Tactical Analysis: Gareth Southgate's England 2016 - 2024
In our final video covering Euro 2024, Adam Clery looks back over the tactical evolution of Gareth Southgate's side over the last 8 years. How he so quickly built the national team's first real identity in years, why they always went deep into tournaments before coming unstuck at the final hurdles, and why it's for the best that he's stepped aside now.
From the 2018 World Cup in Russia, to this year's final vs Spain, via the heartbreak against Italy... this is the story of England's greatest ever period of international football, and the man responsible for it.
From the 2018 World Cup in Russia, to this year's final vs Spain, via the heartbreak against Italy... this is the story of England's greatest ever period of international football, and the man responsible for it.
Transcript
00:00Hello everybody, Adam Cleary and his broken hand here, and yep, the Euros coverage is
00:08done, we're finished, we're moving on, it's all fun, sexy, exciting transfers now and
00:13how your club is going to play next season, but just before we pack away all the Euros
00:19stuff, I just want to talk about Gareth Southgate, because eight years is a long old time to
00:24be the manager of any side, never mind a national one, and I've already seen loads of, I can't
00:29do quotation marks with this hand, but debate since he announced his retirement about whether
00:34or not he was good for England, or whether or not he kind of held them back, and I know
00:38what you're thinking, you did so many videos over the Euros Adam, should you not be on
00:42holiday with your girlfriend right now, and yep, great point, but two small issues, one,
00:47can't really afford a holiday, and two, I don't have a girlfriend, I have you lot, so
00:53let's get into it.
00:54Okay, so first up, and please do take a deep breath and a comfy seat for this, this was
01:02the England XI when they were knocked out against Iceland that time that happened, and
01:08I could, I actually think, just do an entire video on why that as a football team would
01:14never ever work, like given that probably the best ever midfield in a 4-3-3 was Busquets,
01:20Xavi and Iniesta, what's, what's supposed to happen here? Like Wayne Rooney's gonna
01:26want to be sort of like here and not there, and Dele Alli's gonna want to be here and
01:30not there, and Harry Kane of course, he likes to drop off into there instead of there, and
01:34then Sturridge and Sterling, they both like to sort of be, yeah, there and not there.
01:40But not to worry though, because centre-back Eric Dier is there, so he'll, he'll hold all
01:45that together. So yes, rather unsurprisingly, this team, plus Jamie Vardy, who didn't really
01:50like playing for England, and Adam Lallana, who didn't know what he was doing playing
01:53for England, and Jack Wilshere, who hadn't played for anybody all season, never mind
01:57England, it got beat by Iceland, and if you don't remember that, let me just sort of frame
02:01it for you, that was about as low as it has ever, ever felt supporting England.
02:07But don't worry though, because just when things felt like they couldn't get any worse,
02:10they hired Sam Allardyce, and he was gonna tell this team what's what, he was gonna get
02:15rid of all these underperforming stars, and bring through this bright new generation of
02:19talent, and this was his first eleven. Now yes, very well observed, you have noticed
02:26that f*** all has sort of changed there. Jon Stones is in, so that's nice, and Jordan Henderson's
02:31adding a bit more control here, but by and large, that's still the same England side
02:36that isn't gonna do anything, ever, to anyone.
02:39And you remember what happened next, he got done in that Sting operation, I completely
02:42forget what it was about, he was drinking that pint of wine, he got made to leave the
02:46job, because obviously that's incredibly embarrassing, and having already turned to the Sunderland
02:52manager, no offence Sunderland, for the England job, the FA were like, now what?
02:58But not unlike some sort of mawkish, deeply cringed, posi vibes insta account, the FA instead
03:05turned inward, to under 21's manager, Gareth Southgate.
03:09Now the downside to this appointment was that his club management record was really bad,
03:13and the FA were accused of having a jobs for the boys, I still can't do that, mentality,
03:18but on the plus side, it was just caretaker charge until they found somebody else, and
03:22he was working with the under 21's, so he was very familiar with a lot of the exciting
03:27players they expected to break through in the next few years.
