England - The Southgate Years

[Lineker]

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Harry Kane will be left out of England’s friendly against Switzerland because Gareth Southgate fears the World Cup Golden Boot winner is in danger of suffering burnout and that, in the modern football world, it is for the national team to provide that rest rather than the player’s club.

Kane, who has started 61 games since the start of last season, is being rested as part of a calculated gamble on Southgate’s part at a time when England face the possibility of losing four games in a row for the first time in their history.

Southgate admitted that England’s attacking options were severely diminished in the absence of the Tottenham striker and he also acknowledged that, if his team could not end their current losing sequence, having lost three successive games for the first time since Euro ’88, the goodwill generated by the team’s performances in Russia would quickly start to ebb away.

However, the England manager is rigidly sticking to his belief that it is more important to “give minutes” to players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph and Danny Welbeck than worry about his own win percentage. On that count he will make nine changes to his team. “I can’t make decisions just to get a win,” he said. “A lot of these guys who are coming into the team have played zero minutes in the league. The right thing for them – and ultimately the right thing for us – is to give them game time.”

Southgate smiled when it was put to him that it was “quite incredible” that the role of an England manager now appears to involve providing time on the pitch for players who would not ordinarily be involved for their clubs. That, however, is the current position for Southgate and, as such, England’s attacking midfielders will be Loftus-Cheek, with 33 minutes in two substitute appearances for Chelsea, and Delph, yet to feature at all for Manchester City. Reluctantly Southgate has abandoned his policy that, if players are not involved for their clubs, they should not expect to win international caps.

Southgate also revealed he was contemplating switching back to a four-man defence in the coming months and, analysing the shortage of obvious replacements for Kane, appeared to end any hopes that Glenn Murray and Troy Deeney might have of a call-up. “There aren’t many English strikers playing,” he said. “There are obviously some older ones who have good goalscoring records at club level but I’m not sure that’s necessarily the route we want to go.”

With Jamie Vardy’s self-enforced exile further reducing England’s options, Southgate was also asked about the chances of a recall for Theo Walcott. He claimed “the door was always open to everyone”, though a more accurate assessment of his thoughts could probably be taken from the fact that he answered by talking up Marcus Rashford and Danny Welbeck, as well as saying he still had high hopes for Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke, another player not to feature for a single minute this season.

“We talked a bit after the World Cup about the demands of the modern player,” Southgate said of the decision to give Kane a break. “Everybody has to play a part in that but the clubs own the players and have to do the right thing for themselves. Normally the clubs would be holding their breath and hiding behind their sofas watching our team go out, but this is one of those occasions where [me] wanting to look at our squad ties in with doing the right thing with the players for our long-term benefit. So I thought this is a good opportunity to do it.”

In Kane’s absence Eric Dier will captain a side that features James Tarkowski alongside Harry Maguire and Kyle Walker in defence, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Danny Rose as the wing-backs and Jack Butland in goal.

Southgate could conceivably have picked a far stronger side and his decision to experiment this way is a bold one when, despite everything England achieved at the World Cup, the paradox is that his win percentage, 50%, is currently no better than Steve McClaren’s time in charge.

“Well, not many England sides have played a World Cup semi-final and a third-v-fourth play-off,” Southgate replied testily to the statistic about England’s three-match losing run. “That focus will come on me and I’m not concerned about it. I will have to live with whatever people want to say about my record, relegations and whatever else fits the bill.

“But I’m comfortable in my own skin. The priority is not me. It’s developing the England team.”

[DavidMarrio]

Can't wait for Henderson, Trent and Gomez to all play while Harry Kane gets his ickle rest before Saturday and Dale Alli miraculously recovers from his "injury" 

[Adam]

Talking about that losing streak is rubbish. How often do England even play four top nations in a row? Must be pretty much never. We've lost a World Cup semi-final, a 3/4 Play Off and a Nations League game against Croatia, Belgium and Spain, who are all easily among the top 5 sides in Europe. Easy to avoid a four-game losing streak when every other game in qualifying is against a minnow and every major tournament only seems to last 3-4 matches for us.

