Vieira: England lack team spirit

Posted Monday, June 04, 2012 by ESPN

Former French international Patrick Vieira believes the England team's biggest stumbling block is their lack of team spirit.

An integral part of the French national side that lifted both the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship title, Vieira knows a thing or two about succeeding at international level. After spending 10 years of his playing career in England, he has put forth the observation that the current batch of Three Lions players are divided by club loyalties.

"I believe that England look like France before 1996 and '98, in France before that period there was big rivalry between the clubs, between Marseille and Paris St-Germain, and most of the players were from these two clubs. There was no team spirit," Vieira said to The Independent.

"And I believe that in England, the rivalry between the clubs [has meant] the players couldn't gel."

Citing his title winning Les Bleus squad as an example, Vieira believes the side is a prime example of success that can be achieved when a team manages to gel.
"I was at Arsenal and players were at United, but when we came together we forgot what team we were playing for," he shared.

"I think when we judged the national team the only concern is how we can do well together. With us the manager created that spirit and we realised that if we want to win we have to stick together."

The former Gunner believes a stronger emphasis on the English national youth team could rectify the problem in future.

"When you look at [Thierry] Henry, [Robert] Pires, [Sylvain] Wiltord, we played together in the youth team. But in England the Under-17s, 18s, 19s, 21s are not as important as the first team," Vieira stated.

"In France every player will fight because they want to play for the national team [whether] Under-16, Under-18. And these kind of players, you find them afterwards in the first team. You build team spirit, it starts there. Even in the Zidane generation you had six or seven players who had played together in the European Championship at Under-21 or Under-18."