Southgate’s conservatism reaped what it had sown a little at the end. There was a lot of faith shown in the group of players that excelled in Russia, while a lot of young, dynamic players were found to be lacking miles in their legs when we could have done with them being introduced to provide impetus.
It was bizarre that a manager praised for his man management threw Sancho, a player who he had shown so little faith in up to that point, into the fray so late, where he basically went from a cold start to taking a penalty in the biggest game of his career so far. It was very different to Rashford because Sancho isn’t exactly somebody who takes a lot of penalties - Reus or Haaland are more likely penalty takers at Dortmund.
Given that we were allowed such a big squad, we didn’t make enough use of the players at our disposal. Bellingham could have brought more energy to the centre of the park where we needed it after an hour or so. Calvert-Lewin might have given the Italian defenders a different kind of player to deal with, and he has a decent penalty record.
But we spent the tournament relying on more or less the same small group of players. We made our subs late and utilised them poorly. We drained a bench that was brimming with talent and form of its confidence, and soon found their form was lacking. Meanwhile, Italy broke us down minute-by-minute as we slipped ever deeper into a Lamouchi style block, and I think by the end this group of players was mentally drained and only ever headed for defeat, in the same way as more or less the same team was eventually finished off by Croatia three years ago.
We had a good tournament and we come away with positives, but we’ve evolved very little from the team that clawed it’s way to respectability in Russia. We’re still defensive minded to a fault, our attacking players become isolated and drop deep, and we struggle to incorporate new and emerging talent into the side. We followed the same pattern last night as in the World Cup semi final, playing well for 30 minutes then barely affecting the game thereafter. That’s probably not surprising given that most of the starting lineup was the same.
We need to find a way of going toe to toe with tough opposition for more than a quarter of the match, and that will seemingly require an evolution in personnel. There’s a big disconnect between our defence and attack that I think is deeper than just who we pick up top. You won’t find many international sides with more depth than Sterling, Grealish, Sancho, Rashford and Saka. We’ve also got Hudson Odoi just outside the team, and Madueke as someone who might come through.
