Every match can feel like a no-win situation for an England manager.
For all the progress in the World Cup and Nations League, Gareth Southgate’s tenure will ultimately be judged on his team’s performance in four matches and England might not even play in three of them: Last-16, quarter-final, semi-final, final. Everything else is an exercise in accident avoidance.
Of course, sometimes you don’t even need actual football to make the doubters cluck. Southgate has spent the last fortnight fighting fires that nobody can quite work out who is starting: The TAA Debate (we have a plot twist now), a ruckus about which players will spend the next month on the bench, Jesse Lingard starting a match without being in the tournament squad, Patrick Bamford not making the provisional squad.
Following the England team has always been an emotional process wrapped in several layers of angst, but at least it used to feel like everybody waited until the tournament to take their shots.
England’s results and performances provoke an extremism of opinion like almost no other sports team in the world. At half-time, pundits lined up to question England’s attacking and midfield passing play, provoking the age-old worry: “If this was the sharp end of the tournament…”
And here’s the thing: It isn’t. This was a training session with spectators. France drew their final friendly before the 2018 World Cup 1-1 at home against the USA; it didn’t seem to cause a meltdown.
This was also a highly experimental team, which is a euphemism for “Sorry lads, you aren’t going to be playing much”. Only two of the side that started against Austria also started England’s last game against Poland. Southgate was without all of those involved in the Europa League and Champions League final. And – sorry for the repetition for emphasis – it was a training session with spectators.
There clearly are places up for grabs in Southgate’s team to face Croatia. The presumed absence of Harry Maguire may well push England into an enforced 3-4-3 shape with an extra central defender for security, and neither Tyrone Mings nor Conor Coady did enough wrong to force Southgate down a particular route bar an Antonio Rudiger-style body check by the former.
Jordan Pickford’s position has been questioned throughout the last two years, but his distribution and decision-making were exemplary. Jude Bellingham’s maturity in central midfield is ludicrous; all together now: What were you doing at 17?
Jack Grealish, a potential candidate for a midfield place after the cries to promote him up England’s ladder, was the best attacking performer even if he did occasionally take four touches when two might do. Grealish spent most of last season either being kicked or recovering from being kicked; he should not expect much respite this summer. Austria’s players took turns to trip and hack him in a distinctly un-friendly manner. As ever, Grealish rose to that battle rather than shied away from it.
It was not a perfect display; how could it be given the circumstances and given Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury concerns. There will be those who use a functional win as proof of England’s flaws and so field for their constant snipes about how everything will unravel. These are the type of people who, if everything was perfect, would moan that they had nothing to complain about.
And they must be ignored. England are about to take their youngest squad to a tournament in 63 years. It is packed full of attacking talent that other countries would be delighted to own. Major international tournaments are football’s zenith, and we have waited three years for this one; half of that time has been unspeakably grim.
If you can’t allow yourself a week of escapism before you angrily tweet about a manager, a player or the entire bleeding lot of them, perhaps the Euros isn’t for you.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3wSVffE
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