England System
Tottenham Hotspur: Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier
Manchester City: Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Fabian Delph
Liverpool: Jordan Henderson, Trent Alexander-Arnold
The difficulty England have is that their are very few English playmakers, if any, in the top 5 leagues in Europe. Gareth Southgate had to find another way, a way where if one player was missing, another could seamlessly slip into the system. Statistically, there isn't one in the top 30 players in Europe, the highest is Jack Wilshere, ranked 31st.
His answer was to devise a system that a large proportion of the squad were already playing at club level. In the England squad there are 11 players who regularly play a high pressing game and it was this that Gareth Southgate adopted.
We have learnt a lot about him at this World Cup, not least that he totally embraces sports science and pays close attention to the tiniest detail. The is something the England Rugby team did to win the Rugby World Cup under Clive Woodward, who was then knighted. British cycling adopted the same approach an did Team Sky.
Where the England rugby team went wrong when Sir Clive Woodward left, was not to carry on in the same detailed way. They didn't look forward, they were not constantly planning for continued success, hence a one-off success and a fight to get back to the same level.
Spurs have the same issue. A one-off success is no good, it can even send the team backwards, if a side is built to obtain one short-term success. Mauricio Pochettino isn't falling into that trap, he planning to regularly compete and win trophies, that's the aim and thus that is what's being worked towards.
Fans may not like it, but it's the right thing to do for the long-term success of the club.
England now have a system to play that needs to be kept and not discarded after one tournament as is often the case.
I couldn't believe people were suggesting we should try and make our route harder in the World Cup, that simply didn't make any sense. Thank goodness Southgate thought so too and picked a second XI. The result is that there is now real optimism that we can beat anyone in our half of the draw, especially now that Spain are out.
Southgate highlighted set plays are a major factor at WorldCups, thus England have had more shots from set-pieces than anyone else in the tournament (30). We have had 17 shots from free-kicks, more than anyone else. One of our objectives is to win free-kicks around the penalty box, something we have been excellent at this summer.
If you look at the graphic below, from Opta Stats, you can see the fouls are primarily on the left, where Dele Alli operates and Raheem Sterling drifts to (prior to Sweden game).
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