BEATING TUNISIA IN 30° C? NO SWEAT FOR ENGLAND!
Southgate confident his men can dictate pace of game and keep their cool in heat
ONE last training session, or more of a training match, on the Sir Bobby Charlton pitch at St George’s Park yesterday and England’s preparation before departing for the World Cup was complete.
It was an 11 v 11 exercise with Anthony Taylor as referee but, insisted the FA, it bore little correlation to what Gareth Southgate has in mind for that opening group match with Tunisia on Monday.
Players switched between the opposing teams in black and white bibs, with England’s manager making a point of giving everyone game time. Even Jake Livermore, who deserves great credit for remaining part of the build-up despite not being picked for the flight to Russia, was involved.
For Southgate it was a chance to explore different combinations for the contrasting challenges that face his side in Group G, starting with that match against Tunisia on what promises to be a particularly warm night in Volgograd.
If England really arenaren’tt too concerned by the prospect rospect of meeting a north orth African team iin n temperatures on the he sweatier side of 30 0 degrees there must be great confidence in their ability to dictate the pace of the game.
Over the years it has not been one of England’s strengths. . But Southgate takes es encouragement not just from recent per-performances against Nigeria and Costa Rica, andnd the win over Holland in Amsterdam in March, but what he has been seeing in training on a daily basis.
‘The style is clear,’ said Southgate. ‘We’ve selected players who can use the ball and I have to say the level of training is incredibly high at the moment.
‘What people have seen is the way we want to play. We want to be an intelligent team in terms of tactical approach and dealing with different stages in games.
‘It’s a great challenge. All the players can use the ball well, so when we are defending against pressing it’s very difficult to win the ball back. That’s a good sign the level of the players is very high.’
It is interesting that England
havhave chosen to remairemain at home for their pre-pretournament training cacamp and have opted for a tournament base in Repino where the climate at this time of year is much like the UK. It will be around 15 degrees for their first training session there tomorrow, rising to the low 20s towards the end of the week.
Southgate and his team of doctors and sports scientists appear comfortable with their decision, arguing it is difficult to prepare for specific conditions in such a vast country. But it raises the question of why they went to the lengths of testing the players for potential issues like asthma when they will simply expect them to arrive in Volgograd on Sunday and play the game the following evening.
Fitness tests at St George’s Park clearly leave Southgate confident his England players have the physical capabilities as well as the composure on the ball to cope.
‘We’re looking forward to getting on with the tournament now,’ he said yesterday. ‘We’ve had a really good training camp and I’ve been pleased with the performances in the two games. We just want to get out to Russia now.’
Southgate feels like the changes he has made, not least to the style of football, have captured the imagination of fans and created a bit of cautious optimism.
‘I’ve talked about the disconnect between fans and the team and there are ways to bridge that,’ he said. ‘Most important is how you play and your results.
‘We know everything else comes on the back of that. This is a team getting on well, is very proud to represent the nation, has some talent and a real desire to play in a style people will enjoy watching.
‘We ask people to pay a lot of money to watch football. We want to entertain where we can.’
Southgate says he sensed a shift in attitude towards his team late last year. ‘In November when we brought in younger players, there was a clear shift in the team’s identity. We are not the finished article — we’re a long way from that — but people see signs of progress and enjoy watching us.
‘We’ll be judged on results but we have to focus on the process. We hope we can send people to work the following day having enjoyed those matches. I know what those tournament experiences can be like and we want that to happen.’