England youngsters: is Gareth Southgate making the right call?

Let’s be honest: debate about the England team will never cease to make the news. There’ll never be anything that doesn’t cause argument, to do with England. There’ll never be nothing to talk about with the England team.

Foreigners who live here have an opinion of the press in this country that the English nationals miss for being so engrossed in the cacophony – that England will never win. And that’s not even in footballing terms – England can never win, they say, due to the fact that the press continuously scrutinise them – whether they play well or not so.

A three-nil victory? It was against a ‘pub side’. A 0-0 draw with one of the top dogs? ‘They’re never getting anywhere’. Sit back and analyse how we treat our national side and you’ll get an image of what everyone else can see: that we need to give them a break.

Friday’s 0-0 draw against Germany didn’t actually draw as many negatives from the newspapers the next day as it might usually. People were more focused on unpicking the selection process going on in Gareth Southgate’s mind. And 0-0 was probably a fair result, considering England’s highly youthful starting eleven.

But that’s where yet another argument can undoubtedly stem from. With the World Cup around the corner, is Southgate right to be trialling these young players at such short notice? Is it right to be giving uncapped players debuts or even calling them to the squad when they’ve a lack of even Premier League experience, never mind not being the best player at their club? Can we actually do something at this World Cup?

It’s probably better to ignore that last question. England fans getting their hopes up is probably the catalyst for most of the rage and anger that boils through the veins of many loyal supporters and pundits, when they subsequently fail at the first hurdle. But opinion on the state of England’s national team at the moment is unavoidable; natural.

Young Players: The Arguments For

Gareth Southgate, on the grand scheme of things, is a young manager. And he’s the one with the power here, the one who’ll take the butt of the discussion (and criticism). But he’s supposedly the one we’ve all been waiting for too – English, young and, well, friendly – he’s calm, relaxed and can build a rapport with many of the players. He’s also got the ability to give himself a selection headache, and according to many, is heading that way already.

Southgate managed England under-21’s from 2013 until 2016. As a result, he knows and has mentored many of the players already in England’s squad, as well as some of the ones he called up against Germany. Some of those in the current squad, he doesn’t, though. He’s obviously settled on the idea that youth rather than experience is the way to go, and seems to be making it his philosophy as soon as possible. If one thing is for sure, it’s that we know and he knows that he has a point to prove. There’s a big task ahead of him and anyone who takes the England post needs to have balls of steel – and the confidence in themselves that they’ve actually got the ability to get something out of this team.

England’s line up against Germany was their most inexperienced since 1980 – thirty-seven years ago. Five debutants started the game – goalkeeper Pickford, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham and substitutes Jack Cork and Joe Gomez. Albeit, Southgate had to deal with injuries to some of his mainstays in Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling, but it was an educated decision to try out some of the newbies, and Southgate is serious about making this side his own.

And it was promising. Ruben Loftus-Cheek played very freely and produced much the same content as he has done for Crystal Palace this season – neat and nifty dribbling, coupled with some skills and the bounding, powerful runs both on and off the ball that having long legs gives you the very handy ability to do. Pickford made a couple of fantastic saves where he had to get down quick and react in supersonic time – something that Joe Hart, who’s 30 now, might not have been able to do. There were some similar unimpressive displays from the likes of Maguire, but that’s all part of the process. Southgate wants to figure out who’s best, take advantage of all his options, and, well, play the field, for want of a better metaphor.

And there are reasons why playing youngsters is good – not just in a trial sense, but with a view to them becoming permanent fixtures in the team.

There’s that endeavour and freedom that comes with being young – the notion that the world is at one’s feet, that the big stadium and the TV cameras and the t-shirt is a platform to show the world just what they’re good at. And then there’s the positive sense of naivety that some players have – almost in the opposite way, that it’s just a football match after all. And that can give them license to roam, to actually run at players. It might not even be a conscious thing – but young players always seem so unchained, with a relieving sense of liberation, like they’re playing down at the park as a child again. They’re not afraid of it.

The utilisation of young players can also be good because it’s actually giving the lads a chance to prove themselves – otherwise, how will anyone know if they’re good or not anyway? It’s much like at clubs, where giving academy players a chance is a rarity, but can pay off – just look at Marcus Rashford. So why shouldn’t Southgate be allowed to play his wildcard too? Football is also a mental game – not least in the way that players fit into teams and play well depending on whether they feel confident, have trust in the manager and get on with their team-mates. Some young players might not perform so well at club level, but put them in a different side and they’ll show you just why they made it in the first place.

Young Players: The Arguments Against

On the other side of the argument, there are many negatives that could be identified on the reverse of some of the points just made. Naivety was just mentioned in a positive vein. But many would argue that the fact that these players are young and lack maturity means that they don’t know just what it means to pull on that England shirt – they don’t appreciate the responsibility that is on their backs – and on occasion, they don’t have the passion that many think is required to fulfil the boots of an England player.

It’s unarguable that some of these players will shine if given enough of an opportunity – but with the World Cup just eight months away, the concern is that even if these players do play well against Germany and Brazil, they won’t have enough time to get ready. The World Cup is the major footballing competition and it comes round once every four years – so Southgate, it goes without saying, can’t afford to get it wrong. But there’s a host of reasons why if these players did play at the World Cup, it wouldn’t work.

The first is lack of experience: playing at international level is a completely different kettle of fish than playing at club level, not least due to the quality of the competition. The occasion could get to them – and the pressure might cause them to collapse. Eight months, and no competitive games in that period, is not enough to prepare a new set of players for an international football tournament.

