Quote:
Originally Posted by Kymmy
It was a shame when he bulked up as he was a fast mover with tons of talent, now he's heavier he doesn;t seem to have the flair he used to have. He is though a great long throw-in specialist
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Someone on a podcast I listain too made a very similar point about Heskey. That when Heskey first emerged as a player he was a fast winger, but the culture of English football caused him to bulk up and he lost a lot of pace and flair and this was put forward as one of the possible reasons we don't do well on the international stage.
I happen to agree. I think there is too much emphasis amongst the British talent to be powerhouses, and a slight disrespect towards creativity, technique, and speed with is not the case with the South American teams or a lot of the European ones such as Holland and Spain.
As international players make their mark in the UK I think that is started to change amongst players who will be just coming though the ranks now (Arsenal have Wilshere for example) and ones who will be there in a few years.
Surely this is the reason there is such few British players coming though, they continue to get trained in the way they always used but when it comes to the Premiership, the Champions League, they can't handle it whereas the foreign players can.