Southgate’s England side must evolve. Just ask Tel
JORDAN PICKFORD is not, on current form, the best goalkeeper in the country. Kieran Trippier isn’t the best right back, Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier are no longer the smartest option for holding midfield.
It seems strange that having alighted on an England team capable of reaching a World Cup semi-final, less than a year later dismantling parts of it would appear to be Gareth Southgate’s clever option.
If, however, the influence of Terry Venables on him is as strong as it often seems, that won’t happen. Venables’ mantra was that it should be as hard to get out of an England squad as it was to get into it, and Southgate is equally determined to create a bond with his players.
Venables made it plain he wouldn’t jettison individuals over a poor run of club form, or the odd below-par performance. Like Southgate, he could make the tough calls — he effectively ended Peter Beardsley’s international career before the 1996 European Championship, much as Southgate did for Joe Hart before the 2018 World Cup — but Venables remembered those who did not let him down.
He wasn’t going to leave out Stuart Pearce on the back of a few mediocre games for Nottingham Forest.
one imagines Southgate feels the same about Pickford, Trippier, Henderson and Dier. It would be a huge surprise not to see their names when the squad is announced tomorrow, for matches against Czech Republic and Montenegro.
Yet the starting XI? That is a different matter. No manager gives guarantees about the team; and Southgate has many more options than he did in the summer. The most obvious is Declan Rice. It is accepted that he will be fast-tracked into the England squad having rejected the Republic of Ireland, but why stop there? Rice has the capability to go straight into the side. He is the player England have searched for since it was short- sightedly decided Rio Ferdinand was nothing more than a central defender. Rice is a centre half who can play midfield; a midfielder who can play centre half. Either makes him a potential game- changer, giving England more than Henderson’s earnest intensity. Rice could be the longterm replacement for Fernandinho at Manchester City or Nemanja Matic at Manchester United. His reading of the game is outstanding for a 20-year-old, his range of passing good and ambitious, he is even beginning to get goals. Rice’s breakthrough season negates the idea that Henderson’s only replacement is that elusive English Andrea Pirlo. Rice, with creative players around him, can guard England’s defence, as N’Golo Kante does for France. He can step back to create a three if needed. And the way he quickly adapted to firstteam football with West Ham — he only won a regular place this season because Jack Wilshere was injured — suggests he is a quick learner. He could be for England, too.
Trippier’s decline is mystifying. March 23 last year was the date when his form was confirmed as irresistible and Southgate unveiled the plan to accommodate him by shunting Kyle Walker, the most expensive full back in English football, to centre half.
Trippier had been magnificent for Tottenham since Walker’s move to Manchester City, his crosses, hit first time, the most effective plays from wide since David Beckham’s peak.
Trippier soon established himself as England’s best free-kick taker, too, scoring the opener in the World Cup semi-final. Since when, he has been inconsistent at best. Yet it may not be Walker who poses the biggest threat to his place, or even the excellent Trent Alexander-Arnold.
For while the Liverpool man would be an obvious promotion, in a very competitive field, the best right back in the country this season is Aaron Wan-Bissaka of Crystal Palace. He is old school —
in that he is as strong defensively as going forward. A converted winger, he fits the profile of the modern full back, but with a difference. Wan-Bissaka (left) has an appetite for physical challenge that is unlike the majority of contemporaries.
Statistically, he is the leading tackler in Europe. In a league in which 62 per cent of tackles are given as fouls, that is a quite magnificent record for a player who only made his debut on February 25, 2018. This season, he has matured, cut out the sliding challenges and played with intelligence.
No opponent has dribbled past him more than once in any game. And while England do not need a defence-minded full back in every match, with the Nations League finals coming up bringing fixtures with Holland, and potentially Portugal, might a defender of Wan-Bissaka’s growing maturity be needed then? If so, is there any better opportunity than now to introduce him to international football?
Yet perhaps Southgate’s biggest quandary is the position previously considered secure. If Pickford’s performances in goal for Everton have been unconvincing this season, the 90 minutes against Newcastle on Saturday were downright terrifying.
The quality any manager most respects in a goalkeeper is calmness. Pickford played like he had digested a pre-match meal of blue Smarties washed down with six cans of Red Bull. He should have been sent off for a rugby tackle on Salomon Rondon, and appeared to be engaging in banter and a gurning competition with the crowd.
As a former Sunderland player he was always going to be a target, but in such circumstances a manager needs his goalkeeper focused. Pickford became a vaudeville act.
Southgate’s problem is that, while Rice and Wan-Bissaka are in outstanding form, where are the challengers for Pickford’s role? Tom Heaton has been the best of it with Burnley this season, although he had a poor game against Liverpool on Sunday, while Jack Butland is in the wrong division and struggling with Stoke. Promoting Heaton might at least focus Pickford, or Southgate may decide there is no outstanding alternative this time. Pickford has made more errors leading to goals — four — than any other player in the Premier League this season, however, and sticking with him remains a risk.
For all Venables’ talk of faith in a small group, he wasn’t entirely averse to change. Having twice previously called up a young centre half from Aston Villa in late 1995, he gave him his debut as a substitute against Portugal on December 12.
‘Southgate came on and played very well,’ Venables noted in his book, The Making of the Team. ‘He got stuck in and got straight down to it. I really liked his attitude. He’s showing a lot of promise and stands a chance of being in the squad for the finals.’
He was right. Indeed, Southgate ended up starting every game. Might he be making similar notes about Rice and Wan-Bissaka after this international break? Venables was a loyal man, but his England evolved, and for the better. Southgate’s team must, too.