100 up and Gareth Southgate’s England really are different
England have replaced aimless passion with resilience
Just like that, EURO 2024 is down to the last four and only three matches remain. If you're a young person who reads this for some reason, heed this: soak up these tournaments. Eventually they pass by in the blink of an eye.
The first semi-final will be played between Spain and France in Munich tonight.
France were pre-tournament favourites for many but have had to drag themselves through to this stage with talisman Kylian Mbappe evidently hindered by his protective mask and summer specialist Antoine Griezmann not at his best.
Spain are the outstanding team of those that remain. Their progress had been relatively serene until they had to tap their character reserves to beat Germany, and their feted wide forwards have delivered match after match.
In tomorrow's second semi-final in Dortmund, England face the Netherlands. Unlike England, the Dutch have been beaten at EURO 2024 already. They have the attacking weapons to hurt anyone but as many weaknesses as their next opponents.
As for England…
100 up and Gareth Southgate’s England really are different
Gareth Southgate's legacy as England manager always seems to be one summer tournament away from legend or ignominy.
After setting the bar in Russia in 2018, England’s baseline expectation has withered the margin of error down to nothing and Southgate's predilection for conservative tactics and team selection puts his reputation at the acute mercy of public opinion.
EURO 2020 was going to define his success or failure. It was both. World Cup 2022 came and went. We were none the wiser and Southgate stayed in his post anyway. The likelihood is that Southgate is now in charge of his last tournament and his destiny as England manager is now up for grabs with every passing game.
A disappointing end isn't always as far as 90 minutes away. In the second round of EURO 2024, it was rather closer than that. England got themselves out of jail against Slovakia. Their dramatic win in extra time rewarded Southgate with his hundredth match as manager of the national team.
Southgate is in waters uncharted in the modern era. Of all his predecessors, only the first two reached a hundred matches as England manager. The quarter-final against Switzerland in Düsseldorf was a summation and a culmination of the previous ninety-nine.
The most recent of those had been among Southgate’s most lacklustre in terms of style and impetus but textbook Southgate in their outcomes. England had rammed their way into a major tournament quarter-final in a manner that would have been impressive were it not for the relative beatability of the opposition.
There’s a very specific kind of pressure that weighs upon an England team deemed by the public to be less than the sum of its parts. They retreat into the basics. They freeze in the glare of organised opponents intent on smothering their attack. They falter. For all his many virtues, Southgate isn’t the sort of manager to jolt a team out of that entropy.
Such was the fright against Slovakia, even England’s unwavering gaffer had to change tack. He made only a single enforced personnel alteration, bringing Ezri Konsa in for his first competitive start in place of suspended centre back Marc Guéhi, but England played a back three for the first time in the competition.
The new shape moved Kieran Trippier and Bukayo Saka into wing back positions either side of Declan Rice and Kobbie Mainoo in midfield. Southgate threw in a curveball for good measure: though the refreshed approach was assumed to encompass an embrace of natural width on the left, Saka played on the right and Trippier stayed on the left.
The difference between a full back playing on his wrong side and a wing back doing the same is subtle but important. Anchored by a solid three at the back and more advanced, when the wing back cuts inside onto his preferred foot, he’s doing so to cause some damage. Trippier’s tendency to turn in-field at full back is a hindrance. Further up the pitch, the problem belongs to the opposition.
Against Switzerland, England were better. Not enormously better, but better. Over the course of normal time in the quarter-final, the Three Lions’ performance was neither complete nor completely bad. They drifted out of the ascendancy and went a goal down. If the team needed a jolt, this was it. Their response was immediate and emphatic. Saka’s equalising goal was a perfect illustration of the benefit of having high-quality individual players.
It was evident in the pattern of play that Southgate was far too passive at 0-0 in Düsseldorf. Switzerland kicked it up a notch in the second half and Murat Yakin made substitutions to capitalise. Breel Embolo’s prod past Jordan Pickford with quarter of an hour left on the clock put England right up against it and Southgate made a triple substitution before Saka levelled the score.
England went into extra time with a more attacking line-up as a result but had to ride their luck towards the end of the added half-hour. Captain Harry Kane is clearly struggling for fitness – at one point against Switzerland he twisted towards a loose ball in the box with the agility of a wardrobe – and it’s caused some tactical shortcomings. He battled on towards the last ten minutes.
That’s when Southgate made his move. England weren’t playing for penalties and it would be a disservice to Switzerland to pretend they were, but they were comfortable with the prospect. More importantly, they were prepared. Southgate had been shuffling the pieces into place all along.
It was no secret that the England manager drafted penalty specialists into the Euros squad quite deliberately. In the quarter-final, he showed the patience and planning to line up his chosen penalty takers even though most of them weren’t in the starting eleven.
Cole Palmer. Jude Bellingham. Bukayo Saka. Ivan Toney. Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It’s never a guarantee, which will no doubt become excruciatingly clear in the coming days, but those five names in that order are a picture of penalty perfection. Power followed arrogance followed confidence followed efficiency followed nonchalance. We’re the Three Lions; we’re taking the piss.
Five flawless, nerveless penalties might have made it look easy but it’s worth remembering that England have a horrendous record in penalty shoot-outs. Southgate knows that from personal experience as a player, of course, but has diligently, methodically, rid his squad of the English penalty disease.
In his hundredth game in the job, Southgate’s England finally revealed itself. Yes, it’s too conservative and too reactive. Yes, it overlooks mavericks. Yes, it punches below its weight in terms of extracting the best of some exceptional talent.
There’s a case to be made that England were, inexplicably, the most undercooked team at the tournament with the exception of Scotland. Everyone else seemed at the very least to have a plan.
Yet here we are, staring down the barrel of a semi-final while Germany, Portugal, Italy and Belgium watch from their living rooms. England have been behind twice in absolutely crucial moments in knock-out matches and come through both challenges, coasting through a penalty shoot-out to boot. They’ve got guts – not tabloid-friendly performative passion but real character. It’s hard to knock that.
Southgate’s taken a kicking this summer. He’s made some decisions nobody else would have made, and he’s dug his heels in when action’s been required. Even his greatest advocates in the media and among the supporters – all things considered, I’d probably be counted among them – have asked questions.
But at some point, Southgate’s record will speak for itself. That time might be now. England don’t win penalty shoot-outs. Southgate has lifted the crippling doubts with science. England don’t win knock-out matches at the European Championships. Southgate has a final and a semi-final (not out) to his name in the space of three years. If that has come at the price of being a grind at times, so be it.
They might not be the best to watch. They’re certainly not the 26 best English players. They could, undeniably, be more aggressive, and the reticence to take that route probably places a ceiling on public goodwill. But summer tournaments are a results business and Southgate has delivered another semi-final even with a team and a strategy that have both been found wanting.
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“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Michael Oliver get a semi-final based on his performances here. But to see his own country rip him apart because he’s a Premier League referee.”
Christina Unkel has been bringing clarity on refereeing decisions to ITV throughout EURO 2024. It’s equally clear that she understands that the toxic conversation around referees in England isn’t interested even slightly in matters of fact.
Salty beef extracts
Man Utd Women are falling apart and Jim Ratcliffe does not seem to care (i)
Reading Women’s collapse was an avoidable tragedy (i)
'Why football at Euros is different to what we're used to' (BBC Sport)
It is getting harder for footballers to survive the social media abusers (The Guardian)
Uefa’s lofty environmental ambitions and the elephant in the room (The Guardian)
Dessert
Day Spark. Fighter of the Dark Spark. Champion of the Sun.
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