Interim England manager Lee Carsley put out a starting XI against Greece that went from very exciting to very disjointed, very quickly.
It would be fair to say that Carsley took Greece for granted and assumed his England side would stroll to a comfortable Wembley victory on Thursday night. Declan Rice was essentially playing in midfield by himself with the Three Lions’ best attacking talent shoehorned into an extremely attacking starting XI, scratching that particular itch for those who have been clamming to see it happen.
Not only did Carsley find a role for Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon in a Harry Kane-less team, but he started Trent Alexander-Arnold and Rico Lewis at full-back. Very attacking. Very inverted. Very open.
Their presence contributed towards a very disjointed press and a shape, if you can even call it that, that Greece had joy against and were able to expose.
Carsley’s XI was a huge talking point going into the Nations League clash and will be a huge talking point until Sunday’s match against Finland. He definitely went a bit too gung-ho and was made to pay when he really can’t show any weaknesses in his bid to be Gareth Southgate’s long-term successor.
Getting Palmer, Foden, Bellingham, Saka and Gordon in might have proved to us that Carsley was full of Euro 2024 clamour and probably has a Twitter burner account. Bellingham was deployed as the highest central player and Palmer was a little bit deeper to help support Rice, which did not work. He is a player who belongs in the final third.
Bellingham playing through the middle instead of Kane finally allowed England to get in behind but raised a pretty important question: why didn’t Ollie Watkins start? The only logical explanation is that Carsley wanted to bow down to the clamour.
Going all-out attack without a recognised striker was a real paradox. Sure, there was no Kane but it was not like there were no orthodox nines available.
Picking that line-up – including two very offensive full-backs – he did without an actual striker quickly looked bizarre and you just knew Watkins was sat on the bench feeling a big bit pissed.
Even more alarmingly, there was a lack of creativity and Saka was completely uninvolved. Gordon was more involved but miles off it, missing a superb headed chance in the first half.
The opening 45 minutes were difficult to watch but at least England did not concede, even if they tried their best to with Rice, John Stones and Levi Colwill exposed on the break.
Greece’s first chance came after Jude Bellingham was dispossessed high up the pitch and it quickly became clear that Carsley’s set-up would see England concede plenty of chances. Soon after, Jordan Pickford had a brain fart and was rescued by an outstanding Colwill clearance off the line. We did not expect to see Pickford’s mea culpa against Greece, let alone in the 10th minute.
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Pickford got all jumpy from the resulting corner and conceded to West Ham’s Konstantinos Mavropanos, only to be rescued by the linesman’s flag. It was a shocking period of play from the Everton man, who was one of Southgate’s most reliable players during his tenure.
There was a lack of creativity with three tens on the pitch but Lee Dixon saying England “created nothing” in the first half was harsh. Sure, they could have been more creativity but England still should have scored. Palmer missed a sitter after Lamparding into the penalty area to get on the end of a cutback from Bellingham running in behind, something Carsley clearly wanted to manufacture.
It was all a bit Spursy. Lots of attacking intent and just as much worrying defending. And even with their intent, England had fewer chances than Greece and looked a lot more passive.
There might have been a lack of defensive shape and disjointed press but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. There was plenty of effort out of possession with Gordon, Foden and Bellingham working very hard to put pressure on the Greek backline. They did not reap the rewards and seeing Alexander-Arnold and Lewis close together on the left wing when trying to activate a press emphasised just how messy it was.
Greece’s first ever goal at Wembley came when Vangelis Pavlidis jinxed through the England ‘defence’ consisting of a fish out of water in Palmer, a reluctant tackler in Alexander-Arnold and an easily beaten Stones.
After the opening goal we entered territory where Carsley was f**ked no matter what. If the score stayed the same, he f**ked it, if England equalised, he f**ked it and if they win it only happened after he de-f**ked it.
His attempts to make amends saw a change in system with a classic 4-4-2 deployed. Going from no strikers to two in Watkins and Dominic Solanke was funny, we must admit.
Greece actually had the ball in the net four times before their eventual winner but had three goals ruled out for offside, which came back to bite them when Bellingham scored a late equaliser.
Watkins’ pullback accidentally dribbled towards Bellingham on the edge of the box and £20million Newcastle United goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos could only palm the Real Madrid star’s strike into the top corner.
A draw was never going to be good enough going into the match and England recognised that by allowing a fifth Greece goal to go in. Pavlidis scored for the third time and there was no offside this time, meaning Carsley was dealt the defeat his tactics and team selection deserved.
Succumbing to the clamour of forcing all of the attacking English talent into a starting XI turned out to be the wrong decision in the end and has ruined his chance of getting the gig full time. Maybe Gareth Southgate knew what he was doing all along.
The worst thing of all? Michael Owen was right.
