Squad Numbers

With Euro 2024 just around the corner, with England’s 33 man provisional squad having been announced by Gareth Southgate, optimism is high that this year will be the one that football comes home (don’t we hear that every tournament?). England have one of, arguably the most talented squad of any of the nations in the tournament, however, injuries, and a plethora of quality in certain positions and a lack of quality in others has led to a selection headache for Gareth Southgate. I am going to put forward three outlandish solutions for how England could solve this.

Note: This is being done with the assumption that Luke Shaw is not available to play.

Option 1: Give the keys to Trent

This in possession set up would see Trent Alexander-Arnold fulfil a similar role which he has played for Liverpool over the last 12 months, playing as a conventional right back out of possession before moving into midfield when the team has the ball. This gets the best out of Trent, a player that has never really shone for England, but it is clear that having him in the team improves the team as a whole, due to his extraordinary passing ability, and his ability from set pieces, which are oh so important in international football. Trent has the X-factor about him, and can do things that many of the other players that England could play in that area of the pitch could not. This system is also beneficial to other players, as it allows players such as Bukayo Saka and Phill Foden to play in similar systems that they do at their own clubs, increasing familiarity. Speaking of Foden, this system allows him and Jude Bellingham to both play in advanced midfield positions, which is something that all England fans crave.

However, when England do not have the ball, this system may cause them problems. Trent will not only have to get back to right back quickly when they lose it, but then he is at right back. Trent is notoriously weak defensively, and the thought of him going up against the likes of Kyllian Mbappe is not a particuarly nice one for any England fan. Furthermore, this means that almost the entire of the rest of the defence is out of their usual positions, Kyle Walker, a right back by trade, would have to play at Centre Back, and Marc Guehi, a Centre Back, would be forced to play at Left Back. Both of these players are very much capable of filling in in these positions, but it is not ideal.

Overall, this system would be breathtaking to watch, for the good and the bad. England would be incredibly dynamic with the ball. They might score 5 goals every game! However, they would also like a fish out of water defensively. They also might concede 5 goals every game.

Option 2: The Crystal Palace X Oliver Glasner

This system has been pioneered by Oliver Glasner and Crystal Palace to great success in recent weeks, and England have not been shy of playing a 5 at the back system under Southgate, despite moving away from it in more recent times. Once again, this system gets Foden and Bellingham both playing in the “number 10” position, where they are tasked with staying fairly central in the “pockets” and being the primary creators for the team. The system revolves around aggression, pressing high up the pitch, forcing the opposition into a small area of the pitch and them surrounding the ball back and playing it forward with pace and purpose. This position and role for Connor Gallagher is almost perfect, it’s ironic as Gallagher played for Palace in the 2021/22 season, and has missed out in playing in this position for Palace. In this England team, he would be tasked with playing higher up the pitch and pressing slightly higher than his midfield partner Declan Rice. This works as it suits Gallaghers energy and tenacity down to a tee, and Rice has experience of doing exactly this when England played a similar system in Euro 2021, with Kalvin Phillips his midfield compatriot at the time. Marc Guehi plays for Palace, so also would have little trouble adapting to the system, making it easier to implement, whilst Trent Alexander-Arnold’s strength of crossing the ball is made the most of by this system, and his weakness of defensive positioning is masked by the fact that the wing backs in this system are encouraged to play very high up the pitch, and not worry so much about defending, as they have the cover of three Centre Backs behind them..

The glaring weakness with this setup is Bukayo Saka playing at left wing back. Saka has not done this for four years, and has become an elite player in virtually the furthest away area of the pitch from left wing back, the right wing. However, Saka would pretty much be playing as a winger in this system, as I have already mentioned, the wing backs are expected to stay very high up the pitch, so he could adapt fairly easily. Furthermore, it is critical for the wing back on each side to be playing on the side of their strongest foot, and if you played the more experienced players in that position, Kieran Trippier and Joe Gomez, they would struggle to fulfil the requirement of the position. This is because the wing backs have to stay high on the touchline, overlap the inside forwards and cross the ball into the box. So really, Saka might be the best option for this position, and he has done it before.

Overall, this is certainly an interesting proposition, it is a system which England have never played under Glasner, and it would be a risk to change from a four at the back system to a five so close to a tournament. We have though, seen the benefits of this system with Crystal Palace in recent weeks, so if England get it right, they could reap the rewards. The system mixes a positive, front foot attacking approach with pragmatism and defensive security, pretty perfect for what the fans want, and the requirements of international football.

Option 3: Bellingham the number 8

This is the most sensible and risk free system so far. This is a standard 4-3-3, which England have liked to use in the past few years so there will be little to no adaptation for the players. The main point of difference in this system is that Jude Bellingham will be tasked with being more of a box to box number 8 than any of the other systems proposed. Despite Bellingham flourishing in a more advanced role for Real Madrid this season, registering 25 involvements in 27 La Liga games, his skill set is more of a number 8. For Real Madrid, he has had no centre forward in front of him to deny him space, but for England he will not have this luxury, as Harry Kane will definitely be occupying that spot. As much as it is enticing to play Foden and Bellingham both further forward, it is not possible, unless you compensate for that elsewhere (see options 1 and 2), one has to be sacrificed, and whilst Bellingham is excellent at almost everything, he is not as technical as Foden, and for Foden to score *his goal, where he receives the ball centrally on the edge of the area, lets it roll across his body, and slices it powerfully into the opposite top corner, which he has done numerous times this season, he must be allowed to roam further forward. Phill Foden is England’s best football player, this is his team.

The other thing to mention is that before this season, Bellingham had always played in a similar role to what this system requires of him, so it’s not like he’ll be terrible there. In fact, out of the 237 games that he has played in his career, 125 of them have been in central midfield, much higher than the next highest number, Attacking Midfield with 41 games . This system also gets both Bellingham and Foden in their correct and most natural areas of the pitch. In the recent friendly against Belgium, which ended 2-2, the generally most popular way of getting them both into the team was used. Foden played off the left, with Bellingham in a more central attacking midfield role, the left back Ben Chilwell pushed up into a position you’d expect a winger to take up, allowing Foden to drift into a more central, inside left position, whilst Bellingham moved to the inside right space. England looked clunky and disjointed in this game, with too many players trying to be in one space at one time. Foden and Bellingham were also on their wrong sides, Foden likes being inside right, and Bellingham more so on the left. This is illustrated by their overall heat maps this season:

Foden first- You can see the right hand side bias here:

Bellingham next- You can see the left hand side bias here:

This shows the areas that both players like to operate in, and this system is the only one that can allow that, without recreating the problems that England had in the early 2000’s of trying to shoehorn to many excellent players into one team and area of the pitch.

Conclusion:

Overall, all three systems have their merits, and problems, but Option 3 is probably the most balanced and realistic. This may all be irrelevant though, as Harry Maguire will probably score from a couple of set pieces, Harry Kane will score a few penalties, England will win some games, football will be coming home. Until Italy beat them 2-1 in the quarter finals- you heard it here first.