On the eve of the European Championship, a former player close to the England camp repeatedly told us: ‘Square pegs, round holes. It won’t work.’
We were writing about the fatuity of Gareth Southgate and his intended Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield experiment and, by extension, Phil Foden as a left-winger. Our man was right, it did not work.
Yes, England made the final, but in Berlin the best team won and the best players lost. The market value of England’s starting XI would have dwarfed that of Spain.
Lee Carsley, it seems, will not be compromised by the same temptation as his predecessor. He will pick players in their best positions, even if that means two of Foden, Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer missing out in the battle for No 10. It is both a selection headache and political minefield.
On form, Foden best bring a coat. Forget that he played like last pick on the playground in Germany — and has never really performed at his very best for his country — his season is yet to get going at Manchester City. His England career, meanwhile, feels at a crossroads, given the competition in the position he prefers.
Cole Palmer is staking his claim to be England’s trusted No.10 after a stellar start to the season
England are blessed in the creative role with Palmer (left) Phil Foden (middle) and Jude Bellingham (right) all wanting to play in that position
Palmer has starred with Chelsea this season scoring six goals and five assists in seven Premier League outings
Bellingham versus Palmer, rather, is the subject of national debate. The latter would no doubt emerge as the preferred pick right now, and so he should. Palmer, at No 10 — the position from which he has scored six times for Chelsea this season — is the player around whom Carsley should attempt to build.
He will likely fudge it this week by playing one of them against Greece at Wembley tomorrow and the other in Finland on Sunday, but the longer-term need to be decisive remains. England’s best 11 players on paper do not fit into an XI on grass.
Bellingham, of course, is an exceptional talent who could prove the exception, and inclusion in a deeper role is worth exploring. That would be a square peg in a rectangular hole —depending on the dimensions, it might fit. But one thing that does need to come down to size is
Bellingham’s ego. That swagger can bail you out with an overhead-kick in the 97th minute, but they wouldn’t have needed that get-out-of-jail card had the collective effort been greater than the self-importance of the individual. A more traditional midfield role could well restore some more traditional values.
But let us not have Bellingham, Foden or Palmer from the left. Even from the right they’d prefer to be elsewhere. And let us not carry half-fit players, either. As we found in Germany, they weigh twice as heavy.
To that end, Harry Kane is unlikely to make tomorrow’s game. He trained alone On Tuesday after picking up a knock at the weekend, and that brings the discussion about his best deputy to the fore. Dominic Solanke and Ollie Watkins are the pair here with England this week. Ivan Toney’s move to Saudi Arabia has rendered him unselectable and that is a shame, because he showed himself to be a game-changer at the Euros.
Solanke is the beneficiary and, at St George’s Park on Tuesday, the Tottenham striker said he can be like Kane, in that he can drop into a No 10 role. The problem with that is England do not need another No 10.
They need their forwards lithe and on their toes, not standing on each other’s. Kane coming deep at the Euros was frustrating to watch, and no doubt born from his own frustration at not being fit.
This new-look England, less structural and more dynamic, need a forward to run in the other direction, and Watkins will do that. Still, Solanke is worth another look, seven years on from his sole cap against Brazil.
Foden was named as England senior men’s player of the year at St George’s Park on Monday
Man City star Foden (left) can play in the No.10 role for England as can Bellingham (right)
England’s interim head coach Lee Carsley is blessed with midfield choices to test
‘When I first came in, I was young (20 years old),’ said Solanke. ‘I have done a lot of learning since then. I’m a lot more mature now. I was disappointed not to make the Euros. I was definitely pushing. But I feel like this is the way (my England journey) had to be.’
Jack Grealish was another to miss out in the summer and he, too, said yesterday that Southgate should have picked him. On the left, he and Anthony Gordon — if pegs are not to be disfigured — should be the only two contenders from this squad in that position.
As good as Grealish was at No 10 during last month’s 2-0 win over Republic of Ireland in Dublin, the return of others removes him from the conversation in that domain. ‘It was nice to play in the No 10 role,’ said Grealish.
‘We’ve got so many good players here that want to play in that role. Cole, Jude, Phil, but then again, I have so many at my club as well. I have Phil, Kevin De Bruyne, Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva. So, it’s nothing that I’m not used to. I always feel like I can play in the No 10 or off the left.’
But surely, to use Grealish from the left would recreate the issues England had with Foden in Germany? England need a risk-taker, a player to distort their own shape and that of the opposition.
Where Gordon is fast and incisive from the left, Grealish and Foden — sticking to the Manchester City doctrine — are slower and more cautious. Bukayo Saka on the opposite wing is an obvious pick and with good reason. Stick that round peg in a round hole and watch the opposition left back disappear down it.
Still, these are Carsley’s decisions to make. It is encouraging that he appears prepared to make them. Southgate’s answer to England’s embarrassment of riches in forward positions was to play the hand of highest value. His team, at least this summer, were all the poorer for it. It is time to do away with square pegs and square balls.