Whether it was the sight of John Stones going to ground within the first 60 seconds or the ease with which Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson found his way to goal, England’s pre-tournament defeat to Iceland last Friday provided Gareth Southgate with some defensive concerns.
Luckily, the England manager appears to have his first-choice centre-back fit and available for Sunday’s opening group game with Serbia. The Manchester City defender, who was taken off at half-time as a precaution after landing awkwardly on his ankle, trained alongside the rest of the England squad on Tuesday afternoon — and such a full bill of health cannot be underestimated.
The debate has raged in recent days, and weeks, as to who should partner Declan Rice in midfield. The creative option being Trent Alexander-Arnold, Connor Gallagher cast as the safer choice, and Kobbie Mainoo considered the outside possibility.
Who Southgate opts for will be a consequence of their ability both in attack and defence. As the old adage goes, success in tournament football is often based on strong defensive foundations, and it is that solid base that England are working on in the days before they kickstart their group-stage in Gelsenkirchen.
Southgate did not like how his team defended the goal that saw them lose to Iceland in a limp send-off at Wembley. Rice was out of position, Mainoo had too much space to cover, Kyle Walker was not in the picture and Stones was slow to get across. The concession reeked of a structure gone awol.
For much of Southgate’s tenure as England manager, his defence has picked itself. But at this juncture, on the eve of the tournament, he is finding himself needing to field a right-footed defender at left-back and hoping a somewhat untested centre-back can step up to partner another centre-half who has started just 12 league games this term.
The clockwork structure of England’s defence has slightly dissipated of late. The absence of Harry Maguire from England’s 26-man squad due to a calf injury represents one of the biggest losses to Southgate.
Maguire has been an instrumental figure in all three of Southgate’s tournament squads (the World Cups in 2018 and 2022 along with Euro 2020) and the notion was, if fit, it would be the usual Maguire-Stones duo in Germany.
Instead, Marc Guehi is pencilled in to line up alongside Stones in a defensive partnership that has only started twice together before.
Guehi, who missed three months of the domestic season with a knee issue, started both the recent games against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland but appeared a little shaky. And so ensuring that a working relationship between the Crystal Palace defender and Stones swiftly develops is of paramount importance for England’s chances as the competition progresses.
Stones himself has had an uneven season. He played just 16 Premier League games for City last year because of hamstring and hip problems and must step up as England’s key defensive pillar.
If the centre of England’s defence has thrown up one or two problems, then the position of left-back has brought more angst than most others for Southgate.
Dearth of left-backs has Southgate scrambling
Eight defenders — along with Alexander-Arnold, who could do a job at right-back but is primarily considered a midfielder — have been included in the 26-man squad but Luke Shaw is the only specialist left-back.
Shaw has not played since injuring his hamstring in mid-February and was the one ‘gamble’ Southgate permitted himself and that was through necessity. Ben Chilwell was discarded despite starting the friendlies against Brazil and Belgium in March.
Although the Manchester United defender has returned to full training and was part of the squad practice on England’s first full day at their base, he is targeting England’s second group-game against Denmark on June 20 for his comeback.
That means Kieran Trippier is the player preparing to face Serbia on the left side of England’s back-line. The 33-year-old is a different profile of full-back to Shaw and has, also, not experienced the smoothest of seasons.
However, Southgate knows what he gets from Trippier; and his dependability is exemplified by the England manager choosing to deploy him at left-back on 11 previous occasions (including in the opening game of Euro 2020 at Shaw’s expense as well as matches with Germany, Italy and Denmark).
So a line-up of Trippier, Guehi, Stones and Walker is far from inexperienced but question marks hang over three of them as Southgate attempts to form a cohesive defensive unit on the same wavelength as his attackers.
All that considered, the slightly undercooked nature of the defence may in itself answer the overriding selection question ahead of Sunday evening. Pragmatism would lead to Gallagher being the preferred option next to Rice to provide a steadiness to midfield.
Southgate often gets criticised for placing too much focus on the defensive aspect of his side but changes in circumstance dictate it would be foolish for him not to give it due consideration on the training pitch this week.
