If you are an international manager, when are you allowed to experiment? Do you wait for a major competition like the Euro’s, World Cup, or try something in a UEFA Nations League B Group 2 match against Greece as England interim manager Lee Carsley did?

England manager Lee Carsley after their 2-1 defeat to Greece:

I think with the players that we’ve got, I think we’ve got to be courageous at times with our systems and be creative.

I could have quite easily gone; we have recognized nines; we had two on the bench, but I thought it was important to try something different. I think at this stage, coming off the last two games, I never at any point thought that I’ve got it cracked. It was a case of let’s try something different, and I’m happy to take the blame for that. It was totally my idea. I thought about it long and hard in terms of how it might look, how we might build, and how it might feel.

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My position and understanding of coaching, I want to attack. I want to attack. You’ve seen my teams play; it’s something that’s really important to me, and with that, you do lose games. You do lose some games. It’s not ideal, of course it’s not, but with that mentality, I’ve found that I definitely win more games.

If picking this lineup was an “experiment”:

Definitely not an experiment. I thought it was a creative way of trying to play, similar to what we just spoke about there getting some of our attacking players on the pitch to see what that would look like.

Obviously, with this job, you have to do that a lot of the time in competitive games, which we obviously done tonight. It’s important that you know we have that chance to be a little bit creative with the selections.

In my opinion, watching back that game for a second time, there really wasn’t that much experimentation. I agree with Lee Carsley.

They played Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, and Jude Bellingham at the same time in the middle. That is the clickbait headline. Ignoring any commentary from others, how they operated in the actual game wasn’t controversial.

They looked more like Gareth Southgate’s version of England, just with Jude Bellingham in for Harry Kane. They had two wingers, two midfielders, and a central forward drifting back. There was some rotations back and forth towards the ball, but I didn’t think the players were wild with “freedom” of position as advertised by others. They stuck to their zones for the most part.

The only two major differences were the fact Bellingham is quicker and drops deeper, and the fullbacks, Rico Lewis and Trent Alexander-Arnold, both are free to invert in and out of the midfield, able to choose to stay wide or drift inside. That left them vulnerable at times in defense, but that plays into Carsley’s philosophy to attack first. You score two goals; we’ll score three. A huge culture shift from the pragmatic past.

If Palmer, Bellingham, and Foden are going to play together, they need more passes and touches within that black box. It is the job of Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones, Levi Colwill, and Rico Lewis to find them. They didn’t when the pass was open. And by open, I mean, the window is tight, but that is what those three need. They operate in the tight spaces and play out of them. That is their edge.

This is the main issue that remains consistent from Southgate to Carsley: the nonexistent service into the center of the pitch. That is why they are stale and lifeless in the attack.

The five defenders and a holding midfielder pass and pass, then everything is into the wings and then into the half-spaces, or half-spaces into the wings. To me, it’s riskier to only pass to the wings because it boxes them in.

This isn’t something a different structure will fix; the defenders and midfielders need to be more willing to play the ball into tight spaces central. Their best moments come when they play and combine in tight, pass and move.

My biggest criticism of Carsley comes from the fact that Cole Palmer dropped deep next to Declan Rice the most. If I had the choice, Phil Foden should be instructed to drop deep instead. If you’re not going to pass to Foden in the tight spaces, he has to be the one to drop deep because Foden isn’t going to dribble in the same way Palmer will. Foden is better defensively and a more clinical passer-facing play. Palmer is more creative.

Match: England 1-2 Greece, 10 October 2024