The Times March 09, 2006
Limited Beckham runs out of tricks as wide boy
Rick Broadbent finds there is something missing from the armoury of the England captain these days
DAVID BECKHAM’S difficulty with his son’s maths homework is fitting enough because something else does not quite add up. The galáctico is captain of his country and, as far as his league form goes, often lord of the manor, too.
Yet there is a perennial campaign that paints him as the thoroughbred show pony, someone for the marketing men to put their shirt on. He was coming home to debunk the myths.
Real Madrid’s modest achievements of late, plus the arrival of a less starry-eyed president, have resulted in the flaws in the galáctico method being exposed. Arsenal themselves know that the sum is more important than the individual parts. Before their triumph in the Bernabéu a fortnight ago, they had wowed Europe by humbling Inter Milan 5-1 in the San Siro in November 2003. On that day they had no Patrick Vieira, but they did have Michael Papadopoulos on the bench.
Real were out of the traps fast last night, like a pack of greyhounds rather than the startled rabbits of the first leg, and Beckham provided his signature trait in the early exchanges, a lustrous cross-field pass from the right that found Zinédine Zidane on the left edge of the Arsenal penalty area and exposed Emmanuel Eboué for the second time in a nervous opening.
Soon afterwards, Beckham was charging down the left flank. It was an inconsequential few seconds, but they highlighted why managers love him. He is less of a genius than a high-class trier. Think souped-up Capri rather than Rolls-Royce. When he was dragging England, single-handed, through their mediocrity, capped with that free kick against Greece at Old Trafford in 2001, it was his hyperaction that was his trademark. That is why Peter Taylor is still proud that he was the first to give him the captain’s armband for England.
But the trouble with Beckham is two-fold. First, he is limited as a central midfield player. He tackles in hope and with one eye on the escape route. So play him wide, as Real did, except he is no natural winger. It is the old complaint. He does not tackle, he has no trick, he has only moderate pace and he is average in the air. Add to the list of shame that he was up against a makeshift full back in Mathieu Flamini and you have a decent agenda for any radio phone-in. “Big questions will be asked,” Beckham said afterwards. Robbie Savage once said that all people see in himself is “hair and someone running their bollocks off”. Savage is the Millets version of the galáctico, but the same might be said of Beckham. The big difference is that Beckham is a clean striker of the ball and therein lies the tale of his career. One 40-yard free kick last night had shades of the truest galáctico, Ronaldinho, about it, almost catching out Jens Lehmann, the Arsenal goalkeeper, and making one wonder whether he meant it.
But the trouble with being an attention-seeker is that you get the attention when it goes wrong. It was Beckham catching the spotlight as he failed to show England that Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, had been wrong all along or that he is notably better than Shaun Wright-Phillips.
It perhaps says it all about his stock that, when pub talk turns to the players who need to perform well to win the World Cup, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard top the list. Last time, Beckham had a broken metatarsal and he made the News at Ten. This summer he needs to prove that he is not a broken Meta-man and make the myths reality.
