Yahoo News Never mind Xherdan Shaqiri's Stoke City frustrations I want to see more of this from England
Mentioning Xherdan Shaqiri is always a good conversation starter when you meet a Stoke City fan and goodness knows I’ve written and spoken enough about him myself over the years, the potential, the skill and the frustrations.
But his goal for Switzerland against Scotland on Wednesday, which secured qualification to the knock-out stages at Euro 2024, was outstanding. It was defending from the front. He anticipated and his movement off the ball was superb in terms of taking up a position to read the pass back. He put himself ready to intercept the pass. It was a superb goal.
When you get your forward players doing that it isn’t half a big help for everyone else. Taking up the right positions off the ball and being alert can make all the difference. This tournament is full of naturally-gifted footballers but they have to do that other side of the game too and the higher up the pitch you can win the ball back, the better.
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There is an art to regaining possession in different thirds of the pitch and everyone has to apply those traits, no matter if it is wide, deep or central. Every player has to understand what is required and deliver. There should be an urgency to getting the ball back as quickly as you can but even when you’re being pushed deep you still have to get into positions to press or intercept. The team that does that best is going to go a long way. The teams that can win the ball as high up the pitch as possible and counter-attack from that point will be difficult to stop.
If you’re looking for a club side as an example. Man City are very good at this. No matter the possession stats and how good they are at passing, it’s their ruthlessness in transition moments which gives them a near-unstoppable extra edge. Spain have been good at it too over the last week or so.
England sometimes don’t do that. Maybe it’s ego, maybe it’s confidence but it’s something that Gareth Southgate will have to demand from his players. If Harry Kane is playing, it is important what players you have around him and, if he’s coming on the front, having teammates who are prepared and able to take advantage of the space he creates.
Alvaro Morata has been doing that for Spain but he’s had players in his team who are then running past him and still stretching the opposition. The front player has to be elusive, they have to get in behind and pull short and the timing and understanding has to be right.
England don’t quite seem in sync at the moment. You have to work in tandem with each other in every third of the pitch. On the ball, you have to remember all your principles about passing options to make sure the man in possession has two, three or four viable options. If you do that, you can destroy the opposition if you get your decision making right.
Italy defend deep and at the moment they’re not impressing because they don’t seem to have the players who can break quickly, which has always been part of their framework.
It’s been interesting to watch the group stages and the various traits of defending, attacking and application. Spain and Germany too, obviously, are coming out and showing those traits best and as we get deeper into the competition it’s going to be even more evident.
Germany toyed with Scotland. They slowed the game when they wanted, quickened it up when they wanted. When players were doing support work around the ball, they had an understanding of angles and distances. That’s a good side. It looked like they had more players on the pitch.
Spain have got that tempo with the ball too. The one thing I don’t like, and I bet you don’t either, is players diving and rolling around as if they’ve been poleaxed. That needs cutting it out. If I was ref and could see them putting it on, I’d stick them in the book. I don’t like it, it’s not good for kids to see. They’ll copy it. Players have a big responsibility to show Europe and the world the good of the game. It’s ridiculous. Stop it.
But in terms of performances, they are ticking those big boxes to exploit space and give players passing options. They support behind and in advance of the ball, they’re always moving and in the final third they can do quick, one, two and three-touch plays.
It doesn’t matter how good players are individually or what system you play, it will always come down to those basic principles and whoever can deliver them the best. They will be the team to watch and the team to beat. You could have said it 50 years ago and you will still be saying the same thing in 50 years’ time.
Some sides are so poor in delivering those things at the moment. I’m really disappointed. They just don’t know the game. You can say they’ve forgotten what’s really important in football but it seems like they didn’t know it in the first place.
We always want England to be wonderful at every aspect of the game and sometimes we are hypercritical. I keep reminding myself that we’re top of the group and unbeaten. Sometimes you can’t go on performance level, you just have to scrap and scrape through.
But it is a telling time in football when a team loses control of a game and if and how they get themselves back on top. You probably need someone to trigger the press and for that player to be backed up by the pack behind him. You have to have a togetherness.
Southgate has great experience and he’s a deep thinker. He’s got a youngish team and he’ll be asking questions of them and pushing them, which is his job, and they have to deliver their part of it. It’s a lot of work but if you’re playing at this level you should know it.
If you’re going to go far in this competition then you want and probably need a performance when you really look the part. Let’s hope we see a big step towards that on Tuesday against Slovenia.
