England’s flat-track bullies must learn to adapt against the elite - Stuart Rayner

It is his way of explaining how strengthening a team at one end can leave you more exposed at the other. Right now, Gareth Southgate is struggling to find a blanket which fits his England team.

If Southgate could just pick 12 men, he would have a very good team. As it is, he finds himself either short of the defensive security he wants against the leading nations, or the creativity to break down stubborn opponents.

On paper, 2019 was a fantastic year for England, giving cause for optimism for the (we thought) upcoming European Championships. They scored 38 goals in 10 matches, but conceded two in defeat in the Czech Republic, three versus the Netherlands and more worryingly at home to Kosovo.

Beating Bulgaria 6-0 and Montenegro 7-0 in consecutive matches was very nice but qualifying for major tournaments is not England’s problem, performing in them is.

The only A-list opposition came in the Nations League finals and they lost 3-1 to Holland, and drew 0-0 with Switzerland.

So in 2020 Southgate moved his blanket down to cover up against the best, abandoning 2019’s 4-3-3 for 5-2-3.

The result has been just four goals conceded in seven matches and nine scored – distorted by three each in friendlies against Wales and the Republic of Ireland. They failed to score in three.

It has been uninspiring and more importantly has not worked. The master qualifiers failed to get out of their Nations League group, even before tomorrow’s game against Iceland. Southgate is England’s first manager since Sven-Goran Eriksson to lose 10 internationals and it is the top countries he has come up short against – Germany, France, Croatia, Spain, Holland and those pesky Belgians three times. With Denmark in Europe’s top tier only losing in the Czech Republic was a copper-bottomed shock.

It justifies Southgate’s caution against the elite, but shows he has not yet got it right.

A third centre-backs provides extra reassurance against the defensive weaknesses and a bigger blanket over the increasingly erratic Jordan Pickford. Wing-backs play to England’s strengths, and three up front preserves the best characteristic of the 2019 side.

It just lacks creativity, putting too much onus on wide players.

Three at the back works much better if at least one is happy to step into midfield and change the pictures. It is how Sheffield United made up for their own creative deficiencies last season, but their form has dipped with Jack O’Connell’s fitness problems.

When Southgate’s back three carried England to the 2018 World Cup semi-final it included Barnsley-born John Stones but he has completely lost Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s confidence. Club-mate and fellow Yorkshireman Kyle Walker did his best impression of the Blades’ Chris Basham in the second half of Sunday’s 2-0 defeat in Belgium, but too often England’s defenders were twiddling their thumbs.

In front sat two midfield bodyguards. Declan Rice and Jordan Henderson are good central midfielders, but would be better complemented by a creative third player. The injured Kalvin Phillips conducts Leeds United’s midfield from deep.

Mason Mount showed against Ireland he could wriggle into the gaps between midfield and attack, as can Phil Foden and Ross Barkley, but Southgate did not have the nerve to play him in a midfield two against top-level opponents, perhaps rightly, for fear of his partner being swamped. It made for a rigid shape.

When the inventive Jack Grealish was lured into that space it pulled the blanket over. Playing him in his Aston Villa position – essentially as a No 10 drifting in from the left – means dropping Marcus Rashford or Raheem Sterling unless they are injured, as at the weekend.

Harry Kane has reached new levels this season as a “false nine”, dropping off the front into the hole, but it needs someone to fill the conventional centre-forward space he vacates. With no Rashford or Sterling to imitate Son Heung-min and no midfield runners, doing so last week would have left a vacuum, quite apart from getting in Grealish’s way.

New formations need time, but it is not something Southgate has. This shape has had six matches (England played a back four in the first game of 2020, in Reykjavik).

Perhaps he needs two interchangeable formations. The 2019 plan for flat-track bullying is still available, but he needs to reconsider whether he has the players to make the most of his alternative against more evenly-matched opposition. He must add creativity and fluidity to the spine of 5-2-3 or swap it for something with a more nuanced midfield design.

The new look has not been a disaster – only last month England beat world No 1s Belgium – it has been so-so.

But so-so is a disappointing end to an international year which started with such optimism but is now just a bit short of it.

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