The HUGE Problem England Need To Solve Before The Euros 

The fact that Maguire is the slowest CB and useless in a high press, has been completely ignored once again.

Couldn't it be that the reason why Bellingham's goal-scoring stats are so high is because Real Madrid haven't really been playing with an outright striker? How many of those scoring opportunities is he going to get when the position he's playing is instead more about feeding balls into Kane/Watkins? And it's not like England are so lacking in goalscoring forwards right now that they would need to rely on Bellingham. I personally think putting him at 8 in a role more similar to how he played at Dortmund would work. You can still make use of his goal scoring abilities somewhat by letting him make late runs into the box.

The Bellingham thing isn’t an issue. Just because he has good stats it doesn’t mean you destroy team balance to accommodate him. Kane saka and foden will score enough goals. Put Bellingham in the 8 and move on

Let's hope we don't have to play Brazil in the Euros

This is one of the best tactics channel in England.

Very balanced, informative, rational & well presented - you really haven't grasped the purpose of the internet yet, have you?

Can’t believe Maddison’s not played more in the midfield for us leading up to the euros he’s absolute quality on the ball and he’s been pressing like a madman under Ange

Simply put, England tried to play the Liverpool way but without any Liverpool players that understand how to actually play that way.

Curtis Jones would be perfect for this system

The huge problem: Gareth Southgate. Solution: any coach with a plan.

Foden can play as a 10 or an 8. Bellingham can play as a 10 or an 8. The conclusion Southgate comes to is that, there is a conflict playing them both centrally... So Foden is put out wide. This is maddening.

SOUTHGATE FINDING A NEW WAY TO THROW IT AWAY 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 adopting the high press with hags maguire

8:00 not really sure about that one. Personally I think I Rice ain't all that on the ball, comfortable but can't really pick out many offensive passes, and most games has the highest km covered showing he is all over the pitch not just positionally aware.

Your videos are amazing never fail me 😊

Good stuff.

Really enjoyed this video, thought your insight was interesting and love your England optimism ❤ The only thing I would say is that this season Man Utd have proven how difficult it is to play a high press with Maguire in the side. Maguire is too slow to sit on the half way line which is why ten hag moved the defence back and you often see that gap between the defence and midfield. I think If Southgate is choosing to play in this style then Harry Maguire has to be dropped

Great video Thank you. I am weary of demands from people that Southgate should be sacked and Jose brought in!!!!!!! This is quality analysis

Brilliant analysis I completely agree, then add Harry Kane and a non-injured Walker, plus replace the misfiring Chillwell with Shaw and we will be very good

The huge problem england need to solve is the manager. Sack him.

One simple solution would be to play someone with great recovery pace at centerback, like Tomori for example, but Maguire it is..

I think the simple problem for that goal is Dunk. He clears that ball properly and they don't concede.

As a United fan I’m telling you you can’t play Maguire in a high line

Phil has been playing off the right/centre right all season. Saka being injured let Southgate dodge the issue but sticking foden on the left is a waste

Exceptionally fast centre backs help in these situations. So that isn't Maguire. Why Braithwaite didn't get a kick baffles me.

Yep they need another coach, and if possible, named Northwindow

I’m not having a go at Harry Maguire. I just think he has limitations and therefore England have to do something about that.

Any chance you'll break down Germany tactics vs France?

Love this video. The one huge red flag is that if Southgate is intent on playing this high press, why on gods green earth is he intent on also playing Harry Maguire as opposed to a more fleet footed option like Guehi or Tomori or Branthwaite or . A good example of the huge difference it can make is Spurs under Postecoglou who also play this high press: when Van De Ven is playing it’s incredibly effective. When Dier was getting in, it was a disaster. Surely Southgate isn’t this blindly loyal, and expecting too much of Walker to single handedly bail the defence out. Or is he

The blueprint is there to basically replicate what Arteta is doing at Arsenal and Pep is doing at City (2-3-5 attacking shape) as many of the important players are also English and know how that shape works. Foden can be the right 8 a la Odegaard, Saka right wing. Jude as left 8 getting forward as Havertz has been (England should dominate possession against most teams so he will most often be an acting 10 in and around the box,) Kane up top, Rashford left wing (if he can work hard) or Gordon. Normal back 4 with Walker and Stones doing what they normally do at City. Mainoo can come in for Foden and push Rice to left 8 (and Jude to right 8) if ball progression is more important as Rice isn't the best receiving under pressure. Any country would love to have the guts of two of the best club teams in England (maybe Europe) and the team should do well. Southgate is the problem if they don't reach deep in the competition

Trying to fit a system when most are players shine looks hard . People look at England and see the players we have automatically think we should win it .

