Category: Gareth Southgate

In praise of Gareth. Can we take a moment to do this now? Can we just suck that sweetness down? Because this was a very good game for England and their manager, a manager who has, for all his success, his status as pretty much the most sensible person currently active in English public life, had a weirdly vitriolic year and a half.

It was a good game for Gareth Southgate because England were bad at first, and then they were good, and good thanks to a stroke of tactical switchery that broke the game open. It was good because players Southgate brought in ended the night playing with freedom; Marcus Rashford romping like a cosseted puppy, spanking England’s opening goal into the top corner then celebrating with something that felt, and indeed was, a kind of catharsis, the feeling of a breaking wave.

It was good because England entered this World Cup facing, on paper, the toughest group in the tournament. They have now eased through it while scoring nine goals and never trailing at any stage. It was good because England’s third goal was made by a pass from one sub, Trent Alexander-Arnold, to another, Kalvin Phillips, whose long pass then found Rashford, who chopped inside then smashed the ball past a concrete-booted Danny Ward.

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It was good because Southgate picked a fun-looking team, the front three a combination of mobility, craft and Harry Kane things. It was good because Southgate has the best tournament record of any England manager, ever. Maybe, who knows, he might actually be decent, or at least not – can we say this now? – a bearded fraud, a woke dinosaur, a stop on progress and all the rest.

Southgate came here decked out in a kind of Executive Golf Weekend smart casual mashup of shimmery white dad‑top and blue FA suit. And he looked genuinely happy at the end as he lounged in his chair and smiled and said things like “we enjoy each others’ company”.

The Ahmad bin Ali Stadium is a lovely-looking thing, woven with a kind of winter wonderland tissue of vast fibreglass alien creepers, and coloured by a scrolling sheen of iridescent light. As the crowd sang about Southgate being the one, as the players waved to a bank of white, the thought occurred that there isn’t another, alternate England where this thing works any better. This is it. The good bit.

And it was good because England also showed their weaknesses, but swallowed them down by the end. In the build-up to this game Southgate was asked about his players being “let off the leash”, about the possibility of leash‑letting, of leashes hurled to the skies. His answer was to the point. Basically, there is no leash. The leash is not a thing. The leash exists only in the most simple analysis.

Plans either work, the moment is seized, or it isn’t. Football is closer to chaos theory than the flapping of an Iranian goalkeeper’s gloves, a run that isn’t picked, a cross that finds just the right level of arc. All of these details feed into the narrative of outcomes.

Southgate didn’t actually say this. He just said there basically is no leash, just a process of refining those details, and hoping this brings more days where this falls in your favour.

With this in mind, the real key to England’s hopes is not the freedom of the second half but the stodge of the first, during which they aimed for control but were horribly static, producing long periods of un-football, a half that felt at times like an existentially glazed piece of performance art; Andy Warhol’s Sleep reinterpreted via a series of cautious shuttle runs from Kyle Walker.

In the opening three minutes England passed the ball to each other 17 times in their own half. This kind of possession at the back does have a purpose. That purpose is to keep the ball, rest and control the game. It is how Southgate erased the flakiness in this team, transformed the defence into a kind of five-man human sandbag.

But that tactic has never made the next step. For a high‑end club team, a prime Pep vehicle, the real point of possession in these areas is to set your starting positions against counterattack, and then to move the opposition around. It has an aggression to it.

England are instead rigid. The lines never bend or bleed into one another, just move forward like dutiful pedestrians shuffling down Wembley Way to an overcrowded tube platform.

That pattern changed here. Southgate switched Rashford and Phil Foden from inverted to orthodox wide players: left‑footer on the left, right on the right. Both players scored from that side, holding their width.

Gareth Southgate has cautioned against heaping pressure on Phil Foden and warned it would be a risk to pin England’s hopes of winning the World Cup on one player.

Southgate, who does not want to rest Harry Kane against Wales on Tuesday night, was accused of wasting Foden’s talent after not using him in England’s 0-0 draw with the USA. He has fired back at his critics by insisting he loves the Manchester City player. At the same time the head coach is wary of overhyping the 22-year-old, even though he is considering starting him when his side look to win Group B by beating Wales.

“He’s a great option for us in two or three different positions and he will have a big impact in games,” Southgate said. “But also we have to be careful because we are putting a lot of pressure on him now. We’re a team and we need all of the players and they can all play a part but not any one of them is the reason we will win or lose.

“We need to make sure we are not building Phil into a situation where, if he steps on the pitch, this is becoming really difficult for him because the level of expectation is beyond a young guy who is still establishing himself internationally in a different environment from his club where you’re comfortable with all the players you play with. We love him to bits. We also have got to look after him a bit as well.”

Foden is expected to play in a wide role if he starts – possibly in place of Bukayo Saka on the right. There is a possibility Southgate switches to a back three if Kyle Walker is included . Foden, who is pushing to get the nod over Jack Grealish for a starting spot, does not play through the middle for City.

“Sometimes the discussion around just plopping him in as a 10 in every game isn’t realistic because in a game like the other night you have to have the ball and there are defensive responsibilities that he doesn’t have to do at his club,” Southgate said. “From the wide area it’s different. He’s got defensive responsibility but the role is different. In the 10 you have to cover a lot more ground and be a lot more aware of the spaces without the ball. “If that bit of pressure isn’t right, then they are through you and into your backline. That is why we didn’t put him in as a 10 the other night. There are games where there isn’t that same tactical challenge in midfield. That might be the slot he can go and express himself. But his club don’t do that, so there must be a reason for that.”