[FLiam]

Harry Kane has started 61 games since the start of last season? 

I think it often goes unnoticed that he is a physical freak. 

Didn’t he pick up a couple of injuries too last season? Albeit fairly minor. 

[Bobfoc]

Spain are battering Croatia right now. That's good for England's goal difference situation, if nothing else.

[FLiam]

Maybe it’s because I’m the wrong side of 30 now and am an old man, but I really, really don’t understand this new found obsession with “playing out from the back”. Teams seem to stick to it no matter what. 

There were a few times in that game where England needlessly put themselves under immense pressure simply because they have to “play out from the back”. So many sides are wise to it and immediately press and plug gaps. 

It’s like having a 4th and long from within your own 10 yard line in NFL. Nobody wants to be having to play from back there, you’re under immediate pressure.

We have been doing it plenty this season and I have yet to see the real benefits of it. Manchester City can do it, but a) they’re fucking good and b) because they’re fucking good, teams don’t push as many forward so they inevitably have a bit more space to utilise. 

[MDK]

4-4-2, Kane as targetman, launch balls up to him and have Rash get the knock downs. Fullbacks and wingers, proper wingers no inverted bollocks, can just whip in balls for the big lad. No need for a creative mid just brute force it.

[FLiam]

20 minutes ago, MDK said:

4-4-2, Kane as targetman, launch balls up to him and have Rash get the knock downs. Fullbacks and wingers, proper wingers no inverted bollocks, can just whip in balls for the big lad. No need for a creative mid just brute force it.

This is what I’m talking about! 

In all seriousness though, it seems as though people have decided that attractive football can only be played by playing these short cross 6 yard box passes from goalkeeper to centre backs at the start of an attack. Which is nonsense. 

[Gazz]

59 minutes ago, Liam Mk2 said:

Maybe it’s because I’m the wrong side of 30 now and am an old man, but I really, really don’t understand this new found obsession with “playing out from the back”. Teams seem to stick to it no matter what. 

There were a few times in that game where England needlessly put themselves under immense pressure simply because they have to “play out from the back”. So many sides are wise to it and immediately press and plug gaps. 

It’s like having a 4th and long from within your own 10 yard line in NFL. Nobody wants to be having to play from back there, you’re under immediate pressure.

We have been doing it plenty this season and I have yet to see the real benefits of it. Manchester City can do it, but a) they’re fucking good and b) because they’re fucking good, teams don’t push as many forward so they inevitably have a bit more space to utilise. 

You have possession, why play a low percentage long pass upfield into an area where your forwards will be outnumbered by defensive players, resulting in a large percentage chance that all you do in that instance is gift possession to the opposition, who can then attack you directly?

One of the whole points to playing out from the back is that is encourages the opposition press, if the press isn't organised and cohesive, rather than plugging gaps, the opposition create them for you, allowing you to play quickly through them, where one or two decisive packing passes forwards can cut through the foward and midfield lines and get a team mate directly opposing the oppostion defensive line.

England and Arsenal aren't great at it because they're using players in defensive positions that were never trained to perform these duties until well into their professional development phase, so they'll always be playing catch up to players who have been doing this since they were kids. The only way there will be improvement is by practice and that means doing it in match situations because you can't really replicate it on a training pitch.

Football is a game of failure, only scoring a goal is a 'success'. Teams are constantly failing with their attacks, the method in which to become a more successful team is to use strategies that limit the chance of failure. Long passes fail more often than short ones, hence now teams play out from the back. Average crossing completion is about one in seven, and one in three of those results in a goal, therefore crossing was thrown out in favour of the inverted winger who drives into the box to make higher percentage passes or shots because having the ball in an attacking position twenty-one times to only succeed once is abysmal.