Yes, well don't expect Southgate to solve it , he couldn't solve a two piece jigsaw puzzle.

Press have spent over a week hammering Ben White for turning England down rather than Southgate for creating an environment where one of the best, most versatile and tactically astute defenders in England couldn’t get a game. Previous to that it was pitting Foden against Saka to see who was “really world class” - well Foden did fuck all but looks a million dollars for city and has carried them in a few games. It’s the manager not the players - Gallagher might be a ball winning machine but he’s nowhere near as good on the ball. But Southgate is obsessed with two BWM protecting his back four. Instead of seeing if he can play that press and push a defender next to Rice. Stones does it for City, White does it for Arsenal, TAA does it for Liverpool.

Chillwell had an absolute stinker. Genuinely one of the worst individual performances I've seen in an England shirt. Losing Walker by 20mins meant our fullbacks were basically nonexistent from that point forward.

England didn't play badly at all. I think Maguire being so slow is a big problem at the back. I kept seeing defenders backing off as well , probably because of fear of getting injured in a friendly. I don't think we can read too much into this one game, and hope Southgate will tighten things up, at the Euros.

Personally imo it will work a lot better if they play Mainoo + Rice as CDMs and Bellingham can push up further as a proper no. 10

England played decently enough, they looked like they were trying to create chances which is more than they often do! However when the moment for creating chances appeared they were totally fluffed. Quite a few of those were Chillwell, like crosses that just totally failed, unfortunately not good enough at this high level of football. If you want to beat Brazil, your crosses have to make it over the first defender. All in all it was a fairly even match with a new system and new players. Friendly is the perfect place to test ideas, kind of doesn't matter if you win or not, you need to put your new players and tactics in the pressure cooker to see what works.

Dunk shouldn't have tried to bring the ball down from that header, put it up and let people get back

If Galagher is the problem why not play Curtis Jones? And btw I don't think Brasil is THE WORST team for England to play against on this system. Do u not think that a France Portugal or Germany would cook that press?

You can have the most talented individual players in attack, but unless you have a solid defence, you won't win the Euros. You need fast , strong tacklers, who love to get stuck in.

It would be interesting to see southgate manage a club side. Wonder what type of football he would play. As you said, he's remade how england plays in every tournament so far.

Exactly the system Brighton use under De Zerbi 4 2 3 1 . Unfortunately leaves teams vulnerable counter attacking. You really need very high speed central defenders to counter this.

The manager….

Curtis Jones would be better than Gallagher in that position

Henderson for 60 mins, or Curtis Jones or I'd chose Ross Barkley... but Southgate seems to have ignored him.

Good analysis of the game but I think that the reason people are so downbeat about this result/performance is that we were open defensively AND insipid and toothless in attack .. an ultra attacking strategy that resulted in hardly any decent attacks for us. Meanwhile Brazil cut us open with ease. Yet again the problems lie in midfield. I dont think england have ever even had a functioning midfield at any point in my lifetime 😅

What we lacked against Brazil was a ball winner, since Kalvin Phillips injury we havent had a player who can do this job so its been left to Declan Rice but hes better playing more as an 8 like he does for Arsenal, Kobe Mainoo could do that job though as he showed against Belgium

We havent lost a friendly in like 5 years, Loses happen, whatever. Use the brazil game as a way of viewing weaknesses

Midfield is not a problem and once Kane & Saka are back the attack is sorted becaue Bowen and Toney have shown they are able deputies that won't require England to adapt to a different style. Bellingham was a 6 or an 8 @ Dortmund so if Rice was injured Bellingham could and i think, would play there. Southgate i think wants to start with Trent & Rice with Bellingham further forward with Mainoo as a sub for any of them but most likely Trent. Sorted. Stones is a worry, but if he was not fit then Maguire could be paired with a pacy CB and it could be fine - particularly if Maguire plays as RCB so he has his CB partner and Walker either side of him. Gomez returning to the squad is heartening for me - i have a feeling that Southgate saw Gomez & Stones as his ideal partnership going forward in 2020 but Gomez has not been able to hold a place down in the Liverpool team. Gomez playing regularly, even if often @ FB, means he's now match sharp enough to start for England. Konsa also looked very comfortable and i think him coming on ahead of Branthwaite says that Gareth wants to take him. Even France are not playing Saliba and every other team @ teh Euros has questions about their defence - look at who Belgium were playing there on Tuesday!

question, could kane have affected englands performance against brazil?

