Friendly Fire

By David Wilcock

After attending UEFA’s ‘Elite A Forum’ in Nyon, Gerard Houllier launched a vocal attack on the programme of international friendlies:

“I and some of the top coaches deplore the fact that too many friendlies are a burden for some of the players, and the players do not seem to enjoy them any more”.

So is he right? Well, yes. The World Cup finished in July, players had about two weeks off, we have already had 4 rounds of Premiership games and already we are having a friendly. You only have to look at some of the performances of England’s World Cup players to see the effect of too little summer time off.

Owen is struggling to hit the net already, Heskey too. Over the Pennines, David Beckham and Paul Scholes have been mediocre and have now succumbed to injury. So what is the point in this friendly if a) players are injured already and b) they play too many game anyway?

Sven and other international managers would undoubtedly point to the need to access their players in training and the need for ‘bonding’. But surely, for those countries that went to Japan and Korea, they have bonded already? Other countries perhaps not, but still, the argument is a poor one.

This early in the season, friendlies do more to hinder than to help. Last year around this time Danny Murphy got his first call up. He played a token part but it was the aftermath that was noticeable. His form plummeted after the game and we had a dire November/December run which ultimately cost us the title. Other players too have had this problem, noticeably those who missed the world cup through injuries sustained with England. Gary Neville is only just returning from injury, although, this may not necessarily be a negative!

The injury situation is a joke. Becks and Scholes have ‘suspicious’ injuries of the type that has stopped Ryan Giggs playing friendlies for Wales for about the last 8 years. I understand that. What manager in their right mind would want their players to run the risk of getting injured so early in the new campaign? There may be a European Championship qualifier just around the corner, but surely Sven knows his team already? So why call up Owen and Heskey, seeing as how they both played 50+ games last season and summer?

Added to this is the call for the mid-season break. Surely this would work better if there were less pointless games i.e. international friendlies?

Surely a training get together would be a far better appraisal of the new players that a meaningless game against a Portuguese opposition would will be playing at half speed anyway, if they themselves do not drop mysteriously out via injury. I doubt Figo, Conceicao and Rui Costa will play a big part, if any, so what is the point? Proving yourselves against a Portuguese ‘B’ side is surely counter-productive. Get them together for a few days at a nice secluded English country club and put them through a few paces, that will be a better use of your time and theirs. I think international managers would find their players team managers would be a little more co-operative if they did this, Eriksson, Hughes, Vogts et all, take note.