Heroic Failure

By AM Tuesday, December 13, 2022

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Peter Anderson ⚽ Don't you just love England at the major tournaments?

Guaranteed entertainment! Every defeat a national disaster; every win a portent to greatness. This World Cup was no different to all those before it, penalty drama and heroic failure.

Before facing France in the quarter-final they had beaten Wales, Iran and Senegal pretty well and drew with the USA with a poor performance. Most pundits and bookies put England and France more or less on a par, the Mbappe effect maybe nudging it for France. But they were without their spine of Lucas, Kante, Pogba and Benzema, with those four France would have been easy favourites. So, this was a good time to meet France.

I have said before that the England defensive triangle of Pickford-Maguire-Stones would prove their undoing and I was right. England conceded two goals, the first should have been saved. Certainly, Courtois, Neuer and Allison Becker would most likely have saved it. The second goal should have been cleared by Maguire, but he let Giroud nip in and nick it. England 2-1 down needed a goal and were duly given a pen, which the usually dependable Kane skyed to row Z. Typical England. The ITV commentator said, "we needed Gary Lineker, but got Chris Waddle", the usual media hatchet job only took a few seconds to start.

Once again England depart in the quarters. They will rue this defeat given the poor quality of the other teams. Spain, Germany, Brazil and Portugal are out; we are in mid-season so the players are fresh; and the Qatar temperatures are reasonably mild. Beating France would have led to a semi against Morocco and a possible final against a poor Argentina or an average Croatia. England may never get a better chance to win a World Cup again.

The shit for this defeat should fall where it deserves, on the head of Gareth Southgate. He has done a fantastic job compared to his predecessors. He has coached most of his team since the under-21s and has nurtured a coherent group. He identified England's failures in previous tournaments, namely they conceded too many goals. Southgate spent a lot of time analysing previous tournament winners and noticed that early all winners concede very few goals. Look at Morocco in this World Cup, they have only conceded one goal in their five games and are now in a semi-final. With his ideas in place Southgate then proceeded to get England to a Euro final, a World Cup semi-final and a Nations League final.

Keeping clean sheets with Pickford and Maguire was always going to be challenging this time around. But for all his improvements, his one big failing was tactical: he can't seem to change the course of a game that is not going well. Against the USA his side were toothless, but he kept Foden on the bench. Against France, at 1-1 France were fading, but he never went for the jugular. In that situation a Klopp or a Guardiola would have sent on Rashford, knowing that you must score when dominating. He had the best bench in the tournament, but didn't use it until it was too late.

Whoever manages England into the next Euros has one overriding task: to fix the defence. Everything else is in place to win a tournament. The midfield pivot of Bellingham and Rice is a winning formula if every I saw one. Bellingham has got everything needed to be a superstar, and Rice is the perfect foil. They are 19 and 23 respectively. They have at least a decade to perfect their partnership and with Philips on the bench they are well served in that department.

Going forward, England have also some great youngsters, Saka looks like he will be a superstar, Rashford is coming good again, Foden has the potential to be England's Iniesta. With a shored-up defence and tactical nous England's outlook looks good, but the reality will probably be more heroic failure. At major tournaments it is always thus.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.