I NEED TRUE GRIT
England boss tells players they simply have to bounce back in Bulgaria after grim reality check
ONE defeat can be an inconvenience but two can represent the start of a problem. With that in mind, tonight’s meeting with Bulgaria feels like the most important England game since their 2018 World Cup semi-final with Croatia.
If that sounds a little hard on the Nations League, in which England lost a semi-final to Holland last June, then so be it.
Tonight’s game in Sofia will tell us much about Gareth Southgate’s team following last Friday’s shock 2-1 defeat by the Czech Republic in Prague. The weakest opponent in the group, Bulgaria, should represent the perfect opposition to aid recovery.
If England win, last week’s setback will be viewed as a timely reality check, wake-up call or whichever cliche you wish to use.
Another performance like Friday’s will deliver a different kind of message entirely. The reaction to failure has always been key in competitive sport.
‘We have to make sure we bounce back from it and we have to show resilience,’ said England manager Southgate last night. ‘Defeats tell you a lot about people in terms of how everybody reacts. So, we’ve got to make sure we get the reaction right here.’
Southgate has watched back every minute of Friday’s defeat and found little new to encourage him.
There were, unusually for this England team, virtually no mitigating circumstances.
They were poor from first minute to last and from front to back. Tonight, we can expect to see Southgate revert to a more familiar 4-3-3 formation and make five changes.
That, perhaps, says as much about his ongoing uncertainty over his best team as it does about the performance in the Czech Republic.
Southgate has too much experience of international ups and downs to fret unduly and is not the type to panic. But he has mentioned the uncertain club form of some players on enough occasions recently for us to know that this subject genuinely concerns him. Rightly so.
Tonight, for example, Liverpool’s Joe Gomez will replace Everton’s Michael Keane and his partnership with Harry Maguire must show signs of promise soon. The Goodison man’s international form has been so poor it is not feasible for him to continue to command a place in the team.
Southgate also spoke last night of the ‘anxiety’ that grew in some of his players as things went wrong in Prague. It appeared that one of those he believes to have been affected was West Ham midfielder Declan Rice, expected to make way for Harry Winks tonight.
‘There are players who we’re giving the football to in key areas, like Declan Rice who’s still 19 years old,’ said Southgate.
‘I’ve got to always remember that. We’re putting a lot of onus on young players.
‘So, this now is the time for a solid performance, to get back on track. Remember, the objective is to qualify.
‘We’ve been trying to qualify, develop the team, blood players, and the other night that didn’t quite work for us. But it’s the first time it hasn’t.’
Tonight’s game was always going to present England with a challenge. Part of the Vasil Levski Stadium will be closed as punishment for incidents of racism by supporters and, despite what the home federation have said in public in recent days, they have already told England privately that there could well be problems of that nature this evening.
So, what was always going to be a big night for Southgate and his players now feels a little bigger.
Perhaps it’s timely for Southgate. After all, England won’t play all of their games in next summer’s finals at Wembley. And, if they can’t come through an away game against Bulgaria, what chance will they have playing a Euro 2020 quarter-final against a much better team in somewhere such as Rome next July?