How Lee Carsley Has ALREADY Fixed England

right hello everybody Adam CLE here your friendly neighborhood tactics uh guy and Lee Cosley he's gone in fixed England forever despite coming up against the footballing M of teu puki and Sheamus Coleman they have swept away all before them and life after Gareth Southgate looks very Rosy indeed now in this video we're going to be looking at why this team looked so good and why I am rubbing my thighs in excitement but to despite the fact I don't normally like to do this we must address the caveats so a yes it was Oni Island B yes it was only Finland C yes it is just in general only the Nations League group b d such was the unavailability of certain established Stars Carley was pretty much free just to play like a Juiced up version of his under 21 side so they were always going to look a bit more cohesive and E such is the generalized desperation from you me every single person in this country to see a more Progressive less conservative version of England that we're always going to jump over any single success they have as proof that we are really good and probably should have won the Euro so yeah but that being said all right then so this was the 11 that lined up against Finland and there were changes uh from the 11 that lined up against Island but they were mostly at the back we had the same sort of core attacking unit and what I ideally de hope is going to be a theme every single time we talk about Lee Carley's version of England as opposed to G southgate's version of England is the positional Freedom these players have and I'm going to go big right at the very start of this video to explain what I mean by that okay this was beo Saka heat map against Finland very easy to see that he was the right sided attacker in all this he had most of his touches in his contributions in this area of the pitch which is where beo Saka likes to be but look at all the other random places dotted about this map he gets on the edge of the box he gets in behind he gets fully on the left hand side he drives into the box from the opposite side that is someone who was playing with a large degree of positional Freedom yes he has his role and he knows where he's supposed to be but he's also enabled to problem solve mid game where do I need to go to make things happen and why that's so different to what we're used to seeing with England is this is a heat map from the European Championship final against Spain now here he is playing the exact same position except that is the only position he is playing he has to get on the ball here he has to contribute here and he's not really able to get round or to float into the middle or to go out to the opposite side he has a very specific and clear job all right okay I know it's not really fair to compare playing Spain in the European Championship final versus a Nations League game against Finland so let's make that a more applicable comparison this is the Denmark game now here unlike the final England had more of the ball they did dominate large parts of play Denmark sat deep and presented them a problem with which to solve but sacka was only allowed to do it from this position he wasn't drifting into the center he wasn't swapping sides he wasn't going to find the ball that was still his job and just to really Ram this home we go back to the heat map against Finland it's night and day those are two completely different ways of utilizing that player and I've just used Saka as an example here it was true of pretty much every single player on the pitch for England like yes they have this starting structure he sets them up with how he wants them to sort of attack team team but from there they are free they are enabled they are encouraged to work it out as they go and that meant that there was a lot of fluidity to this formation like Jack Gish was listed as the number 10 he was playing off Harry Kane but if you give Jack Gish the choice what does he like to do he actually likes to be in this left hand Channel like this half space between the central area and why because he does all his best creating there he can dribble through he can unpick defenses and if the opposition are really deep he likes to go all the way out to the left hand side and sort of interchange with whoever's out there and if we look at his heat map then blimy would you look at that he was starting in this Central area but he spends loads of time in this left hand Channel and was also free to get all the way out to that side and if greish is free to sort of operate out here a bit more then that leaves this space here for Dean rice and what does Dean rice like to do he likes to start here be involved in the buildup help move teams up the pitch but find the freedom to make these runs into the half space and possibly even attack the box and you look at his heat map and that's exactly it he's having most of his touches in this deeper area but he's got that freedom to move around and explore and try and find the space and then of course what happens is you've got Baio Saka and Anthony Gordon two players who like to receive the ball wide But ultimately want to drive into the box and become a goal threat they now have somebody alongside them in these areas who they can do overloads with they can do little interchanges of play they can start getting in behind they can drive at the fullback they can cut in they can all very easily rotate around and that's much harder to play against what was quite refreshing to see from England was they sort of gave themselves this front five which is sort of Fairly normal most teams give themselves a front five but against such a compact narrow defensive block as Finland had they also went genuinely really narrow and they pushed Finland even further back allowing loads of room for the two fullbacks to get up you combine that with Gomez just being