Saturday 10th July 2021
England wonders – and sings
The most ruthless coach of this EM
By Tobias Nordmann
The English national team is in the European Championship final. And she owes that to coach Gareth Southgate’s plan. It’s a plan that doesn’t deal with spectacle. And one who eats big names. Against any public pressure.
Gareth Southgate’s popularity can’t be that bad. One of the most successful pop songs of the 2000s was eventually rewritten on him. The English girl group Atomic Kitten has taken on the matter and adapted passages of their mega-hit to the current success story of the national team. “Southgate You’re The One – Football’s Coming Home Again” is the title of the new edition of the single “Whole Again”, with which the trio from Liverpool topped the charts almost everywhere in Europe. Over weeks and months.
The opportunity is good for Atomic Kitten. You have to put it this way: It doesn’t work for the band anymore. Your greatest successes are a long time ago. Well, that’s the only parallel to the national team. Even their big moments have to be freed from a lot of dust. The last title to date was 55 years ago. At that time, Germany was defeated in the legendary World Cup final. The story of Geoff Hurst’s hit is well known, it has been told exhaustively. Incidentally, again these days. After England’s semi-final victory over Denmark, which came about through a penalty that experts say shouldn’t have been given. Yes, big scandals and Wembley. However, you can also construct an unnecessarily large amount.
Of course, nobody knows what would have happened if Danny Makkelie hadn’t decided on a penalty in the 102nd minute on Wednesday evening. Perhaps the completely exhausted Danes would have stumbled into the penalty shoot-out and continued their heroic journey there. Perhaps the exhausted Danes would have been knocked out in the last minutes of extra time. England was fitter, England had more personnel alternatives. And at the very highest level. Incidentally, this realization is a highly sensitive topic in the country. Because when you look at the bench, one or the other fan likes to despair.
Southgate believes in itself and its system
Jadon Sancho sits there very often these days. You know about him that he can really play fantastic football. At Borussia Dortmund he has done so often and so impressively that Manchester United has now transferred 85 million euros for him. Such a man could also help the Three Lions well, say many fans. Some experts are also absolutely convinced that Sancho would make the team better. Her conviction, however, ricochets off a man. To Southgate. Many people despair of his ignorance of public lamentations. You know that in Germany too. Only in the end Joachim Löw was no longer successful with it. But of course it is not the case that the coach does not know about the outstanding qualities of the 21-year-old. No, he knows what Sancho can do. But Southgate also knows: In his system, in his plan, Sancho is not the key.
This also applies to Phil Foden. Phil Foden, perhaps not that many people know, is the favorite of start coach Josep Guardiola. In order to express its appreciation, the “Pep” uses its legendary and feared Guardiola superlative. He said two years ago: “Phil is the most talented player I have ever seen in my coaching career.” Now you have to know: Guardiola’s superlative is not a four-leaf clover. A damned number of players have already enjoyed the flattery Offenisve (or is attack perhaps the better word) of the coaching legend. Not all of them lived up to the hymns. Dante is the keyword! Guardiola once wanted 1000 Dantes. He didn’t even need one, though.
Now Foden is not a Dante. Foden is an outstanding talent, an artist, a virtuoso. Dante was a solid to good defender. Similar things are said about Foden in England as about Sancho. He would surely make the Three Lions team better. Well, he has not yet proven at the European Championships. Just like Sancho. However, you played only a little. The great offensive story of the English tells Raheem Sterling, who suddenly became the man of the tournament after a weak season at Manchester City (Foden also plays there). Gary Lineker, equally football and Twitter icon, even praised after the Denmark game that he had never seen a better performance by a player in the English jersey. He also praised the coach: “Well, if you’ve ever wondered if Southgate is ruthless enough to win tournaments, you might just have received your answer.” Or find other legends: This Southgate always makes the right decisions (Alan Shearer).
Official football with massive outbursts
Sterling as a fast, creative and always dangerous variant on the flanks, accompanied by Bukayo Saka, plus Mason Mount as playmaker and Harry Kane as a hybrid of second playmaker and penalty area striker, that is the offensive variant that Southgate mostly trusts. That’s not bad. But this squad would give so much more. So much spectacle. So much for Sancho and Foden. But the coach is not interested in spectacles, he has built a collective that is supposed to win titles. And can. Against Italy. This furious Italy, which plays so quickly and directly at the front and in defense can rely on the elegant robustness of the two dueling artists Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini. The keyword is escalating stability.
This is how one could describe Southgate’s plan. Another possibility would be: modern civil servant football with massive outbursts. Because the English game is actually based on an impressive resistance to almost any form of attack. The central defense of John Stones and Harry Maguire is brutally secure. Especially in the header duel, the giants cannot be overcome in principle. A lot of pressure is also taken off the two by the passionate sixs Kalvin Phillips (the more offensive) and Declan Rice. Most of them are freed from creative tasks, running up holes or not allowing them to arise at all. With their game they take a lot of pressure off the defense. And then there are full-backs Kyle Walker and Luke Shaw. Extremely fast, extremely hard-working, extremely robust in a duel. Real full-backs.
After six tournament games, the Three Lions still haven’t conceded a goal from the game. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was only defeated by Denmark’s top talent Mikkel Damsgaard with a free kick. Well, whoever plays like that is definitely good for the title. After all, it is called: Offense wins games but defense wins championships. History repeats itself, maybe on Sunday at Wembley.
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