Get with the programme you stuffy old codgers who are the same age as me. The four four fucking two with wingers is dead.

Until it's alive again.

[MDK]

Bollocks. Just get it into the mixer and pop it in the onion bag.

[FLiam]

10 minutes ago, Gazz said:

You have possession, why play a low percentage long pass upfield into an area where your forwards will be outnumbered by defensive players, resulting in a large percentage chance that all you do in that instance is gift possession to the opposition, who can then attack you directly?

One of the whole points to playing out from the back is that is encourages the opposition press, if the press isn't organised and cohesive, rather than plugging gaps, the opposition create them for you, allowing you to play quickly through them, where one or two decisive packing passes forwards can cut through the foward and midfield lines and get a team mate directly opposing the oppostion defensive line.

England and Arsenal aren't great at it because they're using players in defensive positions that were never trained to perform these duties until well into their professional development phase, so they'll always be playing catch up to players who have been doing this since they were kids. The only way there will be improvement is by practice and that means doing it in match situations because you can't really replicate it on a training pitch.

Football is a game of failure, only scoring a goal is a 'success'. Teams are constantly failing with their attacks, the method in which to become a more successful team is to use strategies that limit the chance of failure. Long passes fail more often than short ones, hence now teams play out from the back. Average crossing completion is about one in seven, and one in three of those results in a goal, therefore crossing was thrown out in favour of the inverted winger who drives into the box to make higher percentage passes or shots because having the ball in an attacking position twenty-one times to only succeed once is abysmal.

Get with the programme you stuffy old codgers who are the same age as me. The four four fucking two with wingers is dead.

Until it's alive again.

Hey, it won Leicester City the league title

I do agree though with why teams do it, I just fail to see why teams are sticking to it so rigidly when they are putting themselves in danger time and time again. 

I’m all for building attacks out from the back, however not in the current passing to centre-backs near the corner flag and then passing across your own penalty area nonsense. It leads to so many mistakes. 

I’ve seen Arsenal play out from defence for many a year (when we were actually good), but it never involved us being caught out with the press time and time again.

Just for the record, my encouragement for the 442 was entirely in satire. 

[Szumi]

12 hours ago, MDK said:

4-4-FUCKING-2, Kane as targetman, launch balls up to him and have Rash get the knock downs. Fullbacks and wingers, proper wingers no inverted bollocks, can just whip in balls for the big lad. No need for a creative mid just brute force it.

FTFY

[Lineker]

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The Football Association board has approved in principle the sale of Wembley stadium for £600m to the Fulham and Jacksonville Jaguars owner, Shahid Khan. The proposal, with protection for England, FA Cup and other prestige football matches to be played there, preservation of its name without a sponsor and reassurances that the proceeds will be spent on grassroots facilities, will next be presented to the FA council on 11 October.

An FA spokesperson said: “The sale of Wembley stadium, the negotiated protections and an outlined plan to invest £600m into football community facilities, were presented and discussed at the FA board meeting today. Following on from this discussion, the FA board has agreed to take the presentation to the FA council to get its input now that the full facts are known.”

The three representatives of the professional game on the FA’s 10-person board are understood to have been fully in favour of the plan, as have the chairman, Greg Clarke, and the chief executive, Martin Glenn. Since news of negotiations with Khan broke in April, Glenn in particular has publicly explained the FA’s view that it could transform grassroots facilities, describing it in a speech to the council in May as “an opportunity to unleash an unprecedented amount of investment into community football”.

Representatives of the amateur, grassroots “national game”, of which there are three on the FA board and a majority on the council, have mostly expressed doubts recently about whether the money really will be spent on community facilities. That concern was partly prompted by the EFL chief executive, Shaun Harvey, arguing the FA’s agreed distribution system is for 50% of income to go to the professional game. Reassurances have been given that any money handed to professional clubs would be spent principally on facilities at their community trusts and foundations.