like a perfect Tempo Setter sit in the hole on your own player and England basically played in this sort of shape and the game was just like one constant example of how England took this sort of very structured basic starting shape but then began improvising within it to start to unpick Finland and if you just look at it here you can see everybody's where they're supposed to be Kane is the center forward sacka and Gordon are the white players but they've come in a little bit narrow greish and rice are both playing as these sort of advanced number eight Gomez is sitting behind them to offer a bit of protection and the fullbacks they're now pushing up not too far but just enough to still give England width and give them options out wide but what follows shows you the fundamental difference between How England played under Southgate which was very rigidly structured versus how they're going to play under carsley which is jazz around like 60 seconds after they have been in this structured shape this is the positions England find thems in trying to open up Finland Jack Gish who was the number 10 is now the furthest leftmost player Anthony Gordon is Advanced and a little bit more inside than he is Alex Arnold's come up to support Dean rice has come all the way over to provide another body Rico Lewis the left back is now in the half space in the channel making sure there's an option there Delan rice who was the opposite side number eight now makes an overlapping run outside Anthony Gordon on the left wing to try and pull the defender away for him this doesn't work so Gordon comes back in field and finds the right back in central Midfield Trent Alexander Arnold now fair play at Finland they keep their shape and England can't really find a way through here but over the next sort of 20 some seconds as they're trying to problem solve this situation Harry Kane ends up with a touch of the ball over on the right hand side Alexander Arnold comes back into this area plays a cross field P to greish who's now the leftmost player like it doesn't guarantee your goals or ensure you're always going to create chances but it's just night and day compared to how England were playing just a few months ago and I did just mention them both there but no players better sort of show you what this system is capable of than Trent Alexander Arnold and Rico Lewis the pair of them just had like almost entirely free roles in this system which does make sense because when you plan is to have this basic structure and then to improvise within it the fullbacks are the least likely to be marked and also in very dangerous positions to be able to do things I I show you ls' heat map first of all because the kid understands time and space better than Professor Brian Cox like he kept popping up so many times in where he was supposed to pop up but he would come in field to help with the buildup he would join in help Gomez but he would also just go into any gaps that appeared in the final third like there was one or two times when Harry Kane was dropping out of that position that he ended up as the center forward but as for Trent Alexander Arnold that was not just his best performance in an England shirt that might be my favorite ever performance from a right back in an international game which I'll admit is an incredibly Niche thing now I appreciate this is becoming a very map heavy game but as we are talking about sort of like positional movement and where players were able to get to kind of have to do that so I'll show you his first of all just to sort of demonstrate the impact he had on the game now obviously it does help they were playing Finland and he didn't really have to do any defending but just put that out your mind for a second you can only play what's in front of you he was on the touch line quite a lot which is where you would expect to see him and that enables him to put crosses into the box which we know he's very good at but just look at how frequently he was more in field getting into these creative playmaking positions these number 10 positions how often he just found himself going all the way over to the left hand side because there seemed to be an opportunity for him there and obviously when you're on your right foot you can play a very different type of cross from that area he was joining in with Gomez in the build up he was rotating with greish as the number 10 he was getting outside of scker he was giving him away to come back in he was doing everything and if you give Trent Alexander Arnold that sort of platform there's few better players in the world at it like the obvious example to use would be England's second goal because that pass from a deep unmarked position is just absolutely out with this will but there was a bit in the first half which appealed to me as a nerd slightly more there was a chance that he actually gets from this sort of right hand half space he picked the ball up after it's sort of been circulated around and has a shot but if you just rewind like 10 seconds before that the chances initially created from him picking the ball up in the left back area near halfway and playing it over the top to sacka they both gone out to the opposite flank not because the manager had told them to do it but because they thought they could make something happen there and they were nearly right but while it's all getting pinballed around the box and Finland are throwing themselves uh in front of potential shots he doesn't just stay there he then comes back out to this side because again he thinks he can make something happen there and he's nearly right now I must apologize because I am sort of short changing you with this video like none of this structure none of this Freedom can exist without at least one player who sort of is more disciplined and still plays within that sort of principle and still does those sorts