How the Pep effect inspired an England REVOLUTION
IT didn’t look promising for England in the 90th minute at 1-1 when Tunisia’s Saber Khalifa chased a long ball towards the English corner flag. Fortunately, Kyle Walker sprinted across and won possession. Still, Walker was in a tight spot with Khalifa closing. Walker managed a pass out to Kieran Trippier but, with his back to the play, the right wing-back was being closed by Khalifa and he could only pass back to Walker. Actually he cheekily nutmegged Khalifa.
Walker, still in the corner with Khalifa closing in, had John Stones to his left but Anice Badri had him covered. Safer to thump the ball down the line? No, Walker took the risk and passed to Stones, who immediately evaded Badri.
‘Me and John have played there together,’ said Walker, recalling the moment. ‘And H [Harry Maguire] is great on the ball. We’re all good ball players. It makes sense to build up from the back. We all trust each other.’
Stones strode out of defence to begin a sequence of 11 crisp passes which worked the ball upfield — four times involving the Manchester City defender who had become the playmaker — before Ruben Loftus-Cheek took the ball and won a corner.
Fourth official Ricardo Montero then raised the board to indicate four minutes of injury time. The clock stood at 90 minutes and 27 seconds when Trippier struck the corner.
Thereafter the sequence of events will be fondly remembered if England go on to the latter stages.
Maguire’s powerful header was met in turn by Harry Kane’s decisive one and suddenly England’s week, their group and perhaps the entire World Cup campaign took on a wholly different complexion.
‘We all think that we have good technical ability, so let’s try something,’ said Walker when asked why he didn’t simply clear his lines, as generations of England defenders might have done.
‘It’s a fine line because if it does go wrong, then we get the blame,’ he added. ‘But we have to trust in each other. We have to keep playing. Look at Spain, Germany. They have one philosophy and that’s it. And they keep grinding things out. Just like we did the other night. Luckily it paid off and the move related to the corner which you get the goal from.’
In that moment it is possible that we witnessed a revolution in English football – light years away from the rotten displays at Euro 2016 in France.
It has taken 18 years to get back to the Terry Venables-Glenn Hoddle era of 1996-1998, with a few wrong turns taken along the way. But in that late passage of play, England boss Gareth Southgate was vindicated for his boldness. Of course this could all fall apart. England have a habit of falling flat on their face, like their manager did running in Repino last week. Belgium provided some context for Monday’s result by hammering Tunisia 5-2 yesterday, a scoreline which flattered the North African nation.
Yet there is an unmistakable revolution in England’s style of play. The glory has yet to come and for this side that would be represented by a decent run to the quarterfinals. But in team meetings Southgate has impressed upon the players the need to maintain their game plan, even when it appears not to be working: no silly shots from distance, no aimless long balls.
‘Keep passing, keep believing,’ is the mantra. In training they prepared specifically for the game being 1-1 with 10 minutes left. Psychologist Dr Pippa Grange provided the mental tricks to keep the brain calm in those situations. Prior to their departure for Russia, they were also inspired as individuals to work out solutions and trust each other. It seems to have had an effect. England had 79 per cent of the possession in the last 15 minutes. And while possession in itself is useless without incision, if you end up hitting hopeful long balls you never hit those kind of stats. Mauricio Pochettino has a phrase to describe the simplicity of the traditional English game. ‘7-11 football’ the Tottenham manager calls it, by which all the chances comes from the wingers, the No 7 and the No 11, and nothing through the central areas. It’s not a compliment. Foreign coaches find it easy to defend against. It’s the reason why England carved out so few opportunities during World Cup qualifying and at Euro 2016. The key to Southgate’s new England has been in creating from unexpected areas. Their refined system of 3-5-2, with twin strikers and two attacking midfielders, can provide an initial edge in the first half. But as Steve Holland, Southgate’s assistant, points out, in three of England’s last four games, opponents have regrouped into more defensive formations at half-time.
Then it requires alternative creative sources. And in Volgograd his defenders came to the fore. Trippier, Walker, Stones and Maguire were the initiators and creators of the move that led to the corner; Trippier then took the corner and Maguire provided the assist.
Maguire was England’s leading passer of the ball, followed by Stones and then Walker, reinforcing Southgate’s philosophy. Maguire made 44 passes in the opposition half and created three chances, second only to Trippier.
England’s improvement in this department is down to Southgate and Holland. But even they would acknowledge it has helped that most of this team are coached by the likes of Pochettino, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.
‘I’m a better player, massively,’ said Stones, who moved to City in 2016. ‘It’s down mostly to Pep. He has taken my footballing brain to another level. Everyone thinks they know football and different systems but when I turned up at City and trained with him it was like a new door opening that I never thought would be there.’
Southgate and Holland play Walker on the right side of a back three because they have seen how Guardiola uses him, stepping inside to midfield rather than always bombing on like a wing-back.
‘On the ball this season, I’ve been a lot better,’ said Walker. ‘The biggest thing I’ve learned is my knowledge of the game. I’ve gone home and studied games for hours on end. It’s not about my physical attributes, getting up and crossing the ball, but knowing where people go. I feel it’s helped me massively.’
Guardiola has stretched the players’ minds. ‘At Tottenham I played as a wing-back so the right flank was mine,’ said Walker. ‘You needed to get up and down to provide assists. I’ve been playing in [the City back three] for most of the season and I’ve still got seven assists, my best return yet.’
Southgate is from a new generation of coaches open to fresh ideas. During his time on UK Sport’s Elite Performance Coaching programme in 2016 he got to know Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster as a mentor as well as Mel Marshall (coach of swimmer Adam Peaty), Paul Manning (coach to cyclist Laura Kenny) and Steve Borthwick, England forwards coach.
The England manager has also made two trips to the Super Bowl. Something of an NFL fan, he is a keen observer and a magpie, pilfering ideas. Watching Tom Brady, superstar quarterback of the New England Patriots, deal with his media duties persuaded him to open up St George’s Park to journalists before the World Cup with all 23 players available.
Now Southgate’s new England are aiming to win friends and games. So far, so good.