ROB DRAPER’S TACTICAL OUTLOOK: England kept being torn apart on the left flank while upstairs Harry Kane and co were tedious and predictable… if national expectations were raised on Monday, this show poured cold water on them
England threw a huge bucket of cold water over national expectations. They were as bad as they were good on Monday and an inability to create chances with such a wealth of attacking talent means the finger will point again at Gareth Southgate. Booed by their fans, what went wrong for England?
let down
Luke Shaw, Raheem Sterling and Declan Rice, who cleaned up at the back as a midfielder, really couldn’t measure up to Timothy Weah supporting full-back Sergino Dest.
Virtually all of England’s first-half problems stemmed from this area. It seemed like Weston McKennie was given plenty of space in front of left defender and left center half to direct the game.
Gareth Southgate was disappointed in his tactical decisions as England fell 0-0 against the USA
England’s form was torn apart and Shaw’s positioning became idiosyncratic as a result. Christian Pulisic’s header in the 43rd minute came from a Weah cross and Dest drove dangerously into the box in the 40th minute and won a corner.
But the problem had started long before that, when the US enjoyed freedom and property in that area. The most dangerous chance of the half, Pulisic’s shot on the crossbar, came from England’s right, but only after the USA worked the ball down the left with McKennie and then switched play.
Slow, fast, slow, slow, slow
England started slowly but from ten minutes to twenty minutes they enjoyed a period of dominance where they mimicked the Iran game.
It started with the excellent move that saw Kieran Trippier feeding Jude Bellingham who found Bukayo Saka. His retreat found Harry Kane and only Walter Zimmerman’s block prevented England from opening the gate.
These were precisely the moves, combinations and laps that overwhelmed Iran. Harry Maguire sprayed passes across the field to Raheem Sterling and for a while it looked pretty easy with England dominating.
Bukayo Saka’s game faltered on Friday, a disappointment after a brilliant brace in the win against Iran
Yet they slowed down their passing speed, there seemed to be less willingness to show the ball, less vision from Bellingham and Rice to move the game forward. Saka faded and Sterling only impressed in moments.
At one point, John Stones drove down right midfield hoping to create an overload. But Maguire refused to use it. England played too safe.
Only in the closing minutes of the first did England look dangerous: Shaw drove into the box only for Saka to lob his shot over him and then Sterling Mount found with a lucky nutmeg, the Chelsea man unleashing a fine punch from twenty yards. But it was the first test for Keeper Turner.
Southgate introduced substitutes, including Jack Grealish, but failed to change the result
Right back where we started
It might have been a left-sided problem in the first half, but dominance in the second half where America forced a number of corners. England couldn’t get out of their half and although every corner was dealt with satisfactorily they were behind.
This was Southgate’s chance to show he can change a game within a game. Nothing had changed in the first 15 minutes of the half, England were going nowhere.
However, it took up to 69 minutes for the switch to happen, Bellingham, whose brilliance faded dramatically from the first game, for Henderson and Grealish for Sterling. Marcus Rashford joined them for Saka in 78 minutes.
John Stones was frustrated that there were no runners on any of his long balls in the later stages
All that attacking talent, so little to show
John Stones hit a long ball, but there were no runners in the 75th minute: Stones punched the air in frustration. It could be argued that the middle halves weren’t ambitious enough at times, but they had precious little movement ahead of them.
England failed to concede a shot on target in the second half until Marcus Rashford rolled over Matt Turner with a flick in the 87th minute.
Henderson added energy and direction and had a long chat with Mount about the positions he should put him in. Grealish tried to run towards players but ended up dead ends. Rashford couldn’t run away.
The structured game patterns typical against Iran were missing here. It was tedious, predictable and the last ball was invariably bad. The Southgate haters will come back into force after that. And England should certainly be able to do more.
Southgate will need to regroup as England prepare to face Wales in Tuesday’s final group game