The 18-year-old has started every Bundesliga game this season, and already has five goal contributions, surpassing his total for 2020-21. Jude Bellingham is making phenomenal progress at Borussia Dortmund. Soon enough, and before Qatar 2022 begins in 13 months’ time, England will have the midfield depth needed to stay on top in the latter stages.
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The problem for the Three Lions has been a lack of midfield options – but that is about to change.Įngland supporters ought not to be disheartened by failed experiments with Foden and Mount as free eights, or continued indecisiveness from the dugout. That is what happened against Italy and Croatia, matches in which England looked increasingly leggy as Jorginho and Marco Verratti, and as Luka Modric and Matteo Kovacic, wrestled control, leading to nervous retreat. In other words, what England need to focus on is not slick attacking interplay, but configuring the middle of the park so that they are no longer overwhelmed and ground down by the big nations. What these teams – as well as Roberto Mancini’s Italy (2021), Didier Deschamps’ France (2018), and Fernando Santos’s Portugal (2016) - have in common is putting the defence first.Įach used a cautious midblock with limited pressing and, most crucially of all, showed an ability to control the changing game states through central midfield. Even Germany in 2014, perceived as expansive because of their 7-1 win over Brazil, squeezed through the knockouts with just four goals in their other three matches. There is no evidence over the last 20 years that such a system can win major tournaments, and any team retrospectively viewed as attack-minded has been mislabelled. To reach this conclusion is to misunderstand the rhythms of what constitutes progression for an international side, and to misread what is needed – tactically speaking – to take England to the next level.Īnyone still hoping Southgate will one day play swashbuckling attacking football, will one day cram England’s talented attackers into the same team and become the Pep Guardiola of the international circuit, is living in a fantasy.Īnd Southgate is right not to do so. One draw to confirm the blockage, another to confirm attempts at progress are likely to be futile? His experiment with a more adventurous tactical system fell flat, and it was notable that he reverted back to a 3-4-3 for the Albania victory.Īgainst Hungary, Southgate deployed Declan Rice as a sole defensive midfielder and unleashed Phil Foden and Mason Mount together as 'free eights' in a fluid 4-3-3 formation – only for England to look more stilted, and less creative, than ever. If the Poland game suggested England were trapped, the second draw, another 1-1 with Hungary, seemed to evidence that Southgate’s team have no way out. That is why a weariness descending over the players in a low-stakes game in Poland, complete with Southgate failing to be proactive in regaining control of proceedings, felt more painful than the actual result. These players – and England supporters – carry a collective trauma a fear that history will repeat itself ad finitum.
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