WEMBLEY STADIUM – Welcome to Gareth Southgate’s England rehab.
Southgate broke tradition when he took over as England manager and opted for form over reputation. Yet as his trio of key players — Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Raheem Sterling — struggle at their clubs, Southgate decided to stick by them as England sought three points to virtually guarantee World Cup qualification.
HARRY KANE
By half-time, Harry Kane was scissor-kicking in his hat-trick goal. What a difference 45 minutes can make in the life of a world-class striker.
The England captain will probably want to thank Jordan Henderson for providing one of the easier of his many hundreds of goals to break a rare run of five games without scoring that have sparked questions about his form.
Kane needed an easy goal — or one to fly in off a wayward shin or flailing knee — and Henderson clipped the ball beautifully over Albania’s hapless defenders, rendering the goalkeeper completely out of position and finding the Spurs striker completely unmarked to nod in from a couple of yards out. Relief flooded through the rest of Kane’s performance.
While he has now scored six goals in his last five games for England, the three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner (including last year), has managed only one goal in the league this season, coinciding with his club’s struggles that have already cost one manager his job. New Spurs manager Antonio Conte will be delighted the international break has been used to rebuild fraying confidence.
Kane has tended to drop deeper in recent years and though it amassed him an impressive haul of assists to accompany his goals last season, it can leave England and Spurs short of presence up front. Last night, England got their striker back.
His brilliant, archetypal No 9 hold-up play that proved pivotal in England’s third goal: receiving the ball from Henderson with his back to goal, holding off a defender before cleverly slipping it back to Henderson to score.
There he was, again, running off defenders’ backs and onto Raheem Sterling’s ball through to score his second. He hurled himself at crosses and shot inches wide of both posts in search of a third.
Acrobatically scoring his third on the stroke of half-time was indicative of a striker suddenly back to his best.
HARRY MAGUIRE
In Southgate’s attempt to remain strictly England-focussed and polite when discussing ahead of kick-off his decision to start Maguire despite poor form for Manchester United, it was hard not to laugh at the accidental implication.
“With us — and I can only talk about with us — he knows his role, he’s surrounded by good players, he’s one of a number of leaders so he hasn’t got to be leading everything,” Southgate said, in a sentence that could easily be interpreted as suggesting that at Manchester United he does not know his role, isn’t surrounded by good players and is in a side lacking leaders.
The form of the United captain has been as inconsistent as their results: from burying a goal in a three-goal comeback against Atlanta to conceding five by half-time against Liverpool.
But Maguire and Southgate go way back — the England manager gave the defender his debut, has eternally encouraged him to hold the ball at the back and play ambitious passes, built defences around him.
From his response on Friday night you can see why: Albania proved stubborn to breakdown in the reverse of this fixture back in March but Maguire cracked their defence with a powerful header in only the eighth minute, causing the dam to burst.
RAHEEM STERLING
Of Southgate’s star three, Sterling is perhaps the most under pressure after finding himself out of favour with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. And there was an inkling at Wembley, at the very start, that Sterling was trying that little bit too hard.
With England two goals already to the good, he danced into Albania’s penalty area from the left wing only to ignore a ball across the box and try to wriggle between players to try for goal himself. It was sign of a player desperate to add his name to the scorers.
That said, when Sterling kept calm he showed everyone how essential he can be. His timing was perfect for England’s fourth: intercepting a poor pass on halfway, dribbling all of 30 yards before releasing Kane at the opportune moment.
Southgate will pray Sterling’s club status is settled by the time the squad fly to Qatar in 12 months’ time, and that future may not lie in Manchester. Sterling told a conference in the US in October that he was open to moving abroad and Guardiola reacted a little spikily by telling Sterling he was welcome to leave.
There is still a long way to go, but transfers of Sterling’s size can take time. And if England are to win the World Cup, Southgate will likely need Sterling to shine for his country as he consistently does.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2YIBYC1
Post a Comment