03:30But then something pretty strange started to happen, right, England didn't exactly set
03:34the world on fire during Southgate's temporary stint in charge, they beat Malta and Scotland
03:40and drew with Spain and Slovenia, but it was pretty clear in those games that for the first
03:44time in years, they had some sort of cohesive way of playing.
03:49He decided to build everything around Harry Kane up front, he gave debuts to Jordan Pickford,
03:53to Harry Maguire, to Kieran Trippier, and heading into the 2018 World Cup, nobody fancied
03:58England to do anything, but at least we thought they probably wouldn't get embarrassed.
04:03And if you remember, they actually went to that 2018 World Cup with a pretty bananas
04:08system.
04:09You had Kyle Walker as this right-sided centre-back, you had absolutely not a pivot player, Jordan
04:14Henderson, as the single pivot, you had all the width coming from Ashley Young and Kieran
04:19Trippier, they would bomb all the way down the flanks, and then you had, for reasons
04:23I cannot remember, Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard just completely free as these sort of like
04:28half-8s, half-10s, and then Kane and Sterling more or less as a front two.
04:33And I can't believe I'm saying this now, but it made England almost overnight one of the
04:37best out-of-possession sides in world football.
04:41They were so, so solid and hard to break down.
04:45Like obviously one of the reasons for that is they've got a back five here with a very
04:48hard-working midfielder sitting in front of them, but the main reason was just sort of
04:52how cohesive England were out-of-possession.
04:56Like when Kane and Sterling would press high, which they did like to do, the entire team
05:00would sort of shuffle up behind them, compact the space and force the opposition to try
05:04and go long, but when they sat off, which they were more prone to do, they would defend
05:09a lot deeper, they would do that as a unit as well and force the opponent to just make
05:13mistakes.
05:14Like going back through England's numbers from that tournament is like genuinely a bit
05:18weird because they had like the lowest number of tackles per 90 minutes of any team in the
05:24tournament.
05:25They had the least amount of fighting to regain possession.
05:28Like Danny Rose was England's most frequent tackler of that entire tournament, right,
05:33and he ranks 103rd overall.
05:38They also conceded one of the highest numbers of switches of play in that tournament, which
05:42is just so indicative of a team defending deep and defending really well and the opposition
05:47just constantly lumping it from side to side trying to find a gap, which of course they
05:52virtually never did.
05:53And this is why it does kind of bug me a little bit to hear people talking about Southgate
05:58as like tactically limited or setting his teams up very naively, because to go from
06:03the previous Euros where they had no structure, no plan, nothing, to this in two years is
06:10genuinely incredible.
06:11And I do think it was sort of in this system and this shape that kind of defined what Southgate
06:16was going to be as England manager for the next three tournaments, because they were
06:20set up so functionally and so dependably that it enabled just little bits of magic
06:26to happen in the final third with these more creative players.
06:29Now, of course, the thing is in Delhi Alley and Jesse Lingard, you've not got two players
06:33there who are going to go and dominate an international tournament.
06:36They're not going to come up against some of the best teams in the world and basically
06:40take that game by the scruff of the neck.
06:42So England did need to improve in terms of the quality they had on the pitch if that
06:45was ever going to be a viable option.
06:47But what they had in this tournament that worked so well for them was two things.
06:52First of all, Harry Kane's level of... is lethality a word?
06:56Like his chance conversion was so, so good.
06:59It meant that England were getting goals they probably shouldn't have otherwise have got
07:02and set pieces they were brilliant at.
07:05Like first off, just on Kane, he got six goals that tournament from just 11 shots at about
07:11like 4xG, which is incredible.
07:15Incredible chance conversion.
07:16But second only to Cherchev, the Russian centre-forward, about whom's performance I will be casting
07:22precisely zero aspersions, none.
07:25In Stones, Maguire, Henderson and Kane, you had four just brilliant options to attack
07:30the ball directly.
