Southgate embraces the maddness
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat. ‘We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’
I am quite certain that there is nothing about the forthcoming World Cup that Gareth Southgate is relishing. The whole edifice is rightly offensive to his sense of morality, and his faith that football can be a force for good. He has lost faith in his country too, and no longer seems as passionate about representing England on the global stage as he once was.
Southgate has surely also been rocked by the rapid splintering of his favoured eleven’s spine, forcing him into the task of mid-season rebuilding. Other managers might feel lucky to be able to draw upon a much more talented generation of young players than the 2018 battlers, but the problem for Southgate is that the new group’s tactical sophistication far surpasses his own.
Madd man
The solution, for Southgate, is simple: self-denial. He has seemingly abandoned many of the traits that have made him a surprisingly successful international manager, in favour of a more adventurous approach. This has as much to do with the surreal circumstances of a winter World Cup in Qatar as it does with any footballing rationale.
The standout decision in this regard is the inclusion of James Maddison in the squad of 26. There are few reasons to believe that Maddison is an international standard footballer, let alone a soon-to-be world champion. His league stats are great, but highly misleading: Leicester play possession football, for some reason, and Maddison is their main creative player. So it is inevitable that most of their attacks go through him. It would be the same for any of England’s attacking players if they were playing for mid-table clubs.
The question is whether Maddison has the capacity to control games and dictate strategy at the highest level. We don’t know, because he has never been anywhere near the highest level. Maybe this is itself telling. We live in a world where Chelsea nearly spent £50 million on Anthony Gordon… yet no top European club has ever shown an interest in signing Maddison.
I would probably have picked Jadon Sancho ahead of Maddison. He is a better like-for-like replacement for Raheem Sterling if, as I expect, Sterling struggles in Qatar. I could care less, to be honest, about Sancho’s poor form for Manchester United. United are still a mess, and Sancho has never looked comfortable there. He needed to be told by his international manager that his obvious talent and superior high-level experience is nevertheless recognised — not punished because his chaotic club side do not know how to get the best out of him. It’s far easier for Maddison to impress given he has a whole Premier League team built around him.
Squad game
Picking Maddison would have made more sense had he been integrated into Southgate’s squad in advance of the World Cup, rather than being consistently overlooked. Yet this neglect is ironically why Maddison’s last-minute selection became possible. Southgate would not have been able to surprise the nation, and himself, if there had been any indication that Maddison was in his plans. It’s a proper ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ pick from Southgate. In the circumstances… why the fuck not?
Meanwhile, Ivan Toney has been omitted, apparently, because he *has* been in a Southgate squad recently, but failed to impress in training. Callum Wilson will be Harry Kane’s back-up instead, having been hugely fortunate to have not been considered by Southgate before, meaning he has had no opportunity to unimpress him. Lads, international football does not get much more Walcott than this.
Wilson’s inclusion — like Maddison’s — is also, ostensibly, a product of superior form at club level. It’s as if Southgate has been reading Alan Shearer’s Big Book of Football Clichés. Only a fool could think that good/bad form in the Premier League in the fortnight or so before the World Cup squad announcement will automatically continue into the weird world of tournament football, in the strangest possible circumstances.
Southgate, of course, is no fool. But he is limited. Short of any meaningful reason to choose between players he hardly knows, he has decided to just go with the flow, I guess. At least his buddy Al will be happy with another Newcastle player in the squad.
To state what should be obvious, it is very silly to make selections based on a highly subjective understanding of how the mystical ‘form’ is lost and found. Toney proved this by scoring twice to vanquish Man City away from home only a couple of days after the squad was announced.
Managers should always try instead to pick the players best suited to their style of play. In this case, international experience, as well as experience of playing alongside many of England’s key players (for his club, and the under-21s), also helps. That player is neither Wilson nor Toney, but rather Tammy Abraham. Then again, England don’t really have a style of play — and certainly not an offensive strategy. So, sure, let the bores have Wilson, if that’s who they want, even though they probably now want Toney too.
It is never a good sign when managers start playing to the gallery. That said, Wilson is a fine player — he should probably have become a regular in the England squad years ago. To reiterate, the biggest red flag here is Maddison’s inclusion. Southgate has always been an outstanding politician, but this selection smells like the move of a centrist hack resorting to hollow populism after realising none of the old triangulations are as effective anymore. James Maddison is to Southgate’s England what Suella Braverman is to Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.
Decisions like this tend to backfire, not least because now that Southgate has buckled to popular demand, he might actually have to play Maddison at some point, ahead of a long list of better or more accomplished players.
Shaw thing
For all that it reveals about Southgate shedding his essential Garethness, the Maddison selection will probably prove to be inconsequential. The lack of cover at left back is a bigger concern.
Luke Shaw is England’s only specialist at both left back and left wing-back, despite the likelihood he was only pencilled in, a couple of weeks ago, as back up for Ben Chilwell, who has failed to recover from injury. I appreciate the argument that there are no available English left-backs good enough to justify losing one of the three world-class right backs in the squad (the fourth, Reece James, is injured too). But it remains a questionable gamble on Southgate’s part.
Assuming Kyle Walker, if fit, will play on the right of a central three, Kieran Trippier will almost certainly start as right wing-back. But he will have to move to the left if Shaw is injured or suspended, which would mean Trent Alexander-Arnold will fill in on the right (in Southgate’s preferred back five formation).
The inclusion of Alexander-Arnold is another example of appeasing the mob (yours truly included!). But Southgate has never been a fan, and it is not clear what, other than James’s injury, has changed his mind. Because of the left-back dilemma, Alexander-Arnold is not in Qatar to make up the numbers. Southgate might now be cornered into relying upon him defensively on the biggest stage of all, while Southgate’s favourite right back plays out of position on the left. In a defence anchored by, er, Harry Maguire [gulps…].
The alternative of course would be for Bukayo Saka to play left wing-back, an experiment which has underwhelmed in the past. It is all starting to feel a bit random, if I’m honest — not at all what I’d expect from a Gareth Southgate World Cup campaign.
The most sensible thing to do would have been to pick an experienced back up to Shaw — literally anyone who can give you 45 mins of shape-holding and running, to help to manage a game. Ashley Young, for instance, is an extraordinary professional, and can warm the bench in a World Cup last 16 match, or whatever.
But this would contradict one of the other key elements of Garethness: Southgate’s sense of fair play. Every individual spot in the squad must be earned, even if omitting an undeserving colleague might hurt the team as a whole. Maddison’s inclusion, as well as indicating that Southgate no longer really gives a fuck, is surely also based on the misguided notion that he has been ‘playing for his place’ for the past few weeks.
This is simply not how elite football works.
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Anyway, what the hell. It’s almost winter, yet somehow, there is a World Cup about to start in Qatar. If Gary Neville — Mr Labour Party these days, apparently — can profit from the depravity, and laugh about it, then Gareth Southgate is free to do whatever he wants, just to see what happens. None of this counts anyway, right?
Ultimately, I hope Southgate does well enough in Qatar, despite himself, to earn another crack at a real tournament, i.e. the next European Championships. It will be a more realistic way of determing whether Southgate’s early successes have been more luck than judgement. Until then, buckle up.
