Did you ‘spot’ England tactic? Or think they would ‘automatically win’ World Cup without Southgate?

It seemed as though Lee Carsley picked the England team and tactics but no, this was on ‘the public’ for ‘demanding’ changes ahead of the 2026 World Cup win.

Spot luck

”Southgate would never’ – Fans spot tactic England have never used in history’

Fair play to both those eagle-eyed ‘fans’ – all six of them off Twitter – and indeed The Sun website for managing to ‘spot’ that England played with no recognised striker for quite a while against Greece. It had completely passed Mediawatch by.

Reality bites
It is important to head over to the Daily Mail ever so quietly, so as not to disturb Oliver Holt in the middle of his construction of this incredible straw man:

‘This was a reality check for both the manager – for whom this was a first defeat in his three games in charge – and for those who seemed to think that, without Gareth Southgate in charge, England would automatically win the World Cup in 2026 and the next European Championship, too.’

A quick question: Can people who don’t exist be given ‘a reality check’?

MORE REACTION TO ENGLAND 1 GREECE 2 FROM F365
👉 False nines and false back fours – rating England’s players in that honking 2-1 defeat to Greece
👉 Carsley succumbs to England clamour in shambolic Greece defeat that ends managerial hopes
👉 Carsley ‘arrogance’ and ‘useless’ Foden blasted but outcast should tell England to ‘get f**ked’

You asked for this
Aside from handing out humble pie to entirely imaginary folk who thought England ‘would automatically win’ the next two major tournaments over the next four years simply by replacing Gareth Southgate as manager, Holt indulged in a neat little media trick from his seat at Wembley. And he was not alone.

‘It is too early for Christmas shopping – for most of us, anyway – but this was the present every England fan wanted to unwrap. This was what everyone had been demanding’

Plenty of England supporters certainly wanted this incredibly talented group to play with more attacking endeavour, to exert far greater control over matches, to be able to react and adapt in-game and to not revert to a completely risk-averse approach against the best teams in the world. That much is true.

Maybe there was a small and admittedly vocal minority who said England should simply chuck all their best players on the pitch with no thought as to putting them in a coherent system or structure. Pretty much every football team ever has such an element in their fanbase.

But pretending that ‘everyone had been demanding’ a line-up which looked nonsensical when it was announced, was even worse than first feared during the game and became downright farcical when the manager admitted afterwards they had worked on it for 20 minutes in training, is daft. Asking for ‘the handbrake to come off’ is not nearly the same as saying ‘just field a load of excellent attacking midfielders with barely any thought as to how it all might actually work and don’t change anything for about an hour’.

Then there is Dave Kidd in The Sun:

‘This was the sort of line up the public urged Southgate to play during the Euros, and for some time before that…with Wembley sold out on a school night, Carsley decided to give the public what they’ve wanted for some time.’

Mediawatch certainly can’t remember personally petitioning for Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Bukayo Saka to start in a side with Declan Rice as the only vaguely defence-minded midfielder in front of a back four which had never played together, featuring a pair of attacking full-backs. Especially not ‘during the Euros’.

But it can’t possibly have been the manager’s fault so yep, this one is on ‘the public’ for being so silly and demanding.

Warning shot
Carsley himself never really wanted to use all those players. We know this because John Cross of the Daily Mirror was there when the interim England manager suggested as such.

‘Lee Carsley has warned he will struggle to get all of England’s star midfield trio into the same starting line-up,’ he wrote on October 3 in a piece headlined: ‘Lee Carsley makes worrying admission on Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer.’

Seven days later, Cross writes this:

‘It felt like Carsley was afraid to drop one of the big guns when the reality is that you probably cannot get Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer into the same line-up and look anything remotely like a team.’

Almost like he ‘warned’ everyone about that ‘reality’ a week ago but was made out to be weird by people who called it a ‘worrying admission’ rather than a sensible opinion.

Cars boot
This, by the way, is stunning clickbait from the Daily Mirror website:

‘”HOPEFULLY I’LL BE GOING!” Carsley makes major U-turn with brutally honest admission over England job after dreadful Wembley display’

The rest of that quote, of course, being the rather important “…back to the Under 21s”. Must be frustrating that they couldn’t fit it all in the headline but this is what happens you crack the whip and demand eight stories a day.

MUST-win
‘Under no circumstances should this result and performance be allowed to derail Carsley on its own. We need to more grown up than that, both as a nation and a media’ – the ninth paragraph of Ian Ladyman’s considered Daily Mail opinion piece.

It is a refreshing take, counter to the opinion of pretty much everyone else who believes losing at home so tactically hilariously to Greece should probably disqualify an interim manager from taking the post permanently. Good on Ladyman for fighting that reactionary tide.

What a shame about…

The fourth paragraph, in which Ladyman writes that Carsley ‘needs to win’ against Finland on Sunday ‘if his credibility as the long-term successor to Gareth Southgate is not to lie in shreds.’

The sixth and seventh paragraphs, in which Ladyman says these Nations League fixtures left ‘absolutely no margin for error’ but Carsley has now ‘taken his mulligan’ and presumably has, well, absolutely no margin for error, thus must beat Finland on Sunday.

The 17th and closing paragraph, in which Ladyman writes: ‘It feels like a critical couple of days for Carsley. One day he may look back at this defeat and see it as a mere kink in the road, something to learn from and all the rest of it. Equally he may not. Chances are we will know much more by the time the lights go out at the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki.’

And the headline, which reads: ‘England’s defeat by Greece was an absolute horror show and carried echoes of Gareth Southgate’s final days – Lee Carsley MUST beat Finland or his job prospects lie in tatters’.

So to recap, ‘under no circumstances should this result and performance’ against Greece completely undermine Carsley’s push for a permanent job he probably doesn’t want. We should not be so quick to change opinions on the basis of one game. But England MUST win their next match or sod being ‘grown up’ because Carsley is done.

MORE REACTION TO ENGLAND 1 GREECE 2 FROM F365
👉 False nines and false back fours – rating England’s players in that honking 2-1 defeat to Greece
👉 Carsley succumbs to England clamour in shambolic Greece defeat that ends managerial hopes
👉 Carsley ‘arrogance’ and ‘useless’ Foden blasted but outcast should tell England to ‘get f**ked’