Angel Gomes isn't a superstar in the mold of Bellingham, Foden, or Palmer. But in his debut performances for England he has already proved that he might be the missing link the team has needed for decades. Adam Clery takes a long-awaited look at Gomes as a player, and explains exactly why he could be a necessity for those around him to finally flourish.
And yes, this is the Angel Gomes video we said we'd made last month. It's finally time! Enjoy!
And yes, this is the Angel Gomes video we said we'd made last month. It's finally time! Enjoy!
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00:00All right, so yes, England 2, Finland nil, and I'm not going to get back into like the
00:05whole tactical makeup of that game because we've already done that video, you can go
00:09watch it if you're curious, I'll stick it in the description, but it was sort of supposed
00:12to be a 4-2-3-1, except you watched it, it wasn't, because Jack Grealish likes to get
00:17into that half space there, Declan Rice was pushing up onto the other side there, and
00:21that was lefting Angel Gomez all the midfield to himself.
00:24Obviously not all the midfield to himself, because you had Rico Lewis coming in here
00:28and you had Trent Alexander-Arnold sort of coming in there, so it was one of these sort
00:31of patented 2-3-5 things, but the central hub, the warm centre of the universe that
00:36this whole team orbited around was Angel Gomez, and I thought he was very specifically excellent.
00:43Now England, as you no doubt know, have sort of struggled with this central midfield profile
00:49for a very long time.
00:50They keep producing players of exceptional quality who do kind of fit into that position,
00:56and yet they get into major tournament games and don't feel like they have anybody of
01:00exceptional quality.
01:01Jordan Henderson, Calvin Phillips, Declan Rice, Conor Gallagher, Cobby Maynew, Trent
01:06Alexander-Arnold, all players who at club level repeatedly do amazing things in the
01:11middle of the park, and yet as soon as an England shirt goes on, and England come up
01:15against the bigger and better nations, or even just the smaller ones that are quite
01:19technically competent, they never feel like they, and this is the term, control games.
01:25A little bit too Dr. Evil that, wasn't it?
01:27Laser beam.
01:28Anyway, both the finals against Italy and Spain, those two semi-finals against the Netherlands
01:33and Croatia, even the quarter-final against Germany in Euro 2020, win or lose, England
01:39come away from these games against the more technical sides not having had that control.
01:44And you know what it's like, we come out of these tournaments and we all sit around
01:49and we scratch our heads and we wonder why teams like this, that are just so unbelievably
01:53full of talent, seem to struggle in these big games, why they don't go on and take
01:59advantage of early goals, why they seemingly sit back, why they can never get out of their
02:03own half, why they're constantly succeeding possession, territory, and chances.
02:07But the issue, plain and simply, is that England do not produce the kind of players that enable
02:14you to control these kinds of games.
02:17Now just before we go down this rabbit hole, right, I do need to stress that the kind of
02:21players we're about to talk about here are not the end-all be-all of football.
02:26Like England are capable of producing these fantastic attacking players who thrive in
02:31these games, which is why they've played France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands,
02:36I'm no doubt forgetting some, and have scored in every single one of those games, which
02:41is genuinely very impressive.
02:44And they also produce these fantastic, athletic, intelligent, defensive players who are also
02:50class at this level, which is why of all the harrowing tournament exits I've just mentioned,
02:55none of them have been by anything more than a goal.
02:58So no matter who England are playing, they are more than capable of scoring, they are
03:01more than capable of defending, but the one thing you haven't really seen them do at all
03:07over like the last eight years in a game, is control it.
03:10And that, in an incredibly unsuccinct roundabout way, is why Angel Gomez could be so important.
03:19So this, from the Finland game, is his heat map.
03:21Now I want you to look at that for a second and try and work out what it is that jumps
03:25out to you about it, okay?
03:27Take a second.
03:28Okay, so, thought about it?
03:29Yep, right.
03:30If your answer was nothing in particular, Adam, you are correct.
03:34But now we will also overlay all of his touches of the ball, and I want you to look at that
03:38as well and tell me what jumps out at you about it now.
03:41Give you another second.
03:43Yeah, you got it?
03:44Yep, that's exactly right.
03:46Still nothing in particular.
03:47What you are looking at here is merely the statistical data of a player who is always
03:52on.
03:53He isn't constantly going and collecting it off the back four, being the automatic first
03:57pass out of defence and starting off every single move.
