Gareth Southgate says his preparations for Euro 2020 have been more complicated than any other nation and it was easy to see why during this chaotic final warm-up tie.
The manager was without seven of his squad, having given his Manchester City and Chelsea players the week off after their involvement in last Saturday’s Champions League final and that, in itself, felt ridiculous, given England play their opening tie of the finals against Croatia next Sunday.
It led to an almighty amount of mixing and matching from Southgate in terms of selection; he gave minutes to five of his stand-by players – Ben Godfrey, Ben White and James Ward-Prowse from the start; Jesse Lingard and Ollie Watkins off the bench. One of them will step up to replace the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold, with Southgate waiting until Monday to make the announcement.
It was no surprise to see a disjointed performance, even if there were positives in the shape of a driving performance from Luke Shaw, the industry and set-piece menace of Ward-Prowse and the trickery of Jack Grealish.
It was Grealish who made the difference for what proved to be the winning goal, bursting between Vlad Chiriches and the Romania substitute, Tiberiu Capusa, before getting across the latter, feeling the contact from him and going down. Marcus Rashford, who captained the team, converted the penalty after a slow, stuttering run.
England might have won by more. Southgate was pleased to get Jordan Henderson on at half-time for his first action since late February and groin surgery but less so when the midfielder saw a 78th-minute penalty saved by Florin Nita. The kick was awarded after Chiriches cleaned out Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Southgate said he expected Calvert-Lewin to take it.
On the other hand, Romania – who have not qualified for the Euros – could have got something, with the England defence too open. Tyrone Mings, at centre-half, had a game to forget, although he did make a fine block to deny Alexandru Cicaldau on 75 minutes before Sam Johnstone, the debutant goalkeeper, made a fabulous save to keep out Andrei Ivan on the rebound. Romania were far more dangerous than they should have been.
When the England team sheet dropped, it was easy to ask whether any of the lineup would start against Croatia – apart from perhaps Rashford. Grealish, though, has advanced a strong claim. After a good performance in last Wednesday’s 1-0 win here against Austria, he once again made things happen; driving, daring opponents to jump in on him.
Grealish started in the No 10 role in a 4-2-3-1 system before being switched to the left wing when Southgate changed to 4-3-3 just before the goal. Wherever he popped up, Grealish’s comfort on the ball was pronounced.
The scene had been set, with depressing predictability, by loud booing from some England fans when the players took a pre-match knee in the fight against racism. The same thing happened before the Austria game but this time it was more sustained, lasting longer. There was a much more concerted effort from the rest of the crowd to drown it out but it did not work. This is a saga that will run and run.
The smart money is on Southgate calling up Ward-Prowse to replace Alexander-Arnold, partly because he has only four pure central midfielders at the moment. Is it a consideration that Ward-Prowse can also play at right-back? His set-piece delivery is a more serious part of his appeal and, twice, he almost laid on goals for Calvert-Lewin with whipped free-kicks.
The first came on 32 minutes and Calvert-Lewin’s lopping header came back off the crossbar. The second was straight after half-time and, this time, Calvert-Lewin met it at point-blank range only to scuff and allow Nita to save on the line. It was a horrible miss.
Jadon Sancho showed a few nice touches off the right wing and he, too, was denied the opening goal by the woodwork. Having combined with Grealish, he appeared to have got his curler for the far, top corner just right on 38 minutes. Frustratingly he put a fraction too much on it.
It says much about the strangeness of Southgate’s preparations that he could have named four right-backs in his squad for the finals last Tuesday and played a different player – Godfrey – in the position here.
Rashford could have had a penalty in the 24th minute when Chiriches made contact with him, having missed the ball, but Romania gave Southgate’s defence plenty of problems. Razvan Marin shot straight at Johnstone while the visitor’s big first-half chance came just before the break. Deian Sorescu played a give-and-go to get through rather too easily only for Johnstone to save with his feet.
Calvert-Lewin was denied by Nita late on and Jude Bellingham, a substitute, saw a close-range header smuggled clear by Chiriches. England had done enough to see off limited opposition. Now for the serious business.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ppaOZQ
via IFTTT
No Comment