A carnival of chaos rolled into the South Coast on Tuesday, with Gareth Southgate the unsuspecting ringmaster. St. Mary’s was the venue from which England were able to dazzle and frighten in equal measure.
The silky twists and turns of Jadon Sancho drew the audience in with hopeful visions of European triumph before Southgate played on the crowds’ complacency with a twisted and repugnant rendition of Johann Cruyff’s delectable tiki-taka.
Every performer played their part to perfection in this display of catastrophic imperfections, from Michael Keane’s aimless first-minute pass to Valon Berisha through to Declan Rice’s similarly wayward ball in the second half.
You could be mistaken for thinking that the pair were impersonators drawing on the side’s laughably tragic collapse against the Netherlands in June.
And what is the point of this elaborate metaphor? To highlight our disparaging dependancy on Rice, a player who, as much as everyone wants to provide the solution to an age-long problem, is not the answer Southgate requires to elevate England to world-class stature.
For so long as we have possessed midfielders capable of breaking the lines and pioneering great forrays into opposition territory, England have been cursed with a lack of balance.
Players who dabble in the spectacular haver never failed to find their way in the game – Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Paul Gascoigne are just a small part of an illustrious list of creative players to have worn the Three Lions, but here in lies the issue.
Michael Carrick, a tidy and uncompromising player, was criminally overlooked and only now are British academy’s beginning to mould youth products in his image.
Such a description would draw people to make the lazy assertion that England have a great pole of players to pick from in said position, but for all their progress over the past couple of seasons players such as Rice and to a lesser extent Harry Winks do not provide salvation, whilst Hamzah Choudhry is untested at the highest level.
Rice is an academy graduate relishing in the desire of the fans to produce an heir apparent to Mark Noble – the last truly successful youth product to come through at West Ham.
His defensive numbers make for impressive reading, but with him being the only holding player left at the club it’s his isolation on the pitch that leaves him both privy to disproportionate stats and also tremendously exposed on the break, as seen in West Ham’s countless drubbings at the hands of top-six opposition capable of turning over possession with a high press and countering at speed.
It seems that this issue is not reserved purely for teams of such pedigree either, as Kosovo were able to exploit Rice through a simple four-man midfield blockade.
The wingers would come in, Berisha would drop deep and the holding midfielder would push up and close the space, cutting off the passing channels and ensnaring Rice into a press from which he doesn’t possess the footwork to escape.
As much as the blame for Kosovo’s second goal can be attributed to the 20-year-old, he was not helped by his midfield partners Jordan Henderson and Ross Barkley who overindulged in their ventures forward and neglected to give Rice an option on the ball.
Whilst it is a worry that Rice cannot be trusted to scan the midfield alone, the movement of his teammates would go a long way to helping solve this problem and aid England’s fractious transition play.
Jorginho suffered a similar plight last season, lambasted for his seeming vulnerability to the counter he has now been re-evaluated in the eyes of fickle Chelsea fans because Frank Lampard has elected to partner him with Mateo Kovacic, a player who excels primarily in breaking up play and retaining possession.
With another option on the ball and one who inspires confidence rather than complacency in possession, Chelsea now have a far more balanced midfield which for all its shortcomings has been tremendous in its attempts to recover the ball and break at pace with swift transitions from defence to attack.
The take away from Jorginho’s reinvention is that a balanced midfield can be achieved so long as you partner two players who are comfortable on the ball and seek out possession, whilst also possessing strong underlying defensive numbers should the ball be turned over.
In England’s case, this responsibility should be shouldered by Liverpool teammates Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Henderson is now a Champions League-winning captain whose impressive passing range has seen him flourish under Southgate.
The deep-lying playmaker averages around 36 passes a game at a completion rate of 79%, but with Henderson playing on average four long balls per game his poor pass completion rate is certainly influenced by his progressive play.
Defensively he is also putting up solid numbers, completing two tackles and just under an interception per 90, all the more impressive when you consider the amount of possession Liverpool tend to enjoy.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is the perfect partner to supplement Henderson’s lack of mobility, as the former Southampton midfielder averages around 1.7 dribbles per 90, whilst still maintaining a pass accuracy of 88%.
Chamberlain can offer for the ball in tight areas and break out of the press when Henderson is under pressure, without the risk of quickly turning over the ball.
With the industrious running of the 26-year-old giving England the option of quickly transitioning play and releasing runners out wide or through the middle, Henderson is then able to drop off and receive the ball in space, hence creating time and space for him to retain possession and hold his shape whilst also enabling him to spring attacks from deep.
Rice is still an interesting option (posting more than 6.5 tackles and interceptions on average) for Southgate, but just as Henderson did when he first arrived in the England squad, the young midfielder looks too one dimensional to carry the defensive burden that comes as a result of England’s expansive play, and with more adaptable and dependable options to choose from a spell out of the side could greatly benefit him and the national team.
