- 3 months ago
England were given a reality check at the World Cup, following a 0-0 draw with Ghana. But after their vibrant attacking display against Croatia, why were they suddenly unable to create anything in the very next game? Adam Clery looks at both the system and the players used by Thomas Tuchel, and explains what went wrong.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, live here in New York City,
00:05and welcome also to the most important lesson you will ever learn in football.
00:13That's the intro.
00:17Alright, so yes, England nil, Ghana nil, I have decorated the set, thank you very much for noticing,
00:22and even as a man who will always try to find the positives in a game of football,
00:28I'll admit that wasn't good.
00:29Thomas Tuchel made two changes from the side that beat Croatia, Jed Spence and Mark Gay,
00:34coming in for Nico O'Reilly and John Stones, and even before we get into any of the rest of
00:40this game,
00:40just that decision alone, I think, paints you a bit of a picture.
00:45Because obviously, you're putting Jed Spence in for specific 1v1 defending against Ghana's most dangerous weapon, Antoine Semenyo,
00:54and Mark Gay represents a trade-off with John Stones, where you get a little bit less sort of composure
01:01on the ball,
01:02but you do get a bit more physicality, you get better aerial dominance, and you get better recovery pace.
01:07So theoretically, those are two smart changes, because Croatia have no way to hurt you 1v1 in the wide areas,
01:15and they don't even have any pace to hurt you in transition, so, yeah, really good.
01:20But the problem, straight away, for me, is I think even that is too big of a concession to make
01:27in this game,
01:28because England really did struggle to unlock what was an excellent defensive performance from Ghana with this 11.
01:37And that is because Carlos Quieros, in terms of coaching a defensive unit, is a...
01:47Like, obviously, not literally, I could go to prison for saying that, although it wouldn't totally surprise me.
01:52And anyway, he got Ghana into this rock-solid 4-5-1 defensive block,
01:56and that England 11 did enough to win the game, but the problem is that they did not win the
02:04game.
02:05And when you look at it, the issues here are pretty straightforward.
02:07And in particular, Jed Spence and Anthony Gordon, as good players as they are,
02:12they struggle to make things happen from an attacking standpoint,
02:15when there is not space in behind the defence for them to attack.
02:20And this is Anthony Gordon's contribution in that first half.
02:24And there is one ball in behind the defence, which is what they were trying to do,
02:27but that comes to nothing.
02:29And beyond that, every single thing is just in that space where he can't attack the defence,
02:34and it has to go backwards.
02:36And that's, again, that's not massive criticism of him,
02:38that's just what happens when you take away that space.
02:41And Noni Madweke, likewise, one ball in behind, which is what they were trying to do,
02:46but again, nothing comes from it, and everything else,
02:48he can't find a way through in this position, so he has to go backwards.
02:53And thus, every single time, either of these two wide players,
02:57who, let us not forget, are your two most important players when you're facing a low block,
03:02when they could not get in behind, they tried to make it happen for themselves.
03:06They took a defender on 1v1, and these are all of their attempted take-ons in that game,
03:13and these are all of their successful ones.
03:16Like, Garner absolutely dominated those individual battles because they defended really well.
03:24And you can look at moments like this and get frustrated if you want to,
03:27and say that England are bad, this is terrible play, neither of these two players are good enough,
03:32but you can also look at it and say that it's just good defending,
03:38individually good defending from the full-backs,
03:40but in a team that is already set up to defend really well.
03:45Well, like, two things can be true at once, is my point.
03:49But anyway, yes, when you can't open up an opposition block like that,
03:52what does it give you?
03:53Well, it gives you Harry Kane, England's best attacker,
03:56someone who looked like you might run after the golden boot of this tournament,
03:59having six touches of the ball in those opening 45 minutes,
04:03and none of them being particularly exciting.
04:07Like, from an attacking standpoint, for a team that is built to supply chances to this one man,
04:12that is about as bare, thin, gruel as you are going to see.
04:19But, my very good and handsome, lovely friends, right,
04:23I cannot stress enough that no matter what you might think about these two teams,
04:28or more importantly, the perceived gap in quality between them,
04:32this result and this performance and everything you sat through last night and watched
04:36has more to do with how Garner defended than how England attacked.