07:31In Delhi Alley, you had someone who was great in the air, but benefited from having clever
07:35movement in the box.
07:36And in Trippier and Young, you had two fantastic dead ball deliverers.
07:40Deliverers?
07:41Deliverers.
07:42Deliverers is a word, isn't it?
07:44Delivery guys.
07:46And whether it was the fabled love train where all these players would split and run in different
07:50directions at the very last second, or whatever the hell this David Blaine-Uri Geller thing
07:55was that Sterling should have scored from, England were so lethal at set pieces and so
08:00solid at the back.
08:01And if that makes them sound like a little bit two-dimensional or boring, then they weren't
08:06really.
08:07They just weren't a team that wasn't even going to try and play sort of fluid football
08:11through the middle of the pitch.
08:12Like England's actual passing numbers in that tournament were very high.
08:15They had loads of the ball, they moved it around really well, but their progressive
08:19passing numbers, which is the nice balls you want to play forward, that was comparatively
08:24very low.
08:25They simply didn't have a player in that profile who could do that.
08:28And that is why, by the end of the tournament, England's most frequent passers per 90 minutes
08:33were Walker and Stones and Maguire.
08:36They would look to have settled safe possession at the back, hopefully move the opposition
08:40around, create running channels for the players forward, and then just woomph, lump it.
08:45And I know you definitely remember Kieran Trippier's free kick against Croatia, but
08:49do you remember how England got that free kick?
08:51Like here they are, they're having that controlled, settled possession at the back, it opens up
08:55a running channel for somebody further forward, and Walker poofs it.
08:59All of a sudden, England are up the other end of the pitch, Lingard plays in alley,
09:03Modric fouls him, and they get that chance on the edge of the box.
09:06There was no attempt to play through Croatia, to move them around in a particularly clever
09:09way, that was just how they attacked.
09:12And while the shape is a little bit crazy, this is still a pretty simple and effective
09:15way of playing.
09:16Like, it'd be difficult to break down in your own half and maximise your opportunities
09:20in the opposition's half.
09:21But it does have one or two fairly major flaws to it, like every system does.
09:27But one in particular, you are going to recognise.
09:31Because when England were defending, they basically had to go into a back five, that
09:35meant that if the opposition team had wide players who were capable of moving in field,
09:40that would then really narrow England.
09:43Because it's a simple system, nobody's being told to do anything that requires too much
09:47thought, the wing backs, they've got assigned players, so if those players move, so do they.
09:52The problem you've got now is that you're asking 2-8, who secretly dream of being 10s,
09:58to then cover into all this wide space here, where the opposition full backs are now going
10:03to get in.
10:04And thus, the similarities between Croatia's equaliser in 2018, and more or less all of
10:09Spain's chances in 2024, are about as stark as Kit Harington.
10:15Croatia's wide attacker has pulled Ashley Young really narrow with the rest of the defence,
10:19leaving this huge hole on the opposite side of the pitch for Dele Alli to get out to,
10:24but of course the switch of play means there is way too much ground to cover, way too much
10:28space to close before Croatia get that cross in.
10:31And you will not believe who Mandzukic gets ahead of there to steer that ball home.
10:38And that is presented entirely, entirely without comment.
10:44But why am I focusing so much on 2018?
10:46They got to the final of the next two Euros, they had that whole thing with France at the
10:51next World Cup, what is it about this tournament that's so important?
10:54Well of all the major things that have been levelled at Southgate's management of England,
10:59this game is pretty much where they all started, right?
11:02We got an easy route into the latter stages and as soon as we played a good team we got
11:06eliminated and most importantly, when we took the lead, we then sat back.
11:12Just that second one in particular, right, I've wanted to say this for like five or six
11:15weeks now, right, this idea that England take the lead and then deliberately sit back and
11:20just try and hold onto it, right, is the biggest steaming pile of dog s*** that floats around
11:28the generally accepted footballing consensus.
11:31It's just not even slightly true.