of things but his job primarily is to make sure that all the gaps are covered and that was Angel Gomez and I should be doing a whole 20 minute segment about how he's just so good on the ball and how his body position enables him to beat presses and how you can give him the ball in any situation how he makes a system like this completely tick but I'm not going to do that this was both a selection and a performance of such significance for England I'm going to give him his own dedicated video at some I would just rush what I have to say about him if I try and stick it into this video so just take it as red Gomez was probably the most important player on this pitch and I will explain why sometime the one thing I do want to touch on in this video is the role of Harry Kane because coming out of the Euros he did not look good there were people saying that maybe his time as the focal point of the English attack is coming to an end and you think in this sort of free flowing dynamic system where every single player is capable of playing multiple positions and goes exploring and improvises during the buildup he would be a bad fit but actually he is perfect for this now this bit is a little graph heavy right to just sort of sit down strap in go with me on this right this is Harry Kane's heat map from last night and unlike most of the other players it's actually not that different to what we normally see I just to give you a basis of comparison one of the most disappointing games I've ever seen England play and in particular hurri kanane that Slovenia game at the end of the Euros right and that's his heat map from that game as well you can see yes he wants to be a box presence but he also goes looking for the ball but the difference is not him it is everybody else because here are all of Harry Kane's completed passes from that Slovenia game you'll see despite how much he goes looking for it he never does anything of any significance when he finds it you can see he's never able to play people in in better positions he's never able to get any linkup going in and around the box for all of his movement for all of his attempts to get on the ball it's more or less totally pointless now somewhat annoyingly opta without whom I would simply never be able to make a single video have not yet published the exact same graph for the fining game but if we look at all the locations of his successful passes which is from who scored which is a slightly different graph you'll see that he has at least completing passes in and around the final third as well as deeper and thankfully while I don't have the graph I do have eyes and so many times in that fining game Harry Kane would drop into the positions he likes to get on the ball and all of a sudden when he looks up he does not see players rigidly stuck in their positions he actually sees options this is at about the hour point of the game Harry Kane has done one of his patented deep drop offs to try and receive the ball and evade his marker and he gets his head up and what is in front of him left back Rico Lewis is here who will very happily receive this ball to feat for a quick bit of to play despite there being a Defender right behind him number 10 Jack greish is all the way out on the left hand side completely unmarked and because he's there left Winger Anthony Gordon is now in a central position making a run between the Defenders and if Kane's just got it in him he can split the lines here and find him which he does and it creates a chance for Anthony Gordon and you just never ever saw anything like that happening in the Euros every time Kane dropped off all he would see is the big yawning hole that he had ated like one Winger would be over there and one Winger would be over there and Bellingham would be in the middle marked by four Defenders and not a single player would have made a run Beyond him now I must conclude by being sane for a moment and say does this mean England are now amazing and are going to win the Lots no of course it doesn't like they were playing Finland and they were playing Ireland other teams better teams would find ways to exploit this England side in ways the G Southgate side could never be exploited like it's an inherently more risky way to play but it's a lot more fun the real tests are going to come against sides that will see Rico Lewis making these runs and we'll see Alexander Arnold taking up these positions and start licking their lips at the possibilities rather than wondering how they're going to deal with this but I do think if nothing else in this ultimately proves to be a disastrous way of playing I do think that after sort of all those years of Southgate pragmatism and conservatism it's probably a good thing for us as a footballing nation to have have this style of play now because to be blun if they were going to bring in yet another coach who was going to do all the pragmatic stuff first and make them hard to beat and just hope things went right at the other end of the pitch then why are any of us doing this like it's supposed to be fun but anyway yes on that note your thoughts on this New England side I would dearly dearly love to hear them so please do get them in the comments below we do try and read every single one and respond to as many of them as we can if you're too good for that though you can get me on all the social medias at Adam cley uh c l e r y and the last time I'm going to mention it if you did see any of the running stuff I've been doing and you sponsored the charity thing we were doing we we broke £4,000 for that and that was almost entirely entirely you guys so from the just massive chamber of malice I call a heart thank you thank you thank you yes until next time though this was England that's Lee Carley why do a fix ball onto the end of every manager who plays a certain style uh I've been Adam cley goodbye