Will Switching One Player Make A Big Difference For England?

The Overlap Newsletter #7

Hello and welcome back to the latest edition of The Overlap Newsletter! Scotland’s hopes of reaching their first ever knockout stage of the Euros was brought to a bitter end on Sunday night, as Hungary’s 100th minute winner sent the Tartan Army home. England face Slovenia in Cologne tonight as they sit top of Group C, with 4 points from the opening 2 games. A win will ensure that Southgate’s side progress as Group winners, but following recent criticism after their draw to Denmark, it will be interesting to see who will make the starting 11. Watch the best guest moments from Stick To Football over on The Overlap Youtube Channel and our very own Roy Keane is the latest guest to face the hot seat! Catch the most recent episode of It Was What It Was where Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper take an in-depth look at the 1984 Euros - listen following the link below:

Quiz Question…

How many games did Portugal win in normal time at Euro 2016?

Answer to follow at the end of the Newsletter…

I’m hoping that England’s game against Slovenia will set my mind at rest. But right now it’s a muddle and I can’t make sense of England’s formation…

I started writing down my alternative England team for Slovenia immediately after the disappointing performance against Denmark, because it was so clear the balance wasn’t right. And I’m still going through different options today, ripping up paper, deleting formations on my phone and starting over again. However much I try, I can’t find the right mix. Now I’m no genius manager as you know but when fans, pundits and others can’t select a team easily, 99 times out of a hundred it means the manager is experiencing the same problems.

I’ve tried a back three, gone to a back four, put Phil Foden on the right, thought of Anthony Gordon on the left, tried Bukayo Saka at wing back and Trent Alexander-Arnold at right back. I’m still left confused.

The team that started the first two games has three problems:

1. You’re blocking off one side with a right-footed left back that can’t go outside or even underlap.

2. In midfield, you haven’t got a player comfortable receiving the ball on the half turn and connecting the thirds of the pitch

3. Up front, there isn’t enough pace alongside Harry Kane. Or, rather, the pace that is there isn’t getting close enough to support him

So how do you rectify that? Initially I wrote down this team:

              Pickford

      Walker, Stones, Guehi

Alexander-Arnold, Mainoo, Rice, Saka

       Foden, Bellingham 

                 Kane

It’s attractive in that it gets all our best players in. I like the 3-4-3 they played at Euro 2020. It worked against Germany then and worked in early stages against Italy in the final. It gives width from the wing backs and a box midfield with both Foden and Bellingham behind Kane. But ultimately I don’t think you can go this way. Saka at wing back instinctively feels wrong. If Luke Shaw was fully fit, that could work. But the lack of a left-sided full back/wing-back means I can’t commit to this. Gareth gambled on Luke Shaw and it doesn’t look like it's coming off. The lack of a left footed alternative as an option has left a huge void.

So then you come back to a back four. Can switching one player really make a big difference? Is Kobbie Mainoo in midfield enough to change the balance? I also want to keep Alexander-Arnold in somehow. It seems wrong not to have a talent like that in the side. Southgate maybe helped in that decision in that Kieran Trippier might be struggling to make the Slovenia match, so perhaps Kyle Walker will have to go to left back, with Alexander-Arnold at right back. Mainoo then provides the link in midfield. It looks like Southgate will go with Conor Gallagher today but I’m feeling Mainoo is a better option there and just edges Adam Wharton because of his experience.

Everyone is saying Anthony Gordon should be left, because that’s where he plays for Newcastle. But that means dropping either Saka or Foden. And we’re not dropping Foden and I can’t drop Saka: he’s been one of our best players.

Finally I’ve settled on this team

               Pickford 

      Stones, Guehi, Walker

   TAA,     Mainoo,    Rice      

Foden,     Bellingham,       Saka

                   Kane

Tweaking the formation to put Foden right and Saka on the left can help. They also have the ability to interchange. It’s not ideal. Saka won’t be one hundred per cent happy. But, on balance, he’s a player with more directness to his game, whereas Foden will always like to play across the front line. Saka is left footed which gives you that option to switch the ball out there wide, even with a right-footed full back. (Foden is left footed too but less likely to stick wide). That formation also allows Alexander-Arnold to either come into midfield or go outside Foden and Walker to shuffle up into a back three with Stones and Guehi when necessary. But with Saka’s pace on the left, no team will feel comfortable pushing on or pressing too high on that side. 

It makes England much less obvious to play against and stretches the pitch. There are possibilities everywhere. It still gets all our best players on the pitch. And it has balance.

And yet I’m still only 80 per cent confident in my team. I am worried. Again I have 2004 flashbacks: we have great players but no obvious way of getting them all on the pitch in the right area. I’m not picking that team thinking: “Gareth, this is definitely what you should do!” There are still red flags waving.

Stick To Football Fan Debate - Behind The Scenes

How do you look back on your England career?

I let myself down a little bit in my book calling it a waste of time. I think it was that arrogance of thinking that everything was about winning, because at United everything was about winning – that was the mentality at the club. If you don’t win something and you’ve been called the Golden Generation and then you go and let people down tournament after tournament. I’ve been to 5 tournaments as a player, three Euros, two World Cups and we just let people down, we let the country down (apart from Euro ’96 which I think was half accepted). You feel like we haven’t achieved what we said we would and go on and win it! It was probably wrong as I actually loved playing for England.

Quiz Answer:

1 Game