What England need to do….
First off, while the England vs. Germany match will be must watch viewing for both countries this evening, personally I think the Sweden vs. Portugal match will be a cracker and is set up nicely for some drama and great potential trading opportunities. Ibrahimovic or Ronaldo won’t be going to Rio, who will it be?
Meantime back at Wembley England have a chance to show they are ready for Rio.
I don’t think you can read too much into the match against Chile, Hodgson has to experiment to make any progress so putting out an experimental team was the right thing to do. Against Germany we can expect to see a more serious line up.
A decent read for me in recent years was ‘Why England lose’. There are many factors, but if you look outside of some of those and also the lack of English talent getting a decent run about each week in the EPL, there are some pretty sensible ideas you could do to improve English performance.
If you have a well organised team then that will improve performance immediately. You only need to look at the Germans for teams that know exactly how they should be playing. There is a cultural element to that, but it’s very solvable. Even when German sides lack talent they can still get the job done.
And then of course there is the penalty issue, how many years do we live on fearing any England player taking a penalty? But England have had the ability to completely crush this issue plenty of times. Being a Southampton fan I’m fortunate to have witnessed two great penalty takers. Matt Le Tissier who scored 48/49 penalties & Rickie Lambert who is currently on 33/33 for Southampton. So the technique is there for people to learn from, both tactical, psychical and psychological.
But here is how the England coaching team could crush the psychological barrier this evening. At half time, or full time perhaps, do a ‘friendly’ penalty shootout. Banish the demons of the past and force the England players to get used to taking penalties in high pressure situations. It’s soooo obvious and tonight would be the perfect opportunity and it would make so much sense, which is why the FA will most certainly not do it. But maybe instead Hodgson should take Lambert to Rio on the basis his presence will inspire confidence? Outside chance.
Roll on Rio!
Category: Football trading strategies
