IMPROVE OR WE’RE OUT!
Southgate issues a stark warning to his Euro f lops
ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate has warned his team they need to stop dreaming of glory at Euro 2020 and make a sharp improvement if they wish to be considered contenders for next summer’s tournament. With both the semis and final scheduled to be at Wembley, England have a chance to win a first major trophy since the 1966 World Cup, yet the team seem far off that standard after the 2-1 defeat by the Czech Republic on Friday, with Southgate contemplating returning to a back three against Bulgaria tomorrow.
He said: ‘It’s not for me to tell the public not to dream and not to have hope. Internally, we have to be different and be realistic and we haven’t changed our tone on that at all.
‘We know our strengths and we know the areas we have to improve upon. We’ve talked about it throughout the week and we’ve had evidence of it against the Czech Republic. So I don’t think any of us within the camp are under any illusions. To be a top team, with players with experience of winning the biggest matches, we’re still some way from that.
‘The match [against Czech Republic] was a proper test and we didn’t come through, so it would be naive not to take the lessons from what we’ve seen on the pitch.’
GARETH SOUTHGATE is pretty sober in victory, relatively steady in defeat. It is how you want your England managers to be.
For premature euphoria and dreams of what might be achieved is sport’s cruellest temptation. The Siren voices of potential glory are so enticing as to require huge restraint when envisioning success, so as not to crash on to the hidden rocks of dashed hopes.
So if Southgate’s tone remained calm in Prague on Friday night, the warning was chilling nonetheless. Since the relative success of the World Cup, it has been possible to nurture a small flame of hope that, with what amounts to a home tournament and players such as Jadon Sancho and Callum HudsonOdoi coming through, England just might have half a chance at Euro 2020. For, when former UEFA president Michel Platini organised a tournament stretching from Baku to Dublin, he gifted England three group games at Wembley. And also a semi-final and a final there.
It seemed that for Southgate, the public fall guy of Euro ’96, here was an opportunity to rerun that glorious tournament without that awful personal denouement, a chance to rewrite his nation’s football history in bolder colours than the sludge grey kit which he wore when he missed his penalty in the Wembley semi-final against Germany.
Yet, as Southgate was quick to point out in the aftermath of an awful display against the Czech Republic, the romantics among us are getting well ahead of ourselves. There will be no Wembley homecoming playing like this. England may sneak out of the group next year — though Friday means they are less likely to be seeded — but for those potential last-16 games and quarter-finals they will head to Copenhagen or Dublin, Rome or St Petersburg.
And without a steep improvement curve, they can forget about Wembley semi-finals. They will fall to the first good team they play. Southgate knows it.
‘It’s not for me to tell the public not to dream and not to have hope,’ he said. ‘Internally, we have to be different and be realistic and we haven’t changed our tone on that at all.
‘We know our strengths and we know the areas we have to improve upon. We’ve had evidence of it. To be a top team, with players with experience of winning the biggest matches, we’re still some way from that.
‘In a lot of the areas of the field, we’re still a young and relatively inexperienced side and some of the performances in qualifying have hidden that a little bit. But the test [in qualifying] is different to the one in the Nations League against Holland and that we’ll face against the best teams next summer.
‘We’ll have three group matches at home but we’re going to have to go on the road and play in environments like we have against the Czech Republic as well. You could have a second-round game or quarter-final in Rome against Spain or somebody like that. I’m under no illusions as to where we stand. I know there’s a huge amount of work to do.’
Admitting that there is a problem is the first step to resolution. Next comes the tricky bit. Southgate and assistant Steve Holland have been tactically innovative. Their 3-5-2 formation at the World Cup was designed to hide defensive flaws and did so admirably but at the cost of creativity from open play. The switch to a 4-3-3 was necessary, brought the best out of Raheem Sterling and provided a pathway for the emerging Sancho. Its peak came in that exhilarating win in Spain a year ago. All seemed well until t hey were outplayed by Holland last summer.
Southgate thought he had the centre- halves to ditch the back three, that John Stones, Harry Maguire and Joe Gomez were maturing fast enough to hold their own without the extra man. The reality of the goals conceded to Holland and in the second half against Kosovo showed that was a vain hope.
Stones has been injured and out of form for almost a year; Gomez was injured and cannot get in the team; Maguire is steady but in a failing Manchester United side which now seems to make good players bad. Now Southgate is contemplating a reversion back to the back three. The reason it was not tried here and probably will not be in Bulgaria tomorrow is that he has not enough good centre-halves. The best of the bunch on form is probably Fikayo Tomori, a raw 21-year-old with five Premier League appearances and a man who would be making his England debut tomorrow.
‘We are in a difficult situation in terms of players that have played international football with us in that area of the pitch and who are playing regularly with their clubs,’ said Southgate. ‘ It’s something we’ve considered and I don’t think we can dismiss. I’m not sure, ahead of Monday, if that’s the right thing to do but we’re very aware and assessing those things.’
Southgate probably cannot rush in a new system for tomorrow and Bulgaria are a much weaker side than the Czechs so it may not be needed. But in November we can expect to see something new. The manager insists there is plenty of time pre-Euro 2020 to change shape again. ‘I think so,’ he said. ‘Players take in tactical concepts very quickly. We have to keep reflecting on what’s working, what’s possible and learn.
‘We’ll learn a lot. We’ve had games that haven’t challenged us. The Czech game was a proper test and we didn’t come through, so it would be naive not to take the lessons.’
Reading between the lines, Southgate seemed to be saying he has to pick what he has at centrehalf at present even though he is not especially enthused. For Michael Keane that will be hard to hear. He can expect to be dropped for tomorrow and, though Southgate is loyal to a point, at present Keane is not good enough.
Equally, Southgate’s excitement about Declan Rice must be cooling. He is not the answer at holding