After Gareth Southgate had got his foot in the door as England manager, he quickly realised that things needed to change.
It wasn’t just that England’s World Cup 2014 team performed poorly, but that the squad was ageing, containing underperforming or over-the-hill senior players who had caused a disconnect between a national football team and its public. That had only got worse after the exit to Iceland in 2016. England didn’t just need a new manager, they needed a new culture.
In the space of 12 months, Southgate gave senior debuts to 12 players, some of whom have formed the backbone of the last half decade: Harry Maguire, Jordan Pickford, Kieran Trippier. Inevitably, those debutants have slowed down in number, as Southgate worked out his preferred players and then picked some of the youngest squads in England’s history. Since the beginning of 2021, England have only handed out 13 new caps.
But it’s not the number of caps that is most interesting. Of those 13 debutants, none have gone on to make more than seven senior appearances. On average, they have three caps. Some have simply fallen by the wayside (James Justin, Kyle Walker-Peters, Patrick Bamford, Ben Godfrey). Others are still part of the senior setup but firmly reserves (Ollie Watkins, Conor Gallagher, Aaron Ramsdale, Marc Guehi). But nobody since Kalvin Phillips and Jude Bellingham, who debuted in November 2020, have forced their way into the first team on a regular basis.
But then this is no surprise. One of the indirect results of the Uefa Nations League formation is the absence of international friendlies during which international coaches are more likely to blood new talent. The Nations League provides competitive football against opponents who are roughly of the same quality – you are incentivised to pick your best starting XI.
So when Southgate has rotated, he has quickly returned to his familiar faces (and who can blame him when you are only ever one defeat away from perceived crisis?). In the 18 months before the 2018 World Cup, England played six competitive matches and eight friendlies. In the last two years, England have played 29 competitive matches and four friendlies. It’s a complete shift.
Victory against Italy on their own turf for the first time in over 60 years deserves to be heralded in its own context, but it may also have longer-term connotations. Beat Ukraine on Sunday afternoon and England will have one-and-a-half feet in Euro 2024’s main draw. That means six more qualifying matches during which Southgate has the chance to road test some potential new first-team graduates.
For all the critics of Southgate having his favourites, every international manager does. You simply don’t get enough time with players to do anything else. But with a window for relatively pressure-free (and yet still competitive) football, unfamiliar faces can be given more than simply infrequent substitute appearances, building partnerships and understanding that is crucial for when you head into a tournament.
The pinch points are pretty obvious. For all Southgate’s faith in Harry Maguire, it makes sense for Marc Guehi to get more game time if he is the next cab off the rank and Levi Colwill is very highly rated within the England coaching setup.
Harry Kane is England’s record goalscorer and is hyper-keen to start every England game, but we must work out who stands behind the glass we must break in case of emergency. Ivan Toney has still not been capped, Ollie Watkins has seven and Folarin Balogun is prolific in Ligue 1 and also being coveted by USA and Nigeria. Or is Marcus Rashford now first-choice on the left and second-choice in the centre?
At right-back, Trippier and Kyle Walker are hardly fading forces, but will be 34 and 33 respectively before Euro 2024 begins. Reece James getting a sustained run in the team would help develop a working relationship with Bukayo Saka (and there are times when James might overlap with Saka covering him), but his injury stops that happening once again.
In midfield, Bellingham and Declan Rice are fixtures in the team, but the third member may change according to the strength of opposition. Mason Mount is experienced in that role, but James Maddison is still desperate for his break and Morgan Gibbs-White has impressed England’s coaches with his performances this season for Nottingham Forest. And what happens if Bellingham gets injured? The best profile fit for his skillset is probably Jacob Ramsey at Aston Villa.
These are all the half-thoughts and daydreams of an England supporter; Southgate and his coaches will have other ideas. But that’s entirely the point. Had England lost in Naples, or if they slip up against Ukraine, the time for wonder gets lost in the serious business of avoiding ignominy amid another wave of criticism. Take maximum points from this international break and England don’t just get to relax in the rare silence that criticism usually fills. They can work out their future rather than simply wrestling with the present.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/b2ySncV
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