The trio who should play behind Kane at Euro 2021: it is bad news for Rashford and Grealish
Not so long ago England lacked creative playmakers – the emergence of two in recent times leaves Gareth Southgate with an interesting choice
By Sam Dean 1 April 2021 • 10:00am
Harry Kane will lead England's attack at this year's European Championship Credit: Eddie Keogh - The FA
Two years ago, Gareth Southgate explained the absence of James Maddison from the England squad by saying that the team “had not been playing with a No 10”. The world has changed since then and so have England, for whom the main development of these past few games has been the emergence of not one, but two No 10s in Southgate’s starting lineup.
Against Albania and Poland, England’s attack was far more fluid than we have come to expect. Out went the rigidity that was caused by a back three and in came a flexibility in the final third, where Mason Mount and Phil Foden were given the freedom to seek space and play between the lines.
For the first 45 minutes
against Poland on Wednesday night, England looked to be playing a genuinely modern and progressive form of attacking football. Foden drifted inside from the right, combining with his team-mates and helping England to outnumber the visiting midfield, while Kyle Walker provided the width on the flank he had vacated.
It was an approach built on movement, intelligence and technical quality in the attacking midfield positions. Which, in short, are all the things that England have been routinely accused of lacking in recent years. There was none of this against Croatia in the World Cup semi-final of 2018, for example, when Luka Modric’s most devastating act was to remind an entire nation that they did not have a Luka Modric.
Mount and Foden are not at that level, although they might be one day. They certainly play that sort of football, though: roaming, scheming, controlling the tempo and dragging opposition players into the places they do not want to go.
Sterling, Foden and Mount could be a potent combination behind Kane Credit: REUTERS /FLORION GOGA
Completing the trident behind Harry Kane was Raheem Sterling, whose role is to stretch teams with his pace rather than drift around with Mount and Foden. Together they have made for an appealing trio in these last two matches, when there has been an exciting balance to England’s attacking play at times.
Their first goal against Poland, eventually finished from the penalty spot by Kane, was a fine example of the Foden/Mount/Sterling triumvirate in action. Foden had floated over from his starting position on the right, as he did throughout the first half, to create a tight triangle with Mount and Sterling:
The ball was lost, but Foden’s proximity to the action allowed him to win it back and prod a pass into Sterling. From there, the Manchester City winger embarked on the run which earned the penalty.
At the moment Sterling received the ball, both Mount and Foden were within just a couple of yards of him. Such a scenario would be far less likely with a player like Marcus Rashford or Jadon Sancho on the right flank.
Foden is an entirely different option, a player who generally wants to come to the ball in the middle of the pitch rather than wait for it on the wing.
This could be seen again a few minutes after the opener, when Foden once again darted inside to create a shooting chance for Kane. Mount and Sterling had combined down the left, before the Chelsea midfielder whipped a pass into the path of Foden. Kane seized on Foden’s flick, and almost doubled the lead:
In these early stages, when the plan was working, Mount and Foden had the protection of Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips behind them. Together, they sometimes created what is referred to as a “box” in midfield. Rice and Phillips formed the deeper half of the square, with Mount and Foden playing directly in front of them. It meant England had depth, allowing them to smoothly play their way into the final third.
Based on the events of the last week, this shape is the grand vision in Southgate’s mind. Replace Kalvin Phillips with Jordan Henderson, and it could easily be the midfield quartet of choice in the summer.
In such a scenario, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that Sterling, Rashford, Sancho and Jack Grealish are all competing for one place on the left wing. If Foden is the big winner of this international break, as the only player of his type on the right side, then those three surely must be seen as the biggest losers.
All this is not to say that Southgate has cracked it. Far from it. The first half against Poland was promising, yes, but the second half was poor. The midfield began to soften, with Phillips and Rice coming under more pressure, and as a result Mount and Foden became less influential.
The opening 45 minutes was proof that England have an exciting plan, then, but the rest of the match showed they are not yet capable of executing it for a full 90 minutes. Southgate’s reluctance to make any changes until the 86th minute, when he replaced Foden with Reece James, was puzzling in the extreme.
If this system, with Foden and Mount operating as two unconventional No 10s, is to be the Plan A, then one suspects that England will probably need a Plan B soon enough. For now, though, the optimists can seize upon the fluidity of their first-half showing as proof of this young team’s evolution into a more imaginative and flexible side. After all, it is not so long ago that Southgate’s England did not have any creative playmakers at all. With Foden and Mount, they now have two.
