England's Nations League campaign ended in spectacular style, with a 5-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland at Wembley. Despite going in 0-0 at the half, a five-goal haul was kickstarted by Harry Kane, and saw Anthony Gordon, Conor Galagher, Jarrod Bowen, and Taylor Harwood-Bellis all get their first goals for their country.
Adam Clery looks at how Ireland made it so hard for England in the first half, and how Lee Carsley finally found a way through in the second.
Adam Clery looks at how Ireland made it so hard for England in the first half, and how Lee Carsley finally found a way through in the second.
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00:00Now just before we start this is my ancestral motherland, my entire family is from County
00:09Clare and this is what my passport looks like so it wasn't a particularly easy watch for
00:14me to be honest but also in fairness for about 50 odd minutes of that it wasn't a particularly
00:19easy watch for anybody because as we said Ireland turned up with a very specific game
00:24plan that looked like this and they deliberately tried to make it about as difficult a watch
00:29as possible. Like if I ever somehow end up doing very basic football tactics for beginners
00:34at a university one day this might well be the diagram I use to show you what a low block
00:40looks like. There is a very disciplined back four here with Nathan Collins a defensive
00:44midfielder dropping into it to make a back five when they needed to but also stopping
00:49any England players getting in the lines between the defence and the midfield by chasing them
00:54around and then in front of him and I use the words in front very loosely in this example
00:59there's a midfield four of two midfielders just sitting with him and two wingers Smoddicks
01:04and Ebusele just protecting their full backs. And then all the way up here on his own big
01:08strong young Evan Ferguson whose entire job was when Ireland did eventually get the ball
01:14back they would go direct into him straight away he would hold it up and try and pull
01:18the team up the pitch as quick as they could to get some kind of counter attack going.
01:22And as with every single team who plays a low block like this in a game like this Ireland's
01:27objective was very simple they sit deep to stop you having any space in behind they sit
01:32compact to stop you playing through the middle of them they force the ball out to the flanks
01:36where the space is then they try and win it back there go straight up the other end as
01:40quickly as possible and get a goal that way it's the old smash and grab. And for like
01:4655 minutes of this game that was actually working really really well England did not
01:51have a single shot on target in that first half and Ireland actually nipped up the other
01:57end here caused a bit of chaos by playing the ball into Ferguson he was supported by
02:01runners which is what you want and on another day I do think there are some referees that
02:08would not care that Walker touched the ball before he clattered into the Irish player
02:13they might give a penalty for that. Now this was the problem that England had to solve
02:17so what was the solution well it's a completely different conundrum to the one they had in
02:22Greece because they knew the Greeks were going to be aggressive they knew the Greeks were
02:25going to get into them to press them in their own half but this Irish team as you can see
02:30from the graph again is about as interested in the concept of the press as anybody under
02:35the age of 40. That's a joke about the decline of the newspaper industry. Laugh. Anyway yes
02:42the point I'm trying to make this is a very different type of game to the Greek one so
02:47it's not just a case of oh we'll get all the same players out we'll do all the same things
02:50and we'll probably win that as well because we're really good against Greece. Take your
02:54mind back to that beautiful Curtis Jones goal the little flick that was beautiful wasn't
02:58it rewind it England only created that because Jude Bellingham had just this wonderful arrogance
03:04to go and take the ball in his own box and go come on I know he's going to press me I
03:09know he's going to all want to come on to me come on bring as many as you like then
03:12he just flicked the ball past a lot of them and England had all the space in the world
03:17to get to the other end that was never ever look at it again going to happen in this game.
