ENGLAND v SWITZERLAND NO KANE, NO FEAR
Southgate is happy to take on Swiss without key men
NO Harry Kane, no Dele Alli, no Jordan Pickford and, perhaps most significantly for an England manager in danger of becoming the first to lose four games on the bounce, no fear.
Even after being beaten three times in a row, Gareth Southgate managed to deliver a performance yesterday that was hard not to admire. He knows he is under a bit
of pressure when his side meet Switzerland this evening. Indeed, he suggested last night that the currency of the World Cup has already been spent after a challenging encounter with Spain.
But it will not stop him making wholesale changes — nine in all, with Eric Dier captaining the side and Leicester duo Ben Chilwell and Demarai Gray on the bench — when he regards the development of his players as more important than his own record as national team boss.
Such conviction deserves praise, particularly when he is probably the first England manager who is picking players because they need minutes on the pitch they cannot secure at their clubs. It is an extraordinary situation and a damning indictment of English football in 2018.
If Marcus Rashford and Danny
Welbeck lead the England attack in the absence of Kane tonight, they will do so having played only 143 minutes of club football between them this season — with one goal and one start.
Southgate nodded in agreement when it was put to him that it is mildly ridiculous that international football has become the best opportunity for some of his players to get game time.
‘If I was Ryan Giggs or Michael O’Neill I’d be saying, “What the hell is he complaining about?”’ he said. ‘They have to select players from different sources. But we’re in a different era in terms of numbers of players who are selectable.’
Some remain more selectable than others and when meeting a talented Swiss team who put six goals past Iceland last weekend, the
temptation to have the firepower of players like Kane on the pitch this evening would have been too much for some managers.
Southgate, however, is made of stronger stuff, pointing out for starters that other England teams who lost three on the bounce had not contested a World Cup semi-final and a third-place play-off.
‘I’m not concerned about it, otherwise I would make decisions to boost my own win record,’ he said. ‘In the build-up to last summer we played Brazil, Germany, France and Spain. If it was about my win record, I probably wouldn’t have made those decisions, either.
‘The decisions are made to try to develop the team and I will put young players in, like we did at the weekend with Joe Gomez. I put Marcus and Luke Shaw back in. It’s
more important to me that we invest in the team and give these guys the experiences they need to get better. I will have to live with whatever people want to say about my record. But I’m comfortable in my own skin. The priority is not me, it’s developing the England team.’
But four in a row? ‘A lot of these guys who are coming into the team have played zero minutes in the league,’ he stressed. ‘The right thing for them — and ultimately the right thing for us as we go through this season and beyond — is to give them game time. That’s the reason. I have to keep a clear mind on the real objectives and, in the end, we will be judged on what happens in the major championships.’
He’s right, of course. But lose this evening and follow that with defeats in Croatia and Spain and
Southgate’s resolve will be tested. Asked how long he felt he could ride the World Cup wave of optimism, he replied: ‘I’m under no illusions that it won’t last very long at all — if it has, beyond Saturday.
‘But I can’t let that affect my thinking. I’ve said over the previous 18 months that I’ve got to make decisions I think are the right ones and not manage in fear and not make decisions that are short-term. The fans will understandably react to whatever results and performances we have but I’ve also got to be strong enough to stick to the beliefs of the way we want to play. ’
The reference to long-term strategies did prompt further questions about his continued reluctance to express any desire to manage England beyond Euro 2020.
There was a shift in his responses yesterday. On Friday he said new contract discussions had ‘not really’ started with the Football Association. Here in Leicester he said ‘initial discussions’ had taken place. Southgate said: ‘I will always manage the team as if I am going to be there for ever. I think you have a responsibility when you are the England manager to do the right thing for England.
‘Of course, when you are in a World Cup or a European Championship it’s about winning and you make the right decision for that. But in that interim period, I think the best nations who have done well have had longer-term thinking.’
Quite right, too.