The former Manchester United and England player Gary Neville argued before a parliamentary committee in July that selling Wembley was “ridiculous” and more money for grassroots facilities should come from rich Premier League clubs or a levy on agents’ fees. However, no active efforts have been made since then to make such alternative funding a reality, and Glenn said in response then that the FA “has waited for years … hoping that something around the corner might turn up” and did not want to decline the Wembley sale on the promise of “jam tomorrow”.

Ultimately the FA board has to sign off any sale, then approval is required from the government and Sport England, which contributed £120m of national lottery funds towards the £757m cost of rebuilding Wembley. The sports minister, Tracey Crouch, and the chairman of Sport England, Nick Bitel, indicated in July they supported the sale in principle if the proceeds, including the public grants, will be reinvested in grassroots facilities via the Football Foundation.

A statement from Fulham’s owner read: “The news from today’s FA Board meeting is welcomed and encouraging.  I understand the discussion was open and thorough.  One cannot ask for more as we continue to work through the process with the FA Board, FA Council, Sport England, the Mayor of London’s office and DCMS toward reaching an agreement that will serve English football for generations to come.  Today’s development has no effect on my plans to renovate Craven Cottage and, as such, has no impact on Craven Cottage continuing to be the permanent home of Fulham Football Club.”

[The Lusophone]

Disgusting.

[Adam]

34 minutes ago, MexicoJack said:

Disgusting.

What's disgusting about it? They stop having to pay it off like they had been, the big games still will take place there. The money recouped from  the sale can be spent on areas that sorely need it like grassroots football too. Khan is a proven businessman in sport as well.

I saw a list yesterday of the top 30 teams in the FIFA rankings with the status of ownership of their national stadium. You can count on one hand how many are owned by the national FA and until a couple of decades ago England's FA had never owned Wembley either.

Looks like a good move to me.

[FLiam]

Will this have an impact on Spurs’ idea to host NFL games in London? 

Because I see this as a big step forward for a possible London NFL franchise too.

[Lineker]

Gareth Southgate has signed a new contract through to the end of the next World Cup cycle.

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James Maddison has been called into England’s squad for the first time after an impressive start to the season for Leicester.

The midfielder will be named on Thursday in the squad selected by Gareth Southgate for this month’s Nations League games against Croatia and Spain.

Maddison joined Leicester from Norwich in the summer and has scored three goals in seven Premier League appearances.

Another Leicester midfielder, Harvey Barnes, who is on loan at West Bromwich Albion, will be named in England’s under-21 squad for the first time. He scored a spectacular equaliser at Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday.

Southgate has expressed delight at signing a new contract with England to the 2022 World Cup finals. The manager has been rewarded with a deal worth close to £3m a year after leading the team to the World Cup semi-finals in Russia. Steve Holland, his assistant, has also signed new terms.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the national team through the next two major tournaments,” Southgate said. “The job remains an incredible privilege and a true honour. Experiencing at first-hand how the nation united behind the team this summer was something special and it will be great to see how far this young squad can go in the years to come.”

Martin Glenn, the FA chief executive, praised Southgate for his work with the senior team, in particular the confidence that he has restored, and described the 48-year-old as “a tremendous ambassador” for the governing body. “Securing Gareth on a longer-term contract was always a priority for us,” Glenn said. “He has performed remarkably well and has given everyone the belief that England can compete on a world stage again.”

Martin O’Neill has said he has been told that reports that West Ham’s Declan Rice has chosen to play for England rather than Republic of Ireland are “inaccurate”. Ireland’s manager said: “I’ve used the word ‘hopeful’, I’ve said it again so that’s exactly where it stands.”

[Lineker]

 

[FLiam]

That looks more like an England squad I was hoping for. A lot of fresh talent in there. 

Now we just need Phil Foden to leave Manchester City so he can actually play more football. 

[Matt]

Who the Christ is Mason Mount?