England will be at risk of going out if they lose by four goals to Wales, who are on the brink of elimination. Southgate does not want to rotate too heavily after naming an unchanged lineup against Iran and the USA. He is set to freshen up his midfield by starting Jordan Henderson instead of Jude Bellingham, and Marcus Rashford hopes to replace Raheem Sterling on the left. But he does not want to omit Kane, even though he said the captain felt some discomfort in his right foot against the USA.

“We haven’t qualified yet,” Southgate said. “There has to be a balance of freshness – the two games have taken a lot out of the players – but also stability. If you make lots of changes you can lose a bit of rhythm as well.”

Southgate must decide whether to give minutes to Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips after the City duo’s return from injury. He is confident they would not be short of sharpness in any knockout games.

“They are in with the group in training,” Southgate said. “They are able to adapt more and more to be ready for a game. Each couple of days that passes is better for them because they’re getting more football.”

Southgate was asked whether he thought about using Trent Alexander-Arnold as an attacking substitute against the USA. The Liverpool right-back is yet to feature in Qatar, with Kieran Trippier preferred while Walker builds his fitness after groin surgery. An option against Wales would be to rest Luke Shaw, move Trippier to the left and start Walker.

Southgate said of Alexander-Arnold: “He definitely could do it against a team that sits back. But that’s not how I saw the game against the States. I don’t think they sat back at all. I think they were aggressive and athletic in their pressure. But he has some great quality with the ball and can do that, but Tripps has great quality as well.”

England trained in hot conditions at their base in Al Wakrah. Only Ben White was absent through illness. James Maddison will be in the matchday squad for the first time after a knee injury.

Gareth Southgate’s words were diplomatic but his eyes and broad smile told the real story. The subject was that video, the one of the Wales squad celebrating wildly upon England’s Euro 2016 exit against Iceland in the last 16. Would the England manager draw upon it before the World Cup meeting with Wales on Tuesday night?

“I couldn’t say,” Southgate replied. “We are aware of some of that but I couldn’t say if we would use it or not …”

As Southgate trailed off, all that was missing from him was a nod. The clip had landed, all right. Southgate was an observer for Uefa’s technical committee that night rather than a part of the England setup but he felt it – a shovel of salt to an open wound.

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The subsequent Wales explanations did not exactly smooth things over – the protestations of having been lost in the romance of Iceland’s moment, the kinship with an underdog nation. Perhaps the Wales players were just sorry that the footage had leaked. Then again maybe they were not.

Luke Shaw has already referenced it here in Qatar, the defender saying that England are a “respectful group” who “do things in the right way”. In other words, they would not gloat at the demise of a rival. But the dynamics of an England fixture against one of the home nations have long been peculiarly lopsided, the impression being that they do not have as much to gain in victory and so much more to lose in defeat.

Eddie Jones, the England rugby union head coach and a confidant of Southgate’s, has often said the home nations want to beat his team more than anything and it has been possible to argue that Wales would paint their World Cup as a relative success if they were to win “The Battle of Britain” – even if it were not enough to carry them through to the last 16.

Southgate might not have chosen to have a derby like this at a major tournament, loaded with the potential for chaos, when control can be difficult to find. It did not work out too well when it last came up – the second group game at Euro 2020, when his team laboured to a 0-0 draw against Scotland, the manager saying the heat of the occasion had affected his players.

Southgate described the game as a “reference point”, one in which Scotland “found a level physically they hadn’t found before and couldn’t find in the game after”. Then again, he continued, was it not ever thus when England play? He noted how the USA had covered more ground against his team in the 0-0 draw last Friday than any other opponent across his six-year tenure. “It will be interesting to see if they can replicate that in their next game,” he said.

Southgate will not shy from embracing the emotion of the showpiece at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium. He wants to channel it. “If people want to say that Wales will have more passion, then no problem, but they wouldn’t know our dressing room very well. Or any of the England dressing rooms I was in as a player. That’s an easy narrative for people to say. It’s not my experience of it.”

On the other hand, Southgate knows cool heads must accompany the hot hearts. As ever, balance is everything. “You have to match the spirit [of Wales] and display the quality with the ball that allows us to be ruthless. We have to make sure our emotional focus is on what we do well.”

It has been easy to see the parallels between England’s Euro 2020 campaign and their World Cup so far. An encouraging victory in the opening match (Croatia at the European Championship; Iran here) followed by an underwhelming stalemate after which the team were booed off. And now, as before the Czech Republic fixture at Euro 2020, there is the demand for a cohesive, front-footed win – and featuring a fresh face in the forward line. Against the Czechs, the clamour was for Jack Grealish, who came in and played well. Now it is for Phil Foden.

Southgate, who is into his fourth World Cup, is all too familiar with the drama, including those around team selection. “When I was playing, the players were more narky about it. Every country has got it. We are 32 teams … 26 are in crisis at the moment.

“Every individual country has their support entirely focused on them. You have to live with that, be strong enough and calm enough to come through that. You are never sitting comfortably and, if we were, that would be a worry because you don’t want that comfort. You need an edge.”

The key difference between now and the European Championship or, indeed, the 2018 World Cup, is that Southgate’s team have not qualified after two games. England need something against Wales, especially to progress as the group leaders, although they do not need very much to avoid elimination – anything other than a four-goal defeat.

Southgate will make changes against a Wales team he suspects could change their system. “Every team we have played has defended slightly differently against us because they recognise our threat,” he said.

England defeated Wales at the Euro 2016 group stage with a last-gasp Daniel Sturridge goal but it was Wales who went further, all the way to the semi-finals, and how they revelled in the achievement. It has not been forgotten.