ENGLAND SUPPORT ACT ADDS TO CLEAR CONFUSION INSIDE GARETH SOUTHGATE'S FRAZZLED MIND
When Declan Rice promised on the eve of this meeting with Slovenia that England would "be the team people want us to be" he did not, presumably, mean Scotland fans.
Few others, though, can have taken much comfort from this third successive labouring, wandering display; proof at least that Steve Clarke's side are not the only team to have turned up at this tournament without any semblance of a cohesive attacking plan.
The difference, of course, is that England are still here, but they have sleepwalked out of Group C, somehow at its summit, in line for a harsh awakening against, potentially, even an average Holland unless something changes fast.
But what? At the helm of this drowsy muddle Gareth Southgate seems unsure. The manager's selections and substitutions increasingly look those of a frazzled mind. Southgate's first move away from Plan A here was to bring Conor Gallagher into the side, looking for the zest that would deliver on another Rice manifesto pledge, to make England, almost overnight, a high-energy, high-pressing side.
The feeling is that Southgate still does not quite know what he has got
On a sweltering day here in Cologne, it felt punchy, like taking up surfing just as the tsunami warning sounds.
England did get higher up the pitch, but mainly driven by Rice himself and a tweak to 4-3-3. Gallagher, in possession, was ineffective for all the reasons predicted before a ball was kicked; that shifting it quickly, recycling, nudging incisive passes between the lines is simply not his game.
For 10 minutes, in the centre of midfield as England dominated the ball, he did not touch it. During the half-time break, Southgate concluded that after shelving the Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment, his latest trial could not run either.
And so on came Kobbie Mainoo, third in line for a go alongside Rice. The Manchester United man progressed the ball nicely, certainly in fewer touches, and the second half's improvement suggests Southgate may have stumbled upon a more workable formula heading into the last 16.
Except, of course, he had stumbled on it before, when Mainoo's emergence at United mid-season offered an unexpected part-answer to a long-standing problem. Why, after starts against Belgium and Iceland and a tidy cameo against Brazil, did he move away from it as soon as the serious stuff began? Now, the teenager's first tournament start may well come in a knockout game.
And if that does not work? Well, then logic suggests it will probably be Adam Wharton time, music to the ears of some. Because, with little clicking, Southgate appears to have entered his try-everything era.
Neither Jarrod Bowen nor Eberechi Eze had quite had the desired impact off the bench earlier in the group, so instead on came Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon here, both making their first appearances of the tournament.
Like Mainoo, Palmer impressed, boon and burden in equal measure to Southgate, since he may have located another piece of a slow-solving jigsaw while spotlighting himself for failing to use the Premier League's top-scoring Englishman before now.
Gordon's performances, and Southgate's praise, during the March internationals had marked him out as a lively outsider to start the Euros, but instead he has played the fewest minutes of all England's wide forwards, even as the only natural option on the left.
With so many novices among his back-ups in that area, the feeling is that Southgate does not quite know what he has got, known quantities like Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford shelved and the pecking order among their replacements still to be figured out. As, more worryingly, is England's strongest, best-balanced team.
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2024-06-26T09:15:31Z dg43tfdfdgfd