Luke Shaw credited Gareth Southgate with creating an atmosphere which allows England’s players to perform with smiles on their faces after they secured a 2-1 friendly victory over Switzerland. It was not a classic performance, but for the first time England have gone 21 games without defeat over 90 minutes and in World Cup year there is a feeling of momentum building.
“For me it’s about enjoyment, playing games with a smile on my face,” said Shaw, who scored an equaliser in first-half stoppage time. “It’s always important to feel like you’re wanted. I’m not saying I don’t at Manchester United but especially here, the way things are, I feel wanted, I enjoy my football. The big part of football is enjoyment.”
Shaw’s comments could be interpreted as criticism of the atmosphere at Old Trafford, and he admitted that “it’s hard to enjoy it when we’re losing and we’re not playing well at club level”. But they formed an interesting contrast with those of Conor Gallagher, whose performance on his first senior start was extremely encouraging.
Though Gallagher’s forays forwards sometimes left England undermanned in midfield, Southgate’s priority had been making the player feel at ease by giving him the same role he has performed for Patrick Vieira at Crystal Palace this season. “I think the manager’s done that on purpose. I felt comfortable out there,” he said. “First half we found it quite difficult but I felt like second half it opened up a bit and we started to play better and create more chances.”
The game changed after an hour, when Gallagher was withdrawn as England switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation that powered them through a much-improved final period and eventually, albeit courtesy of a controversial VAR penalty decision, to victory.
“The system was to try to get the players in areas of the pitch where they’d be really comfortable,” Southgate said. “So Gallagher and Mason Mount, who we know press well [pushed forward]. I thought the front two [Harry Kane and Phil Foden] were a little too quick to press the centre-backs and it opened up too much space. It was a really good test. We fell behind, we had tactical problems to solve, we had to defend properly, and of course towards the end we were able to get more experience and some top players onto the pitch which made us finish strongly as well.”
Kane’s penalty moved him level with Bobby Charlton in England’s scoring charts with 49, four behind Wayne Rooney’s all-time record. It was not the England captain’s finest performance, but once again England were grateful for his contribution. “He looks favourite to go on and break the record,” Southgate said. “I don’t want to put any curse on him but he wants the team to do well so he’s got this dual drive. That means there’s never a camp where it looks like he doesn’t want to be involved, and that mentality spreads through the rest of the group.”
Kyle Walker-Peters and Marc Guéhi both made their senior debuts, with Tyrick Mitchell coming off the bench to do the same, and Southgate singled out Guéhi and his central defensive partner Ben White for praise. “I watch him play for Crystal Palace and sometimes he can go under the radar because he’s rarely out of position and he’s so calm, so you don’t see lunging tackles,” he said of Guehi. “But he played with that discipline and assurity, and I thought he was excellent. Ben made a small error for the goal but the rest of his game was very good, on and off the ball. I thought those two were real positives.”