After an avalanche of goals at the World Cup, England need to find their shooting boots again and get Southgate back to winning ways
GOAL DROUGHTS
FOR Gareth Southgate, never mind the talk about performance, about development, about bringing through young talent, the job is simple.
Find a cutting edge for an England team that has lost its touch in front of goal. Sometimes, the task is that obvious.
For all its promise and relative defensive solidity, this is a squad firing too many blanks and that is why it has gone four competitive games without a win.
That is why, since Jesse Lingard (celebrating right, with Raheem Sterling) helped England thump half a dozen past Panama on that dizzying day in Nizhny Novgorod, it has taken Southgate’s men eight matches to score another six goals.
And of those six goals, one was a Harry Kane penalty, one a Kieran Trippier free-kick and another a Harry Maguire header from a corner. That means England, through Marcus Rashford twice and Dele Alli, have scored just three goals from open play since thrashing the Panamanians in June.
Kane’s barren international spell is clearly a factor. His six games without a goal equals his worst run in an England shirt and he has actually gone nine matches without a goal from open play.
The player himself insists there is little to worry about, and when Southgate was asked if he was happy with his skipper, he replied: “Absolutely. And with the players we have got. If we create chances, we will score them.”
Kane points to his reasonable Premier League return – five in eight appearances – as evidence he is in good nick, but his labouring on Friday was in keeping with his recent England displays.
The goal-scoring onus should not, of course, be solely on the captain and at least Rashford has a couple in his last three games, even though he did squander two great chances in Rijeka.
“The concern would be if we were not creating chances,” said Southgate, who has faith in Sterling despite the Manchester City man going three years without an England goal. “For all our attacking players we’ve got to make sure we are creating chances and that we are in the right areas. Then they have just got to go and finish them.
“This is one of the big challenges of international football. You know that with your club – well, with Raheem’s club – you get another five chances in the next 15 minutes. You get fewer chances with us and you have sporadic games, so you don’t get another go next week.
“This is part of dealing with international football.” In the final five matches of the campaign in Russia, England had 11 attempts on target, five of those coming in the third- place play-off defeat to Belgium.
In the three matches since, England have had a combined 14 attempts on target but have only scored twice. It does make the international retirement of Jamie Vardy, who has three Premier League goals in six appearances this season, look more of a blow.
If the struggle for goals continues in the Estadio Benito Villamarin tonight, Southgate might well look at different attacking options for the next double-header, against the USA and Croatia at Wembley.
Danny Ings, on loan to Southampton from Liverpool, and Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson could come into the equation. But Southgate considers Kane and Rashford way ahead of the rest and believes the former will soon be back scoring and the latter will prove himself a clinical finisher.
If the hiccup is not to become a slump, he had better be right. The former Leicester, Everton, Barcelona and Tottenham striker scored 48 goals in 80 England appearances but his career for his country was not without barren spells. Prior to winning the 1986 Golden Boot at the World Cup, Lineker went six games without a goal. He then went seven matches without an England goal in 1988 before finding his form again.
There were calls for Shearer to be dropped before Euro 96 when he went 12 games without a goal with Robbie Fowler, Les Ferdinand and Ian Wright all breathing down his neck. But Terry Venables kept faith with Shearer and he immediately scored in the first game against Switzerland before hitting four more to win the Golden Boot.
England’s record goalscorer he may have been, but like Shearer he had it tough for a lengthy period. Rooney went 11 games without scoring in 20092010, including a barren World Cup in South Africa, and was the subject of unwanted press over allegations he slept with a prostitute. But Rooney reacted by scoring early in a 3-1 win in Switzerland.