Gareth Southgate's plan to return England to conservative 'tournament-mode' football

It was after another dismal display, albeit in victory, away to Lithuania in October 2017, that Gareth Southgate settled on the approach he would take with England. He would play “three at the back”, he would give them far greater defensive solidity and he would “have to leave some good players out”.

Since then, after reaching a World Cup semi-final, losing the final of Euro 2020 in a penalty shoot-out and transforming England’s prospects, Southgate has faced the same criticism: his team and tactics can be too conservative; he plays with the “handbrake on”; he has not made the best use of England’s attacking players.

Inevitably, the criticism reached its crescendo following the horrible 4-0 home defeat against Hungary, England’s heaviest home loss since 1928 and undoubtedly their worst performance in Southgate’s 74 matches in charge. But it also led him to conclude that he would ignore the calls, which he appeared to have bowed to, to play a more “open” and “expansive” game when he takes his team to the World Cup in Qatar. Southgate’s mind is made up.

“I think some of the desire to see open play... we saw tonight that you’ve got to have the balance of a team right,” Southgate said  as he reflected on the nature of the defeat that left England facing relegation from the top tier of the Nations League and heaped the pressure on him. “And you’ve got to get those decisions right. With a club, maybe if you’re at the top, and you’ve got a long time working with the players, you can play a more expansive game. But I think even the top teams, they’re very good defensively, they’re good on transition, the balance of everything is right.

“So, the idea that we can just play lots of attacking players and rely on talent to win