Football: England long on shortcomings

Euro '96 countdown: Venables stresses value of teamwork and tactics as personnel rather than pattern lets him down; Ian Ridley feels Terry Venables has been the target of personal criticism

IF OSLO '93 was the beginning of the end for Graham Taylor, then Oslo '95 probably represented the end of the beginning for his successor as the England coach, Terry Venables. His was a week that saw his head prepared for the gallows by one noosepaper and his word called into question by another. And that was before the match against Norway.

The initial impression that Venables was the man to restore some flair to the national team after the failures under Taylor was severely tested in the Ullevaal Stadium. Hopes raised by an encouraging performance against Colombia in September, English spirits sagged somewhat. As the man once said, there are 0-0 draws and 0-0 draws, and this was a 0-0 draw.

But it was not so much events, or lack of them, during the 90 minutes that caused concern; after all, some of the criticism was valid. It was more that Venables, whom even some of his current critics accepted as the man for the job, had to endure what seemed a deliberate disregard for any explanations he may have had about matters as sundry as the approach to him by Internazionale being made public and the tactics his team has embraced. It looks official: the honeymoon is over and the rolling pin is poised.

I hold no particular brief for Venables, besides accepting that his approach to the job is a well-meaning and genuine attempt to drag England into the Nineties. I am inclined to believe him, however, when he says that he was approached by a representative of Inter and that it was not some attempt to find a bargaining tool in talks with the FA about a new contract. It probably did not come directly from the club, which would constitute an illegal approach.

As Venables said on Friday: "It amazes me that people don't think that this sort of thing goes on. If people think that after being a manager for 20 years I am going to use that as a lever, so be it."

Venables says he will be having talks with the FA chairman Sir Bert Millichip and chief executive Graham Kelly "in the near future" about continuing after next summer's European Championship finals into a World Cup qualifying campaign. One could hardly blame him, though, if he threw his hat in the ring for the less scrutinised post of technical director.

Certainly not the FA. Their director of public affairs David Davies - the man responsible for Tel communications - was indignant. "We will be seeking to find new ways of defending the coach, whoever he is," he said. "There has been a level of personal abuse that has little or nothing to do with football." In the future, he added, the best people would not want the job, and in that he has a point. We end up with the leaders we deserve.

While the more personal criticism should cease before it reaches the distasteful level that Taylor and Bobby Robson before him had to endure, criticism pertaining to playing matters will never cease, and nor should it. As an exasperated journalist once said to Sir Alf Ramsey: "It's our team too." But then Venables will know that; as he arrived in Oslo, he was carrying a copy of David Miller's account of 1966, England's Last Glory.

England were not good in Norway, but not that bad. The match suffered as a spectacle because it was yet another training exercise in which both sides were preoccupied with how their defences are shaping up. Venables conceded that he had been rightly criticised for the disorganised look of his back four in the first 15 minutes of the abortive match in Dublin and had worked more with them than the front players for this away match. The Norwegians were preparing for their crucial Euro '96 qualifying match in Holland next month, from which they need a point.

Many still believe that Venables is playing his "Christmas tree" formation, with one striker, a system that seems to ignore the apparent wealth of them in the Premiership. In fact, he now employs two wingers, and Nicky Barmby was often playing close to Alan Shearer. Though Robbie Fowler does not have the vision of Barmby, should he continue to score goals in the Premiership, he will surely come into contention for that position.

Naturally, most attention has focused on Shearer's eight-game goal drought, but the deficiencies are less in him than around him. As his Blackburn team-mate Henning Berg said after playing against him on Wednesday: "The rest of the team needs to get behind a defence and get crosses in. That's the way he scores his goals." For all that, resting him against Switzerland at Wembley next month and assessing Les Ferdinand's qualifications may be timely.

Steve McManaman seems unlikely to solve England's left-sided attacking problem and may be more comfortable operating from the right, which could mean the better all-rounder Darren Anderton, when fit, being tried there. Venables' persistence with Dennis Wise appears a blind spot; Steve Stone gave a promising cameo. In addition, England are still crying out for a central defender able to do more than head away a high ball.

It was in personnel rather than formation that shortcomings were seen. That and an unwillingness to pass the ball however many times it takes until an opening appears rather than rush it forward as a Premiership crowd demands. At times, England were still too direct rather than not direct enough.

"What I have always felt about England's performances in the past, and watching our clubs' European matches, is that our game is flat out, both trying to get the ball and working with it," Venables said. "The great sides try and get their breathers. Teams like Ajax don't play it around at the back to look pretty, they are waiting for a starting position for an attack. And once all your players are in their starting positions then you have got to be direct.

"It's like Ruud Gullit was saying the other week. The game is controlled from the back and that is why we don't understand it here. We have to play in spurts. In the past, after 70 or 75 minutes our energy starts to run out. We are stretching for tackles, never quite getting up in support."

It is when the coach talks along these lines that you realise that he deserves indulgence. "If we don't learn about tactics and teamwork, we will get left behind," he said. "In the meantime there may be frustrations but I have got to stick to what I think is right. Yes, we want to get forward more, to score goals. All those things that you want, I want, but it's not about pressing buttons. It's about improving things when you can."

Surely we are with him when he says of Norway, "if that's football of the future, it's not for me"? But unhappily for those to whom no noose is bad news, Venables' developmental strategy unfolds by the month rather than by the day. When you're hatching chickens, though, you don't do it by smashing the eggshell.