11:33In any major tournament game, when England have taken the lead, be that early or otherwise,
11:38so you're talking like Croatia, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, you name them, right, they
11:44have desperately wanted to push on and get a second goal, but they are entirely incapable
11:51of doing that.
11:52I mentioned progressive passing, right, in the 2018 World Cup, it was one of the things
11:56England weren't particularly good at and one of the reasons why they tried to be defensively
12:00very compact and then direct moving up the pitch, right.
12:03They're not good at little interchanges of play and then moving it through a press.
12:07This is where England ranked for it at the 2018 World Cup, this is where they ranked
12:11for it at the Euros in 2021, and this is where they ranked for it at the Euros in 2024.
12:17And while the calibre of player that England now have available to them is drastically
12:22different from what it was in 2018, like you've gone from like that to, I'm moving these around
12:28too much, that to this, in the space of like half a generation of players, the one thing
12:33they still don't have here is somebody who can play that type of football.
12:39The fundamental difference with international football is it doesn't matter who you're playing,
12:43no team is ever going to sit back and go, oh, 1-0 or 2-0's not so bad, maybe we might
12:48nick a point at the end of it.
12:50Whenever you take the lead, no matter who you're playing, you force them to push forward
12:55to come onto you to try and get a goal back.
12:58In every single tournament under Gareth Southgate's manager, no matter who the players were, the
13:02more you would squeeze them, the more you would press them into their own half, the
13:06more they would struggle, because they just never had the sort of profile of midfielder
13:10specifically who will receive that ball under a lot of pressure, can get turned, can go
13:15past one or two players, and can move them up the pitch.
13:18By the time of the next Euros, Southgate had evolved this side to be a lot better on the
13:22ball, but also one of the most sort of tactically adaptable, adaptable teams in the entire tournament.
13:28Like they'd reverted to a back four to get the running up the lines from Shaw and Walker,
13:33they now had Rice and Phillips in the middle, which while, again, not able to play through
13:37a press or fixing that particular problem, was still a really good mix of like on the
13:41ball ability, driving from deep, but also defensive solidity.
13:45You had Mason Mountier who was capable of dropping back to make it a three, or leading
13:48the press with Harry Kane when they didn't have the ball, and when they did have the
13:51ball, he would float out to the left hand side to allow Sterling to basically play as
13:55a second striker.
13:56It was a really, really good system.
13:58But then, and precisely because they still haven't got that sort of profile of midfielder,
14:03when they came up against the better teams, where they knew they weren't going to dominate
14:06the ball, they would revert back to the three or five at the back.
14:10Against Germany and Italy, they lined up this way so they could be really solid and compact
14:14with these five here, still get width from Shaw, and in this case, Trippier, and then
14:19Mount was sort of free to sort of get around and press as needs be and Sterling could go
14:23and support Harry Kane.
14:24And when it comes to the final of Euro 2020 slash 2021, whatever you want to call it,
14:29right?
14:30It's important to remember that two things can be true at the same time.
14:34Like on the one hand, it is absolutely true that Southgate did not use his bench effectively.
14:39The Italians probably couldn't believe their luck that certain players were being brought
14:42onto the field at certain times.
14:44But also it is true that England did not just sit back and try and protect a one goal
14:51lead.
14:52Italy suffocated them.
14:53And I'm not entirely sure if this is going to work, but I'll just, I'll just try and
14:56show you what I mean, right?
14:58These are all the locations after that goal against Italy, right?
15:02That England successfully made a pass from.
15:06And what I'm hoping should be apparent from this is just this sort of like thin spot in
15:11the deep central area of the row and half.
15:13But that is where the bulk of them should be.
15:16That should be the first place you're able to get a player on the ball and then go wide
15:19or go long or go direct or whatever.
15:21But England really could not get into that area.
15:24And that's because after they scored the goal, Italy really put the squeeze on and forced
15:28them back into their own half.
15:29And because they couldn't play through that kind of pressure, they were constantly forced
15:33to go long into it.
15:35But of course it just came back as Kane was up against two centre backs or they went out
15:39wide where of course players were then receiving it, facing back towards their own goal.
