http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:36:14 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/12/15/174047.php#comment-681785 Ally, I see that you are Scottish. What are your thoughts on the fact that Scotland doesn't seem to have the same predicament? They also have a coaching vacancy, but from what I've heard there are no non-Scots being seriously touted for the job. Also, there's the phenomenon that recently - in terms of resources - the Scottish national team has been massively overachieving, whereas their English counterparts have been doing the opposite. What are the Scots doing right that the English aren't? 681785@blogcritics.org Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:36:14 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/12/15/174047.php#comment-680557 Does Hiddink know Russian? Did he know Korean? I don't think Zico knew Japanese before he went there. How good was Mourinho's English before getting to England? Same with Benitez? Didn't they learn on the job? Just wondering. How do soccer players who come to a foreign league who can't speak, say, Spanish, Italian or English still manage? Language is big but how big is it? The bigger concern, I think, is his international experience. Capello is fond of the the English game. He seems to know and understand the English style. He certainly talks enough about it. Surely this counts for something? As for Capello's alleged "defensive" style that's a somewhat of a persistent stigma for some reason. AC Milan and Roma played open, fluent soccer. Capello is not defensive by strategy. It's as accurate as still saying Italian soccer is still defensive which it is not. Catenaccio has not been used since the mid-90s. At Real the biggest weakness there was defense so all he did was bolster it. Real was not going to beat anyone with offensive soccer (and still won't. sorry Real fans!) and so he was just being practical. Guess what? He won the title. Best England be prepared. This guy is a perfectionist and demands a lot. He will mix formations up. You are so right about his tendency to create friction especially with star players and egos. 680557@blogcritics.org Sun, 16 Dec 2007 10:44:25 EST