It now feels like such a fait accompli that Gareth Southgate will go from caretaker manager to full-time occupant in the coming weeks, or even days, that in his latest audience with England’s press corps there was a subtle change to the line of questioning.
Nobody expects a late twist in the aftermath of Friday’s 3-0 victory against Scotland and, barring a shattering result against Spain, the final match of his initial four-game run, we have moved beyond the point whereby anybody seriously imagines the Football Association might look elsewhere when it comes to identifying Sam Allardyce’s successor.
Southgate, once again, was at pains not to say anything that could open him to allegations of being overly presumptuous but this was the chance for England’s manager-in-waiting to start talking about what needed to be done with the team and, in the process, deliver the first insight into the style of football he would like.
What quickly became clear was that England, under his management, would operate with greater emphasis on the pressing tactics that have become de rigueur in the Premier League but, as Southgate pointed out, have actually been used by successful teams going back decades. There was an acknowledgement that “the last two tournaments are a benchmark of where we are” but Southgate did at least sound like a man with his own vision, in particular when it came to his views on John Stones and the unmistakable sense that he felt it was time England started making the most of their more talented players.
“I remember playing Germany in Euro 96,” Southgate, a man who knows a thing or two about the art of defending, recalled. “Everyone was talking about Matthias Sammer and asking: ‘Where’s our Sammer?’ It didn’t prove to be me, unfortunately. We had a dabble with Rio [Ferdinand] – did we allow Rio to be quite as good as he might have been, or did we inhibit his progress at times? – and John Stones is that type of defender: a No6 instead of a No5, to use the old fashioned term.
“In my mind we have to encourage those players to play. Otherwise we’ll keep watching the [Gerard] Piqués and saying: ‘Why can’t we get those players in?’ If we don’t allow our players to express themselves we’ll never progress to be a top team.”
That process begins on Tuesday against a Spain side who reminded England on their last encounter, the 2-0 win a year ago in Alicante, that if teams give away the ball at the highest level it can be an awfully long time before they see it again. Spain do not, perhaps, look so imperious this time when their list of injured includes Andrés Iniesta, Diego Costa, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba, Javi Martínez and Piqué. Yet even with all those absentees it still probably sums up the imbalance between the two sides that Juan Mata, Nolito, Isco and Ander Herrera were among their substitutes in Saturday’s 4-0 win against Macedonia, while Cesc Fàbregas and Pedro did not even get in Julen Lopetegui’s squad.
The best way to counter them, according to Southgate, is to adopt the kind of tactics that have been prevalent at Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, among others. “Our pressing has to be spot on because if you don’t get that right against Spain they can carve you apart. Our work with and without the ball has to be immaculate and that’s going to be a great challenge for us.
“We can’t be the same as Spain because their players have been brought up in a different way. But maybe we have more power, more pace, more strength. At the moment we have several top teams [in the Premier League] playing in a certain way: a high-pressing, possession-based game. I don’t remember seeing many good teams over the years that weren’t very good at pressing, whether that was Holland going back to the 1970s or Milan going back to their successful teams. That is a fundament core of what we need to do to be successful.”
Jamie Vardy’s probable return to the starting lineup helps on that count given his ability to chase down defenders but Southgate also made it clear he wanted his side to be adventurous in possession. “What’s the plan? Go selfish, shut up shop and try to eke out a 1-0 win, or do we say ‘no lads, let’s play with belief and go with what we think is the right way to play’?
“It would have been easy to say [of Scotland]: ‘OK, we have to win this match, we’ll go solid, soak up pressure, hit teams on the break and play all our experienced players.’ Or do we try to build from the back, play with some risks and involve some younger players who we think are the future?
“My view is you manage every game like you’re going to be there for ever and make decisions for the long term. That’s why I admire Mauricio Pochettino and the way he puts Harry Winks into the north London derby. If that doesn’t work for us, fine, but we have to think about the long term. We’ll get some of those things wrong but we’ll get a lot right, too.”