The second is lack of playing together. Football is a team game, and of course the team that played against Germany isn’t going to be the one that starts in the World Cup, but if Southgate keeps on constantly mixing his players up, the starting eleven of the team are likely not going to know each other well and not going have played with each other a lot. The lack of fixtures has a contribution to play in that, of course; it’s not all Southgate’s fault. But every national manager has that problem, and he has to adapt to it. If some were him, the team they’d be playing now is the team they’d be hoping to start in the first group game. No, it’s not too early. But it is too late to be giving players debuts now and expecting them to be ready to play in the World Cup in June.

You only have to look at previous World Cup winners as an example of how crucial experience and chemistry are to the success of a football team. In the 2014 World Cup final, Germany’s winning side had a combined 625 caps between them. It’s a staggering number – but the players in the squad had been playing internationally – and together – for a long time prior to their victory. In 2010, victors Spain had a similar number of 582 – an average of 53 per player. In that team, it was an even more familiar and stable side – Casillas, Puyol, Ramos, Xavi, Iniesta and David Villa had been the first names on the team sheet for years prior. Remember all that talk about how Jose Reina and Victor Valdes couldn’t get into the Spain team, despite their stature as goalkeepers of Liverpool and Barcelona respectively at the time? But Casillas was first choice, and they stuck to it. England don’t stick. Look at the difference.

Even Italy’s relatively inexperienced side of 2006 still had 431 caps between them. Of course, England’s side against Germany was never going to come close – but, without Wayne Rooney, the last player of the ‘golden-generation’, it’s easy enough to calculate that England’s most likely line-up for the World Cup, give or take different players, has a maximum cap count of about 350.

The truth is, England haven’t had a solid team for years, and have been swapping players around in teams, ‘trying to find the best team’ for ages – hence the lack of caps. Phil Jones has been around for what seems like forever, yet he has mere 24 England appearances to his name. The average life span of an England player these days seems to be about two years. Where’s Adam Lallana gone? Ross Barkley, Phil Jagielka, James Milner? The left back position is one of the worst for it. Since Ashley Cole, everyone’s had a stint – Leighton Baines, Kieran Gibbs, Ryan Bertrand, Danny Rose, even Stephen Warnock. Someone needs to make a decision.

Thirdly, how many players does he want to pick from? Southgate is an intelligent man, but with the rate he’s going through new players, they’re each going to get around ninety minutes max on the field before the World Cup. He’s just called up Angus Gunn for the game against Brazil. For what? If he plays, he isn’t going to for long, because Joe Hart’s starting. Even if he does play, there’s no way he’s going to go to the World Cup. And lastly, he’s only made ten appearances for England under 21’s – and he plays for Norwich, who sit thirteenth in the Championship with a goal difference of minus five. Can anyone explain?

In fact, it’s not even just Gunn who’s not going to play at the World Cup. England have about seven keepers to pick from at the moment. We don’t need that many. Southgate needs to be more decisive. It could be argued it’s ‘early days’ yet, but it isn’t, and the World Cup will come flying round the corner faster than we know it. Bar a miracle, Jack Cork and Joe Gomez aren’t going to go either. Abraham probably isn’t. Trippier, unfortunately, probably isn’t. So why not test out your strongest side, give them a chance to play together, and see whether they work well as a group?

You could say Southgate’s policy of recruiting younger players is one that’s been proven to work. Just look at the world’s best teams and their new breed of superstars: Neymar and Gabriel Jesus for Brazil, Isco, Marco Asensio and the like for Spain; Mbappe for France and Werner for Germany, along with the rest of their incredible roster of talented young stars.

But there’s a problem lying there.

Our players simply aren’t as good. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But obviously not to whom it matters.

It’s easy enough to judge players’ talent by the way they play on the field. Rashford is an incredible talent, and he could rival some of the world’s best young players. And you can see it in his gameplay – his dribbling, his pace, his knack for scoring. But it’s also able to be judged by their record in club football, which links back to experience: for these new English players, it just doesn’t exist.

Gabriel Jesus is only 20 but was scoring consistently for Palmeiras when he was called up to the Brazil side. Neymar was lighting up the pitch for Santos when he made his debut and continued to be a club superstar as he racked up the goals for Brazil. Kylian Mbappe scored twenty-six goals for French powerhouses Monaco in 2016-17 and was called up in March; Werner was called up for Germany at around the same time and scored 21 in 31 for RB Leipzig as they finished second in the Bundesliga last season.

Tammy Abraham has scored four in eleven for Swansea City this campaign, who are currently sitting in the relegation zone. Loftus-Cheek has scored zero for Crystal Palace and has only played seven out of a total of eleven league games. Jack Cork has one assist in eleven games for Burnley. And Jake Livermore has no assists or goals, and according to WhoScored.com, is West Brom’s thirteenth best player this season. Thirteenth.

Along with the fact they have nothing on the sort of players that world class teams like Germany and Brazil have in their ranks, it’s also the fact that many would say that these players haven’t done enough to get into the England side either. But England are still a team that the public, and the press, expect to win the World Cup. We simply don’t have the quality.

It’s all down to personal opinion, but Southgate needs to knuckle down if he’s to be prepared and know his best team before the first game. It’s what every manager gets judged on – and when they don’t know their team, they get berated – but that’s because most of the time, the team won’t play well.

Saying we might win the World Cup is ridiculous anyway, but even getting past the group stage is, for many, a long shot and beyond hopes for England next summer. It’s simply too late in the day for all this trialling business – Southgate had the chance to play half of these players in the qualifiers, but now they’ve played well for a game or two he’s dropping them into his plans like there’s no tomorrow. They need guidance and training and experience before they’re ready to even be considered for a World Cup. And if we’re going to get anywhere in Russia, now’s the time for Southgate to get his act together – and start picking the players who he thinks might actually get us somewhere.