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Adapt to win
[ 5 minute read ]
Not on your Nelly, Thomas!
This is not about football; it is about adaptation and the weather.
Adaptation is something we need when we visit another country. It means that we have understood that our own norms, values and habits may not be acceptable to the host nation, and, more importantly, the people we meet, or we are likely to have an influence on.
The next couple of paragraphs is a direct quote which I copied from my scrapbook, which in turn, I copied from somewhere with no citing or reference. I cannot find where I read it or copied it from. I looked for a while in my books and my past essays, but to no avail. Indeed, it is a character flaw in me that I focus on an end result and once I have reached it, in this case publishing a post, I am loathe to return to working on a project, and make appropriate adjustments. I could easily paraphrase the next two paragraphs, yet I shall not. Like many people to whom I have formed an opinion, in that they think, 'That will do', and I believe they might put more effort into correcting their attitude, I must confess to being one of those poor creatures, at this present time. The moments have passed for which I compelled myself to pay adequate attention to ensuring my past efforts were as driven and focused as they should be, and otherwise readdressing them with positive changes. It may even be that I concatenated and amalgamated information from several sources and came up with what may appear to be my own quote.
In marketing: ‘If there is an hierarchy of customer characteristics, then culture would be firmly at the top; it has the broadest and deepest influence on customers, and is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behaviour. […]
[…] Culture, as a state of consciousness or predilection to perceive in a particular way, comes from observed and learned values that pertain to achievement and success; activity and involvement; efficiency and practicality; progress; material comfort; individualism; freedom; humanitarianism; youthfulness; and fitness and health. These, however, are not universally found, particularly so in large cities.’
On the beach, after coming from an expensive restaurant where the order was, ‘FISH...AND...CHIPS!’
‘Why is it that you always think you are right and everyone else is wrong? I am sick of you. Every time we go on holiday, you have to make the world comply with how you want it to be.’
‘Why should I just follow someone else’s idea of how to have fun or get along? I am here to have a good time. I paid enough for it! Most of these people are still in the stone age!’
King Cnut, in his arrogance, is believed to have tried to hold back the tide in England. He is supposed to have been so arrogant that he felt that nature should obey him. There is an alternative idea that has suggested that he was humbly demonstrating that even he, King of Norway and England, could not tame nature, and that he, like everyone else, was at its mercy, and his power is limited. I should like to add that we are all merely flotsam and jetsam in a raging and tumultuous climatic maelstrom (but that is because I like words).
Perhaps bizarrely these days; on my CV, it says, under the heading ‘Interests’, that I like sailing. ‘I am not a very good solo sailor, but very enthusiastic. It is always difficult to make headway against superior forces (such as environments and tides) yet through confident and diligent effort, I gain high satisfaction, both in the journey and in reaching the desired destination and result.’
My intent, when I initially wrote that, was to obliquely indicate that I am resourceful and determined and try to shape my efforts to suit the environment in which I am in, while recognising the influence I may have on that environment. In effect, working with the environment and bending or warping it to shape or manifest a desired result, from which a certain amount of gain can be gleaned. It, as it stands, only really works for people who have the means and resources to understand it beyond just trying to force my way from one port to another; noisy and polluting motorboats do that.
I don’t really care if people use motorboats for leisure. I only bring them up for the contrast they provide in my outline premise of why adaptation is important to me. (Working with the environment as opposed to fighting it, or working against it).
With my attitude out in the open, it will be no surprise when I profess to being baffled when I read today, that the England football team head coach, Thomas Tuchel, has clearly stated that he will barge his way into the World Cup game; he ‘says that he is "not ready to adapt" England's playing style at the World Cup despite the heat - as it would "give up" the team's strengths.’ (Alex Howell, England reporter in Kansas City, 01:49 17 June 2026, updated c. 04:00) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clyr5zn4440o
Being the youngest sibling and severely bullied by my older brother, including being publicly humiliated whenever we were together in public, may be a reason why I don’t compete much, or at all. It might even be an excuse for just being different; preferring sailing to controlling powered boats.
I recognise that there must be at least some controlled aggression in sports. In boxing, for example, men have been measured to punch 30% harder than women of the same weight and size. I also realise that there is an arrogance that King Cnut did not really have, yet Thomas Tuchel does.
