MEET THE ONLY HOLLAND AT THE WORLD CUP...
England’s No 2 Steve Holland is forming a dynamic duo with Gareth Southgate
THE revolution did indeed start in Russia. It was over dinner in Sochi 12 months ago, two men talking football. Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland were on a month-long road trip which involved a punishing schedule of flights that took them backwards and forwards between Poland, where England’s Under 21 side were playing, and Russia, where the Confederations Cup was taking place.
The conversation rarely diverted from their first eight months together as manager and coach of the England team. They discussed tactics, personnel and formations. But it was while dining one evening in the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics that the switch to a back three, and for this generation of England players a completely new system, was first suggested.
It was not something they had considered possible when Southgate succeeded Sam Allardyce in the most extraordinary circumstances in the autumn of 2016.
‘When we took over, the two previous games had been Sam and the qualification game — Slovakia away, we get the late goal — and the Iceland defeat at Euro 2016,’ said Holland, giving his first newspaper interview since becoming Southgate’s assistant.
‘So Gareth’s first game means England have had three managers in three games — off the back of Iceland still being in the air. We had only two or three days to work and we’re in qualifiers.
‘Gareth’s intelligent. I think he recognised early that it wasn’t a time for revolution. It was a time for making decisions that he felt would get results in the short term, to secure qualification.
‘So we went really from a 4-3-3, which had been Roy Hodgson’s system in the previous campaign, and I think Sam’s in his one game, to 4-2-3-1. The plan in the short term was to try to get a bit more support to the forwards.’
It was a plan they stuck to until their passage to Russia had been secured. But their vision for the World Cup began to unfold a year earlier.
‘We were over here looking at potential facilities, experiencing the different climates at the right time of year,’ said Holland.
‘We went to watch the Under 21s when the England games were on and then back to the Confederations Cup. We spent a lot of time on a plane but it really gave us the opportunity to speak about what we’d learnt in the first year.
‘We came to some conclusions. One of those was a back three. We had dinner in Sochi and that was where it was named. We felt we would be better with and without the ball with a back three.’
Sitting here in Repino listening to the 48-year-old former Chelsea coach, it is easy to see why Southgate wanted Holland to join him in making the transition from the England Under 21 side, where they were already working together, to the senior team.
They are only four months apart in age but their journeys through football have been vastly different, injury cutting Holland’s relatively modest playing career short and forcing him into coaching at 22 while Southgate played at the very highest level but has had limited experience as a manager.
What the FA have, however, are two extremely intelligent people who seem to share a common view on how things should be done and how the game should be played.
They are quite the combination. Their system for England, while ultimately Southgate’s call, seems to be the product of their experiences in the game.
‘We looked at Terry Venables, the Euro ’96 team (which Southgate was part of), with Steve McManaman and Darren Anderton as wing-backs and Gary Neville in a back three, the balance of the midfield,’ said Holland. ‘But the process really was: what gives us the best chance of not conceding many goals? What gives us the best chance of having more control of the game with the ball? Also given the players we’ve got.
‘That meant once we were going down that road, to fit one of those three positions (in a back three) you had to be a certain profile of player. Being able to handle the ball to a good level is one of the criteria.’
Asking Kyle Walker to become part of a back three, Holland explained, was something that came later. ‘I spent a year with Antonio Conte at Chelsea and they won the league with a 3-4-3, Cesar Azpilicueta as a full back in a back three, with Gary Cahill on the left and David Luiz in the middle,’ he said. ‘It was a combination of how we viewed our own players. Both of our own experiences of playing that way and what we felt was the right way to go.
‘The next stage was what best suited the midfield balance. We then felt three rather than two, given the profile of players we have. Three brings a Jesse Lingard, a Dele Alli or an Adam Lallana. And we have good forwards. If we play the way we play we get two on the pitch.’ Becoming Southgate’s assistant with England meant ending a long, successful spell at Chelsea and a switch from full-time employment to a parttime role. Holland challenges that particular perception. ‘ I hear it’s a job for an experienced guy who’s at the end of his career,’ he said. ‘ That isn’t how we’ve approached what we consider a massive responsibility. Last night close to 20 million people watched the game on the BBC. What more important role could you have? So I think we feel a real sense of that responsibility and we don’t want to sell people short. ‘We haven’t just spent more time
on holiday. We’ve watched games all week, every week. When there’s been an early kick-off and a late kick-off on a Saturday we’ve tried to do both, to get an insight into what our players do on a week-toweek basis.
‘It was really important for us to use that period after qualification to get not just a technical, tactical insight but a psychological one. Watching players in hard matches, away from home, in tough venues, against tough opponents.’
What Holland considered the level of commitment required is why he ultimately left Chelsea. In his view the kind of situation that existed in the past, for instance when Steve McClaren combined club commitments with serving as Sven Goran Eriksson’s coach, was less than ideal.
‘I loved working for Chelsea,’ he said. ‘In the six years I worked with the first team, I experienced a World Club Championship final, a Champions League final, a Europa League final, an FA Cup final, a Capital One Cup final and two successful Premier League title run-ins. Plus I worked with Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, Antonio Conte... an incredible environment to learn.
‘Why did I leave? Because of the chance to go to a World Cup with England. For me to coach Tottenham’s players, Liverpool’s players, Manchester City’s players etc, and then go back to Chelsea, was never going to work. And I couldn’t say no to experiencing this.’
Nor could he say no to Southgate, a manager he says has similar qualities to those of the best he has worked with.
‘All of the managers I worked for had different qualities,’ he said. ‘But they were all the same in that they were totally single-minded. Very, very clear on how they wanted things to be done. I think with Gareth, he ticks so many of the boxes that the best that I’ve worked with tick.’
Preparing England for this tournament has also been a boxticking exercise, to some extent, explained Holland. Friendlies against ‘Germany twice, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France and the Dutch’ were designed to get them ready for the different demands of a World Cup.
They dominated possession against Tunisia on Monday and expect to do so against Panama on Sunday. Those friendly games were organised with the latter stages of the competition in mind.
Holland acknowledges that England need to sharpen up in front of goal. ‘That’s the next bit,’ he said. ‘The team are hitting a good level of performance. They’re making more chances, but they aren’t finishing games off. Where are our goals? We’ve been dependent on Harry Kane but we’ve not always had Harry. Jamie Vardy and Danny Welbeck have reasonable goal records for England and after that we’ve got potential.
‘Dele has got goals for Tottenham so there’s reason to believe he can transfer that. Raheem Sterling has got goals this year but hasn’t transferred that to international level. Jesse has taken time to get goals for Manchester United.
‘So we’re going with the ones we think have got the potential but they’re young men with not many caps. It might just take a bit of time there. But we have reason to believe they will get there.’