Maintaining a sense of urgency is not always easy during qualification campaigns, but Gareth Southgate is leaving England under no illusions that the countdown to Euro 2020 is on.
Victory against Kosovo will take England four points clear at the top of a five-team group which has so far offered minimal resistance. This evening’s visitors to Southampton possess the longest unbeaten run in Europe, stretching to 15 matches following their 2-1 win over the Czech Republic in Pristina on Saturday.
Southgate was emphatic when declaring on the eve of this game that Kosovo would pose the sternest Group A test to date, but it would still rank as a huge surprise to be beaten by a team from a country with a population of just 1.8million and who were only granted recognition by Fifa in 2016.
Thoughts may already be turning to how this remodelled England could fare at next summer’s finals - especially as Southgate continues to explore a number of exciting, youthful options in a variety of positions - but it is inevitably part of the manager’s remit to make us focus on the here and now.
One trick he has employed during this international break is to frame these fixtures in terms of the deadline to name his squad for the tournament proper.
Ahead of facing Bulgaria, Southgate used his first squad announcement of the season to say there were just eight games left for players to stake a claim.
He was quick to update that figure when pondering the balance between picking the best line-up to ensure no slip-ups tonight and testing the range of alternatives at his disposal.
“That’s what we’ve got to think about in team selections over the next... well, we’re only seven games away from naming a squad,” said Southgate.
“It’s unique in that, normally, everybody just wants to qualify. I think we’ve always used every opportunity that we can to try and get the balance right and we know, at the back of our minds, the style of play to qualify is going to be different than playing in a tournament.
“I remember Glenn Hoddle talking to us about that when he was coach. I probably didn’t fully understand exactly what he meant then, but I’m more aware of it now, because we’re having to open up packed defences more often.
“Again, I think that’s different tonight, but generally more packed defences and in a tournament we are going to face high quality teams. Your defending has got to be better, your defending of counter-attacks has got to be much better and you’re playing against better quality defenders, so the one-against-one duels are more difficult. So, the movements need to be sharper, the finishing has got to be better.”
It is, perhaps, surprising that Trent Alexander-Arnold finds himself as one of those players still aiming to secure his place in Southgate’s preferred XI.
The full-back became the first player under the age of 21 to start consecutive Champions League finals at the end of a Premier League campaign in which he reached double figures for assists as Liverpool pushed Manchester City to the limit in an enthralling title race.
Kieran Trippier is thought to have impressed England’s coaching staff with his conditioning since leaving Tottenham for Atletico Madrid this summer, but eyebrows were raised at Wembley when he got the nod against Bulgaria ahead of Alexander-Arnold, who was reminded of the competition he faces when Manchester United youngster Aaron Wan-Bissaka received his first call-up at the expense of England stalwart Kyle Walker, who did not even make Southgate’s squad.
Standard Sport understands that Alexander-Arnold will start against Kosovo and Southgate said: “The fact that we can use our full-backs for width, or wide players, or get our number eights running high behind teams is key. I think, although Kieran felt there was more joy getting the ball to Raheem [Sterling] quickly and so supported from a bit deeper, we were quite happy on the moments he went a bit higher.
“At times, we vacated the midfield and they had counter-attacks that, against a better team, would be more of a problem. So, we’ve just got to make sure we’re behind the ball.”
Highlighting competition for places is a time-honoured trick to guard against a dip in performance levels, but Southgate, who voiced his concerns about the general “lack of jeopardy” in tournament qualification, is keen to ensure even the youngsters are tested in a competitive environment to learn the maximum amount in the minimum time.
“We’ve got players that we need to find [out] more about, give experience to, but in games where there’s plenty riding on it — not that we’ve already qualified,” he said. “We need to see people perform under pressure and how they’re going to cope with that. I think that will be the case tonight because it will be a proper test for us.”
Bernard Challandes, Kosovo’s Swiss coach, ramped up the rhetoric several notches yesterday by declaring England “the best team in the world”.
They still have some way to go to earn that moniker, but Southgate will not mind the pressure it brings one bit.
