How Lee Carsley could be the change that England need
“I want our players to be on the ball. I want our team to attack. I want us to be expansive.” These are the words of new interim England manager Lee Carsley.
“I want our players to be on the ball. I want our team to attack. I want us to be expansive.”
These words are the exact description of how almost every England fan wants their national team to play. Now, they are also the words of new interim England boss Lee Carsley. Most England managers in the last few decades have used a rigid, conservative and often defensive setup to try to break down opponents, but England fans can feel rightfully frustrated that the potential of the players that England has to offer has not been put to good use in multiple “golden generations” of footballers. Most England fans have wanted a change in footballing ethos from England for a long time, and even if only for a short time, Lee Carsley will almost certainly bring change if he is allowed to use his expansive style of play that he used for the England under-21 squad. Not only are these upcoming international games a chance for him to show this expansive style of football to us, but they are also his audition for the permanent England role, which will most certainly be the FA’s preference if they cannot find another manager to take over England.
The FA should be expecting a confident Nations League group stage from Carsley, as hopefully a transition from England under-21 boss to England senior boss will be more seamless of a transition than another change. Even if this is not the case, England are facing Greece, Ireland and Finland, all teams that England should be able to beat confidently as long as they are in a coherent system.
Whatever England’s results, their gameplay will at least be entertaining. The U-21 England team won the European Championship in 2023 without conceding a single goal and playing an incredibly fluid style of play that allowed for most players to have massive freedom of movement around the pitch. They also pressed aggressively to shut down counter-attacks and close teams down from the back, before fluidly transitioning to a 4-2-3-1 formation when on the attack. If we are to assume Carsley’s tactics with the under-21s will be repeated with the seniors, we could see lots of wingers swapping sides, wingers coming inside to form a tight front 3 with the striker in the middle and even the left-back and right-back holding the width, or two midfielders shielding the defence from danger via counter attacks.
Not only was this play effective with winning England U-21s the Euros, but this style of play also commanded respect from the players as they felt that they had much more free roaming ability around the pitch, rather than being tightly restricted and constantly defensively committed. Anthony Gordon said this about Carsley’s side that he featured heavily in: “This might be the best footballing team I’ve played in. In terms of how we play and the combination play we play around the box, it’s really at an elite level. That’s down to Lee [Carsley].”
While this is a massive step-up for Carsley, another advantage for him is that a lot of the players involved in last year’s U-21 Euros win are now involved in England’s first team setup, like Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Levi Colwill. Having already coached these players at U-21 and U-20 level before that, Carsley will now most likely feel that he has the same superstar talent that he is familiar with, but with a stronger spine of players like Declan Rice, John Stones, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham. This could really aid him in his England journey, however long or short it could potentially be.
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