many of the key members of France's World Cup winning team in 1998 are still playing for the national team, Domenech at this time is not too bold to let himself go too much, but he has already shown his "maverick" side in some personnel arrangements. : For example, no matter how good Giuly performed in Barcelona, he could not get a call from the national team; for example, Pires, the left winger, was excluded from the squad for a long time because Domenech believed that the two learned from astrology. The angle is seriously inconsistent; for another example, Evra, who won multiple heavyweight trophies as a main player in Tottenham, came to the national team but could only serve as a substitute for Abidal!
It can be said that, thanks to Domenech's "no suspects" policy, George has a physically energetic and fighting-minded Evra at his disposal when arranging his troops!
Of course, if George really sends a full bench lineup to face visiting Blackburn, then their doubts at this time will undoubtedly become louder:
How much do you despise Blackburn?
