Reflections on England’s World Cup Exit

England in 2018 had a more modern set up than at anytime in recent memory. Much was made of how England played but lets be clear here. Most of the players in the squad play a variety of tactical positions at the direction of a bunch of highly skilled foreign coaches for their club football.

Its disingenuous to suggest they play some Sunday league kick and rush and somehow Southgate has crafted them into Johan Cruyff. These players are competent professionals many of whom are adequately carrying out a range of tactical positions during games at club level with some fluidity.

For years England have played a certain style of football in the belief that adding anything else to the players is too complex for squads who have limited opportunity to be together. This is why an unplanned hoofing of long balls into the opposition half is the fall back position.

The obsession is for England to hone a style of play of their own, based around exciting principles of attacking and possession based football. This is in the FA Blueprint designed by Dan Ashworth as Performance Director some years ago and is what all senior English squads work together for.

Then once managers have bought into this style of play they seek to recruit players based on form achieved whilst playing entirely different systems.

Its my view that this English obsession is halting the development of the team. A good manager may well have an idea of a style of play but needs to think long and hard about putting together the pieces of the jigsaw.

For players who excel in a certain role the question should be how to create that role in the England side, not how to get them to play a different role entirely. If the role can’t be created for a winger if you play a back five then don’t take a winger, or take wingers as part of a Plan B. If the plan is to maintain a degree of tactical fluidity both with and without the ball then pick the players capable of that, not those perceived to be having a good season doing something different.

Southgate’s England squad lacked quality in midfield and suffered from not having players capable of passing the ball into a danger area or finding space with a pass. This lack of quality was evident from the moment it was selected and seems all the more surprising given the abundance of players like Lampard and Gerrard in recent times.

For England 2018 if Plan B is Jamie Vardy running onto a long ball, no one in the Midfield seemed capable of playing that long ball with any degree of accuracy. Instead the squad was peppered with workmanlike midfielders of surprising similarity.

Playing five at the back added strength and depth to the defence and crowded the midfield affording a high degree of protection to our set up, but it left us susceptible to any team capable of passing and pressing quickly behind. In the second half against Croatia our fullbacks were pressed back so deep as to be nullified.

Playing Raheem Sterling as a number 10 or indeed dropping Harry Kane deep and pushing Sterling further up front seemed only to isolate both players. Sterling has spent the season at Man City holding teams wide by hogging the byline, so as to stretch opposing teams and create space for overlapping runs. Occasionally he came inside but this was mainly to cause an overload or to come short to receive the ball. From these positions Sterling amassed some 23 goals in open play.

For England he did not play to his strengths, and although he was selfless and dedicated in his running, although he has a quick mind and is clearly an intelligent footballer, he felt underused, as though his sacrifice before the media jury had been for nothing.

A lot of nonsense has been written about his shooting. Having watched all his games last season I can say his finishing is good. He can sometimes snatch at his efforts but correcting this has been a public feature of his practice sessions throughout the season. It was a regular sight during pre match warm ups and at training at City Football Academy to have Sterling shooting, but crucially these drills were designed to put the shot under pressure. Every game Mikel Arteta, coach at Man City, would attempt to tackle Sterling during these shooting drills. It was easy to see on the field of play how that improvement had been achieved.

So England in 2018 have been an improvement and I am hoping with a few tweaks Southgate makes some brave decisions to fill his squad with players who can deliver the preferred tactical system rather than filling it with players out of position.

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Maybe we can hope Southgate delivers a tactical system aimed at the strength of the players at his disposal. Rather than taking so many similar midfielders we hope he can find space for someone capable of making a forward pass under pressure. There are reasons to be optimistic here and I hope we get to the last four of our next tournament, or go one or two steps further.

Watching England as a fan I find there are still broad comparisons with my first time back in 1976. There are still glimpses of brilliance tucked away in the match but whereas I used to struggle to see these through a sea of adults I now get to see all of the dull bits too! The key difference is these days I don’t take my Evel Kneivel action figure into the ground with me. Or at least not often.