We Can Be Euros: What advice would we give Gareth Southgate

NationalWorld.com

Our panel of experts takes a look at what's going wrong with England and tries to figure out what Gareth Southgate can do differently as well as looking ahead to the last 16.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, I mean, everyone's got their pet theories, I think, for how we can get things,

00:04get England playing a little bit better. I think it's, you know, whether you drop this player,

00:07bring such and such a player in. I mean, Rahman, we may as well ask for your guys as well. I mean,

00:12if you were sort of in Southgate's shoes, what's like the big change you'd make? I'm wondering

00:16particularly about the left-hand side, because obviously that has been a bit of an issue.

00:20Kieran Trippier hasn't been that effective going forward, even though he's been doing good work

00:23defensively. Phil Foden kind of feels like he's a bit sort of locked down in that more central role

00:28without any real support coming outside him. I mean, what would you sort of change to try and

00:33balance the team out a little bit more? I'll take up Birmingham. Yeah, I mean,

00:40I know this question is about the left-hand side. I'd keep Trippier. I'm kind of old school. I was

00:45born in 92. I think that football should be in foundations. And one of them is that you need to

00:51get your defensive shape right. And the primary job of a defender is to make sure that they keep

00:56the ball out of the net. So defending is the first primary job. So I'm quite really happy

01:03with the way the backline is set up. I like the pace of Walker. I like the commitment of Gaye.

01:11I like the experience of John Stones, and I like the work ethics of Trippier. So I will keep that.

01:18Going forward, again, I think football, this is where the changes will come. I think for me,

01:24football is about partnerships. It's about the way people work together to make the team work.

01:32So the question I would ask maybe is, is Trippier and Saka working on the left wing?

01:43Maybe not too well. Is Foden and Walker working on the right wing? Again,

01:53it's still open. Is Trent and Declan Rice working? Definitely no. Is Rice and Connor Gallagher

02:04working? Definitely no. Did Rice and Maynard work? Maybe, but that wasn't for a full game.

02:12So there are problems there. Up top, is Kane and Bellingham working as a unit, as an

02:20interchanging front two? These combinations are what eventually leads to match-winning performances.

02:27So individually, the talent is there, the potential is there, but the combinations that need to come

02:34together to work, it's where the problem is. So first change, I think there should be a balance

02:41between talent and teamwork. You don't play your best players instantly on the goal.

02:50It's a teamwork. Sometimes some top players need to come from the bench to influence games,

02:55especially if you're blessed with the abundance of talent like England do. Bellingham scored in

03:01the first game, literally won the game for us. It's literally been unplayable for Madrid,

03:08but I kind of struggle to find him dominating games if he's not giving the free rule he

03:16craves. So against Sevilla, it is something I really did love, and that was a consequence.

03:20It must have been direction. Every time he went everywhere the ball was, he was demanding for the

03:26ball, he was pinging passes, he was dictating play, and that's why we saw his influence.

03:32That's good for the team, but what that also meant is that it restricted players like Phil

03:37Foden, because he was going into spaces that Phil eventually played, going to spaces that

03:42Kane normally would drop in. And I think in the second game, they tried to adjust that,

03:47and that's clearly also affected his performance and the way he's able to deliver. So that's where

03:53the balance comes in. Are we able to bring Foden to central, find somebody to play in Foden's

04:00position on the right, and then we can possibly then change between Foden and Bellingham depending

04:06on how the game goes, or possibly even Saka, Palmer, who's coming off a sensational first season.

04:13Listen, Paul Palmer, what he's done, it's unbelievable. He scored goals in the Premier

04:18League than any other striker at Chelsea since 2010, when Drogba and Lampard recorded higher

04:26numbers. Not Costa, not Torre, nobody hit the numbers his head last season. And yesterday when

04:33he came on, when he came on against Slovenia in that 20 minutes cameo, he definitely did

04:40enough to suggest that he could be somebody we'll count on.

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