sport news Gareth Southgate prepared to be 'completely ruthless' to help England succeed ... trends now

Andy Woodman, Gareth Southgate’s best man at his wedding and former Crystal Palace team-mate, sums it up best. ‘Gareth’s always been too nice or his own good,’ surmised Woodman. ‘I’ve told him on many occasions: “There are times, mate, when you have to be a bastard. Situations when it pays to be cynical.” Might as well have been talking to a wall.’

However, that was in 2003, when the pair of them wrote a joint book detailing their footballing friendship. A lot of football has been played since then, a lot of life lived. Southgate has been lauded as a national treasure and alternative Prime Minister sine that book was written. And lambasted as a ‘fraud’ and the ‘man who cost us the Euros.’

So, the England manager would have changed and hardened with life experience since the age of 33 anyway but it was noticeable that he was in uncharacteristically belligerent mood ahead of England’s last two UEFA Nations League games against Italy and Germany in September.

Hearing the damning chorus of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ last summer from England fans after the dismal 4-0 defeat to Hungary at Molineux last June sharpened his senses. Not before time, Woodman would presumably say.

Pondering his mistakes over the summer, he basically came to the conclusion that he was too nice. ‘I felt I compromised certain decisions internally, and you don’t win if you compromise,’ said Southgate. ‘It was good for me to sharpen that focus again, because what we’re going into, we’ve got to be completely ruthless.’

Southgate declined to say what exactly was bugging him and where he had compromised, leading to a frenzy of suggestions. But since then it is noticeable that he has stopped messing around with a back four, despite the clamour from many of us in the written press for him to adjust. Back five it is, and that’s that.

It was as if he previously had been sub consciously attempting to accommodate his critics, with a Trent Alexander-Arnold appearance here and an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation there. (Ironically the injuries of Kyle Walker and Reece James have taken the heat out that particular hot potato and Alexander-Arnold will go and maybe even play).

But Southgate, and his influential assistant, Steve Holland, have their plan for Qatar. It will be pretty much the same one they had for Euro 2020: 5-3-2 (3-4-3 if you’re being kind) and dare the opposition to make more mistakes than England do.

They have been greatly influenced by a tactical review that FA commissioned of France’s win at the 2018 World Cup, which suggests most major tournaments are won by teams that avoid errors, rather than those who commit to entertain, a story as old as football itself, as the 1974 Dutch team and 1982 Brazilians can testify. Southgate too will face the accusation, as France manager Didier Deschamps did, that he is not utilising his hugely-gifted attackers to the full. 

Deschamps didn’t care much as he oversaw the victory parade along the Champs Elysee in in July 2018.

Southgate seems more confident in himself at present, telling European newspapers yesterday that anything other than a semi-final or final appearance at Qatar would be regarded as disappointment. 

So no more Mr Nice Guy, as James Maddison and Jadon Sancho will likely discover on Thursday morning. Maddison has become the great England hope, a role previously occupied by Ross Barkley, Matt Le Tissier and Alan Hudson, the flawed creative on whom malcontents can pin their frustrations. If only Don Revie, Glenn Hoddle, Roy Hodgson had picked their cause célèbre, all would be well with England. Their reputations tend to grow with omission. 

His hopeful supporters should remember Maddison’s one England cap came in November 2019. That ship has sailed.

Sancho, entrusted with a penalty at the Euro final in July 2021, was last involved in a squad in October 2021 and hasn’t done enough since then to convince. Even though he looked to be England’s most-talented wide player, Southgate has always seemingly been a sceptic and the reports that he found lack of game time difficult during the Euro 2020 camp won’t have helped his cause. Major tournaments require understanding, patient tourists.

Another Euro 2020 penalty taker who might be expecting better news is Marcus Rashford, who might equally thank Erik ten Hag. The decision to play him centrally at Manchester United for several games and Rashford’s ability to rise to that challenge has sparked a renaissance.