04:42And I will sum, if you will allow me, all of that up in just one phase of attacking play.
04:4856th minute, right, Garner are actually leaving a bit of space in behind for once,
04:52and look at Anthony Gordon's body language, finally, a chance to break in behind.
04:58And while Mark Gage doesn't use him, it's okay, because his run alone pins the defender,
05:04and he can then get Jed Spence in, and he leaves Anaki Williams, his marker, in the dust.
05:12It's taken 56 minutes to get a ball in behind that defence, and finally, they've gone and done it.
05:19And yet, somehow, no, they haven't.
05:22Because by the time he receives the ball, both the centre midfielder and the centre-back
05:26have sprinted over to cover the gap the full-backs left.
05:30But no, you're right, that should then create the sort of space, the sort of chaos that allows you to
05:36do something.
05:36Because that's two players you've just pulled out of position, with a third being somewhere else entirely.
05:41So that's still good.
05:43But the thing is, Williams, who was left in the dust and could very easily have just gone,
05:48oh no, I've lost the guy I'm supposed to be marking.
05:51Oh well, never mind, I'm an attacker, and those two boys appear to have it covered.
05:55Then manages to sprint back, and covers for them.
05:59He gets back to Declan Rice.
06:01So he then, in turn, rolled it out to Anthony Gordon, but gonna get a body in front of him
06:06to stop the shot.
06:07So he rolled it out to Bellingham, but gonna get a body in front of him to stop the shot.
06:11So he rolled it out to Matueke, and just look how many bodies are in front of him and the
06:18goal.
06:19And because he is the only possible player not being marked, he has to try and have a shot,
06:24but it deflects off one player and then is cleared by another.
06:28And just, honestly, look at the box here.
06:32That is only 15 or 16 seconds from this moment at the start of the move,
06:37where it finally looked like they had left a load of space in behind.
06:42That is like, what, nine of your outfield players, all bar one.
06:46And don't get me wrong, Thomas Tuchel did recognise this and made changes that improved the quality of the attack.
06:52They went to sort of more of a 4-3-3, a very attacking 4-3-3,
06:56and that gave us Nico O'Reilly here, Eze here, and Rashford there,
06:59which, in terms of attacking quality, is levels and levels above what we had with Spence, Gordon, and Declan Rice.
07:06And even on this side, Morgan Rodgers came in.
07:09He linked up with Pakaio Saka really well, and that actually made life a lot easier for Rhys James.
07:13These were positive changes that made England look a lot better.
07:17It's just too little too late.
07:19And yet, right of the death, England get this chance.
07:23Like, Nico O'Reilly has been scoring that late run into the box for fun at Man City this season,
07:28and how Harry Kane misses from here, I will never know.
07:33And that should have been, right there, a hard-fought, difficult-to-watch,
07:37but ultimately pretty comfortable 1-0 win for England,
07:41and we would have just moved on and forgotten all about it.
07:44But again, the problem is that that is not what it was.
07:48It was a hard-fought and unpleasant-to-watch, disappointing, minging 0-0.
07:54So what is it then?
07:55What is the most important lesson you're ever going to learn in football,
07:58or whatever it was I said at the start of the video?
08:01Well, it is simply that this is okay.
08:05I know it's disappointing, and you always want your team to win the games they're supposed to win,
08:11and not embarrass themselves in the ones that they're not,
08:15but occasional nil-nils like this, where the other team just defends really well,
08:21it's fine, honestly, even if you are trying to win the World Cup.
08:26But just think for a second about England's best-ever tournament performances down the years, right?
08:32They only got five points in the group at the Euros.
08:35They drew nil-nil with the US at the World Cup before that.
08:38They drew nil-nil with Scotland at the Euros before that.
08:41And they got beat off Belgium at the World Cup before that.
08:44And yes, okay, I can hear you there.
08:46That was just Gareth Southgate, all right?
08:49But at 2002, where they were really good, they drew twice in that group.
08:54At Euro 96, they drew against Switzerland.
08:56Italia 90, they drew twice, including against Ireland.
09:00You have never seen, in your lifetime, an England team dominate a group at a tournament and do well.
09:08In fact, they haven't won every game in the group since, I'll give you a second to guess, 1982.
09:15And I do, I already know what you're going to say there, right?
09:18That's why we never win anything.
