Football: England experiment

Most managers would use a warm-up game for the World Cup to pick their “first-choice side for the tournament”, said Dominic Fifield in The Guardian. Not Gareth Southgate. As we saw in England’s 1-0 friendly win over The Netherlands last Friday, the manager is “still very much in experimental mode”. He opted for three men at the back, with Manchester City full-back Kyle Walker in central defence; in goal, the excellent Everton keeper Jordan Pickford made only his second international appearance. With less than three months to go before the World Cup, it’s worrying to find “so many places in England’s team still up for grabs, so many players unproven and, frankly, so many holes in the side”, said Daniel Taylor in The Guardian. You can’t help feeling that “England’s plans are a long way behind where they should be”.

But Southgate is “working to a larger plan”, said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. He’s teaching his players “the basic language of international football” by making them “patient and comfortable in possession”. And unlike many of his predecessors, he can call on a cast of “potential game-changers” in attack. Harry Kane may be England’s most important player, but there’s also Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard, who scored the goal against Holland. For now, it’s the midfielders who are letting the side down, said Jonathan Northcroft in The Sunday Times. England have finally learnt how to pass the ball out from the back – but they’re giving it to a midfield “who cannot do much with it”. Creativity is in short supply: Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson, the captain last week, is nobody’s idea of a natural playmaker. Until England fix their problems in the “middle of the pitch”, they will be no more than “a competent team”.