“Because maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me, and after all, you’re my wonderwall”… Yep, I was happy to join in as our boys stormed past Croatia the other night and having watched Jude Bellingham open up his legs and show his class, I was cock-a-hoop.
Of course, the longer England can stay in the tournament the better it will be for all you marketers, too. After all, a happy consumer is likely to spend more.
Now, the thing is, I am no expert – and, unlike Emma Hayes, I haven’t got chalk and a blackboard – but Thomas Tuchel’s squad faces a distinct structural challenge in the next game against Ghana’s low block and I reckon England must now adapt their tactical blueprint to break down an incredibly stubborn defensive unit.
No doubt, Ghana will look to sit in a deep, compact 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 shape, marshalled by centre-back Jerome Opoku. They’ll aim to starve England of space between the lines. Sadly, if England fall into a slow, horizontal “horseshoe” passing pattern around the perimeter, they will play directly into Ghana’s hands.
To break this down, England must use “double width” on the flanks with Reece James and Bukayo Saka. Hopefully, by stretching the pitch horizontally, England can drag Ghana’s wide midfielders out of position, forcing their defensive lines to disconnect and opening up vertical passing lanes.
With a bit of luck, Kane will continue to operate as a modern “nine-and-a-half”, and drop into midfield to draw Opoku out of the defensive line. His hold-up play is crucial; by pinning defenders and turning, he creates a vacuum behind him for inverted wingers to exploit.
Of course, when Kane drops deep, Bellingham acts as the secondary striker. He must time his vertical, off-the-ball runs into the penalty box to overload Ghana’s centre-backs and latch onto Kane’s line-breaking passes.
Meanwhile, Rice will hopefully serve as the defensive insurance policy in the double pivot. While the full-backs push high, Rice is responsible for “rest defence” – snuffing out Ghanaian counter-attacks from deep and cleaning up second balls to sustain England’s final-third pressure.
As I say, I’m no expert, but “maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me, and after all, you’re my wonderwall”…
Either that or we’ll cock it up and lose 1-0.
Foxy has ditched X but is still on Instagram, just don’t get too excited as she’s never there
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