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Why Robbie is right about Sven

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Why Robbie is right about Sven
Updated: June 26th, 2007

(first published 04-09-05)

There’s an interesting piece in Sunday Times (http://tinyurl.com/3p7cje) about Wright-Phillips’ England performance yesterday.

Here’s a quote: ‘To be fair, he looked no more bemused than any of his more experienced England colleagues. Neither right-winger nor right midfielder, he wandered disconsolately in a self-made no man’s land in the first half, rueing, perhaps, the miss in the opening seconds that stood as a monument to England’s struggles for much of a strangely tepid match’.

And it got me thinking about Robbie Fowler’s recent criticism (http://tinyurl.com/4k2g9t) of the England manager. In his autobiography Fowler wrote: “Sven Goran Eriksson has, for me, a reputation vastly inflated beyond his actual achievements.”

So I thought I’d take a closer look at Eriksson’s managerial record.

At first glance it looks spectacular - five league titles, five domestic cups, two Uefa Cups and a Cup Winners Cup (the FA credit him [http://tinyurl.com/9efep]
with an extra Swedish league title in 1981, but according to the RSSSF archive [http://tinyurl.com/4jshsg] Gothenburg finished 2nd that year).

However all but one of his league titles were in the Swedish and Portuguese leagues. His three titles in five years with Benfica have to be seen in the context of the four titles they won in 11 years when he wasn’t the manager.

But it is his time managing four clubs in the much more competitive Seria A which is more revealing.

In the five seasons before Eriksson became manager, AS Roma finished 7th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st and 2nd. In the three seasons he was there (1984-87) they finished 7th, 2nd and 7th.

He then went on to manage Fiorentina until 1989, where they finished 10th, 8th and 7th. In the five years before he took charge they finished 2nd, 5th, 3rd, 9th and 4th.

His five seasons as Sampdoria manager between 1992-97 were equally unspectacular, with the club finishing 8th, 4th, 8th, 8th and 6th. In the five years before his appointment they finished 4th, 5th, 5th, 1st and 6th. Two seasons after he left Sampdoria were relegated.

He then went on to Lazio, who had finished 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3nd, 4th in the league. After two years where they finished 7th and 2nd Eriksson finally won his first Seria A title.

His ability to manage players - in-form City players in particular - also raises questions.

Why is it that David James plays so superbly and so consistently at City yet becomes so error-prone once he puts on an England shirt? Maybe part of the answer lies in this article (link broken, searches fruitless) from the Daily Telegraph.

Other questions arise over his team selections.

As this examination of Sven’s team selection (http://tinyurl.com/4tb9o3) shows, only 15 of the 100 places in England’s six World Cup qualifiers and 4 games at Euro 2004 went to players who were not with Champions League clubs.

The list of puzzling questions goes on, including why an England team which has a wealth of talented midfielders seems so incapable of retaining possession.

But I’ll leave you an extract from Fowler’s book, which describes Eriksson’s behaviour during the Brazil match in the 2002 World Cup:

“Everything I had suspected about Eriksson was shown in that match,” Fowler wrote. “At half-time you could see the faces of our players. They were shell-shocked. But it was still only 1-1 and it was time for the manager to get to work, change the tactics and instill some belief.
“He said absolutely nothing. Absolutely f*** all. Just stood there with a startled look on his face like he too, believed we were f****d. And that’s the way it turned out.
“We just rolled over and died. There was no team spirit, no fight, no togetherness. And the manager didn’t say a word.”



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source: http://smf.citymancs.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=jbcso0rf9ckhm2qv40r010jq96&topic=10098.0

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