They’re becoming very giddy in England.
Gareth Southgate’s side assured themselves of a place in the last-16 of the World Cup with wins in their opening group games. England beat Tunisia thanks to a stoppage-time Harry Kane goal last Monday. On Sunday, they hammered the hopeless Panama 6-1, a team that would make better wrestlers than footballers.
Next up is Belgium on Thursday, and the talk is about whether it’s better to finish first or second in the group. A country that hasn’t won a knockout game at a tournament since 2006 is trying to figure out the best route to the World Cup final.
Football is coming home, apparently.
And this is after Tunisia and Panama…
Imagine what will happen if England beat Colombia, Senegal or Japan to reach the last 8… pic.twitter.com/n6Km6hCO16— Dan Roan (@danroan) June 24, 2018
Optimism is perfectly fine, and England deserve credit for their displays at the World Cup so far.
This time four years ago, they had been knocked out after two defeats in their opening two group games in Brazil. Andrea Pirlo and Mario Balotelli put them to the sword in Manaus. A few days later, a half-fit Luis Suarez scored twice to ensure England were on the first flight home. They played out a goalless draw with Costa Rica in their final group game before receiving a standing ovation from travelling England supporters. Two years ago they lost to Iceland in the last-16 of the European Championships.
Their current positivity is understandable when placed within the context of recent performances at international tournaments. But England and some of their supporters – mostly high-profile figures like Gary Lineker and some of his BBC colleagues – are in danger of losing the run of themselves.
This is getting silly. Last time England scored 4 or more goals in a World Cup was the 1966 WC final.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 24, 2018
This was conveyed with three words used by Matt Upson on BBC Radio 5 Live later on Sunday. According to former England and West Ham United defender Upson, “anything is possible” for England at the tournament now that they have qualified for the knockout stages.
“Why wouldn’t we look at ourselves and say, ‘anything is possible?’
What I won’t do, is put limitations on us. I just think it’s negative. The point is, at this moment in time, I haven’t seen anything from anyone to make me think, ‘we’d have no chance if we played them next week.'”
Just a reminder, this is the optimism generated by a win over Panama, the worst team in the competition and one of the worst to ever feature at the World Cup finals. They qualified for the tournament ahead of the United States, an event that should shame the country more than the election of Donald Trump. Giddy optimism has seemingly infected the press pack too.
Henry Winter of The Times wrote in his match report on Sunday:
“This one goes out to the ones who’ve always loved England, but have suffered so much along the way, who travelled to Brazil and watched the team slink home early from the last World Cup. This 6-1 goes out to those who kept the faith in England, and who believed Gareth Southgate could nurture excellence from inexperience. This one goes out to the frustrated thousands who sang “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” in Nice at Euro 2016.”
Once again, this gloating is following a victory over Panama.
According to Transfermarkt, England’s squad is worth £786.6m. Kane is the most valuable player in the squad – it would cost a club at least £135m to sign him from Spurs. To put England’s victory on Sunday in perspective, the entire Panama squad, all 23 players, is worth £7.4m. Sunday’s victory was inevitable. Panama had no chance whatsoever, there was no possible way England wouldn’t win. The real work starts now and they won’t be playing opposition that resembles an overly-physical non-league side.
To criticise the current England team would be completely unfair. But heaping pressure on them because of heightened expectations based on routine victories is equally unfair. Upson may be right, England probably don’t have anything to fear from what we have seen from other sides at the competition. At the same time though, there’s not enough evidence from England’s wins over Tunisia or Panama to warrant such giddiness that is creeping closer and closer to hubris with every mention of football coming home.
England may have scored a glut of goals from set-pieces so far, something that has been cited as a positive aspect of their play. However, they won’t play another team at the tournament who will defend corners as poorly as Tunisia or Panama. Tunisia left Kane free for several corners, and he, of course, scored twice. Panama tried to mark man-to-man and made it easier for England to create space for a free player to head home. This isn’t a criticism of the team, just some perspective.
They didn’t create many chances from open play on Sunday, and Kane was rarely involved. The England captain had just 21 touches of the ball against one of the weakest sides in World Cup history. Two of those touches were his penalties, the other a shot that deflected into the net off his heel. If England can’t get their striker and best player on the ball against Panama, how will he cope against Colombia, who England could play in the last-16?
Colombia’s central defenders, Yerry Mina and Davinson Sanchez, gave Robert Lewandowski an awful time on Sunday evening in their 3-o victory over Poland. In addition to their strong defence, Colombia have craft and creativity in the form of Juan Quintero and James Rodriguez, the blistering pace of Juan Cuadrado and the class of Radamel Falcao, who looks like a player reborn. They are potential opponents for England in the last-16, yet many supporters of the Three Lions are working out what route to the final would be better.
Roy Keane, speaking on ITV on Sunday night, got it right when discussing England. He urged them to take it game by game and not look far ahead. Southgate seems like a sensible manager, and one would imagine that’s exactly the approach he will take. But one also get the impression that the hype bubble around the team, inflated by the cheerleaders in the media who fail to place victories in their correct context, is only getting going.