03:22So then and I am actually going to pretend I'm doing university for a set let's just
03:26yeah let's pretend we're in the lecture hall this is where your nine grand term is going
03:30right what are the three ways you can beat a low block anybody anybody well first off
03:36class quality if you've got players capable of doing really really special things that
03:41can be a way you can break down a big organized structure like this they might just dribble
03:48through four players or they might play an unbelievable pass so they might just ping
03:51it in from 45 yards something really special like that but obviously you can't really plan
03:58for that that's not really an effective strategy is it just might happen the second thing and
04:02this is what most teams have to do is set pieces because they're a great leveler aren't
04:07they doesn't matter how many players the opposition get back behind the ball doesn't matter how
04:11much they contest the space you get a dead ball situation you're kind of in control of
04:16what you want to do with that you can put players wherever you want to play them you
04:19can play the ball wherever you want to play if you've got a clever routine or just some
04:21really big players you're gonna get more joy than you are trying to pass through a wall
04:27of ten men this island team knows exactly where it wants to be knows exactly what it
04:30wants to do it's going to sit there unless you force it for some reason to disrupt its
04:36shape you drag a player out of the way and then you exploit that space you've made and
04:41that my friends is why lee carsley selected harry kane now this right this is harry kane's
04:49heat map across the entire 90 minutes and you'll notice straight away oh my grandma
04:55what big box threat you've got there he's getting in there he's getting on the end of
04:59stuff he's getting passes he's getting touches he's really contributing right near the goal
05:03and if you can bring yourself to cast your mind back to the european championships major
05:09criticism of him that wasn't it that this just never seemed to happen in almost every
05:14single game but the reason that i mentioned this was his contribution over 90 minutes
05:18i'm gonna change that background back i forgot about that uh for a second was because obviously
05:22the game changed quite dramatically after the red card if we also overlay all of his
05:29touches in the match prior to the penalty you will see that none of this none of this
05:37exists this was all all of it after uh i went down to 10 men and that's because very
05:43simply in this game harry kane's job was to not be a box threat while ireland had the
05:48low block he was doing what he does at bayer munich which was coming into the midfield
05:52getting short getting in around stuff trying to drag a defender any defender out of their
05:58position to allow someone else to get into that space and then someone else finds them
06:03now this is absolutely the right thing to do it's absolutely the right way to go about
06:07that but the problem was in the first half it just wasn't really working like here is
06:12a still of him attempting to do that you can see has not really dragged anybody out of
06:17position uh curtis jones is motioning to kind of try and get into this gap here bellingham's
06:23just off camera he's gone and occupied uh the center forward position but islander being
06:28really disciplined like here's another example this time kane's actually getting on the ball
06:31himself he's getting involved in the link up play and again the island shape is absolutely
06:37solid they're not taking the bait and getting dragged out of position uh to go and find
06:42him i'm not really going to go into it in this video but you can also see in this still
06:46here another approach england had to try and sort of break island open right you've got
06:50the two wingers gordon's off screen that's madueke on that side both really really wide
06:55right stretching the pitch as much as possible and these are the two full backs they're not
07:00looking to make overlapping runs all the time they were certainly doing in the game
07:04but they weren't doing all the time they were also when the wingers were stretching island
07:08trying to make underlapping runs and sort of get into the uh number eight positions
07:13that didn't work either but england were trying loads of different things to pull to stretch
07:17to drag to open up uh island and in those first 55 minutes none of it was working and
07:23to compound confound condense what's the word i want to make matters worse uh the rare occasions
07:30they were able to open island up they just weren't all quite on the same wavelength to
07:34then capitalize on it like here everybody sits off a bit they managed to drag island
07:39up the pitch the ball goes over the top but it's just not quite timed right madueke can't
07:44get on the end of it here gordon manages to drag some of the defenders out to the left
07:47this creates a little bit of space for bellingham but he just can't find him with the pass and
07:52that opportunity vanishes there was this one in the first half as well which when i saw
07:56it i started to think oh this might not be their night you know this might be a really really sort
08:01of uh uncomfortable game anthony gordon does an absolutely perfect bait the defense into stopping
08:07short to allow the overlapping fullback lewis hall in this case uh to get behind and all he's
08:12got to do is play him in here and he's in around the back but just either hall's gone too early
08:17or gordon isn't expecting him to be there they're just not on the same wavelength they do not
08:21capitalize on the little bits of space they do manage to create but there is my friends were
08:26back at the university a very good reason why i said lesson number one was quality and that is
08:32because the thing that eventually opens island up that wins the penalty for the first goal it
08:37sends them down to 10 men and changes absolutely everything about this match is a pass of such
08:43unbelievable quality it's almost impossible to defend against harry kane has once again evacuated
08:49the center forward position either to create space or to get onto the ball he has gone out onto
08:54the right hand side look if we go back to his touch map this was his last contribution before
08:59the penalty he gets on the ball and if we just switch the camera around because i've got access
09:03to the whole uh replay you can see island are probably happy-ish with this they're still in a
09:11good line there's no real chaos here they've gone from their back five into a back four you can see
09:16collins here has just started stepping out because up until a couple of seconds ago they did have the
09:19ball they were trying to uh get out the pitch and harry kane just somehow sees this run from jude
09:25bellingham and this is a combination of unbelievable quality from the pair of them combined
09:31with wavelength and i mean like if you just look at this as a freeze frame like this is why harry
09:37kane does have to remain part of this england squad for as long as he is able to like i understand the
09:41criticisms i've made them about his ability to press and to be on the front foot and forcing
09:46them up the pitch and to open up other teams like there are loads of games where i'd much rather
