Just to clarify my thought process for my next selection means that I need to consider what shape this team is going to play. Well, thinking ahead of the difficulty that I have created for myself when it comes down to choosing strikers, I think this team will be more balanced playing in a 4-3-3 formation. So I have to consider two attack minded midfield players who would compliment Warkie who would be doing the central holding role. Starting on the left side of midfield, or wide left, was Clive Woods when I started at Ipswich. Kevin O'Callaghan came in during the early 80's from Millwall and was also more of an old fashioned left winger like Clive. In between those two came Arnold Muhren with the most wonderful left foot ever to grace Portman Road, a bit more subtle than Kevin Beattie's left foot. At Leicester City we were always short of a natural left sided midfielder, Ian Wilson did a good job for us at times but was more effective through a more central position, but the magestic Laurie Cunningham, during his short stay at Leicester, did like playing down the left and cutting inside to play off the strikers causing havoc that way. Similarly when I went and joined Southampton in 1988 Rodney Wallace played a similar role down the left wide position, very attack minded, exceptionally quick and a very good goal scorer. I think in my first season there both Rodney down the left, and another young lad call Le Tissier down the right, both ended up with over 20 league goals apiece. Rodney, his twin brother and right back Raymond and elder brother Danny were great lads and soon Danny was off to Manchester United. It was such a shame that his career was cut short due to MS. After three and a half years at Southampton, and being surplus to manager Ian Branfoot's requirements I moved to Ashton Gate and Bristol City. A couple of years later I was the Manager and signed a terrific left sided midfield player from Bradford City. His name was Brian Tinnion and he went on claim his five minutes of fame when he scored the goal for Bristol City that knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup in January 1994. Tinnion was similar in style to Muhren but Arnold had a bit more guile and finesse than Brian. Getting back to who is playing alongside Warkie and you might have guessed that on the left it would be Arnold Muhren. I don't think many Ipswich Town, Manchester Utd or Holland supporters would disagree with that choice. On the other side it comes down to two players in my opinion. Both these players suffered from insecure England Managers restricting their appearances for the national side. Glenn Hoddle played 50 odd times for England and I played with him from the U18 group up to full international level. I played in Australia with him in 1980 when he scored as we played across the cricket square at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Glenn probably could have had another 20 to 30 caps but somewhere along the line both Ron Greenwood and Sir Bobby thought him a risk to play, not defensively minded enough. Amazingly then that Matt Le Tissier suffered as a player in the same way as Glenn did, but this was when Glenn was the England team Manager. That was something I never understood. I played with Matt for three seasons at Southampton and seeing him score incredible goals became part of your daily routine on the training ground, so when he did it on a match day most of us were never really that surprised, and Matt definitely wasn't. A truly gifted player who could ride tackles and challenges with a balance and grace that belies his playing diet of crisps, Mars bars and coke. Matt has a very sharp footballing mind, a soccer specialist on not only the modern era and his own, but just about any game game played anywhere in the world, Matt would be my choice to play alongside Johnny Wark and Arnold Muhren in a midfield three with John playing his normal holding role. The team is now starting to come together, a recap soon.
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AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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