England face the prospect of an early exit from the European Championships if they lose to Sweden on Sunday evening, but the pressures of tournament play are clearly not weighing too heavily on minds in the squad – even the crazy golf competition in the camp has been organised into groups, with the top two from each progressing to the next phase.
Gareth Southgate has already suffered an early exit from the 18-hole contest, but an evening dodging windmills and water hazards on the course next to the team hotel in Olomouc has served its purpose – helping the head coach to negotiate the potential psychological pitfalls that lurk in the wake of Thursday’s 1-0 defeat by Portugal in their opening game, which followed the training-ground concussion that ruled out John Stones for the first two games, and the news that Saido Berahino would miss the whole of the tournament because of a knee injury.
“The key over the past 24 hours has been to get some emotional stability in the group,” Southgate said. “We had 48 hours where we lost John and Saido, we lose the goal that’s the outcome of such a random chain of events, so with any defeat – and this is a group that’s not used to losing – there’s then a million theories as to why they’ve lost; individually, they’ve all got their pictures of why.
“It’s really important after the game to look at the realities of the game, statistically, and the evidence of what we’ve seen. Then the reality is, all along we’ve said we need five points to get out of the group – that’s still achievable.
“Friday didn’t need to be about football; it was about getting a sense of calm back in it because I’ve been involved in tournaments where that first defeat sets everything off kilter, and some teams are not even mentally prepared to play the second game.”
Those challenges are more acute now than when Southgate was a player. Internal doubts can be managed, but external criticism in the social-media age is not so easy to curtail. Southgate is happy to confront the issue with his players – “You are better to talk about it and have it on the table than to avoid it and I suppose we have to prepare the players for what that is going to look like when they go into the senior team” – and while he cannot completely shield the squad from those who wield keyboards and smartphones as weapons, it is an issue about which he is concerned.
“I go back to what I say to my daughter,” he said. “Home is a place for young people where, for the majority, there is safety and security. Now, with social media, you can be attacked in your own home. That, as a dad, bothers me because I don’t think that’s healthy and I think it is dangerous for young people, but I also move with the times and accept that we embrace social media. For young people, there’s a lot of negativity or adverse things that can come into that.”
It is tempting to see Sunday’s game as a clash of philosophies: Sweden boast 11 full internationals in their 23-man squad, the most in this tournament, while England’s policy of not including those who are established in the senior side means they have brought five, with only three available on Sunday after the injuries to Berahino and Stones.
In even greater contrast, England’s final opponents, Italy, have no senior internationals in their squad. On the surface it suggests not everyone is following the same development blueprint – that each country’s approach to their youth teams means the tournament takes place on a self-created uneven playing field. But the countries’ ideas are not that far apart – there has been no drafting in of established stars to the Swedish ranks.
“We picked five or six seniors – if you take Luke Shaw, three were not available for selection [against Portugal],” said Southgate. “Put those into the starting lineup with Harry Kane and Jack Butland, who have also played seniors, then it is not far off what other teams have done. I don’t think anyone has played players who have not been involved in their qualifying campaigns. The only one for us who would come into that category is Raheem [Sterling].”
Presenting perhaps a greater challenge for the head coach is England’s avowed aim of a more technical style throughout their development programme. “It’s an interesting balance because at the moment we’re being judged as a first team, yet we’re committed to playing a certain way through our junior teams,” said Southgate.
“Watching Sweden and Portugal, they didn’t hesitate to go long from the back. I don’t say we’re under pressure, but there’s a requirement to play a certain way and develop players and win at the moment. So getting that balance is interesting, but we are committed to doing that, and I think that’s the right thing for the individual players because, if we just kick, then how do we ever know if Nathaniel Chalobah, Tom Carroll, James Ward-Prowse or Will Hughes can use the ball in tight areas and progress as individuals. So we have to stick with that.”
Southgate will not, though, be sticking to the same XI that took to the field against the Portuguese “partly because of physical freshness, partly because there are a couple of positions where we think we can cause Sweden some problems”.
Changes for Sweden, whose preferred 4-4-2 formation should allow England’s midfield greater freedom than it was afforded by Portugal, have been planned since before the tournament kicked off. Danny Ings, Hughes and Alex Pritchard are pushing for starting places in the midfield three that will line up behind Kane. Jesse Lingard and Carroll’s places seem most at threat.
At the other end, the central defenders Ben Gibson and Liam Moore will have to contend with the threat of John Guidetti, the striker who briefly looked on course for a fruitful career at Manchester City after a prolific loan spell with Feyenoord in 2011-12. His City contract ran out this summer and he is available on a free. “I am on a Bosman – a cheeseburger costs more than me,” was his appraisal when asked to compare his value to that of Kane.
His role in Sweden’s opening game against Italy was that of battering ram, chief cheerleader and goalscorer – his equaliser starting a surprise comeback completed by Isaac Kiese Thelin’s penalty. Another win for them could send England home and their head coach, Hakan Ericson, is confident, though he refused to comment on his defender Ludwig Augustinsson’s suggestion that England are “a little over-rated”. “We have found some weaknesses, but we will keep it in the group until tomorrow,” he said.
