( Written in response to the Rory Smith's article in the Telegraph on the "English Tax", which you can read here: http://tgr.ph/p8uhHd )
One point the article doesn't make (but is surely worth pursuing) is the fact that such inflated prices for English players helps contribute to the fact they rarely travel abroad and learn how to play in other leagues. While I agree with the writer's implication that learning how to play in the Premier League is not rocket science (sure, you tend to get less space and time, which some players adapt to quicker than others), I think that's only raised as a concern by the likes of Savage et al because of the constant harping about the EPL being the best in the world. That's as maybe, but the real question ought surely to be: of the quarter finalists in the 2010 World Cup (Spain, Holland, Germany, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Ghana), how many played in anything like a Premier League style? Spain obviously played Barca's game, slightly tweaked to accommodate a couple of Real players; Germany generally played a 4231 with retreating wingers, Lahm on the overlap and Ozil pulling the strings - that's arguably vaguely English, but I think the way they demolished England demonstrates it had a rather more continental flavour than even Wenger's best attempts at the 4231; Holland did something between a 4231, a 4132 and a 433, Robben joining van Persie (with Kuyt on the left, when he showed up) up top, while van Bommel and de Jong basically kicked anything that moved and Schneider just looked embarrassed standing in front of them (or as Jonathan Wilson put it "six players defend, three attack, and Dirk Kuyt runs about") - in terms of lopsidedness, poor movement and physicality, this was possibly the most English team so far; Uruguay were all set to play a 352, but this quickly got reshaped (not drastically, but enough) to look more like a defensive 442 diamond - again, faintly English, with lots of pressing, but probably it had more in common with Italian teams (Mourinho's Barca-thwarting Inter in particular) than English ones (not surprising if you've been reading your Blizzard issue two with its background on the link between Uruguay and Italian football - it's in the article on Brazil's well-documented transition to 424, I think); Paraguay generally played a narrow pressing game, somewhere between a 442 and a 4132, which again is probably English on paper, but the utter lack of creativity anywhere outside the frontmen means it's probably only really suited to League 1 football (even the newly promoted Premier League teams are a bit more canny than that these days); Brazil stuck with their 424/ 4222, which is so Brazillian I refuse to write any more about it; Argentina tried numerous systems (all fatally flawed, none remotely English); and Ghana - bless em - more or less stuck with a 4141 of various widths - this was probably the most English team of the lot (they reminded me a lot of Spurs), and while they were utterly robbed by Uruguay's dodginess, that seemed a bit of a foregone conclusion from the start really (which only makes them even more English)...
So, if you agree with me thus far, we're saying Holland and Ghana represented the Premier League tactically (besides England themselves). Out of the eight top (or most lucky) teams in last year's finals, two teams played an Anglicised system, one made it to the final by sheer good fortune, cheating, and the fact the Brazillian team had no idea what to do about set pieces, while Ghana scraped through their relatively straightforward group, scraped past USA, and inevitably succumbed to cramp and nerves when Suarez's handball denied them a win.
Neither of those teams (nor England) excelled tactically. Neither team's system looked comfortably adapted to coping with other systems (Ghana tended to line up on the edge of the box and hold their breath, while Holland tended to kick anyone who came near the edge of the box), and neither team's system created much - both nations relied on individuals to spark big moments, rather than team play.
So far, so obvious. My point - while it might not be as hard as Robbie Savage thinks for a player to assimilate and integrate sufficiently to understand the Premier League's "If in doubt, Boot it OUT!" approach, that doesn't mean the converse is just as easy. As many have noted in the face of managers aiming to emulate 'The Barca way', that kind of pseudo-telepathic symbiosis is not achieved overnight, but rather instilled through a good decade or so of coaching from youth level to Messi standard. Fabregas has flattered to deceive by walking into the Barca side and getting both goals and assists, but he's been fortunate for several reasons: firstly, and maybe most importantly, he grew up playing tiki taka with Messi and Pique; secondly, he's had the advantage of team mates (like Messi) who really want him to succeed, and have done their best to make this a reality; thirdly, he's got something to prove, and like Van der Vaart at Spurs last season, he's found that's a bloody good stimulus for form; and lastly (there's probably more, but that's all I can be bothered with) he's not exactly come up against the best teams in the world... yet.
This transfer window, the most notable Englishman to venture overseas was Joe Cole. That is to say, the Joe Cole who will be 30 in November, who struggled to make an impact on a wobbly Liverpool squad, and who is now plying his trade in Ligue 1 - widely regarded as one of the worst top-flight leagues in Western Europe - for last season's champions, Lille, who will play in the Champions League this season for the first time in their history. While it would be lovely to think that a year from now I'll be eating my words and remarking on how Joe's inclusion at Lille was a masterstroke, providing the lynchpin in their 21421 system (now being imitated all over Europe) and giving him the tactical awareness he's always lacked, allowing him to waltz into the England team as our one token veteran, leading the younger lads to certain glory, the likelihood is rather more mundane - this time next year Lille will have sent Cole back to Liverpool, who will now be looking to offload his overblown wages onto some other mug.
If English players didn't command such a premium, surely other teams from other leagues would be more likely to take on a few of them and perhaps - just perhaps - we'd start expecting our national side to be a little bit more knowledgeable about the game as a whole. Who knows, maybe in five or ten years time, Joe Cole will speak on an English football radio show about Jack Wiltshire - "I don't rate Wiltshire, he didn't do very well at Villareal"...
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