re: England and WC 2014

Some of you people are mad...

I think the emphasis by the English in general on Wilshere has to do with how hard they screwed Scholes. Scholes was the most technically gifted English midfielder of his generation, who was pushed wide left to accommodate Gerrard and Lampard. Had Scholes been the DLP in 2006 next to Hargreaves (who could have been the best English DM of his generation if not for injuries). Gerrard and Lampard are fine players in their roles, but they don't value possession as they should, especially at the international level, where the pace of the game is slower, and the game is more pensive. Scholes was a better passer than both, and could dictate the game much better than any other English CM. The fact he retired when he was thirty is a testament to everything wrong with English football at the international level. It's brutish, simplistic, reactive, and technically poor. It will never win anything because the English mentality reverts back to the late 70's and 80s, when English teams were the best on the continent before the Heysel disaster. A game based on technique from deep within midfield is the future of the game.

Which brings us to Wilshere. He will never be a AM at the international level. He's a player who will dictate tempo to the opposition in a really important way. The fact of the matter is that at the international level, the most successful teams since the change in the offside rule in 2005, the team with the best DLP has won every Euro and WC. Italy and Spain have had the two best DLP's of our generation, and it's no surprise both teams have been so successful. Not only that, the Paraguay team that reached the final of the Copa America was successful largely to its defense, and the underrated play of CM Nestor Ortigoza, who dictated the tempo of the game so so well.

What England has always needed is a player who valued possession, who loves the ball, who is willing to wait a moment before playing a forward pass to no one. Wilshere drives from midfield to support the attack better than most young midfielders. He's obviously not the most talented young midfielder, but I don't think saying that England's success in the future will be based on him, and possibly players like Josh McEachran and George Throne, who could play the DLP role if they develop, and if Wilshere develops as a AM more than a DLP.