Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Oh dear.. has Southgate done ‘a Batshuayi’ and slapped himself in the face?
IT was arguably one of the highlights of a compelling group stage, a moment that will forever find a place on a World Cup highlights reel.
These tournaments are where footballers can make their mark with one majestic act.
Michy Batshuayi did just that, miscuing a celebratory drop-kick against an upright and taking the rebound flush in his face.
It must have broken the internet. Batshuayi’s self-inflicted discomfort was momentary, Gareth Southgate’s might last a little longer.
The build-up to Tuesday’s knockout game against Colombia in Moscow will be pockmarked by the first critical pellets of Southgate’s tournament.
Has Southgate done a Batshuayi? Will this team selection, not sending out a first team to try to secure a tie against Japan, come back to hit him between the eyes?
The answer is there is no answer right now, it will all be hindsight and hypothesis. Beat Colombia and it was cute, lose and it was ugly.
It will be coloured definitively by the next result.
But what this odd game exposed was that while the England team that was rested does have enough quality, enough physicality and pace, enough character to go deep into the tournament, the squad is what many suspected. The entire squad is not as blessed with strength as some think.
For me, Southgate’s decision to rest as many of his first-choice outfield 10 as he could was an obvious one to make. Don’t go on about our old mate ‘momentum’.
When Southgate sends out his team to face the Colombians, it will, bar one or two alterations, be a team that won its last game 6-1. Is that not momentum?
And as for taking Colombia to be a fiercer foe than Japan, that is open to debate, judging by the South Americans’ performance in the narrow win over Senegal.
No, Southgate had the option to make his first team play three times in just over a week or play twice. He chose twice.
What a surprise. He chose
twice, just like Roberto Martinez did. That England did not win was down to their reserves not being good enough to overcome Belgium’s reserves and that is what Southgate (bottom, right) will be disappointed about.
For all the weirdness of the night, the monochrome truth is that Southgate would have at least wanted a couple of the support staff to make him think briefly about the roster for Tuesday. They did not.
Presuming John Stones and everyone else is fit, his line-up will be the one that started the first match of the tournament, against Tunisia, with Ruben Loftus-cheek not doing nearly enough in this fake contest to advance a bid to be retained ahead of a fit-again Dele Alli.
And if Southgate’s original decision to give Jordan Henderson (circle) the nod in a head-to-head battle with Eric Dier was a marginal one, it is now a no-brainer.
When he was hauled along to the pre-match press conference, Dier (far left) – captain here – looked like he would have preferred to be anywhere else.
That mood was carried into a performance which sadly did not do justice to a proud day.
In fairness, there were none who advanced any weighty claims, although Danny Rose was asking the boss a question or two before failing to close down Adnan Januzaj ahead of a strike that was nice enough, but should not have beaten Jordan Pickford if the England keeper is as good as he says he is.
Over to you, conspiracy theorists, as you exchange glances at Marcus Rashford’s late, telegraphed miss (right, top).
It was that sort of evening – one in which only time will let us know if Southgate has done a Batshuayi.
To Moscow.