09:51have a watkins or a solanki but look at this how many center forwards do you know who can leave
09:58this space open and vulnerable to be exploited and then go and hit this exact pass because and i hope
10:06this gets appreciated like the quality of this pass is absolutely insane like if you just look
10:12at the situation right before he releases the ball most people really good players i think
10:17would play it on the ground through this channel here now the problem with that is that 99 percent
10:23of the time there scales is going to be a massive favorite if you get it far enough away from him
10:27that bellingham can outrun him to it then a it's possible the goalkeeper gets in and gets it or b
10:33it's actually moving away from goal by the time he gets to that ball there's no real chance there
10:38it's just they're getting behind and then the other option is you just try and chip it across
10:42these two defenders and land it right on his head that's a really difficult technique for
10:46bellingham to then execute having to sort of like time is run perfectly get the header back across
10:51goal it's a chance and again something you could see a lot of players attempting to do in that
10:55situation but it doesn't guarantee you anything like by the time it gets to him the angle's
11:00probably going to be quite tight very difficult thing to finish so what he actually manages to do
11:04is he still plays the ball into this channel it's not a chip it's not going over everybody's head
11:10it's going to land at bellingham's feet but he does it with just enough outside that doesn't
11:16come back too quick that scales can intercept it but also enough that by the time it gets to
11:21bellingham it's effectively curled around to arrive at his foot at like a 90 degree angle
11:26and like if you've played football that's the easiest angle to control a ball from if it comes
11:31like from any other direction it's able to bounce back the way it came so if it's coming into your
11:35instep and you slightly fumble it it's still in front of you like i'm not being funny here that
11:41is one of the best passes i've ever seen an england player do in an england international like
11:47if beckham or alexander arnold did that you'd be absolutely blown away i give harry kane
11:53his flowers for that ball and yeah from there they get the penalty island go down to 10 men they
11:58take the lead and that's their entire game plan completely out the window because now they have
12:02to open up a bit more they have to try and push up the other end of the field but they're also
12:06trying to do it with a man less so the space that then creates for england's they massively take
12:11advantage of the second goal is a great example of how you take advantage of teams with a man less
12:15you can see madueke is on the right he makes the run inside drags the fullback with him
12:20opens up this entire channel that liveramento gets into and yet it's not a great cross by any
12:25stretch of the imagination but at least he puts it in the box kyle walker i am actually going to
12:30write something by the way about why kyle walker never crosses the ball for england because it
12:34winds me right up and i've seen other people start to notice it as well so i'm going to do
12:39something on that at some point on my socials go find them but anyway because he actually bothers
12:44to put the cross in it creates a little bit of disorder ireland haven't made any subs since the
12:49goal so they're still trying to reorganize anthony gordon's their quality finish two nil and you
12:54don't need me to break down every single goal in this game the fourth one's a really clever set
12:57piece which we said is something really good for breaking down low blocks the fifth one's an
13:00unbelievable cross from bellingham because as we said quality can be used to break down a low block
13:05but the third one that's quite interesting like island have just conceded the second goal here
13:10this is literally 10 or 15 seconds after the kickoff you can just see the small bit of body
13:16language telling them to push up the pitch this is about as high a press as they've committed to
13:20in the entire match up to this point and they're trying to get the defense to push up behind them
13:25to support that but because it's not very structured or coordinated and they were probably
13:28never planning on doing it at any point in the game anyway england sort of play around that
13:32very easily and cast your mind back a few minutes the underlapping fullback runs trying to go
13:38untracked into the spaces left by stretching out ireland's back line now there's only four of them
13:43now those spaces are bigger they almost get tino liverimento into that gap here
13:49ireland defend it england get the corner and from there they get the third goal and i like that
13:53third goal because it's all three points working in harmony if they won't give you space go and
13:58make it that's what liverimento does set pieces that's how you can get at them it's from a corner
14:03and i guess the delivery's good let's say it is quality and that's kind of all there is to it
14:09like ireland had a really clear like textbook low block game plan that for 55 minutes was really
14:15effective at stifling inland and nearly gave them their own chance uh up the other end but by
14:20applying the standard principles of how a quality team breaks down a team of with respect lesser
14:27quality trying to stifle them england found a way through that totally changed the game and from
14:32there they capitalized on how much better they're supposed to be it's like it really is a textbook
14:38example of good team versus not as good team low block versus possession but more interestingly
14:47interest interestingly what does that sound wrong interestingly that's a word interestingly of more
14:53interest to me was what it says about harry kane because there's a lot of talk about his future
14:58as the line leading center forward from england a lot of people would rather see a more athletic
15:03more modern a more aggressive center forward there but in games like this his ability to
15:09create space for others and his quality on the ball is not something england really have elsewhere
15:15right now there are matches and game states go watch the greece video back he was useful in that
15:21as well um where he's really important where he is a world-class option for england and i think you
15:26saw last night despite the fact people will be like oh it's only ireland that he is really useful
15:32and is really important for stuff like this like look at it again what a ball that is who else is
15:38doing that nobody else is doing that for england that is that gets him 10 more caps for me minimum
15:44but yeah that's it really light one uh for a monday morning england are good thank you uh
15:49lee carsley nice sort of gentle edit for me everyone's happy so if you did enjoy it please
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16:24the 442 socials are in the corner of the video uh yeah well done england three international breaks
16:34since the season started against me a man who lives and dies by his ability to produce engaging
16:40well-watched premier league content thanks for that loved it great can't wait for the next one
16:46goodbye