15:42So they had to come back the exact same way.
15:44Like England did not sit back or play negative.
15:48They just could not get up the pitch.
15:50And also as well, do you know what really, really winds me up, right?
15:52People who will look you dead in the eye and talk to you about that game.
15:56Oh, England did this and England did that and they played this way and they played that
15:59way, right?
16:00You don't remember.
16:03Nobody remembers that night.
16:04Do you have any idea how drunk this country was watching that game of football?
16:08Anyone who tells you that's how that game happened, right?
16:11It wasn't an awful nerd like me who's been back and watched it.
16:15They are talking absolute wham.
16:18But again, just like 2018, Gareth Southgate had built a team that was capable of going
16:22deep into a tournament on the basis of a solid defensive foundation because they were incapable
16:28of playing through heavy pressure.
16:30He knows they're not going to dominate games.
16:32But then in 2022, I think Southgate got as close to cracking this formula as he ever
16:38did.
16:39It was 2011 that started that quarterfinal against France and again, it was another hard
16:43luck tale of England getting beat off the first.
16:45I'm going to stop trying that now.
16:47Good team they came across, but they were honestly so much better than France were in
16:52that match.
16:53Still couldn't really play through like an intense high press, but France had like Giroud
16:57and Mbappe and Griezmann and Dembele on the pitch, so they were never going to squeeze
17:01them all that hard.
17:02And with this combination of like Maguire left centre back, Bellingham left central
17:06midfielder, they could progress the ball through this channel brilliantly.
17:11And that is because, by the way, for all Maguire basically became this figure of phone and
17:15defined a lot of the criticisms about Gareth Southgate, he was the absolute perfect centre
17:20back for this system.
17:21He loved to carry the ball forward, he could go past a man, and if anybody did get a bit
17:25of pressure onto him, he then had a range of passing, he could find whoever became free
17:28as a result.
17:29And you combine that with the kind of player Jude Bellingham was two years ago, where he
17:33wasn't really an out and out goal threat, but he certainly wasn't a six.
17:36He loved to sort of float around in this eight space, either go wide to allow players
17:40to come inside or pick the ball up off the defenders.
17:43It was perfectly, almost, well balanced.
17:46And they were, honestly, people don't believe me, they were miles better than France in
17:50this game.
17:51Like they dominated the ball, they had way more possession, they had way more attempts
17:53on goal, and if it wasn't for like a 35-yard shit pinger and Harry Kane missing a penalty,
17:59they probably would have won that quite comfortably.
18:01But I'm pretty sure I'm going to have titled this video in two parts, like why Gareth Southgate
18:05was brilliant, but also why it was absolutely time for him to sling his hook.
18:10And thus ends the part where I explain why he deserved more respect, because now it's
18:16why I absolutely had to leave.
18:18England under Gareth Southgate was always a side that wanted to be very disciplined
18:22and very structured at the back, but quite freeform and quite creative going forward,
18:27because that is how underdogs play.
18:31No matter what you may have thought of England's performance at the previous European Championships,
18:35they wanted to give away very few attempts on goal, which they did, they're one of the
18:39best teams in the tournament for limiting the opponent's chances, and they wanted their
18:43really creative, special players to be able to do really creative, special things, which
18:49they may have left it late, they may not have done it as much as you want them to, but they
18:52did do it.
18:53And the reason that is an enormous problem for Gareth Southgate is that the profile and
18:57the stature and the reputation of the options now available to England has changed so dramatically
19:05it's not enough to have an underdog spirit.
19:07Just look at the stature of the attacking players England had available in that final,
19:12like say what you want about Harry Kane, but he's still proven this season he is one of
19:15Europe's most lethal centre-forwards.
19:17He was the best player in Germany, everybody joked, you had Phil Foden, he was the best
19:21player in the Premier League, you had Jude Bellingham, who was the best player in La
19:25Liga, but Kyo Saka, who you could make the argument for being the best player in the
19:29Premier League, Declan Rice, who you could make the argument for being the best player
19:32in the Premier League, Kobe Meunier, who you could make the argument for being the
19:35best young player in the Premier League, like it is not enough to simply have these set
19:40up to be solid and to be disciplined and just hope something happens.