04:01But neither is he taking advantage of Finland's very, very deep set up and looking to get
04:05himself into these attacking number 10 areas or out wide and provide overlaps.
04:09He's just always on.
04:13And what that means is that when England have time and space to build out from the back,
04:17they can give it to him.
04:18But when they're being pressed and space is limited, they can still give it to him.
04:23When the opposition are sort of defending on the halfway line and they need to move
04:26the ball from side to side to try and create a bit of space, they can give it to him.
04:30And when the opposition go back into a really low block and they're congesting all the space
04:33in the final thirds, they can give it to him.
04:36When an attack, be it on the left or the right or through the middle, breaks down and they
04:40need to recycle the ball and start again, they can give it to him.
04:44When they've just successfully counter-pressed, have got the ball back and need to decide
04:47whether they go for the jugular or reset their shape, they can give it to him.
04:52And none of that is in any way remarkable aside from the fact that he plays for England.
04:59And this is what people mean when they talk about the profile, I've got to stop doing
05:02that, the profile of player.
05:05Like Angel Gomez is not better than Declan Rice or better than Trent Alexander-Arnold
05:09or better than Kobe Meunier, but he does very different things on a football pitch.
05:14And why that could be so important to England is because these specific things he does,
05:19as possibly unspectacular as they are, are the things that could help a team who never
05:24control big games, control big games.
05:28So I will just, and my God please forgive me for doing this to you, take you back to
05:31England 1, Denmark 1 at the Euros.
05:34And I don't know about all of you lot, but this was the match where alarm bells started
05:39ringing for me.
05:40Because they were really good for a bit in their opening game and then they had the lead
05:42and they kind of dropped off and oh well they've started with a win, who cares.
05:45But their inability to exert control, to wrestle back the momentum from Denmark in this match
05:51was, yeah, worrying.
05:54And in central midfield that day was Declan Rice and Trent Alexander-Arnold, two unarguably
06:00of the best players in the Premier League.
06:02Now this is Declan Rice's heat map from that afternoon and you will see he had to do most
06:06of his work in his own half.
06:09And that's because when Denmark did defend, they did so pretty much from the halfway line.
06:13So when Declan Rice had possession, when he could set the tempo, all he saw in front of
06:18him was an impenetrable red wall.
06:20And if you look at his passing map, you will see that he never had the confidence or the
06:24ability to try and play through any of that.
06:27This is all sideways.
06:29But conversely, if we look at Trent Alexander-Arnold's information from the same game, you'll see
06:32that he actually really struggled to get on the ball.
06:36They couldn't find him very easily.
06:38But obviously when they did, he's far better on the ball.
06:40So he's more likely to make something happen.
06:42And yet, if we look at his passes, they're so direct.
06:45He's constantly going long.
06:47He's constantly trying to switch it.
06:48He's constantly trying to play the ball miles away from where he currently is because that's
06:52the only place there's any space.
06:54And what you've got here between how Declan Rice played that game and how Trent Alexander-Arnold
06:58played that game are two ways not to control a game of football.
07:03Like Declan Rice's energy is excellent.
07:04He was getting across the pitch really well.
07:06He was always available for that pass, which is what you want.
07:09But the problem is that when he got it, he couldn't then unpick one line of pressure.
07:14He couldn't gently move the team up the pitch at the tempo he wanted them to.
07:19And likewise, while Trent Alexander-Arnold can do those things on the ball, they couldn't
07:22find him very well.
07:23He wasn't covering the ground well enough.
07:25And his instinct is always to go for the killer pass, never to progress the team up the pitch.
07:31Say it with me, everybody.
07:32Great players.
07:33Yes.
07:34Right profile.
07:35No.
07:36What you saw from Angel Gomez against Finland was like the secret third in possession option
07:42where he will make himself available and will cover the ground excellently, as you can see
07:46in his heat map.
07:47But when he receives the ball, it doesn't matter if there is space in front of him or
07:51someone in his face.
07:53He can decide how they're going to progress up the pitch.
07:56When Finland was set defensively, he was bringing the ball forward, waiting for a bit of pressure
08:00to come towards him and then slipping the ball into the space that provided.
08:04And when Finland were not set and chances were opening up, he would quicken up the pace.
08:08He would find players with more direct balls.
08:10He would go a little bit longer.
08:11This is my favourite example in the whole game.
08:13An England attack is broken down on the left hand side and they're recycling it by giving
08:18it to Gomez.
08:19He's about to play a very simple, very readable and very interceptable pass here.
