Grealish & our flair men can star in Qatar
BUT DON’T EXPECT GARETH TO CHANGE HIS CAUTIOUS APPROACH
GARETH SOUTHGATE should trust his players more but leopards don’t change their spots so expect more of the same at the World Cup.
The England boss didn’t have enough faith in his defenders so went with a back five and two holding midfielders for the Euro 2020 final.
But with Mason Mount in there as well, who is a hard worker and tracks back, we had eight defensive players on the pitch.
So it’s a big ask to ask Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling to win you the game against the best team in the tournament.
Gareth doesn’t seem to trust his defenders. John Stones and Harry Maguire were outstanding at this tournament but if he trusted them to play in a four in the biggest games he would have played a back four in the final.
The trouble is, if you want to win a major tournament you have got to do more than we did.
He needs to start trusting his defenders and attackers enough to get more of them on the pitch.
I saw after the final he said that the aim is to get more of his attacking players out there at the World Cup, and that they weren’t all ready to play every game yet.
But I’m sorry. I don’t see that. So Bukayo Saka (below) isn’t ready to be a regular, but he’s ready to take the final kick in a shootout? It doesn’t make sense.
And that’s why I think it will be more of the same in Qatar.
Pep Guardiola isn’t going to just abandon tiki taka passing football because Manchester City lost a Champions League final.
So I can’t see Gareth abandoning what’s got him this far. He’s played defensive football and got to a semi-final and a final.
I would like to see Jack Grealish play every game in Qatar but I bet he doesn’t. Gareth wouldn’t even trust him to take a penalty.
Players like Jack win you tournaments, other countries build around them. But can we get those players on the pitch with the defenders we’ve got? The England manager doesn’t think so.
I thought Italy were outstanding in the final and they’ve won this tournament the hard way. They beat Belgium, Spain and England. Fair play.
But we had them on the ropes for 15 minutes. We were leading and it was a free swing – go and get the second goal, take a risk, but we didn’t.
Italy never lost their heads and found a way to win. Gareth lost the plot with the pens. You cannot leave a 19-year-old who has not taken one in a big game with the final kick.
It’s okay saying young players are fearless but there’s nothing like that walk to the spot.
I took a pen in a World Cup last16 game. Everyone remembers David Batty’s miss in that shootout because he went last, no-one remembers Paul Ince missed because his was in the middle. That’s where Saka should have been too.