Lions need a ‘Gazza’
Gareth Southgate considered the question: how can England develop a player who can run a game in the way Thiago Alcantara had just done in Spain’s 2-1 victory at Wembley?
Or as Croatia’s Luka Modric showed in the World Cup semifinal in July?
“The only one in my lifetime is [Paul] Gascoigne,” the England manager said.
And there you have it. The problem laid bare in one name. Gascoigne’s last appearance for England was in 1998. Twenty years ago.
Twenty years since there was a midfielder in an England shirt who had what Southgate described as the supreme confidence to “receive under pressure and dribble past people, pass past people”.
This is England’s post-World Cup reality, where a run to the semifinal rightly brought back so much enthusiasm and warmth around the team but also showed that, although the gap may not have been as great as feared, it will take something more, maybe something that has been missing for two decades, to bridge it.
The danger for Southgate is a loss of momentum.
England have lost their past three competitive fixtures – the World Cup semifinal, the thirdplace play-off against Belgium and now their opening Nations League tie against Spain.
After England’s friendly against Switzerland tomorrow, when wholesale changes will be made, there is the double header next month away to Croatia and Spain in the Nations League.
It is not unfeasible that fixtures against “two of the best teams in the world” could also end in defeat.
There could be more pain ahead.
Southgate has created a pragmatic structure for England – through a 3-5-2 formation – that he understandably believes is the best, given the players available. He found a way to stabilise England.
The problem is that no nation who have aspirations to win tournaments truly approach them in that way. And Southgate knows that.
England need to be brave enough to eventually make that call because dominance of possession – or at least control of it – is what is needed in pressure moments and big games.
“For me, I’m under contract, I’m enjoying the role, I love the challenge of it and that’s it, really,” Southgate said.
He certainly has a significant challenge ahead and one that has eluded England for so long.
The good news is that he is well aware of it. – The Daily Telegraph