ENGLAND CAN ONLY LOSE SO MANY TIMES BEFORE THE FEEL GOOD WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN RECEDES IN TO MEMES
Spain, like Belgium and Croatia, are better because they have better footballers Where’s the Gazza-lite? Is it Phil Foden or Mason Mount?
THE problem with glasses half-full is that sooner or later there comes a reckoning with the remaining empty vessel.
The bad news. The yin to the yang. The ‘but . . . ’ in the sentence. That is the problem for Gareth Southgate and England now. After a much-celebrated World Cup, they are staring at a very large, and inescapable, ‘but’.
A summer of great optimism and little victories — A shootout win! A promising young squad! A World Cup semi-final! — is being followed by the inevitable reality check. The misty spray of celebratory lager has cleared and it turns out the landscape is not greatly different from before.
England still lose to the best in Europe, to the nations who might expect to beat them, who press high and hard and have playmakers and a refined level of technical skill. England are still learning from these encounters, are still growing, are still a project, part of a process. And all of this is entirely understandable.
Yet where it leaves Southgate and his squad in relation to the European Championship in 2020 — and this defeat was the first stumble on that path — depends on how one surveys the glass.
Sure, there are positives, and credit to Southgate for his refusal to compromise, but his chances of overcoming inherent flaws appear increasingly remote in the time allotted.
There is little point bemoaning England’s lack of creation when no player exists with the playmaking ability of Thiago Alcantara or Luka Modric. What hope is there of putting pressure on an underwhelming Harry Kane when, after Marcus Rashford, Southgate’s options are Danny Welbeck or an ambitiously promoted midfielder?
Luke Shaw played the pass of the night to set up Rashford for England’s first goal, but dived in unwisely for what ended up as Saul Niguez’s equaliser 120 seconds later.
He is not alone among Southgate’s defenders in looking considerably better with the ball than without it.
At times now fans find themselves hankering for just a smattering of old-fashioned defiance.
England are rarely caught out with the ball at their feet these days, but they were left static by Rodrigo from an old-fashioned near-post set-piece for what proved to be Spain’s winner, in a way less skilful predecessors would never have been.
Ultimately, England have now lost three matches straight for the first time in more than 30 years, and if Switzerland win a friendly in Leicester tomorrow night, it will be the longest losing run in their history.
There is only so much that can be gleaned from a sequence of results like that, only so many positives that can be taken.
The World Cup was supposed to have given this team momentum — yet as 42 minutes passed against Spain without a single shot at goal, observers searched in vain for a spark.
Yes, England were stiffed in stoppage time when David de Gea dropped the ball and Welbeck scored, an event impressionable Dutch referee Danny Makkelie could only imagine was the work of foul play — but had the goal stood, a draw would not have been a fair reflection.
Spain, like Croatia, like Belgium, were better at football and there really is little more to it than that. They are better at football because they are better footballers, with a range of passing that enables them to dictate the play and its tempo. To keep the ball, to recycle it endlessly, in a way England cannot against the best sides.
Maybe this will change when the generation of Phil Foden and his contemporaries bears fruit, but an awful lot is already expected of a young man, and several age group team-mates, who do not as yet command regular places at Premier League clubs. Southgate mentioned Paul Gascoigne as the only England player in his lifetime who could run a game as, say, Modric might.
This is what is hoped of Foden or Mason Mount, currently on loan at Derby from Chelsea. Yet by the time Gascoigne was Mount’s age — 19 years and nine months — he had played around 50 games for Newcastle in the old First Division. By the time he was Foden’s age, 18 years and three months, he was embarking on what would be a 35-game season, including 31 league matches.
So Southgate is left waiting for the great leap forward. He knows his team need a playmaker — even a Gascoigne-lite — but how is he to achieve that without the basic raw materials?
Jordan Henderson was extremely impressive for Liverpool last year and has worked hard to expand his passing repertoire, but against the best of the best his limitations show. This isn’t his fault, and it isn’t Southgate’s either.
With more options, Henderson (right) could be a tidy defensive screen or a substitute introduced to close a game down, and England’s pivot in central midfield would have the creative skills Thiago displayed to control Spain’s win.
Although there was late pressure, for the first 20 minutes of the second half no England player made contact with the ball in Spain’s area. It was a similar story against Croatia at the World Cup.
The format of UEFA’s Nations League competition may bewilder but the potential damage for Southgate and England is more simply explained.
Due to England’s berth among the top-ranked nations, their next two competitive games are away against Croatia and Spain, two teams who have defeated England recently. A run of five straight competitive losses would be greatly dispiriting, no matter the circumstances. There is also
the complication that the teams finishing bottom of their groups in League A are placed in League B when the competition is next played.
Southgate could be the first manager to be relegated for club and country, a horrid irony given the exultation that met his World Cup campaign.
Before that, though, there is the more prosaic issue of dwindling impetus. England can only lose so many times before the feelgood World Cup campaign recedes into the memes.
‘Yes, of course that’s the danger,’ said Southgate. ‘Everything that was around the team, the feel, was supremely positive. We accept there are going to be huge challenges for us, but I’m just concentrating on getting the team playing to its best level.
‘We’ve got some players who are maturing, the likes of John Stones, Harry Maguire again, Rashford coming into the team and having a really good impact, Joe Gomez. Lots of really good performances. We know exactly where we are and those lads will get better. ‘Maybe these results colour opinions, but not mine. We’ve just got to keep improving tactically to work out these sorts of games. It’s going to be tough. I don’t think we were under any illusions as a coaching team. ‘We know there’s a distance to the very top opposition. We’ve got to go through these games, otherwise we could go into a finals tournament in two years’ time having just played qualifiers against a lower standard of opposition and with a false perception. I think after the next few months it will be very clear.’
The worry, of course, is that it already is. Glass half-full, Southgate sounds like a man who knows precisely the problem. His hope of locating short-term solutions, however, like the rest of the glass, is little more than air. ENGLAND (3-5-2): Pickford; Gomez, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Alli, Henderson (Dier 64min), Lingard, Shaw (Rose 53); Rashford (Welbeck 90), Kane. Subs not used: Butland, Walker, Alexander-Arnold, Delph, Tarkowski, Loftus-Cheek, McCarthy, Bettinelli. Scorer: Rashford 11. Booked: Henderson, Shaw, Stones, Rose. Manager: Gareth Southgate. SPAIN (4-3-3): De Gea; Carvajal, Ramos, Nacho, Alonso (Martinez 87); Busquets, Saul, Thiago (Sergi Roberto 80); Aspas (Asensio 68), Rodrigo, Isco. Subs not used: Arrizabalaga, Albiol, Morata, Suso, Azpilicueta, Rodri, Gaya, Ceballos, Pau Lopez. Scorers: Saul 13, Rodrigo 32. Booked: Carvajal. Manager: Luis Enrique. Referee: Danny Makkelie (Holland). Attendance: 81,392.