Spain confirm what Southgate is missing in the new UEFA Nations League, whilst losing streak is ended with victory in Switzerland friendly
England’s first week of post-World Cup football yielded a win and a defeat, creating a somewhat reflective mood after the heroics of Russia 2018. Their first ever UEFA Nations League match brought a 2-1 defeat by Spain on Saturday night, followed by a 1-0 win over Switzerland in a friendly on Tuesday.
As boring and repetitive as it may sound, these games merely confirmed once again that England’s lack of midfield creativity and a playmaker continue to restrict them significantly. This, of course, is magnified when the opposition are as good as Spain, who were not at their absolute best, but still had too much of what England haven’t really got.
So, to Wembley on Saturday evening, and the ENL game against Spain. A 2-1 defeat probably wasn’t the outcome many fans had in mind after the World Cup, with the unexpected and welcome optimism raised by England’s performances.
Although this is a Spanish team in transition following the retirements of Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Gerard Piqué, their passing, movement and ability to find a telling pass – plus their solidity at the back – was collectively still too good for England. Their midfield play had a polish to it that looked very different to the way England were playing.
But it was England who took the lead, and a fine goal it was too. Good work on the right from Kieran Trippier and Jordan Henderson, then a deft switch of play by Harry Kane to find Luke Shaw in a forward position on the left. Shaw hit a perfectly weighted low cross into the box which Marcus Rashford met perfectly, side-footing home from eight yards past David de Gea.
The lead lasted only two minutes, as Spain came back with a very good goal of their own. Their impressive right-back Dani Carvajal forced his way past Shaw rather too easily, stormed forward and cut back neatly for Rodrigo, who in turn smartly found Saúl Ñíguez, his cool finish past Jordan Pickford cancelling out England’s lead.
Spain were pressing England very effectively, leaving Southgate’s side with no connection between their back three and midfield three, which was sadly a theme of the game throughout. Spain basically owned this space for most of the evening. Whenever England’s central defenders did get forward, Spain were snuffing out any risk on the halfway line, closing down passes with good positioning and tight marking.
From a foul conceded by Trippier, Spain were to take the lead on 31 minutes. Thiago Alcântara’s low free-kick seemed to catch England napping – Harry Kane and Jordan Henderson looked the chief culprits – allowing Rodrigo to finish neatly inside Pickford’s near post. Sloppy from England.
Marcus Rashford had a good chance to equalise on 34 minutes when he headed too close to de Gea, who nonetheless made a decent save. Rashford and Kane were, in all honesty, living off scraps for much this game.
The second half started horribly, with a sickening collision between Shaw and Carvajal. Shaw took a nasty blow to the head, compounded when he hit the turf hard after the initial impact. Play was held up for several minutes whilst Shaw received the necessary attention. Thankfully he wasn’t seriously hurt, and no blame whatsoever could be attached to Carvajal – it was merely an unfortunate coming together. It was a sad end to Shaw’s night – not least because he’d acquitted himself very well on his return to international football, something which would have impressed Southgate.
Rashford had another good chance with ten minutes left, but hit his shot straight at de Gea. It was the sort of chance that at international level really should be taken. So it was a third successive defeat for England, and not what the full-house crowd wanted to see.
Against Switzerland three days later, at least the run of losses was reversed with a somewhat scrappy 1-0 win, courtesy of another Rashford goal. The win was especially welcome – another defeat would have meant four in a row for the first time ever – not something Gareth would want on his CV. He made nine changes for this one, keen to give valuable game time to his squad. The lack of continuity showed in England’s play, though Southgate’s reasoning was probably sound.
Southgate made a point before the game of his desire to stick to his principles of playing the ball out from defence – although Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri should have made England pay for this philosophy after only five minutes. Keeper Jack Butland rolled the ball out to centre-half James Tarkowski, who clearly wasn’t excepting it – gifting a great chance to Shaqiri that he should have buried, but instead hit the post. It was a complete communication breakdown from them both – far too casual and not a good start.
The first half made for a tough watch generally, especially for England fans. Chances from open play were virtually non-existent, and the game resembled a barbecue that simply refused to light. “World Cup excitement 2018” it was not.
Mercifully, England scored the only goal of the game with Rashford’s neat finish on 54 minutes. Danny Rose’s corner was either badly over-hit or a very unusual pass to seek out Kyle Walker. The defender then played in a great cross which dropped onto Rashford’s right foot perfectly, and he made no mistake from the edge of the six yard box.
To paraphrase the title of a well-known sixties sitcom, “Never mind the quality feel the result” (there’s one for the teenagers). It might seem strange to greet a friendly win over Switzerland in such a way, but the prospect of anything other than the win was obviously a grim one, considering the three preceding results .
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Spain were beating Croatia 6-0 in the UNL, raising a few eyebrows in relation to Spain’s victory over England on Saturday. Did the Spanish demolition of Croatia make England’s loss to Spain look any better? It should be noted that the Croatian side against Spain contained only five of the team who put England out of the World Cup.
So what conclusions can we draw for Southgate’s England from the two games? Some have labelled them a reality check, but did we really need one? As much as we loved the World Cup run, surely the problem area in England’s team was fairly evident when we exited the tournament? (World Cup 2018 Review – The pride is back in England as Southgate leads from the front).
Southgate’s three at the back formation is being followed diligently by his players, but is obviously not without risk or beyond nullification by the better teams out there – especially when the oppostion are smart enough to take advantage of the lack of a creative pivot in England’s midfield. Against Spain, England’s wing-backs were often dragged back to defend and add numbers, but this allowed the Spanish full-backs time and space to get forward, with no-one to close them down – that would be seen by critics of the England system as a definite flaw.
Also, with the midfield three on duty in that game for England – Henderson, Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard – with respect to those players, that’s the key area where we would all wish for our own Thiago Alcântara, or somebody very much like him, with a similar skill-set.
Another concern for Southgate would be his strikers. Harry Kane is looking tired and doesn’t seem to have the zip and sharpness we are used to. That dates back to the World Cup, and he still looks off the pace. Rashford is of course currently in good international form, but does not start regularly for Manchester United. Southgate’s other choice to start against Switzerland was Danny Welbeck, who joined Arsenal because he wasn’t a regular starter for Manchester United…but he’s only an occasional starter for Arsenal. Southgate’s other World Cup striker, Jamie Vardy, has now retired from international football. It’s an area you would imagine Southgate will be looking at soon.
The performance of the squad players drafted in to face Switzerland was, on the whole, underwhelming. On this evidence it didn’t look as though many of them are threatening Southgate’s first choice line-up, a team which is quite easy to predict right now. Strength in depth? It doesn’t particularly look like it, I would say. The one exception would be Rashford, who clearly has a lot to offer, and his goals in these games will have lifted his confidence for sure.
One comment I’ve heard a few times since these two games is that Southgate still has much work to do. But I wonder how we interpret that exactly? Southgate as we know is workaholic diligence personified in his job, but he can only work with the raw materials at his disposal, and without the type of player(s) we are crying out for and have mentioned already, we simply can’t yet compete with the Croatia’s, Belgium’s and Spain’s of this world.
Southgate cannot conjure such players out of thin air, and he more than anybody will know how badly they are needed. In terms of the young talent in the age-group teams in the England set-up, I’m sure his priority will be to look at some of the leading candidates sooner rather than later. With no transfer market available in international football, it’s pretty much all he can do.
By Chris Tribe
13th September 2018
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