This rings alarm bells for me so loud as to wake all the heroes in battles past; the men and women who just rose up and bashed their way forward, regardless of what anyone thought of them, or who was insulted. The Suffragettes righteously did their thing for womankind, but they were also part of that group. Being heroes through winning the vote for women, effectively around the world by seepage throughout the British Empire, with their cry, ‘It is not fair!’ I suggest, means they are not the same kind of hero as a team or individual rewarded with a sporting accolade and national approbation. They are poles apart. The true heroes make a positive difference in the world, or even in their local environment. William Wilberforce is a hero; John Bellingham, dare I say it, is a hero because through his, admittedly selfish and brutal act, ultimately caused members of parliament to recognise they are accountable for their actions. Merely, winning a game, without positively influencing a group, generation, nation, or more widely, is just, for me, an indication that mindless victory should be sought wherever and whenever one can foment it to occur. We might as well all carry banners that say “Bring back the Austin Allegro”. Just keep the same design despite the changes it had to go through in its development.
‘The Austin Allegro failed to meet sales predictions, had a terrible reputation, and its infamy spread far and wide […] The Austin Allegro was almost universally lambasted for being ugly, frumpy and undesirable looking.’ (https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/austin/allegro/)
I don't think I am comfortable with ‘mega-influencers’, such as a national football team, playing as though they cannot adapt, or worse, decidedly will not adapt.
I used to regard the BBC (national UK television and radio channel or today, media channel) as a paragon of righteousness, and a stable influence that allowed people around the world to hold certain values to be correct and desirable. Of course, today, many people will attempt to bring down British values in their desire to exercise their individual characteristics. With the BBC continually moving their goalposts they have breached the golden rule of parenthood and influence; be consistent. No young person today, I suggest, trusts the BBC. We notice the slightest change. Long ago, Trevor McDonald, the newscaster, used to say, ‘ConTROVersy’ and then after a few years changed it to ‘CONtroversy’. Uh oh, Trevor, you have shown us you are fallible, and since you represent the BBC, a government-controlled entity, you have suggested to us that the Government is also fallible. It is, for me, an excellent and wonderful place to start a (fictional?) story of how we got to where we are now; Thomas Tuchel stating that the England football team is a one trick pony and will not adapt, because they can't.
Perhaps young or inexperienced people might cry, ‘I am relevant. I am important. I am fresh. I am me. I am not you, or you, or you!’
And a reply might be, ‘We are all the same because we are all individuals. But living well means we all need to pull in the same direction, when living well is a continual tug of war.’
That seems to be the attitude of Thomas Tuchel, and, at first glance, it is acceptable. Yet, this is pitting the strength of one group against another group, or a group against a difficult time or environment. I think it shows a lack of understanding of just how foolish we can be.
I feel that Sun Tsu’s ‘Art of War’ may be a better bedtime read for the England coach, than ‘Tactics for MMA Fighters’. Thomas Tuchel wants to fight the weather and the opposing World Cup teams at the same time. Any good tactician would recognise that the England team would be fighting on two fronts. All the opposing teams would need to do is keep making the England players run around a lot by passing the ball among themselves and making pseudo-attacks. You know, kick the ball forward as though an attempt is about to be made to score a goal, and then, once all the England players have run back towards their own end, pass the ball back towards their own defenders, who never ran forward to support the pseudo-attack at the England goal. If they do this enough, but not close to the ‘hydration breaks’, they will effectually break the England team, making them heat-weary. Slower and tired England legs means less ability to score a goal or defend against a goal.
Sun Tsu said, ‘If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.’
However, whether England win or lose is, I suggest, only a peripheral event or provides a veneer of sentiment. Yet, that is not true; the British commentators will likely extol the value of fighting hard and the detemined attitude, we Brits (by association), have in difficult circumstances. They will likely mention the heat and how it is so draining of energy, hence the hydration breaks. They will not, I suggest, consider that they, themselves, will reinforce an attitude that brute force with only a single plan should prevail, and that the only superior force that the England team faced was weather. If England win, then brute force with no adaptation in their tactics will be promulgated to be the universal way to success. If England loses, it will be because the weather beat them.
If at first you do not succeed, try, try, try again. Yet, the definition of stupidity is to keep trying the same thing when it fails every time. This is however, an aside that doesn’t really add any colour to my point. All I have done is nip an idea in the bud. Try, try, and try again; maybe next time luck will prevail.
I should like to hear how Thomas Tuchel (England Head Coach) adapted to the climatic environment; what changes were made to the play, because the temperature is so high. I should like Thomas Tuchel’s wise words to be understood by British people and people around the world to represent an attitude of observation, an understanding of available resources, and a method of implementing a continuous diversification of effort. He however, I feel, will not satisfy me.
I am not a football fan; I am more interested in recognising and learning the right mind-set to appropriately manage difficult circumstances. If Thomas Tuchel and I were in the pub at the same time, I would let him buy his own pint.