Roy Hodgson’s recent comments on Ross Barkley following the Merseysiders fine display for England this week were as unsurprising as they were depressing. After a glistening but raw performance from the Scouse number 10 Roy immediately made comments of Barkley’s deficiencies, rather than coolly praising the player without making an unnecessary commotion over it.
Although Roy’s intentions were fine at heart – he doesn’t want Barkley overburdened with pressure, it was the way he went about the situation which symbolises Hodgson’s backward view of the game and of youth football in general.
Barkley, who this time last year was setting out to play in the under 20 World Cup in Turkey has had a breakthrough season with an exciting Everton side. Nonetheless he is still clearly raw and genuine comments of Barkley to be the next Gascoigne or the like have been few and far between. Indeed, the mentality within how the public view the England team in general is shifting.
No more are England being backed for glory, realism has arrived in town, only some fifty years late. This said shift to realism within English football transcends toward how the public view their new stars – see Raheem Sterling and the man in question Ross Barkley.
What was most unnerving about Hodgson’s comments after the game were that for all the fine performance displayed by Barkley, it was only one game – and one run and a pass in particular – certainly not something to send the nation into an uncontrollable frenzy of celebration. Yet Roy’s mentality of ‘keep it safe’ is so ingrained that he thought it absolutely necessary to make sure no one would praise Barkley for performing well in a friendly.
“He’s got a lot to learn as well, not least of all when he needs to release the ball, when he can turn with it, when he just needs to secure it, because for every good turn there was a time when he lost the ball and put us on the back foot defensively,” said Roy, following Barkley’s fine performance.
Barkley may have lost the ball on several occasions but the last thing a young talented attacker needs is stifling. The fear of losing the ball because a player may want to take someone on is blasphemy in the eyes of the progressive, yet Hodgson came out with one liners like such: “If he’s going to be the player we want him to be, he has to make better decisions of when he turns with the ball.”
While it is no blasting condemnation, it must certainly have been rather deflating for Barkley who lit up a game where Roy’s mainly second string England side lacked any cohesive game plan throughout.
Of course following Roy’s comments The Telegraph’s Hodgson cheerleader Henry Winter was quick to stick up for his old mate, subtly justifying Roy’s stance of no praise for the young players doing well.
Frank Lampard, who has recently left Chelsea after an illustrious career there, wasn’t afraid to praise Barkley and even likened his breakthrough to that of Rooney who graced England’s European Championships in 2004.
“There are a lot of similarities in there, in their build, where they come from and where they play. You can't deny that. Again, it's that fearlessness of youth. I see the similarities. Great ability on the ball, taking out, running at people with the ball and that's what you want to see,” said Frank.
Hodgson did make the caveat of attempting to explain his stance on Barkley, but again it just didn’t seem necessary.
“He's a talented boy and I'm not criticising him,” Hodgson said. "I'm just making certain that people don't get too carried away.” No Roy – no one was going to get carried away until you made a problem out of a positive occurrence.
It’s no surprise for Roy to babble on and his comments certainly proved as such: “I suppose what I'm trying to do is deflect tomorrow's newspapers from just being about Ross Barkley. That's what I'm trying to do.”
Meanwhile the classy Roberto Martinez responded to the Hodgson comments calmly and with dignity saying Roy was just trying to "protect" the player with his remarks.
Roberto went on to explain his views on Ross in a progressive tactical sense, another aspect which may elude Hodgson: “At the moment Ross is perfectly suited to playing in the No 10 role, but in time he will develop into the complete midfielder," Martinez said. “Nothing fazes him, but the World Cup is a massive event and Ross needs protection. We just need to calm things down a bit and don't expect too much from him.”
Of course there were suggestions Roy was simply applying some reverse-psychology to spur Ross on to bigger and better things in Rio? But such deep-thinking has never been something one would associate with the straight-forward England boss. Should Barkley go on to light up this summer’s World Cup Roy’s comments will most likely – and not necessarily wrongly – be somewhat attributed to his performances. But on the face of it some subtle praise would have been far more applicable.
Take Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers for example and how he has developed the younger players in his Liverpool squad the passed two seasons. The now infamous incident aired on Being Liverpool with Raheem Sterling may well go down in folklore as one of the early moments in their relationship before he developed into one of The Premier Leagues most exciting young stars.
Since then Brendan Rodgers has praised the Jamaican born winger continuously, even to the point where some say it’s exaggerated. But the results don’t lie and it is one more indicator of a modern manager with modern man-management working finely.
The comparisons with Rooney ten years ago cannot be ignored. For those European Championships Rooney was unleashed by Sven-Goran Eriksson and set Europe alike like a house on fire.
Yet I feel the same will not be allowed for players like Barkley or Sterling. International football can be generally dull so to see such a vice grips on unbridled talent is terribly deflating. Here’s hoping that the undeniably young talents coming through the system will not have to face the same restraint on their talents.
