in charge.
After the Greek debacle, Lee Carsley went full Southgate for England’s latest soporific struggle against the might of Finland, for an undeserved 3-1 victory in their latest Nations League game.
There’s only one place to go after the shambles of a team sheet and performance that saw England lose to Greece and that’s for Carsley to embrace his inner Southgate. Go with Southgate’s team. Go with Southgate’s tactics. Go with Southgate’s tediousness. Go with Southgate’s scraping victory.
The team sheet could have been Southgate’s, bar a couple of players. Southgate would never have dropped Pickford after his shambles in the previous game – oh no, it might have affected his mental health – he also wouldn’t have picked Palmer to start, though if forced he would have shoved him out wide right for him to be ignored. He would have brought Walker back, he would have played a right back at left back. Southgate would have brought Grealish back.
England’s performance was so dull that the commentators were reduced to regaling us on the architecture of the Helsinki stadium and then in true English fashion, the weather. Still it stopped them talking the rubbish they were talking about the game, from hyperbole to talking about players as if they’ve never actually watched these players before – more later.
This was another of those nothing performances, yes there might have been more structure than the previous outing but the defence was again a mess and in attack they were doing that playing for themselves thing again. It’s all about personal glory, why play someone else in who is better placed when you can have a shot yourself?
Palmer, England’s player of the year, shunted out wide right, so of course everything goes down England’s left where the two chief glory hunters are stationed, Bellingham and Grealish. Kane, makes the runs that he made for Spurs, makes for Munich, runs that saw him score plenty of goals for Spurs and score plenty of goals for Munich. Never played the ball. Amazing that it was moments after Kane’s departure that Walker finally put a cross into the danger area of the Finland box. Walker’s only other cross saw the greedy Bellingham get in Palmer’s way. One of them was facing the right way to get a shot off, Bellingham wasn’t.
Grealish was doing that facing up to defenders thing. You know slowing it all down and end up passing it backwards. Yet for so much of the game Lee Dixon kept saying he’d like to see Grealish take his defender down the line, get to the byline and put a cross over. Who knew Dixon had headed so many footballs. When have you ever seen Grealish do that? He doesn’t he cuts inside all the damn time. He’s a pony with one trick. A trick that doesn’t deserve being brought back into fold for. A trick that despite his protestations didn’t deserve a place in the Euro squad. Yes he did score the opener, just after the quarter hour, for once actually doing something quickly, though of course not with the ball at his feet, to get on Gomes’s lovely round the corner ball.
You’d think the floodgates would open by the commentators. Again, like they’d never watched England, even under Carsley. No, by half-time, England hadn’t registered another shot on target, while Finland had managed 2 shots on target since that opening goal.
Finland’s problems were they dithered when getting into good positions on the edge of England’s box. usually it would fall to Kamara and he would start passing sideways or back, or doing a stupid back-heel flick to give the ball away. They should have been equal just before the hour, when Stones let a cross over – does he actually do any defending? Looks so scared of hurting himself, or chipping his nails to bother – it was a sitter in front of goal, deserved the old Cloughie “you want bloody shooting for missing the target from there”.
Seventy minutes in and Kane and Palmer were removed. Neither of them seeing any of the ball. Remember that talk of England not having cliques any more.
It took until after 70 minutes for the second England goal to come. From a free-kick. An excellent one from Alexander-Arnold. But you don’t play him at left back hoping for this as an outcome. 10 minutes later and another layer of paper was put over the cracks with. Watkins doing more wing work with one run and cross than Grealish did all game, for Rice to score at the near post.
The Watkins sub worked, the rest didn’t. Whereas the Finnish subs seemed to reinvigorate the home side. A bit more of an attack and they deserved their late consolation. More inept defending, letting them get an easy header at the near post from a corner.
It was all just so Southgate. Funny thing is that’s what the F.A. were probably wishing for, so they could easily just install their next yes man into the job. But people are not so happy with dull struggles over minnows. And the F.A.’s easy option is turning into an albatross. You know th.Release your mediacal recordsey were banking on Carsley and the two games he has left aren’t gonna be any better than this and if he says he doesn’t want the job then he can’t go back to the U21s, because it’s meant to be a pathway job not a cushy number for someone out of their depth.
Oh for a manager who picks a team. Not names, not clubs. But a team. A team of players who play for the team not themselves. A team where players are played in their position. A team where the first thought isn’t backward. Well, we can dream…