England’s midfield deficiencies were highlighted in the World Cup semi-final against Croatia, but they have some promising talents who can help solve that.
The 2018 World Cup will rightfully be seen as a success by the FA because they surpassed all expectations. Gareth Southgate has helped rejuvenate the national side with his willingness to explore different areas and try new ideas. His hard work made the difference because it gave the team the close margins they needed to pull through tough games.
The focus on improving the mental resilience of the players has worked wonders. However, the squad deserves credit for embracing these ideas as well as implementing them to take England to their first semi-final in a major international competition since 1996.
Croatia proved to be a step too far, although the Three Lions will rue a number of missed chances in the first half as well as an unwillingness to change the tactical set-up in order to deal with Croatia’s sustained pressure. They were able to control the game due to the talented midfielders they have in Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Marcelo Brozovic.
Southgate’s use of an innovative 3-5-2 formation brought the best out of his side, and minimised the lack of quality in central midfield positions. His use of inventive set-pieces also helped bypass the team’s issues in open play.
The team lacked a deep-lying playmaker who could control games and progress the team up the pitch. There is a wealth of talented attackers, but ensuring a stable connection to them from the defence is pivotal.
Croatia were able to stifle service to the midfield, which caused England to resort to long balls and that often caused the opposition to regain possession and come right back at them. Finding a player who can provide creativity from deep and break the opposition lines is key for the future. Here are three players who could be brought into the senior side in order to solve this issue…
3. Phil Foden
The 18-year-old made headlines as the star player in the 2017 Under-17s World Cup victory. He took over from Jadon Sancho as the key player in the team after the youngster went back to Borussia Dortmund when the group stages finished. The wealth of talent in the squad was highlighted because they didn’t miss the electric winger with Foden dictating play from deep.
He is currently at Manchester City and looks to be one of Pep Guardiola’s pet projects. This can only be good for his career because the Spanish coach is the best in world football. His methods will bring the best out of the youngster with midfield being his area of expertise. Therefore, Foden has sky-high potential while already being immensely talented for his age.
Senior level football can be hard to adjust to, which is why he is third on the list. Guardiola has started to give him opportunities, though, because he had 328 minutes of playing time across all competitions for the senior side last season. He will only be 20-years-old for the Euros, though, so it might be slightly too early for him to have an important role. However, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him in the squad.
Guardiola is likely to continue using his 4-3-3 system from last season. Therefore, Foden will continue to be used as one of the ‘free 8s’ in the opportunities he is given. This is a hybrid role because it mixes the responsibilities of attacking and central midfielders as shown expertly by Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva last season. It’s a hard role to understand, but it will improve his understanding of key principles such as positional play.