The rhetoric around England is shifting. It is not long since Gareth Southgate would shuffle into the media scrum after matches, whether his selection had been victorious in a qualifier or just edged out in a friendly, and have to reassure all present that subtle progress was being made. He would be forced to pick through the deficiencies of his side and squad and invariably ended up pining publicly for greater competition for places to bolster his options.
Post-match at the Johan Cruyff Arena on Friday, however, and the mood music was rather different. Defeating a dreadful Dutch team had not transformed England into contenders overnight, and there remains the possibility that Italy will puncture all the optimism at Wembley on Tuesday.
Yet the process of this team’s evolution feels more defined in the wake of a first victory in the Netherlands in almost half a century and, more critically, the comfortable manner in which it was achieved. The national manager has identified his talent pool and is confident he has unearthed a style of play that will bring the best from it.
Three at the back is here to stay but these two friendlies have become an exercise in tactical tweaks and experimentation with roles and formations. “We have brought everybody into the squad at this moment who we believe can play,” said Southgate when asked whether the search for a playmaking No 10, for so long this set-up’s quest for the Holy Grail, had been abandoned.
“We’re trying to build belief in the team. We’re trying to build a way of playing. People can see the type of player we are trying to select and the players are gaining belief in that. It is clear how we want to play.
“The young defenders coming through have a different skill-set with the clubs they are playing with encouraging them to play that way. It really allows us to adopt a different mentality. I was really pleased with the composure they showed.
“We’d picked specific players in the squad, from the goalkeeper right the way through the team, to do that and they played with a real confidence and enjoyed the ball.
“Competition for places helps performances and we’ve got that pretty much in every position. Now we have to look at different systems to allow players to play certain roles. We need to look at something a little bit different maybe on Tuesday to see as many of the players in different roles before we name the squad [for the World Cup].
“A tweak to the system but definitely personnel changes. To have two or three systems, which we can change in-game, is important. It makes the opposition have to prepare different things. In the modern game you need to be adaptable.”
Those changes should see Jack Butland, Jamie Vardy, Dele Alli and Eric Dier start against Italy. Southgate may retain John Stones, who needs game-time, but would love to have Adam Lallana available to operate in one of his No 8 roles, whether behind a lone striker or the pairing that so unsettled the Dutch.
It remains to be seen whether the Liverpool midfielder is ready to start after a season wrecked by injury. Yet the manner of England’s approach will not be radically changed. Their game is about a sharp tempo in the pass, shifting the ball to slippery forward players. Achieve that, as they did on Friday and against Germany in the autumn, and the lack of a conventional creative central spark may not leave them critically blunt.
“Jordan Henderson’s use of the ball was good: he played an intelligent role as the pivot and linked it because of the speed of those ahead of him,” said Southgate.
“That is probably a route for us to go. If we are a low-tempo team looking for a playmaker, I’m not sure that a) we have that player or b) that it suits some of the other strengths we have as well. For us to play with pace and energy and no little composure is a good route for us to go.
“We wanted the No 8s to have a more offensive mindset and those two, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jesse Lingard, are in really good form for their clubs. They make telling forward runs and their use of the ball linking with Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling was good. It meant we had terrific pace and energy on the field with the four of them.”
Jack Wilshere may have done a similar job had tendinopathy not flared on the eve of the game in the Netherlands. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, now restored to fitness at Crystal Palace, remains in the frame if he can make his influence felt at Selhurst Park over the next two months.
“We have good competition for places because, if you look at possible No 8s, Adam Lallana comes into that as well,” added the manager, reiterating his conviction that England, 270 minutes of football away from the World Cup, have unearthed options and all while Harry Kane rehabilitates from his ankle injury. The evolution is gathering pace.
