Southgate knows that late strike simply covered over the cracks
Players are struggling to perform for a team that lack an idenity, writes Jason Burt at Wembley
Little more than 24 hours after Harry Kane revealed he had hired a personal chef to improve his performance the team he captained were a dog’s dinner. This was unpalatable from England. A right mishmash as they booked their place at next summer’s World Cup finals in an unsavoury fashion.
Enough dietary references… But, then again, there is plenty food for thought for Gareth Southgate for although Kane won this encounter in injury-time, the manager was right: the hard work starts here. The tough decisions also. Otherwise England are heading for another tournament embarrassment.
Southgate had already emphatically stated that some of this squad do not deserve to be selected. So do not select them. There are 23 spots to be taken for his squad for next summer and Southgate has to decide what his England are; what his England is going to be. It would help if, one year into the job, he gave them something they so evidently lack: an identity. What does he want his team to look like? What is their style of play? How do they approach matches? How does he – crucially – get around the unavoidable fact that with such a woeful lack of strength and, above all, creativity in central midfield then they will always be predictable and leaden.
Both Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier are good players; but they do fit together in a 4-2-3-1 formation. There is no guile. Oh, for an English Christian Eriksen or Thiago Alcantara, a Marco Verratti or Toni Kroos; someone who has the ability to control, dictate, unlock. Southgate can cast around and – maybe – wonder if he can turn to Jack Wilshere if he ever gets games at Arsenal or Jonjo Shelvey if he matures at Newcastle United. But there is little else and so there is no point waiting.
England have some fine players. They have Kane, they have Dele Alli (suspended for this game), they have Adam Lallana (injured) and Marcus Rashford – their best player against Slovenia – and there are others. John Stones, Danny Rose (when fit), Raheem Sterling (when, or rather if, he can ever get over the psychological weight he feels wearing an England shirt) and Kyle Walker, who struggled until pushed further forward. He created England’s goal.
Maybe that is the key. England looked better when Michael Keane came on and Southgate changed the shape. This squad, when at full strength, is far more suited to 3-4-3 with the wing-backs, Walker and Rose ideally, providing the width and with it the creativity. He has given players chances and it is not to single out Alex Oxladechamberlain to suggest that surely he has run out of opportunities.
Southgate has to decide whether he can really contemplate going to a World Cup with the likes of Jake Livermore, Daniel Sturridge or Chris Smalling. His honesty was mirrored, before this game, by Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn. “England players do not travel well... we know there is a brittleness in unfamiliar circumstances that we have to deal with,” he said at a conference. We get it. We all know it is true. Expectation has gone. But there is an almost defeatist theme that has taken over – this is a young squad, do not expect too much, England do not have the players, qualifying is an achievement in itself. It is, frankly, an excuses culture and begins to grate in the light of a soulless performance like this, during which the supporters were reduced to cheering their efforts to throw paper airplanes on to the Wembley turf.
England were sloppy. Sterling lost possession, Walker misdirected a header, then a pass, Stones passed straight out of play and Joe Hart could have conceded a penalty, although he also made a superb double save late on. A lack of belief. And it was even worse because this was a relatively pressure free match against modest opposition. This was not the pressure-cooker of competition at the highest level.
But they qualified. The unsatisfactory nature of it, despite Kane’s goal, appeared to sum everything up. They will be travelling again, 1,300 miles from London to their base near St Petersburg. “Let the celebrations begin. We are off to Russia,” the stadium announcer said at the final whistle. It did not feel like a celebration.