Gareth Southgate departed the Netherlands warmed by the positives. England were far better than a dismal Dutch side – a team more in trauma than transition, and one who will endure a summer off – with the visitors solid, well-drilled and committed, just as they had been in the late autumn against Germany and Brazil.
They have achieved five clean sheets in succession, but there was a pleasing fluidity to the attacking approach play, too, with the emphasis always forward-thinking. Jesse Lingard’s winning goal just before the hour allayed fears this team are rendered painfully blunt in the absence of Harry Kane.
As causes for optimism the management could point to the authoritative display offered up by Jordan Henderson, captain for the night, and the excellence of Jordan Pickford in goal, or even the slippery running of their match-winner in tandem with Raheem Sterling. A first win over these opponents since Euro 96, for all that the whole occasion served more to underline the decline of the Netherlands team in recent times, is not to be sniffed at.
Even the coaching staff’s apparently wackier ideas, such as playing Kyle Walker in a back three despite the original 27-man squad having been loaded with centre-backs, are coming off. The Manchester City full-back was excellent, eager in possession and shrewd in his reading of the game, even if that display, too, probably deserves some context. Nullifying the fitful threat posed by Sporting Lisbon’s Bas Dost, a striker who now boasts one goal in 18 games at this level, was never likely to prove a particularly stern test.
As Southgate pointed out post-match, Walker is naturally comfortable on the ball, regularly tucks inside at City, “and the added bonus is his relationship with John [Stones], where you could see the positions he took up and the belief they had in each other on the ball. I’m pleased if it surprised people but, for me, it wasn’t a difficult decision”.
And therein lies the real reason for positivity. At times it is not immediately clear from the outside looking in just what the masterplan is supposed to be. England have 270 minutes of football before colliding with Tunisia in Volgograd at the World Cup proper and at first glance Southgate is still very much in experimental mode for all his regular assertions that if everyone is fit and firing, his first-choice side for the tournament would trip off the tongue. And yet, behind the scenes, there is clearly a level of clarity. The manager’s logic is clear to the players. There is a strategy being played out. And that is really all that matters.
Walker’s galloping incision of old may have been missed down the right, where Kieran Trippier was not at his marauding best, but he still looked comfortable in a back three, just as Southgate envisaged he would. Even the regular chopping and changing of personnel around him hardly seemed to discomfort.
Joe Gomez came and went, crocked by an awkward fall on his left ankle inside the opening five minutes and replaced in the 10th. Harry Maguire excelled as his replacement on the left of the trio until he, too, hobbled off near the end with a tight hamstring and Eric Dier joined the fray. Admittedly both Alfie Mawson and James Tarkowski would have hoped for more as regular centre-backs seeking a first cap, and Gary Cahill must have been cursing back at home, but the changes ended up fully justified.
The squad’s adaptability will be an asset in Russia, the players’ versatility offering the manager a chance to bolster weaker areas if he feels he has personnel capable of filling in where he might otherwise be better stocked. Walker can now be considered one such asset. Dier’s ability in defence and midfield was already clear.
“Sometimes you go to a World Cup taking two players for every position, but I don’t want to take six centre-backs,” said Southgate. “So if we have people like Kyle and Eric who can slot in if necessary, it may allow us to take more attacking players.” That, too, seems perfectly reasonable.
A truer test of the quality of this collective will come in the form of cannier opponents on Tuesday even if Italy, too, will be licking their wounds in absentia this summer. The Azzurri will be sterner opponents to prise apart, and the majority at Wembley may go through lengthy periods pining for Kane. But, already, Southgate will feel his group have gained from their involvement in this international window.
“Holland changed system three times tonight and each time the players responded and identified it, managing to make use of the overloads we had in the right areas,” he added. “I knew we had pace and energy, but I was really pleased with the composure in the first two thirds of the pitch.”
Quietly and efficiently, progress is being made.
