Will there be misery or ecstasy? - Charlie Haffenden analyses England's chances in the World Cup
For weeks and weeks we have been patiently counting down the days until the World Cup finally begins, and now, there is just under a week of agonising waiting to go.
As you can probably understand, I’m beginning to get rather excited at the prospect of the tournament, though, when I think about it, I probably shouldn’t be. England, despite their one success in 1966, have had a history of misery when it comes to major international tournaments and as a result I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up. However, and as cliché as it sounds, I believe we can finally break away from the curse and actually do well for once in this competition.
In our last big tournament, we dropped out at the Round of 16 stage against Iceland after an awful performance and it was so underwhelming after all of the hype and build up before hand. I’m hoping that now, with a lot younger of a squad than in the past, and with a new manager in Gareth Southgate, we can forget about this failure and strive on with confidence this time over. I feel that we should already be filled with this confidence because the group we have, let’s be honest, is probably one of the easiest we could’ve imagined. Of course, Belgium are a fantastic side, and are actually one of the favourites for the trophy, however, Panama and Tunisia are two teams that make up the bottom three of countries ‘least likely to win the World Cup.’ It’s risky to do so, but I already have almost concluded in my mind that we can beat at least these two, and after that, progress onto the Round of 16 once more.
Whether we’ll go further than this stage is another question and it made me wonder, who are the possible opponents we could face? Realistically, we are extremely unlikely to beat Belgium in our group so that would leave us with a second place finish. If this occurs, we will be placed up against the team that finish first in Group H. The most likely countries to face in this scenario would be Colombia or Senegal as they have the strongest squads in their group. For me, either of these teams are reasonably beatable as neither really have a consistency or fluidity within their lineups. Colombia, don’t get me wrong, have some quality players including the likes of Radamel Falcao, James Rodríguez and José Izquierdo, but their defence and midfield are competent at best. Davison Sanchez could be argued as a decent centre back, but everyone else in these positions? If you ask me, and as negative as it sounds, I’d say they’re rather mediocre.
Senegal have a really good squad also, with Sadio Mané and Kalidou Koulibaly standing out as their main stars, though, once again there are a number of positions that are only filled by average players. The striker position, for example, would be occupied by someone like Mame Biram Diouf who could barely net for Stoke at all last season or Demba Ba who is way past his prime, playing in Turkey’s Süper Lig. Finishing in first or second would put us up against one of these teams so it does look promising for you if you’re hoping for a Quarter-Final or further run in this year’s tournament. - Though we did lose to Iceland, we can’t forget, even though I would like to. Ouch.
If we do get to the Quarter-Finals, our most likely opponents would be either Germany or Brazil. Either way, it will be extremely difficult and we’re probably unlikely to get further than this point, but thinking through our team, and as silly as it may sound, I do have a little belief we could have a chance. We have three top quality goalkeepers to choose from in Butland, Pickford and Pope, who all had fantastic seasons in the Premier League. One thing they do lack is experience but the fact none of them do have this means they won’t feel as if they need to impress a veteran or have to compete with them. Instead, they’ll be competitive with one and other and I feel as if this will be perfect for us. They’ll have added pressure which could of course lead to mistakes but it is more likely to strive them on to impress us further. I expect a really good performance from England in the goalkeeper front this time round.
In the defence, and once again we have some great depth. We also have a choice of three different back lines due to the versatility of some of our players. We could choose a three-back a four-back or even a five-back. In Cahill and Stones we have two decent centre halves with a good mixture of pace, strength and experience as well as fantastic leadership qualities. In Kyle Walker we have someone who can play across the back or in a wing position so that would be amazing if we needed to play a wing-back formation. We could even have him alongside Cahill and Stones in a back three while we have Trippier in the more advanced position. We really do have some great options at the back, and this should lead to us being able to deal better with the best teams in the tournament than we did last time out.
In the midfield it’s a very similar outline. More depth, players able to play in a number of positions and some with bucket-loads of experience. What I really love about the midfield though, is the addition of Ruben Loftus-Cheek. As a Crystal Palace player I’m not too much of a fan at a club level, but in the national team... I’d love to see him start. It’s really hard to emphasise enough what I like so much about him as a player, but he’s so powerful and dominant in the centre of the field. Against Costa Rica, the opposition couldn’t get near him, he was dribbling out of tight situations, battling for possession and also being a great playmaker. Fortunately, his hard work was recognised last night as he assisted Marcus Rashford’s opening goal. It was really deserved and I was delighted to see him achieve his first assist for the national team. He will definitely face competition for the position, but in my view, Loftus-Cheek, at this moment in time at least, should gain a central midfield spot over anyone else. - Yes. Quite a big statement, I know.
Finally, I am going to analyse our attacking positions. Southgate has made some really good selections here and ones that are especially going to give us a great shot against the likes of Germany and Brazil. Harry Kane, as we all know, is a fantastic player, some would even say he’s world-class, and I wouldn’t disagree with that statement for a second. Kane isn’t the fastest player on the planet but what he is is an incredible finisher. Every time he gets the ball anywhere near the opposition goal, you just have a strange feeling that he’s going to hit the back of the net, and in reality, he does achieve this most of the time. What we’ve struggled with in the past is our finishing off of our chances, but in Russia, we shouldn’t have this problem. Even if Kane does get injured, and fingers crossed that doesn’t happen, we do have some decent backups, too. Marcus Rashford, as I mentioned before, has the ability to create chances and score goals out of nothing. His lack of goals for England at four may come at a surprise but he certainly has what it takes to score a lot more in the future. Something he offers for us is another dimension. Of course, having Raheem Sterling on from the start is great but having Rashford as a super-sub will be invaluable. The pace he possesses is unbelievable and when you match him up with another super-sub in Jesse Lingard he’s even better. Having these two come on in the dying stages will really help us, trust me, and hopefully they can create some really important, exciting moments in the tournament.
In conclusion, I feel as if we have a really good squad coming into the competition, possibly one of our best since the ‘dream-team-like’ lineup we had in 2006, and as a result, I really fancy our chances in Russia. Obviously we’re probably not going to win the trophy, as that’s extremely unlikely considering the unbelievable squads some teams have this year, but if we could compete in even a Quarter-Final I think that would be an unbelievable achievement, and one we would certainly be proud of as a nation.
My prediction for England is just that, being knocked out at the Quarter-Final stage, probably by Germany (typical) and probably on penalties, *sigh.*
But what do you think? That’s the most important thing. Leave me a message on Instagram @bha_today with your thoughts regarding England’s chances this year as well as your opinion on my writing. It would be great to hear from you all; it’s really appreciated!
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