ALLI CAN GIVE MORE
Southgate hails intelligent Alli ... but wants more
TACTiCS and formations matter, but every bit as important, Roy Keane once argued, is getting the best players on the pitch.
gareth Southgate seems to share that view, judging by the way his team is evolving in the final weeks before this summer’s World Cup. indeed he referenced the united team Keane once captained on Saturday night.
Kyle Walker might be the best right- sided wing- back but England’s manager also wants Kieran Trippier’s delivery from out wide, so right now he is playing both of them.
And as much as he admires Jesse lingard and sees the benefit of combining his attacking threat with Raheem Sterling’s in support of harry Kane, he also wants Dele Alli on the field. The solution, as we saw on Saturday night during what was an encouraging performance against nigeria, was a formation in which Alli and lingard were deployed in front of Eric Dier in a team pretty close to what Southgate admitted afterwards he has in mind for England’s opening World Cup match against Tunisia.
Southgate was delighted with Alli and how well he adapted to the slightly deeper role.
‘i thought his performance was really good today, his use of the ball, i liked his play with runners ahead of him,’ he said.
‘The position he had to play today was a little bit different from where we have used him in the past, where he was coming off the front and having to turn with the ball a bit more. it’s a position he has played a lot as a younger player, in particular, and i know he likes it.
‘The intelligence of his runs — we didn’t always find him. in fact we had to keep encouraging him to make those runs because the danger is you get disappointed at not being found and stop doing it.
‘But he kept making those runs and that’s one of his strengths, to make those runs in behind. he sees the gaps really well and that was very effective for us today.’
Southgate even thinks there is more to come, not least in the form of goals.
‘his goalscoring record for a player his age is outstanding,’ he said. ‘At the moment with England he hasn’t found that number of goals but i’m sure he will because he smells the opportunities.
‘if we play as we did today, and create the number of chances we did, getting the ball
in those areas, those lads who were in those positions will score goals.’
Alli, like Sterling in the last week, represents another piece of astute man-management from Southgate.
Having dropped him in March he has now brought Alli back into the fold and the result has been a positive one. ‘ He’s always a player who is going to find a high level,’ said Southgate. ‘As a goal threat, we want players in the team with a goalscoring record when possible.
‘I always think back to Manchester United’s team with players like that right across midfield. It makes you so much more of a threat. In the end the numbers tell a story and his (Alli’s) are high.’
What will be interesting here, of course, is how Southgate reintroduces Jordan Henderson to the side, and whether the Liverpool skipper is now competing with Dier for one place in the team.
It could be that one of them starts against Tunisia and one against Panama, with both of them then brought in to provide more solidity for the third group game against Belgium. Southgate might then be choosing two from Alli, Lingard and Sterling.
These are options he can further examine against Costa Rica on Thursday and then in the practice match he is planning at St George’s Park next Monday, the day before England leave for their World Cup headquarters in Repino.
The defender who sits to the left side of the back three is something else to consider, even if Gary Cahill may well have done enough against Nigeria to claim that particular spot ahead of Harry Maguire.
‘They are both very experienced,’ Southgate said. ‘But I would not necessarily say it is either/or with them. Cahill has a lot of experience of big matches and maybe they could both play because there is competition for places right across that back line.’