sport news Tactical breakdown: England were pulled apart down the left flank time and again trends now
England threw a huge bucket of cold water over national expectations. They were as bad as they had been good on Monday and the inability to create chances with such rich attacking talent means the finger will be pointing at Gareth Southgate again. Booed off by their fans, where did it go wrong for England?
Left in the lurch
Luke Shaw, Raheem Sterling and Declan Rice, in that he was the midfielder clearing up at the back really couldn’t get the measure of Timothy Weah and supporting full back Sergino Dest.
Virtually all England’s problems in the first half stemmed from that area. It seemed Weston McKennie was given huge amounts of space in front of the left back and left centre half to direct play.
Gareth Southgate was let down by his tactical decisions as England were held 0-0 by the USA
England’s shape was pulled apart and Shaw’s positioning, as a consequence, became wayward. The Christian Pulisic mistimed header on 43 minutes came from a Weah cross and Dest drove dangerously into the box on 40 minutes winning a corner.
But the issue had started long before then with USA enjoying freedom and possession in that area. Though the most dangerous chance of the half, Pulisic’s strike onto the bar, came from England’s right side, it was only after the USA had worked the ball down the left with McKennie and then switched the play.
Slow, quick, slow, slow, slow
England started slowly but from ten minutes to twenty minutes enjoyed a period of dominance where they mimicked the Iran game.
It started with the excellent move with Kieran Trippier feeding Jude Bellingham who found Bukayo Saka. His pull back found Harry Kane and only the Walter Zimmerman block prevented England opening the scoring.
These were precisely the movements, combinations and over laps that overwhelmed Iran. Harry Maguire was spraying passes cross-field to Raheem Sterling and for a period it looked rather easy, England dominant.