To get your hands on a trophy and be the winners of a grand tournament as the World Cup or the Euro looks difficult for England. They have been close and as we could see this time on home soil they were as close as the final, losing the game on penalties to a more mature and experience Italian side.
The thrill of watching Italy and their way to the final was impressive, and it showed during the qualification and in the early part of the finals that this team would be difficult to defeat as England did experience.
You will never win a grand tournemant with a team a bit unbalanced and with too many changes done as stability, avarage age and a number of very experienced players with a long winning range to their names in a good mix with a few younger players is the key combination.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe key for Gareth Southgate going forward is to keep stability within in his group and be able to have players in there that can take the next step and hopefully they will not say goodbye to the national team too early or in a way losing form or pick up injuries.
Players such as Jordan Henderson and Jamie Vardy, could have given this team and squad more depth and to see them as a sub alternative or not even being in there at all, makes it really difficult to be part of a major trophy hunt as other players with enormous talent has entered the full international arena in the last year or two.
The key for Gareth Southgate will be to keep the momentum for a team that has in the last three major tournaments have finished 4th (World Cup, 2018), 3rd (Nations League, 2019) and 2nd (Euro’s, 2021). If you look at the set up there are too many changes in the first eleven and hopefully not so many changes will appear in the team of the next major tournament.
Harry Kane is still a key player going forward and at 28 he should obviously had his hands on a major trophy with Tottenam and also with England, but still is without that top medal both for club and country. The captaincy should naturally been given to Jordan Henderson, but his form, injury problems and Gareth Southgate’s priorities stopped that scenario.
We do believe that England can go on and win a major trophy but still lacks that stability needed over time to go all the way, they also have questions to be answerred in vital areas such as the midfield and goalkeeper and to get up there at World class level you need to see Kalvin Phillips and Decian Rice take steps and appearing in more top international games before that is possible.
At the moment England do have World class players in Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker, Jadon Sancho, Mason Mount and Harry Maguire, but they lack in depth and they surely have a squad in movement so hopefully it will be stability in the years going forward.
Embed from Getty ImagesYou also wonder a bit about Gareth Southgate and his total perspective as his teams often are set up in different systems and play with a number of styles. You also have to ask about the use of Jack Grealish as his presence is often a question and how to use the newly signed Man City player in the best way possible.
His move to the higher level of club football will see him shine going forward, but both Pep Guardiola and Gareth Southgate will never get the best out of this man just mainly using him as a squad player, then the case is lost. Another question to ask, can you play with Grealish and Mount in the same team.
The start of the World Cup qualifacitions looks bright the challenge will be to cement a team, system and approach that gives England the right attributes to win major titles.