08:23But his body language is such that no Finland player cottons on to where this is going.
08:29And as a result, not only is he now picked the ball up inside the Finnish block, attracting
08:33players toward him and creating a bit of space, but he then deftly slots it into Alexander
08:38Arnold, who has also taken up a similar position.
08:41And now he's in the number 10 position.
08:44He can make something happen.
08:46And because, as we saw with the Denmark stuff, he wants to kill teams.
08:49He wants to play that final ball.
08:51He slips in Bakayo Saka.
08:53And if he scores, that probably becomes my favourite ever England goal in the Nations
09:00League.
09:01And just to put all that statistically, right, these are Angel Gomez's passing numbers over
09:05the last 365 days compared to the top five leagues.
09:08God bless to you, FB ref, I love these graphs so much.
09:12And you will see he's a very competent passer of the ball.
09:15Now, you need that if you're going to want to control the game.
09:17So we'll just bring Kobi Meinu up here and you'll see that's not his game at all.
09:22Kobi Meinu is a wonderful, wonderful player who England should find a role for here.
09:26But his skills are in progression through dribbling, through press evasion, through
09:30things like that.
09:31He's not the passer.
09:32But then you compare him to Declan Rice, who does see an awful lot of the ball, plays in
09:35a high possession side like Arsenal, and all of a sudden starts to look a bit similar.
09:40But there's one key metric here that shows you the difference.
09:44They both see a lot of passes.
09:45They both get the ball into the final third.
09:47They both get the ball into the penalty area, which is what you want.
09:50But just my word, the through balls comparison here, the ability to split a line of defense,
09:56a line of pressure with one of your passes, that is not Declan Rice at all.
10:02He has got that Celine Dion ball in his locker near, far, wherever you are.
10:06So long as you're a mark, Declan Rice has the skill to find you.
10:10But he does not have the ability to play through you.
10:13And if you want to control a game, you want to move teams around, you want to force them
10:16to play at the tempo you want to play at, you need to be able to do that.
10:20And also, I do have to say, as like the number one critic of little passing nerds and how
10:25much they ruin football, if you look at the progressive passes number here, which is a
10:30measure of how often these balls go forward, as opposed to just pointlessly go sideways,
10:36he knows what he's doing.
10:37It's not passing for passing sake, it's passing with intent.
10:40Now, I'm not the first person to make this point, and I'm certainly not going to be the
10:43last.
10:44But if you're looking for sort of a recent high profile player to sort of draw an easy
10:48comparison to, he's not Rodri, so he lacks the physical presence and the other things
10:54that Rodri can do.
10:55But he is very similar to Marco Verratti.
10:58And if you just bring his numbers up by comparison, obviously these are from his last season of
11:03PSG, not while he's been in Qatar, you will see he is also just one of the most complete
11:08and aggressive passes of the ball imaginable.
11:11But also, crucially, splitter of lines, which does sort of make him sound like a cross between
11:17a Game of Thrones character and a dealer.
11:20And just really quickly, as a fun thought experiment at the end of this video, this
11:24would now give England the possibility of having almost a perfect midfield unit of three.
11:30You could have Gomez at the base, you could have the ball progression of Kobe Maynard,
11:35you can have the all round versatility and boxer of Declan Rice.
11:38But then what you have to do is somehow get Bakayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Cole
11:45Palmer, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham, that's six, into these three positions.
11:53So best of luck, Lee.
11:54Sorry, what's that?
11:56What would my England set up be?
12:01Come back to me.
12:02So yes, there you go.
12:03That's the Angel Gomez video, I promised you.
12:05But only now, as I'm starting to wrap it up, has it occurred to me, I'm like, tops, 85%
12:13sure it's Angel Gomez and not Angel Gomez for some reason.
12:18That might be all the Barclays men content I'm consuming.
12:21Anyway, if you have enjoyed this video, please do consider subscribing to us here at 442,
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12:35And you subscribers, whether it's a milestone or not, do genuinely help us grow the channel
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12:43So if you've not clicked that button yet, I can't promise you'll never regret it because
12:47I'm not a fortune teller, but I think you won't.
12:50You can get me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, I'm occasionally
12:55sort of fun there too.
12:57But until next time, which mercifully will be when the Premier League comes back, I've
13:01been Adam Cleary, that's Angel Gomez, this is the England side that's gonna win the f***ing
13:06lot, and I'll see you soon.
13:09Bye!
13:10I forgot what the word was.
13:12Bye.