09:20We should be raising our standards.
09:22But Argentina played an exact replica of this game of football at the last World Cup.
09:27They got low-blocked to hell by Saudi Arabia and lost that match.
09:32And then I don't know if you remember, but they still went on and won the World Cup.
09:36England women won the last Euros and they got beat in the first game of France.
09:40I promise you, a little blip in the groups means nothing.
09:45And if you just cast your mind back to the first video we did right after they beat Croatia, okay?
09:50My exact words, probably, well, I did not expect England to look amazing in this tournament,
09:57but I did expect them to look like an elite team.
10:01And weirdly, that is more of an elite team performance than maybe the Croatia one was.
10:08And I know that does, that sounds mad, and indeed it might be, but just go with me for a
10:12second, right?
10:13Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, PSG, the most dominant teams in the world, they don't win every game.
10:20And when a 0-0 crops up, it tends to look almost exactly like what you've just sat through there.
10:26Total domination of the ball, insane possession and passing statistics,
10:31substitutions and tactical changes that improve their play, not worsen it,
10:36and then one or two massive chances that on another day go in.
10:41And that is precisely what these boys here managed to serve up.
10:46Apparently, this is the highest amount of possession any team has ever had at a World Cup
10:53without scoring a goal.
10:55And if that is not the England you know and love, I don't know what is.
11:01And just to quickly finish here on simply an enormous running-down-the-side-of-my-face glug of the
11:07old copium,
11:08the reality is that's not exactly a team that's designed to play through, creatively, a really low defensive block.
11:17Because in open play, what they want to do is attack the space,
11:20and when they did that against Croatia, they looked really, really good.
11:23So to deal with games like this, Thomas Tuchel did not bring Phil Foden or a Cole Palmer,
11:30who will get into the block and try and unpick it, often unsuccessfully.
11:34What he brought was height.
11:36And that is why England's best chances in this game all come from crosses,
11:41both in open play and from set pieces.
11:43So the idea, if you are indeed still humoring me at this point,
11:46is that this should be really effective later in the tournament against better teams,
11:51even if it's not that impressive to watch against the lesser teams.
11:57Like, four points from Ghana and Croatia with Panama up next is pretty good.
12:03It's absolutely fine.
12:04You just go and win that game against the bottom rank side,
12:07you top the group, and everybody's happy.
12:12Provided you win that game and top the group and everybody's happy.
12:16I'm very relaxed about all this, is my point.
12:19And if you can visibly see the beads of sweat running down the side of my head,
12:23that is because I know you're all having a heatwave back home,
12:27but we haven't stopped having a heatwave over here.
12:29I have the loosest shorts you've ever seen in your life.
12:32YouTube would age-restrict this video if you could see them.
12:35In fact, it is a billion degrees in here,
12:39and it has been since I arrived.
12:42But anyway, yes, before you start asking why haven't you got a tan then, Adam,
12:46and I have to tell you, just because I'm built that way,
12:49we're going to wrap the video up there.
12:50It's bad. It was terrible. Horrible, horrible to watch.
12:53And I nearly didn't do a video, but as a good friend,
12:55I was sitting watching it with said,
12:56you don't just get to do videos on the good games, Adam.
12:59You have to explain why stuff sucks sometimes.
13:03So that is why that sucked.
13:06I'm really sorry if you stayed up to watch it live.
13:07That must have been a terrible disappointment.
13:10Hope you're enjoying work today with those bags under your eyes.
13:13But if you haven't already,
13:14please subscribe to us here at the Adam Cleary Football Channel,
13:16where I will explain why we beat Panama 5-0
13:20and why everything is just amazing and good and brilliant.
13:22And we're also covering all the US and Scotland games,
13:25as well as interesting things that happen as the tournament goes on.
13:28Look, I just did something on Lionel Messi
13:30because I'm just in this apartment all the time and I have nothing else to do.
13:33It's a good video, though.
13:34You should go and watch it.
13:35You can get me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
13:40That's it.
13:41That's it.
13:42Just move on.
13:44Get over it.
13:44It'll all be fine.
13:46It might still be coming home.
13:48We'll see.
13:49Goodbye.
13:50Bye.
13:51Bye.
13:51Bye-bye.
13:52Bye.
13:52Mwah.