Belleingham should play the 8 to allow a solid defense and Foden the 10 to unlock his potential with rash and Saka on the wings and Kane/Tony ST

Something that isn’t really mentioned in the video I think is that the reason the high press / counter press football works for certain teams (peak Liverpool, Arsenal, etc.) is because they have defenders they can rely upon if, as you point out, Paqueta pulls a brilliant turn. No disrespect to Maguire, Chillwell, Dunk, etc. but for various reasons (speed, injury, decisiveness) these are not defenders you can rely on 1 on 1 if the system breaks down for a moment. Van dijk famously not being dribbled past for a stupid amount of time, Gabriel physically dominating forwards the second they get the ball, Saliba covering in behind, Robertson covering back like a lunatic - these are the kinds of players that make these systems work by removing the threat of those kind of moments. If you don’t have those players you can’t play that system because those infrequent chances will happen, and those teams will score. In peak Liverpool those chances would still happen, but the chance of that amounting to anything was minimal. If we want to play that way we need Stones and Walker playing, AT LEAST, probably Luke Shaw too. And we also have to consistently score 2+ goals every game which we rarely look capable of.

How tomori isnt starting at cb is crazy

Need to redo the back line to allow them to press like this, get good 1v1 defenders on, you have enough attacking in the front 3 and playing Bellingham + a Maddison or foden centrally. Then have colwill/ Jarrad branthwaite/ stones / Walker (konsa imo is great at this aswell as rb or rcb with stones lcb) at the back, where stones goes up to a double pivot with rice. You’d have so much threat and have so many amazing attacking players up front. Think because of Southgate’s favourites he can’t see the wood for the trees. Has a good idea about a high press, unable to see what personal to pick to make it work.

4-2-3-1 formation does not work and it would never ever work for England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Same England they’re missing one or two players and they can’t quite make it fit together

Great analysis. I actually think Gallagher can play the deeper role and be very effective, but I think we definitely need Walker fit, and ideally a quicker CB alongside Stones in the event of the press being beaten. I'm sure Maguire will be relied upon but I think Guehi would be a far better option. One thing you didn't mention was that, in this aggressive counter-pressing system, of course the first objective is to win back the ball. The next best thing is to force the opposition to play backwards. But then after that, the next best thing is to simply foul them to stop the break. In the first example you showed, Gallagher just got a step or two to the wrong side of Paqueta, and his first touch meant Gallagher couldn't get close enough to foul him. For the goal, Foden should just go into the back of the Brazil player and give away the FK, rather than get round him and try to get back into position. I believe the likes of Pochettino, Pep and other press masters like Klopp would be coaching them to do exactly that.

Vinicius Jr makes look Kyle Walker look slow! How fast is this kid?

The two brazilian central midfielders are playing in the premiere league so they adopt the English style of play . Hence this system doesn't work with them and they shut down Conor Gallagher very well throughout the match .

7 big chances to 1. It didn't work well. It didn't work at all

Can they just not implement a system that uses a LB that inverts into midfield? It enables Bellingham and Foden to play as 10s whilst still giving some defensive solidity with Rice and LB in the middle. What I will say as well is that Maguire cannot be starting if we're relying on pace in behind - that's part of the reason for his contrast of performances between Leicester and Man U.

Have been so behind Southgate since he took charge, for his team selections, and because he’s always played the kind of football that gets you results in international tournaments. Unfortunately, this approach is dangerous, and potentially shows Bellingham being more of a hinderance to the team, rather than making it better. This approach also doesn’t suit Maguire, who is essential to defending and attacking set pieces.

It doesn't matter if you've got the fastest defenders in the world with this system, a good counter attacking team like Brazil will create chances. The main problem is simply not creating chances and scoring goals when your press is effective. Brazil and many other top teams seem to accept the concession of the odd goal but are confident they can bang more in at the other end. If England stick with this system they need to create chances and score freely. It should make for exciting football ...... "are you not entertained!!"

SOUTHGATE

Foden I find frustrating. I have never seen a more mercurially talented player that seems to have such a lack of understanding for tempo and footballing. He is incredibly gifted, he exerts a hell of a lot of energy, and works hard for the team, but ultimately, I actually think he's destined a super sub. He is positionless which people see as "able to play anywhere", but subsequently, able to play nowhere as effectively as someone else. There is no doubting his ability, I doubt taking up a position for an aimless player who pep uses as a running dog. Bellingham and Maddison are better 10's (and give you something different from one another), Saka and Bowen are better on the right, Gordon is better on the left (albeit I would consider him here due to the lack of actual footballing ability in this position). I would like to see him played regularly at 8, but Gallagher and Jones do that better than Foden. He's the player for me that fits perfectly into the "HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THIS PLAYER OUT?!" category, but honestly, I would just bring him on as fresh legs when the game opens up a bit and he can absolutely dog people. I know it's an unpopular opinion. He IS the messiah after all.

