England qualify for Euro 2024: Three problem spots Gareth Southgate needs to address after Italy win
England booked their place at Euro 2024 on Tuesday night, overcoming an early deficit as goals from Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford earned them a 3-1 win over Italy. After breezing through Group C, now comes the challenging part for Gareth Southgate, who will have to forge a side that can take the next step. Anything less than a win will feel like a waste of the talent available to him, particularly the magnificent Jude Bellingham.
England had started much the better side in the first 15 minutes but Wembley was stunned into silence — bar an explosion of noise from the away end — when Gianluca Scamacca converted from close range after Davide Fratessi had failed to connect with Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s low cross. For a time, the hosts’ defense was rather at sea, making an ordinary Italy side look far more dangerous than they were.
The drive of Bellingham could only be quelled for so long however and his give-and-go with Kane brought him into the box, where Di Lorenzo’s clip handed England a penalty. Gianluigi Donnarumma had had England’s number from 12 yards out in the Euro 2020 final but this time he could not get close to Kane’s spot kick, the captain becoming the first scorer of 60 goals for his country.
There were still nervy moments to come for the Three Lions — Jordan Pickford saved well from Destiny Udogie just before the break — but their superiority soon showed. More pertinently, that might be Bellingham’s as the Real Madrid man won possession in his own third, danced through the middle before slipping the ball through to Rashford in the danger zone and continuing his run into just the right spot to make space for others. By contrast, the Manchester United man dancing onto his right foot and drilling low past Donnarumma looked rather perfunctory.
Qualification was secured when Kane brushed off Alessandro Bastoni and drilled into the bottom corner. This was hardly apt revenge for the heartbreak of the Euro 2020 final but England can at least start thinking about how they can go one better in Germany. Here are the positions that Southgate still needs to address over the next eight months:
Left side of defense
You suspect that Southgate knows what he would like to happen over the next few months. Luke Shaw recovers his fitness and is restored to a pivotal role at Manchester United, ideally not their current iteration. Then, either through science or magic, Harry Maguire makes it 2018 again. Slabhead is universally loved by the nation, his manager too. Someone stick Three Lions on.
Wembley saw flashes of the old Maguire: a thudding duel where Scamacca came off much the worse, those moments where he gives to his midfielder and drives beyond. You could almost hear Southgate preparing the case for the defense, that Maguire has delivered more often than not for his national team, that England have built top tournament defenses around him even when he has not had many significant minutes beforehand.
That Maguire, however, did not get beaten to low crosses at his near post like this one did by Frattesti in the build-up to Italy’s opener. He took his time in possession, certainly, but it was less than an age. There is probably nothing in him that could not be fixed with the regular Premier League reps he is almost certainly not going to get at United. He might seem a little agricultural for a fan base that is spoiled by the domestic game, but given the time available to international managers, having players who mitigate risks is no bad thing. The problem is that Maguire isn’t really doing that just now and, yet, Southgate persists for all the good play coming from Levi Colwill and Marc Guehi at club level.
Outside Maguire, Kieran Trippier hardly set the world alight on his wrong flank. You would not necessarily expect him to. What he looked to be was an option who could come in should Shaw pick up a suspension in the summer, a player who allows England to fill two backup spots in their squad at once. That is no bad thing at all.
The other midfielder
When Bellingham and Declan Rice are lining up for you, it is perhaps churlish to complain that the third option is not quite to your liking. You’ve got two $100 million-plus midfielders who are versatile enough to fit in multiple roles. Don’t expect much sympathy from Luciano Spalletti, who saw his Italy trio brushed through all too frequently.
Given Bellingham’s scoring exploits at Madrid, it was perhaps no wonder that Southgate pushed the 20-year-old up the field, where he excelled as a nominal No. 10 who also led his team in interceptions before departing to a standing ovation. Rice looks more than able in a double pivot behind him, the question is how best to use him. He can be destroyer, progressor or some combination of both. It really might depend on who partners him.
Kalvin Phillips’ early yellow rather neutered the high pressing he attempted to bring, Southgate moving him to a withdrawn role where he offered a withdrawn performance. Much like Maguire, he looked like a player in need of minutes that he isn’t getting a club level. Unlike the Manchester United center back, there is not an obvious alternative to play the ball-winning role he has done with such aplomb in his best moments since Euro 2020.
If the plan was to have Phillips win the ball high up, then there is one option worthy of consideration. No one is particularly clamoring for Conor Gallagher but the Chelsea midfielder is very good at regaining possession high up the pitch; no Premier League player betters his 13 recoveries in the final third. He is an esoteric talent in the extreme, one who suits an off-ball role in a midfield three above all else, but given those around him, he might fit nicely.
Elsewhere, Jordan Henderson clearly has enough credit in the bank to keep getting in squads off the back of mid-table football in Saudi Arabia while it was notable that Southgate was not tempted to look at Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield against a supposedly top opponent after his outing against Australia. The Liverpool man might be the perfect person to charm apart low blocks and deliver wicked set pieces — the latter quality one that James Ward-Prowse would also bring in abundance — and it would be a shame to not see England at least look at a Rice, Bellingham, Alexander-Arnold triumvirate. One could imagine it having something of the too many cooks energy that the so-called golden generation of the 2000s brought to midfield but it makes sense to find out.
Left wing
Though injury with Arsenal robbed him of the chance to further cement his place in Gareth Southgate’s XI, it has seemed apparent for a while that Bukayo Saka is a likely starter in England’s biggest games. Competing for a place alongside him and Kane is a cornucopia of attacking talen — Rashford, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, even James Maddison. All could bring something to the position.
Against Italy, Rashford displayed those razor sharp scoring instincts. There might be no English player who Southgate would rather receives the ball on the run just outside the box with a defender or two to beat. Even in an ordinary performance, he can deliver the extraordinary. Still, it should not go unremarked how much of the pressure on the England goal came because Rashford was not tracking the overlapping Di Lorenzo. He tends not to do much defending with Manchester United. In tournament football that can be more costly.
Foden flickered infrequently but brightly, a dangerous ball carrier capable of making smart decisions in tight space outside the box. But for good saves by Donnarumma, he might have added to his four England goals from 28 caps, a figure that you would want to push up even in a tertiary attacker role.
In England’s run to the final of Euro 2020, Southgate tended towards horses for courses in the third spot alongside Kane and Sterling, who looks like he will need to find irresistible form for Chelsea if he is to force his way back into the picture. Perhaps the same approach makes sense next summer where there will be games for Grealish’s guile or the razor sharp instincts of Rashford. As with a fair few other questions facing the England boss over the coming months, these are the sorts of dilemmas most international managers would dream of.
My England XI for the business end of Euro 2024: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Colwill, Shaw; Gallagher, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Foden.
