England stuck between midfield ideals and search for attacking balance

There was a problem with the all-talent team. It wasn’t a team. To the extent that there is agreement on anything regarding the England team, Gareth Southgate may have thought he had given the people what they wanted. He had piled up his four most gifted attackers and a generational passing talent, ready to provide them.

And in his farewell contribution, Trent Alexander-Arnold almost got a glimpse of what might have been.

Southgate believes Alexander-Arnold is the quarterback of a midfield. And if an up-and-under looked borrowed from rugby rather than American football, it resulted in Bukayo Saka heading into the side net. But at that point, the decision was made. A minute later, Alexander-Arnold was taken off, introduced Conor Gallagher in the 1-1 draw against Denmark.

Southgate experimented with an entertainer in his midfield and ended up with a loyal labrador. Gallagher can’t do what Alexander-Arnold can do with the ball. But the Liverpool right-back can’t do what the Chelsea runner does without him. Gallagher pushes and harasses. Sometimes he doesn’t do much else. He was cautioned a few minutes later for hitting Andreas Christensen. English football has a historic love of remarkable efforts and, clearly, Gallagher is a player who tries.

English football also has many historical weaknesses. Not knowing what to do with the unconventional is one.

Alexander-Arnold doesn’t have a maverick personality, nor a loose cannon, but his skillset is unique. Another traditional weakness is a faltering midfield: as gifted as individuals are at times, England can look less cohesive than many elite opponents. Alexander-Arnold was in a position where England needed him to bring the team together. Instead, it was disjointed, England being less than the sum of their considerable parts.

It wasn’t all his fault. Yet the nature of football tournaments means that experiments sometimes have to be abandoned. The team that starts the group stage does not necessarily finish in the round of 16. Even on the day Southgate replaced all of his front three, Alexander-Arnold looks the most fallible.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have long excelled at exploiting their strengths. Denmark revealed the weaknesses of a novice midfielder. Or maybe England did.

Christian Eriksen aside, the Danish team is not particularly technical. Yet there was an assurance, an understanding, an ability to move into pockets of space. England was outwitted; not by the first two Danes but by the trio behind them. By halftime, all three Danish central midfielders had attempted two shots each; the first, by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, arrives after barely 20 seconds. This could be seen as a warning shot: when Morten Hjulmand equalized, no one tried to stop him until Saka made a late effort.

And part of the difficulty for a midfield newcomer like Alexander-Arnold is positioning and part of it is pressing. It’s a question of timing, of teamwork; managerial strategy too.

England rarely lack effort, but more decorated managers than Southgate, such as Serie A winners Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, have seen their teams look outplayed and outclassed in midfield. It’s been a theme in English football over the years, long before Southgate’s reign.

Mesut Ozil destroyed England in the 2010 World Cup, with Gareth Barry gasping in a desperate chase. Andrea Pirlo led a personal waltz away from them in 2012 and again in 2014; first as a regista, then in a more advanced role. Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Marcelo Brozovic decide not to give the ball to Southgate’s team in the 2018 World Cup semi-final. Jorginho and Marco Verratti elegantly wrested control from them in the final of the Euro 2020.

As England floundered in Frankfurt, Southgate perhaps fancied two he had to eliminate from his plans, lackluster favorites who could protect a defense, models from tournaments past. Kalvin Phillips initially made himself unselectable. Then Jordan Henderson did it, more for fitness reasons. If Southgate could pick a player from England’s past to include in the current team, it might not be the Bobby Charlton of 1966 – that team is hardly lacking in attacking talent – ​​as much as the 2018 version of Henderson or Phillips in 2021 form.

Or maybe the Owen Hargreaves of 2006 or the Paul Ince of 1996; someone, in any case, to sit alongside Declan Rice, complement him and add solidity. Even with Gallagher, England looked too open. They continued to let Hojbjerg shoot.

This is why Southgate continued to ignore the evidence, choosing Henderson when he played in Saudi Arabia and Phillips when he didn’t play in England.

He wanted another competent midfielder to provide a dose of boredom, to help the defenders defend and let the attackers attack.

Instead, he turned to Alexander-Arnold. And now, with rookies Adam Wharton and Kobbie Mainoo remaining in reserve, Southgate could replace the Liverpool man with Gallagher. And the instructional video may not be a compendium of Alexander-Arnold’s greatest passes, but a compilation of Phillips and Henderson closing down players.