DUSSELDORF — Who knows if this is actually any good and, you know what, who bloody cares right now. It is 7.45pm in Dusseldorf, Freed From Desire is playing slightly too loud and yet you wish it was louder for the first time in your life. 20,000 England supporters, many of whom have watched this team in its various forms play hundreds of matches, are dancing like they’re at their own sixth birthday party.
Until 2018, those thousands had seen England face seven penalty shootouts and win just one, which was then immediately followed by heartbreak via the same method. Before 2018, everyone who had ever lived had only seen the England football team play in three major tournament semi-finals. It’s three more in six years since.
This matters, however many people will tell you angrily online that they won’t watch this team again until the manager is removed and then, weirdly, say the same thing next time. It is why those who attend England’s matches abroad have always been more predisposed to defend Gareth Southgate than those who watch at home. These are the days of their lives and he has been there for many of them.
When you boil it down to its very essence, the magic of sporting loyalty lies in desperation. In England we are more desperate than most and that is what fuels the angst, overanalysis and the resignation that it’ll never happen. We’re just a country of people, stood in front of a goalkeeper from Sunderland, asking them to save a penalty to stop the dream from dying for another two years.
It matters how England play; to suggest otherwise is nonsense because, at least before the weird intangibles kick in, this is cause and effect. England switched to 3-4-2-1 and looked better for it, particularly when pressing their opponents. Bukayo Saka was picked to play at right wing-back and was the game’s best player – remember that when someone tells you Southgate offers nothing outside the box.
"Exorcises a few ghosts"
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 6, 2024
Bukayo Saka's smile says everything #Euro2024 | #ENGSUI pic.twitter.com/dZ5nvbXcL9
Yet England were still slow to actually offer anything inside it. Who knows if Harry Kane is fit, but he has had minimal impact on this tournament and that influence seems to be lessening over time. They have created precious few clear chances and that is obviously of concern to everyone involved. It keeps getting harder from here and England must improve with it.
The reason that this England team, in this tournament, are causing such extreme reaction is because they themselves seem to operate at both ends of the spectrum and often fall into undeniable oxymorons.
We worried about the central defence and it has been the best part of the team. We knew we had elite creators and have struggled to create. We are a team that is difficult to watch and yet the entire tournament is being defined by spells on the edge of the cliff.
It is a bad football team until it is good.
The most likely diagnosis is tension. In 2018, England were freeform and fancy because there really was no expectation. In 2021, then 2022, now 2024, the team has been pulled further and further back from that nirvana because the public were shown the light and then watched a billion hours of Premier League football with ultra-elite coaches.
It explains too why the best parts of these few weeks have come with England desperate to score to save themselves: those are the only times when the noise of the situation is audible above the noise of pressure that rings in their ears. There’s no expectation when everybody thinks that you are beaten.
Southgate is not the best manager in the world at very many things (and would concede as much). His tactical conservatism does make sitting back on a lead inevitable and that is hard to watch. His propensity to wait until later in matches to make substitutions, through loyalty to the starters, is hard to treat with eternal patience.
Yet there is one thing that hasn’t changed since 2018: England’s footballers believe in this manager, believe in their ability to drag themselves out of adversity and believe in the communal desire to keep calm when others might lose their heads.
Want proof of that last characteristic? Go back and watch the penalty shootouts that you never want to watch again, but will find easier now we can actually win them. And then watch the technique, the composure, the bloody brass balls of England’s five takers in Dusseldorf. They were unreal given the heightened situation and that is partly down to Southgate (whatever you may think). He is a terrific man-manager.
The blurred line of England’s last two years, and the split between supporters, roughly comes down to the blurred line between existing and living. Watch this England team from your lounge and, yes, it’s tempting to go and pop the kettle on or mow the lawn. They urge that Southgate must let us live a little and, in some way, they are right. If we’re not going to win anything, we might as well have some fun.
But Southgate is right too. He has taken England closer to winning anything than anyone since Sir Alf Ramsey and nobody calls him a fraud. He has produced teams who have failed to produce for long periods but then done it double when it mattered most. He has a team that has won a penalty shootout away from Wembley for the second time in its history.
It is now 8.10pm. Ask those who were dancing to Freed From Desire, as they walk out of the stadium, if this feels like existing or living.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/ZeDGVop
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