The urban myth talks of a hundred Eskimo words for snow: words are never just words but a way of making sense of the world around us. And when it comes to football it is tempting to conclude that England and Spain are different worlds. In the time Alonso talks he uses seven English phrases. He mentions "poppy" – Fifa's inflexibility and the construction of an "unnecessary" controversy baffles him – and he mentions "the Liverpool Way". But he also talks about the "target man" and about balls: "Hollywood balls", "long balls" and "second balls". Then he mentions "tackling".
It is a theme he returns to twice; much of what he proposes crystallises in that one word: tackling. Those concepts exist in Spanish and "tackling", in English, forms part of Spain's football lexicon, while their use reflects how well Alonso integrated at Liverpool, whom he joined at 22, switching languages as smoothly as he switches play. But it also reflects something very English. Some would say a very English problem..
In other words, don't waste 10 years trying to crowbar Gerrard and Frank Lampard into the team. Alonso dodges the bullet. "Hey," he says. "That's a press debate. I'm not saying that. But the collective ideal hasn't always been there. Paul Scholes maybe hasn't had the international career he should have. Or Michael Carrick: he makes those around him better, regardless of the fact that he's not the one who scores the most goals, or a great tackler."
There is a pause as Alonso reaches, again, the crux of the issue. A single English word he returns to that, unpacked, analysed and investigated, explains much. "I don't think tackling is a quality," he says. "It is a recurso, something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game. At Liverpool I used to read the matchday programme and you'd read an interview with a lad from the youth team. They'd ask: age, heroes, strong points, etc. He'd reply: 'Shooting and tackling'. I can't get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play. How can that be a way of seeing the game? I just don't understand football in those terms. Tackling is a [last] resort, and you will need it, but it isn't a quality to aspire to, a definition. It's hard to change because it's so rooted in the English football culture, but I don't understand it."
The tackle is perhaps the greatest expression of an English conception of the game – physical, epic, emotional. By definition, reactive. After every tournament knockout, some respond by moaning that England's players did not feel the shirt, that they lacked passion. Alonso admires the sentiment but does not share it. Spain's experience suggests other flaws; passion is a myth to be debunked. "Passion?" he says. "Of course it's necessary but it's more important to have footballing foundations, certainly when developing players. Passion isn't something you work on. It's more important to construct a good team, to know how you are going to play, how to read the match. You have to truly understand the game."