19:44There was a moment in that final which was not broadcast on television but 442 have the
19:49footage of, because we found it somewhere, where Jude Bellingham goes absolutely ack-a-pot
19:55with Southgate because they again cannot get out with their own half.
19:59They're defending deep, they're scrapping to win it back, which they do, but there is
20:02no pass out of their own third, so Spain immediately get it back and should probably score from
20:07that situation.
20:08And the reality is, none of the attacking players, probably none of the players full
20:12stop who are going to be playing for England in the next two or three years, are ever going
20:17to be used to having to do that.
20:19Now I, me personally, do think that whoever the next England manager is, they're still
20:24going to have this huge problem of not having the right kind of player in the middle of
20:28the pitch to play through heavy pressure and that will probably forever hold England
20:32back until they start to address that, but the reality is, the attacking players they
20:38have available to them now, the players of the scope and the stature and the fame and
20:42the credibility and all of that, right, this is an England side that should probably be
20:47losing 4-3 than trying to win 1-0, if that makes sense.
20:52Like I just, put it this way, right, without that kind of player, England are never going
20:56to dominate tournaments the way that like Spain have or France have or Germany have
21:00or Argentina have or anything like that, right, so they might as well just constantly be going
21:07for it.
21:08And Gareth Southgate's not that kind of manager.
21:10But the thing is, right, and I hope this does come across in the tone of the video, right,
21:14if you are looking at this side and thinking, do you know what it is, give him his credit,
21:18give him his due for what he did leading up to this tournament, but it's pretty clear
21:22that the talent available has now outgrown the manager, well, Gareth Southgate is as
21:27instrumental in developing that talent as anybody.
21:31We didn't even get into it in this video, but the whole England DNA project that he
21:35helped to pioneer along with Dan Ashworth and people at the FA is the reason why England
21:40now have this absolute unbelievable embarrassment of technical talent at the far end of the
21:45pitch.
21:46Like so many of these players have come through from junior levels, through the under-17s,
21:50under-21s and now have gone from giving you an England side you just hoped didn't embarrass
21:56you in the summer to one that you feel so strongly should win things.
22:01And I do hope I've got the tone and the balance right in this video, because I honestly earnestly
22:06believe that Gareth Southgate deserves way more respect than he gets for his time as
22:10England manager.
22:11And these sort of accusations of being tactically limited or very negative and defensive are
22:16A, not even really true and B, when they are, not really something you can do anything
22:21about.
22:22But at the same time, I personally would have replaced him after the 2022 World Cup because
22:27the way this side was evolving, that sort of incoherent, sort of unbalanced type of
22:32performance was kind of inevitable.
22:35Like if you imagine them as works of art, England have got attacking options that were
22:39drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, but like a build-up structure that was drawn by Leonardo DiCaprio's
22:48girlfriend.
22:49Because she'd be like, she'd be really young, wouldn't she?
22:53And like kids can't, kids are bad, kids are bad at drawing, that's the gag.
22:57But yes, as ever, my dearest, dearest friends, please let me know what you think of all of
23:01this of Gareth Southgate's time in charge.
23:03Is he getting the credit he deserves?
23:04Has he ultimately held them back?
23:05Have you not listened to a bloody word I've said?
23:08Please let me know in the comments below.
23:09And if you're too good for that, get me on all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
23:15And also, I don't know if I've got to tell you, please do subscribe to us here on the
23:19442.
23:20The amount of new subs we've had over the like Euros and stuff has been absolutely insane.
23:24And hopefully, hopefully that will let us do loads of amazing stuff for your club specifically.
23:30But that's it, that's pretty much everything, isn't it?
23:32Oh, oh this, oh yes, of course.
23:34This, it was a boking accident.
23:38Goodbye.