Football: Southgate’s reign begins
For all England’s “traumas and intermittent crises”, they have now gone more than seven years without losing a qualifying match for an international tournament, said Daniel Taylor in The Guardian. That 34-game unbeaten streak goes back to 2009, when Fabio Capello’s team lost to Ukraine. Last Sunday, England recorded another “win of drowsy inevitability against moderate opponents” when they beat Lithuania 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier. It was Gareth Southgate’s second match as manager, following last week’s 1-0 loss to Germany in a friendly, and his first competitive game. England can take pride in their clean sheet, which left them the only team in the current round of World Cup qualifiers that have yet to concede a goal. To really get their measure, though, we will have to see them in action against a team ranked higher than No. 107 in the world.
At the age of 34, Jermain Defoe was the match’s unlikely hero, said Henry Winter in The Times. He fired in the first goal to become the sixth-oldest player to score for the national side. The Sunderland striker hasn’t always been valued by England managers: this was his first cap in more than three years. He has made a total of 56 appearances, yet has only completed the full 90 minutes on two occasions. But his brilliant finish was a reminder of his “intelligence in the box” and “enduringly sharp eye for goal”. A consummate professional, Defoe works obsessively on his fitness and sticks rigidly to a vegan diet. In “an ideal world”, England would not have to depend on a 34-year-old, said Oliver Kay in the same paper. But for now, at least, they have few options up front: Harry Kane is injured, as are Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck; Wayne Rooney, who has scored just two Premier League goals for Manchester United this season, is no longer “regarded as a serious option at centre forward”. That leaves the 30-year-old Jamie Vardy, who came on for Defoe to score the second goal.
“We can already see what type of setup Southgate is going to run,” said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. Notwithstanding his recall of the veteran Defoe, he is more interested in promoting young talent – such as Burnley’s central defender Michael Keane, who impressed against both Germany and Lithuania. He is also emphasising the side’s “creative thrust” by putting Dele Alli and Adam Lallana in charge of midfield: Lallana has “magic feet”; Alli is the side’s “potentially world-class game shaper”. Of course, this may be “nothing more than another false dawn”, said Matt Lawton in the Daily Mail. Many of Southgate’s predecessors thrived in qualifiers, only to come undone in a tournament. But two matches in, “some of the foundations are certainly down”.