Once again, the darkside of English football was exposed over the weekend when one of the brightest prospect of the game, Aaron Ramsay suffered a career threatening injury when Arsenal met Stoke City in a Premier league game. Aaron broke his leg due to a reckless, over-zealous and brutal tackle by Stoke City's defender Ryan Shawcross. The tackle may have been accidental, unintentional or whatever name one may choose to call it, but what I witnessed exposes a wider problem in English football which I believe could prevent them from winning any major international honours.
In 5 years, Arsenal have seen 3 similar injuries happen to team members. I don't believe these are just coincidental. I believe it sterms from a culture that have been encouraged by Managers, the media and pundicts which tries to enforce the belief that the only way to stop Arsenal from playing their fast, free flowing football is to be physical and aggressive in your approach and "get in their faces", which is the term often used to describe this approach.
While this approach may have a place within the context of the modern game of football as a contact sport, I'm convinced that it has, for the greater part, encouraged an overly physical approach which has resulted in these horrific injuries. The overwhelming priorities of most clubs facing Arsenal is not to concentrate on playing football to win the game, but to stop Arsenal from playing their brand of football. If these teams approach every game with the same physical intensity as they do games with Arsenal, I think their league positions will dramatically improve.
The wider implication for the national game is that, young footballers coming through are thought to prioritise the physicality of the game above the development of technique and skill. Is it any wonder why the English national team is plagued by one major weakness; and that is ball retention. At International level, a teams ability to keep possession of the ball for longer periods of a football match is key to winning tournaments. If you are in doubt, just take a look at the Spainish or Brazilian national teams and you will understand why they've won major trophies and are currently ranked the top sides in the world.
The English Premier league prides itself in the fact that, it is the richest and the best league in the world. It may be the best league because of the foreign players who bring technique and skill to the otherwise boring, over-physical and long-ball style that football fans would have been stuck to.
If England want to see a real potential in their sides winning major trophies, then they must say goodbye to the over-emphasis on the physical nature of the game and concentrate on developing footballers with true skill and technique. They must stop excusing horrific tackles like the one we saw over the weekend and start campaigning for a cleaner game that frowns upon the likes of the Ryan Showcross tackle. In my opinion, Until this culture of physicality is eradicated from the English culture, winning the world cup will be a very, very long short.
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