Maguire and a high line 😂😂😂 shite haha hed wanna apolagise to white asap and play him and stones.. maguire ruins a high line

With such a high line defensively surely you want a cb like tomori who can actually challenge these balls over the top with pace, that being said having tomori would leave us open in the box in aerial duels where i think maguire and in furure branthwaite shine

Thoughts on Mainoo starting in the double pivot? Would you say he'd be a better fit for Southgate's system?

And that right there is why Southgate always calls upon Jordan Henderson 😤

We all know the biggest problem is our shit manager

If Ben White was in for Maguire you'd have a solid defender with enough pace to make those recovery runs too, shame there seems to be a conflict between him and Southgate in this regard.

Southgate needs to be fired

They should copy South Africa's tactics in the AFCON and pick all Manchester City players. 😂

What if England use De zerbi’s system and plays a 4-4-2 playing out from the back with Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane as false 9’s Rashford and Saka running for the space and Rice with either Gallagher og Mainoo.

Is there anyway we can get you to coach the England squad?

Wonder if this change's Ange's oppinion of Gallagher in the number 8 for Spurs.

People we have Fikayo Tomori CB as an option and he still insists on that slabhead Quagsire, Ti's a joke.

the Euros will be the judge, the other thing to take not is other teams could look at this game and find a weakness esp in that CB pairing.

A: the English media

We need to actually try and put the ball in the opposition net rather than keep it as close to the center circle as possible. We play keepball not football.

Do you think that Southgate should be sacked? Personally I think the manager isn’t the fault but I think we should be playing much better

Southgate is the biggest problem facing the England team…

Excellent analysis as always, but I feel there's one point missing. Harry Maguire is extremely slow and not at all suited to playing in a high pressing system, which makes Southgate's insistence on picking him even more baffling than before. I'm genuinely struggling to understand Southgate's reasoning behind this.

TAA must play with Rice in the two

U said Brazil is the worst team to try this system against, but what about France also. So much pace and attacking threat and midfielders also very good on ball.

If England is going to use high press football, they should use Liverpool players like Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot cause they are familiar with that system. Callagher can still be used, but Curtis has better ball retention. Plus, they need to have fast and athletic cbs to use this system.

With harry Maguire at the back with that high line 😂 why do managers do that with a snail at the back your always gunna be in trouble

Southgate is the problem!

I think Gallagher can actually learn this system. You can see when he got turned by Paqueta that he went to intercept the ball on the wrong side. If he had just stayed goal side of him he would have stopped him. It can't be hard to drill that into him: Stay goal side!

Simple, sack the manager and hire a guy like Mourinho, Tuchel or even Klopp for just this tournament.

Curtis Jones is England's best counter pressing midfielder atm

So, Adam... As 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 fan for life who live in the other part of the globe, I have couple of questions for you ... 1) Do you think 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 just ok to play this way, using the same players (with Kane & Saka on the pitch) in Euro? 2) Because it's just 🇧🇷 - with ecperience midfileders & speedy wingers - or is there another team ? 3) If 🇫🇷 can hurt 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 like this 🇧🇷 did, do you think Southgate has to change the formation & the style of play against these two in particular? Thank you. Your video is awesome, mate! YNWA! 😊

It isn't just about getting the best out of Bellingham, though. Two high 8s and an inverted full back/Stones style Liberio is the way the best team in World football do it. We don't even need to "copy" it. We actually have players to play it. As good as Paqueta, Gomes and Bruno are they don't play for Real Madrid, Arsenal and City. I expect better from England and so does the full nation.

They were dreadful against Belgium. Absolute shite.

To be honest… should just swap out Rice for Mainoo and Jones for Gallagher. Try this out during friendlies instead of struggling for combos when tournament start

Klopp, Pep and Ange are not available, that is the only fix that will work.

I do think Gallagher is the way to go. Having played CAM for Chelsea, I think he might just need the last couple games before the Euros to find into the position a bit better. Also other comments have already pointed out that Bellingham profits from Real not always playing a ST while England have plenty. Gallagher and Bellingham on the 8 with Rice behind them and football will be coming home. Gets the best out of Gallagher and, unless you planned on using Bellingham as a second ST, he's not any worse off in return.

The elephant in the room: you cannot be a pressing side with Maguire in the team. Period.

Chilwell is a big problem

Give Rodri an English passport. Easy. Job done.

england would better suit a lower depth and wait for the chance to counter because we have players that can outpace anyone on the field. when we are high pressing we arent finishing our chances