Dier England pulled in victory over Belgium

A 2-1 win against the world’s number one side is something to be celebrated. In that, Gareth Southgate and his England side can be extremely happy with themselves. They now sit top of their Nations League group as well.

The manner of victory, however, is something that warrants far less celebration.

England were unquestionably poor, particularly in the first half. They offered little invention going forward, and were regularly sliced apart by a not quite full strength Belgium side. Imagine if the likes of Eden Hazard had been present.

Their goals came from somewhat fortuitous moments. A penalty won after Jordan Henderson felt a tug on his arm at a corner from Thomas Meunier and was wryly enough to go down. Then a deflected strike from Mason Mount that looped viciously over a stranded Simon Mignolet.

In short, England were poor but found a way to win. But it was a way to win that involved a large slice of luck, something that cannot be relied upon regularly.

Southgate looks to have decided that the best way forwards is backwards, and then a little bit more defensive.

He has taken England from a simmering 4-3-3 that was flawed, but a work in progress pending on certain players being available, to a supposedly more defensive 3-4-3 that offers little midfield invention and is still defensively suspect.

There are many problems to be unpicked. First – this limited notion that switching to a back three will automatically make you better defensively.

Short answer: It won’t.

It leaves space behind the wing backs which can be exploited. Or if the wing backs drop back into defence, leaves the midfield vulnerable to being overrun, especially if opposition full backs push high.

Now these are things that can be negated to an extent by a side and a group of players adept at playing in such a formation. But this is not the case with this England team.

Trent Alexander-Arnold never plays as a wing back for Liverpool. Eric Dier and Harry Maguire generally feature in back fours. Tripper has proven himself adept at playing wing back for England, but not on the left.

The one defender England have who is truly suited to being in a back three is Connor Coady, but he was left out after a solid display against Wales.

Southgate is putting square pegs in round holes, and forcing his favourites into the side despite having to play them out of position.

We then move into midfield, and the lack of ability to build play with the stodgy duo of Declan Rice and Jordan Henderson.

This is not to say either are bad players. Rice has looked a little withdrawn for England at times but has shone for West Ham this season. And Henderson has been the beating heart of a brilliant Liverpool side.

Both use the ball tidily but neither are particularly expressive or creative passers, which becomes especially apparent in this formation due to the massive gap between them and England’s front three.

As a result, England’s flanking attackers – Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount – were forced to drop incredibly deep far too often.

It was a dysfunctional England side, one that would be more comfortable playing long balls for Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Harry Kane to hold up and lay off to a more pacy teammate.

And maybe this is the direction that Southgate wants his team to go. A stick in the mud side that stumbles its way through international tournaments with results just inexplicably going in their favour.

It was sort of what France did at the World Cup. But France have a stronger defence, better midfielders and the best pacy dribbler in the world. And of course, Olivier Giroud reprising Stephane Guivarc’h’s water carrying centre forward role from France ’98.

And in fairness, England have some very capable ‘target men’ forwards in Kane and Calvert-Lewin, and forwards in a similar pacy and tricky vein to Kylian Mbappe.

It brings the debate between ‘good’ and ‘winning’ football to the forefront. Neither are mutually exclusive, and England will ultimately struggle to progress in a tournament if they are so disjointed as they were against Belgium and Denmark.

Amongst the grind of ‘winning’ displays, moments of quality and fluency are still needed. England were reliant on luck more than quality against Belgium, and this is not a sustainable tactic.

And it’s not like England don’t have high level creative quality in the likes of Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Mount. It’s understandable that Southgate wants more solidity but if it comes at the cost basically of any spark, then England will simply not progress.

This victory could well prove to be a false positive for Southgate and his latest iteration of the England national team.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt