England v Croatia:
It’s 11:30 on the 13th of June, 3 Lions rings throughout the streets of Lancaster and
I’ve just finished my second beer of the day. But then the lineup gets released for the Croatia game.
Trippier at leftback? Pickford in goal? No Sancho or Chilwell in the squad? What on earth is Gareth thinking.
But the more I’ve thought about international football the more respect I have gained for men like Southgate. An outsider’s view of the National team is that the best players deserve call ups to the squad, whilst sure this is an understandable point of view it is not that simple. Southgate has to choose players that he can rely on to fit in his system, also any sort of malleability is desirable just in case an injury crisis hits and players have to cover other positions. Clearly this is why players such as Trippier, Mount and Sterling have been brought to the tournament. No national team is made up purely of the nation’s best players, you need leaders, friendships, partnerships. This was Sven’s downfall.
Every month or so on twitter there will be a tweet of the 2002 World Cup Squad with the caption along the lines of ‘how did this team not win anything?’. It’s simple really, the midfield with Scholes on the wing and a combo of Gerard and Lampard just didn’t work. Sven’s insistence on 442 failed the team, it made no room for Hargreaves and played one of England’s best players out of position. This is why Southgate has changed to a 433 of late in order to accommodate England’s best players in midfield.
I now wrote the rest of this after the Croatia game.
ITS COMING HOME LADS ITS FUCKING COMING HOME!
Southgate got it completely right today. As detailed earlier I wasn’t sure about Trippier at LB and about Phillips in midfield, boy was I wrong. Trippier shut down any opportunity of attack down Croatia’s right side and Phillips put an immense display in playing as a sort of regista. The major weakness of the team was surprisingly Kyle Walker at RB, he made the most errors of any English player on the pitch and his misplaced passes lead to a couple Croatian attacks. However, for most of the game we were on the offensive, dominating possession and constantly testing their defenders. We did at times feel a tad like watching Chelsea play for the last few months, fantastic getting to the
goal but just unable to put it in the back of the net. That was until Raheem Sterling seized the lifeline given to him by Southgate to hammer a goal into the back of the net and put England up against the team that knocked us out of the 2018 world cup.
This game felt personal for many England fans, the summer of 2018 peaked with Trippier’s free kick to put us ahead against Croatia in Russia, after that its very arguable my life has been on a steady downwards slope since. Watching England beat Croatia so convincingly was incredibly satisfying.
Tactically the game was nothing impressive, however it did demonstrate how England are likely to play against teams with a high line. The fullbacks pushed up high with Rice dropping back to for a back 3 whilst in possession. Phillips was tasked with pinging balls up from the midfield to the flanks, as shown by his amazing assist for the goal. His tendency to shoot from outside the box also came in very handy as he often rifled a shot or two from distance which tested the keeper.
England v Scotland:
This was dire wasn’t it
England appeared to have just completely lost their heads in this game, we did pretty much nothing all game aside from a John Stones missed header and a lacklustre effort from Harry Kane. England just felt disjointed and slow, a world apart from how we looked against Croatia.
A struggling Foden and ineffectual Kane left our front line needing help, help which never arrived since we were playing 2 DMs against a low block Scottish side instead of bringing on a Sancho or Bellingham as attacking reinforcements.
Of course a game against our closest rivals was never going to be a walk in the park, Scotland very clearly had a game plan and executed it to near perfection. But that doesn’t excuse how poor the performances were from some on the pitch for England. I have already mentioned Kane and Foden as the two who potentially let England down the most however the midfield pivot also seemed to just exist in this game, just vibing as I would say. There was some good however, Pickford continued his streak as the English Manuel Neuer whilst in an England shirt. This was alongside Reece James who had a very good competitive debut, setting up multiple missed chances, in my opinion demonstrating he should be the first choice RB for England, especially whilst Southgate is manager.
As this game was a tad boring the most that can be said about it is at least the crowd was good, you wouldn’t have guessed Wembley wasn’t even half full due to the noise from the fans. Sterling’s denied penalty shout was a tad ludicrous, however I will defend that ref till I die due to his masterclass in the UCL final in May.
As a Chelsea fan I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t talk about the absolute monsterclass that Billy Gilmour dropped throughout his time on the pitch. His first start for Scotland, against Scotland’s biggest rival, had only just turned 20 before the tournament but played like he had been doing his job for years. He is going to go to the very top of the game and I cannot wait to watch it, at 20 he already looks like a nearly finished article, all he needs is more match experience and to lose his competitive streak. Gilmour is the ready-made replacement for Jorginho when the latter leaves Chelsea whenever that may be. The player picked up MOTM awards on his Premier League, FA Cup, UCL and Euro debuts, that is not normal and was worth the transfer ban in my opinion.
England v Czech Republic:
An enjoyable final game to an interesting group, in the first half anyway.
Southgate mixed it up with this final group game, understandably so as we had already been guaranteed qualification to the next stage of the competition, with Saka, Maguire, Henderson and Sancho all making their first appearances during the game. Sterling’s opening goal was thanks to an impressive cross from the dominating Jack Grealish who’s performance has made him nearly un-droppable in my opinion. Throughout the game Sterling, Grealish and Saka interchanged with one another across that front line as Kane did what he has done consistently this tournament, drop deep and underperform.
My disappointment in Kane aside I felt the team performance was streets ahead of what was put forward against Scotland. The defensive solidity from the Stones – Maguire CB pairing was telling, it allowed the fullbacks to push further up and meant that the Czech’s main threat, Patrick Schick, was kept quiet for most of the game, having 0 shots for the whole time he was on the pitch. Our compulsory 2 DMs had quiet games, not necessarily doing anything wrong but nothing spectacular either, the same can be said for the fullbacks, however as Shaw’s biggest hater Mourinho pointed out, his corners were shocking.
England after going 1-0 went to what I can only see as a Catennaccio (think that’s how its spelt) system. The team amassed a total of 0.0xG for the entirety of the second half of the match, an impressively poor feat on the surface, but understandable when you realise we also heavily limited any chances that the Czech’s had on our goal too, which is the aim of any team using this system. A particularly commanding performance from Pickford was also notable, his passing was of the highest calibre, placing the balls for both the forwards and the backline with ease.
In summary:
England put forward a decent account of themselves in the group stages of this tournament, the 2 goals scored is a worry however things will only get better in my opinion. I finish this the day after England’s route to the final was confirmed, we come up against our old enemies, the Germans, alongside other challenging teams as Ukraine or the Netherlands.
The squad is clearly defensively sound and whilst many wish for a more attacking mentality, Southgate is not the man for that. What he is the man for is making sure the squad works together and making sure we concede as little as possible. He may not be the perfect man for the job but he does know what he’s doing and clearly has a plan, which so far has proved successful. It is the curse of an England fan to be eternally optimistic of the national team’s chances at an international tournament; 66, 96, 2004 and 2018 are all etched into the memories of English supporters. But this genuinely feels like the chance we have been waiting for, a manager hungry to avenge his missed penalty, a striker wanting to win some silverware, amazing young talent and a country willing them forward.
It may not finally be our time but you can guarantee I’m going to be cheering them on for as long as I can do. Football is a game that means a huge amount to me and I cannot wait to see how this journey ends.
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