Malta 0-4 England (Apap 8′ og, Alexander-Arnold 28′, Kane 31′ pen, Wilson 83′ pen)
TA’ QALI NATIONAL STADIUM — No red Valletta day for Malta, who barely laid a scratch on England. No sense of anything but serene, sleepy victory for Gareth Southgate. As Callum Wilson scored England’s fourth and barely reacted because you need jeopardy to provoke celebration, most of the local dignitaries stood up to leave en masse. It was that kinda night.
England march on as they always march on in qualifiers, already with one foot and three toes in Germany next summer. They handed out a debut, saw another player score their first international goal and a third and Harry Kane extended his record. The biggest surprise was that Kane only scored once.
In the pre-match press conference, Kieran Trippier declared that every game for England is the pinnacle (and that’s always the right line to use). But you’d have forgiven him and his teammates for letting it slip that this was simultaneously a chore and an honour.
You cannot still be at full pace in mid-June when you started in early August and had a World Cup inserted in the middle. It is acceptable to admit that a win’s a win and we move one step closer to a rest.
And yet something may have been birthed after all. It was in September 2021 that Southgate first picked Trent Alexander-Arnold as a central midfielder, for a grubby 4-0 home win over Andorra, during which England scored three times in the final 18 minutes.
It caused a stir, Southgate widely criticised for picking a high-class right-back out of position. Most notably, Jurgen Klopp himself called Southgate out asking why you would want to pick one of the best full-backs as a central midfielder.
So perhaps we have come full circle in less than two years. In that time, Alexander-Arnold has excelled as a right-back, struggled defensively and, in late season, operated in a hybrid role that saw him frequently move into midfield with the ball.
Now, against another qualifying minnow, the midfield role is back. Perhaps Southgate is a seer, identifying what Klopp could not see. I’m not sure we should expect Liverpool supporters to buy into that theory.
Still, Alexander-Arnold does have the technical assets for this to work, with England and with Liverpool. Picked on the right of a midfield three, he overlapped in the spaces that he might do when pushing on from further deep.
He played the crucial pass to Bukayo Saka for England’s first goal and he scored their second, a gorgeous shot from outside the box that went over the height of the goal but dipped into it. It was his first competitive goal for England.
Trent Alexander-Arnold that is OUTSTANDING
— Channel 4 Sport (@C4Sport) June 16, 2023
Stop what you're doing and watch this#C4Football | #EURO2024 | #ThreeLions pic.twitter.com/Oc2ZmHJmot
But it’s about more than that. Alexander-Arnold is at his best when allowed to be a magnet for the ball.
He asks, requests and implores his teammates to let him have it when he is in space on the right flank. But in the middle, the ball comes to him naturally.
He touched the ball 50 times in the first half, more than every other midfielder or attacker. The give-and-go passes, coupled with subtle dips and dive into space, stretch the game and every opponent. And what were faults as a defender became a helpful bonus as an attack-minded midfielder.
Nobody is making any firm conclusions based on this alone, you understand. If this is going to work then we would like to see it frequently and against better opposition. Malta are nothing but group fodder for England.
The only non-domestic-based player in the squad is Notts County’s Jodi Jones. Neither he nor his teammates touched the ball in England’s penalty area in the entire game.
But let’s flip any negative connotation into a positive: we want to see it again. England have a surfeit of right-backs; this much we know. They also have two of the best young midfielders in world football, in Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham.
If Alexander-Arnold became an option on the right of the midfield three, providing cover for an overlapping right-back and creativity from wider areas, it would be an alluring mix. We are allowing ourselves to run before we can walk, but why not feel the wind of change in our hair.
There was a distinct end-of-term feel to this trip. Many England supporters made a holiday of it and brought the family. Others sat around the hotel swimming pool talking wistfully about the season just gone and the summer to come now. They clustered in groups around the Ta’ Qali Stadium, drinking cold pints in warm conditions and bantering with the locals.
Officially, there were 4,100 England fans here, but they settled too in areas of the home end and bantered with the locals. A notable number snuck away early to further quench their thirst. Another trip done. Another loyalty point gained. Another qualifying win ticked off. One more game to go, until the biggest weary exhalation of their careers.
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