Fear factor in the past as players seize big chance
Gareth Southgate has helped his team to shed inhibitions when pulling on the England shirt
CHIEF SPORTS WRITER racial abuse of his mum in Doncaster. He told the press of all these feelings before he told his parents, or Southgate, the England manager. If that choice made you worry even more about how distressed he has been, the act of speaking out had no detrimental effect on his performance against Costa Rica.
On the contrary, Rose is now favourite to start in that role against Tunisia in Volgograd on Monday week. So the conclusion must be that the most heartrending of the interviews at Southgate’s Super Bowl-style England media day actually did some good, rather than sending the whole camp into free-fall (though we should be careful about assuming Rose is now over his troubles.)
Fear is the word. Fear of the outside world, fear of repercussions, fear of failure. For generations, England teams have either been genuinely hounded into the ground by press and public or have allowed themselves to become scared and fatalistic.
Probably a combination of both. Yet everyone knows fear has no use in tournaments, in a shirt that marks you out as one of the best 11 players in the land. World Cups are an opportunity, and the alternative to seizing those chances is a lifetime of regret.
You have to wonder whether the country could stomach it if another England team fell down the here-we-go-again hole; if Harry Kane were hopeless; if Raheem Sterling flattered to deceive; if Rashford went into his shell and carried his difficulties at United into a tournament. England, the country, has had its fill of off-thepitch distractions, the celebrity culture and players being hyped.
How much of that is still apparent as England fly to Repino? Not much, though there will doubtless be PR turbulence along the way. Southgate’s defining mission is to create an atmosphere and a structure in which all 23 players can be the footballers we know them as from their clubs – and preferably better, where international football provides a chance to step up a level or escape club frustrations.
This is what we saw with Rashford, whose goal against Costa Rica was audacious: a flag in the ground close to the toes of Sterling, who has first call on the second striker’s shirt, alongside Kane. Certainly Rashford looked a better first sub than Jamie Vardy, who has less variety to his game.
“What pleased me most was that he enjoyed his football tonight,” Southgate said of Rashford. “He played with a real swagger.” Are you listening, Jose Mourinho? Imagine England as a place players go to feel free, enjoy themselves, transcend club rivalries.
Young players are poking through. Trent Alexander-arnold made his first England start and Ruben Loftus-cheek offers power to a midfield built mainly on lightness of touch and mobility. Up the age scale, Fabian Delph offers a left-side alternative in central midfield. All across the team, players are raising their hands rather than hiding at the back of the class. Southgate said: “We’ve got great competition for places, right throughout the team. I think you saw that tonight.”
Rashford, said Southgate, “had that exuberance.” This will now rub off on England’s fans. A word of caution is that by the time they face Belgium in Kaliningrad, England will have played Nigeria (who were uninterested for the first-half), Costa Rica, who were in second gear, Tunisia, and Panama, who have never been to a World Cup. The test will come when a good team puts them under pressure and threatens the new harmony.
But for now, contentment builds and selection options multiply. As Southgate said: “If it [the build-up] has complicated it, then it’s in a really good way.”