Adnan Januzaj’s beautiful second-half effort proved enough as England were handed their first defeat at the World Cup. Here’s what we learned from the Three Lions’ lacklustre showing at the Kaliningrad Stadium:
The Second XI fail to make it count
Gareth Southgate’s actions hardly matched his words. Despite maintaining that England wanted to win their final group game irrespective of its bearing on the advanced stages, the England manager rang the changes – eight to be exact.
But none of them could do enough to create a doubt in their manager’s mind; in fact, they confirmed that England’s best players were all on the bench, and not on the field.
You could say that Danny Rose and Trent-Alexander Arnold were bright spots in particular, but the fact remains that even they didn’t make a strong case to warrant a place in the XI over Kieran Trippier and Ashley Young.
Expect Southgate to make eight changes against Colombia, too.
Jamie Vardy is most useful when you play to his strengths
No one can argue that Jamie Vardy had a very quiet game by his standards, but it had more to do with the way England played than the Leicester City striker himself. Even so, he did arguably well, pressing the Belgium defence, getting in behind and creating the best chance of the game for Marcus Rashford.
However, there’s a feeling that Gareth Southgate still isn’t using him well by not playing to his strengths. Why he is so successful at Leicester is because the other ten players are dedicated to him. There’s a system in place just for him, and we’ve seen the impact he can have as a result.
While Southgate can’t change his system to accomodate the 31-year old, he can use the Leicester City model as a plan B with Vardy up front. Don’t forget that Harry Kane is human, and he can have a bad day as well.
England to do it the hard way against Colombia
By no means is it wrong to suggest that England have got too much ahead of themselves in planning for a situation that they may not get into in the first place.
They have avoided a “possible” quarter-final against Brazil, but in doing so, they’ve also chosen a tough round of 16 tie against Colombia, thereby damaging the chances of progressing to the round they actually planned for. It just doesn’t make sense.
In a way, England have set themselves up for heaven by choosing to pass through hell first, and it’s obvious how wrong that can go. Not only have they taken a huge risk, but they’ve also admitted that they don’t back themselves to beat a big team like Brazil. It’s the worst message you can send as a team that aspires to win the World Cup.
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It may yet go right. England could beat Colombia and Switzerland/Sweden to make it to the semi-final, and Gareth Southgate would be proven right. However, if it doesn’t go to plan on Tuesday night, then the Three Lions return home with wins over Tunisia and Panama.