Should England Adopt The 10 Second Rule?

Uwe Rosler plied his trade in England, making 150 appearances for Manchester City, he is currently the manager of League one outfit Brentford and despite his love for English football, he has some interesting comments for the Independent recently:

"I am a big fan of English football," Rösler tellsThe Independent, "and a fan of English life. I loved to play here, and to manage here. English football is special. You have the teams, the leagues, the stadiums, the fans, the  atmospheres and the top players."

"When you ask in terms of pure football, in terms of the modern game, the German game is more modern than the English," he says. "In terms of tempo, in terms of transition from  defence to attack, in terms of speed, in terms of how many players each team is willing to commit, in terms of tempo of ball circulation."

I can't disagree with that at all, thanks to BT Sport we have been exposed to the German game, which is the complete opposite of the Italian game. I don't think the Premier League is slow, not by any means. It's somewhere in the middle. However there are more and more teams in the Premier League who pass for the sake of passing without having a purpose. It could come down to fitness levels, or it could simply come down to the different style of play. If the Bundesliga is more attacking is it better? Last year we saw an all German Champions League final, naturally that has brought attention to the German game as it should.

"English football now is very much ‘pass, pass, pass, pass, pass,’ but you’ll go nowhere," Rösler says. "In German football, a lot of teams win the ball and they have eight to 10 seconds – it is the 10-second rule – you have 10 seconds to finish the attack. Every ball has to go forward, forward, forward. So that means to have runners going forward all the time, so it is a very attacking style in German football. That’s the difference.

"When you really watch football – Freiburg v Bremen or Frankfurt v Mainz, how they attack, that is different for me than when I watch mid-table English clashes."

Taking out the German Bundesliga v England Premiership angle, this is interesting from a National team point of view. For years we have heard and seen how boring England are to watch, they do pass, pass, pass, pass, without going anywhere. However thanks to the introduction of some youthful players to the squad we have also seen a shift towards the 10 second rule. Make the ball do the work, and use pace and directness to attack the opposing team. I would like to see England play more passing football with a purpose, meaning the ball goes forward when it can and you break with accuracy and pace.

If anyone watched the Arsenal v Borussia Dortmund game last night, you will see just how effective these teams can be on the counter attack. We could learn a lot from the German game, as their national team very much reflects their domestic game. If we could reflect that style, with the right players it could be extremely deadly. Its something to think about for sure.