LONDON - Gareth Southgate has found a way for England to win Group D at Euro 2020. Now he needs a mastermind to win the entire tournament.
There has probably been an unexpectedly high level of practicality in England's performance at Euro 2020, which continued with a 1-0 win over the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Rather than highlighting a squad's full attacking potential and the array of options ahead of it, Southgate has sought to defend its weakest link - the defense - with more conservative use of the ball and more positional discipline than many anticipated. .
Despite grumbling over the aesthetics, it's hard to argue with the results. Raheem Sterling scored the lone goal to give England a possible nine and seven points from another shutout; As a team, the Three Lions have kept a clean sheet in their first three matches in a major tournament for the first time since 1966.
Of course, we all know what happened that year, but for England to follow in the footsteps of that World Cup winning team, there must certainly be a degree of development in their game. Winning Group D is an achievement, but the prize will be a last-16 tie against either France, Germany or Portugal – all of whom have set the pulses race fast in a group with little margin for error. leaves. England topped the table with Tuesday's win.
The signs of that development were on check versus early. The buildup was complicated by Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell self-isolating after Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour, believed to be close contacts, tested positive for COVID-19 after a 0-0 draw at Wembley on Friday.
Mount's importance in England's opening matches may have influenced Southgate's decision to rotate his team, but the inclusion of Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka still left many fans and pundits wishing the co-hosts freshened up the line. Look with more obvious temperament options to do. An attack that seemed disproportionate against the Scots. Saka's involvement on Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho was somewhat surprising, but the Arsenal winger fully justified his selection, incorporating exactly the same objective and positive attacking play that was lacking four days earlier.
Saka was integral to England's bright start, during which England began the woodwork for the third game in a row when Sterling picked up a shot at Czech goalkeeper Tomas Vklik and struck his left-handed post. He then advanced to England and dug up a cross that Grealish kept alive by exchanging passes with Harry Kane, who looked like his old self when there was more movement around him. Grealish pitched his cross to the back post, where Sterling removed his marker and nodded home his second Euro 2020 goal.
Grealish and Luke Shaw combined well on the left. There were occasions when Kyle Walker similarly took the position when Manchester City's ball flowed into central midfield to help attack, and yes, there was space, but England were using it well.
He was there till the second half. England appeared to approach the match with an increasingly conservative use of possession, from Southgate's replacement to Jordan Henderson with an eye in the last 16 at half-time, the latter with the addition of Jude Bellingham and Tyrone Mings. With helping to shore things up. . Even the more aggressive introductions of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were with caution.
There is nothing wrong with a safe approach at this stage, especially given the complicated lead-up to Euro 2020, in which players join late from club engagements and others return from injury. The dysfunctional and poor in-tournament management in possession of England are habitual failures that Southgate has known well from his time as a player and five years as manager.
Tournaments are not won at the group level, only the group itself, and England has achieved this. It remains to be seen whether Southgate leads from here, but England are unlikely to face any more vocal opposition.
Harry Maguire looked confident in his first outing for Manchester United or England since 9 May following an ankle injury. Maguire's presence could encourage Southgate to switch to back three for next week's last-16 game, while Saka and Grealish further test the long-standing theory of choosing 50-year-olds on form rather than historical reputation. do. While it is not yet clear what their best team is and the degree of unpredictability it gives England, it also makes the entire week of preparation that they now have in front of a crowd of 45,000 absolutely vital before returning to Wembley next Tuesday. is.
"First of all, it's great to have a few days off for the players to recover because some of them have put on quite a heavy load in the last week or so at the end of a very long season," Southgate said.
"We have to make sure we don't overdo the work on the training ground. But the difference for the next game compared to this morning, where we wanted to change the way we were defending and we couldn't get to one Training pitch to do it, we did it in team meetings. Huge credit to the players for adapting without the ball the way they did tonight.
"Of course, you always want training time: that's something we don't have as international managers, and we hardly had any with the whole group because of the complications at the beginning of our training camp. It would be different. It's nice to look like everyone else except the two guys who are left out and that time, once we know who our adversaries are, will certainly be helpful."
They definitely have something more to offer to move on, no matter what they face. England's expected goals during the second half were 0.00: giving a top team that much momentum seems a risky proposition. They also scored the fewest chances (17) of any team in their group: Scotland, who finished bottom, scored 28, Croatia 24 and Czech Republic 22.
Perhaps the nervousness about his performance in some quarters is based on the distance between how encouraging the team looks on paper (with various permutations) and the restraint he has shown to this point. Yet Southgate has achieved its first major goal. The next one - winning the knockout round against a true heavyweight - is one of the toughest remainders, especially when the team is still shaping up.
Asked by ESPN if he knew his ideal lineup for the last 16, Southgate replied: "For the past 12 months, whenever I've written a team-sheet two days before a game, it's changed. For now, no. We'll watch the match tomorrow, we'll see how everyone is after we're back in St. George and the next few days of recovery, and we'll go from there.
“It is clear that there are certain areas of the team that we have been able to build with full force over the past four weeks, as players have arrived late from the European finals or have been able to. They have to pitch after injury, or lack of match fitness. Carry on.
"I have always felt that we have to go ahead in this tournament in terms of selection."