England manager Gareth Southgate deserves credit for change at World Cup – but won’t get it

Within six minutes, they had turned a tame draw into an unassailable lead to surge into the round of 16 at this World Cup, and a contest against Senegal, as comfortable group winners. The change was crucial.

First, Foden won a free kick with a brilliant, slaloming run that carried him in off the left – he had spent the first half on the right – to be tripped on the edge of the penalty area. Rashford fired his set piece like an arrow into the far top corner.

Within a minute, Rashford pressed Wales and won the ball high up, it fell to Harry Kane and the captain crossed for Foden to finish joyously at the far post. A game transformed.

A smart tactical tweak? It was certainly a change that I had not imagined or heard suggested by other pundits. But credit Southgate? Knowing his faltering popularity, no doubt many will decry him for putting them on the wrong wings in the first place.

It is six years to the day since this measured man signed his first contract to be England manager after four interim matches, and people get bored. They want something new.

They want entertainment, too, which is fair enough except international football is not always that easy to crack. Competence goes a long way. To a World Cup semi-final, and a European Championship final, in fact.

But we always want more. Bukayo Saka was superb against Iran; a smart, unarguable selection with two fine goals. By the time that boos greeted the bore draw against the United States, Southgate was a fool for not seeing that Foden was a much better choice all along.

This is the lot of an England manager, especially one who has raised expectations over his tenure, stayed around to face those new demands and knows that he will never win back some critics who look at any, and every, selection and see a better alternative.

There will be no shortage of experts now, you can be sure – especially after Foden and Rashford, promoted to the starting line-up in place of Saka and Raheem Sterling, led the second-half thumping of Wales.

We should probably just be honest about this now and accept that with four wide forwards to choose from against Senegal – five if we include Jack Grealish, who was the saviour once, remember – Southgate is not going to please everyone. With seven points, nine goals, top scorers in the competition so far and a comfortable passage assured, we might also want to countenance that the England manager has some idea of what he is doing.

“Players make those decisions work,” Southgate said afterwards, declining to take the credit – but, interestingly, he also said that Foden and Rashford preferred their initial positions, so it needed him to explain at the interval why he needed them to switch.

To many, it will seem that they now have the shirts and the momentum. And, of course, it is perfectly reasonable to wonder if he can drop Rashford, or Foden, after this.

By the time the Manchester United forward had come off, he had tortured Wales down their left flank. A second goal for him, a third for England, capped a brilliant night as he twisted and turned in the penalty area. It was remarkable to think that he had not started a game for England since coming off the bench, fatefully, in that Euro 2020 final against Italy.

Few were demanding his return during that long absence with wretched form and confidence. But here he was looking as if he had not enjoyed his football so much in years. He was suddenly in the running for the Golden Boot.

For Foden, this must have been one of his most pleasing halves in an England shirt, too. That he has not found an effective role with England has been a frustration shared by player and manager.

Inevitably, Southgate’s England is very different to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City – less slick, more functional and rigid – and Foden has never quite found his place. The cries for him to play ignored that he has been underwhelming in an England shirt, with two goals in 19 matches before yesterday (Tuesday) and his last assist in a competitive fixture more than a year ago.

He had started England’s first two games at Euro 2020 but, marooned in a wider role without the constant rotation and flowing possession of the City machine, had lost his place to Saka.

For 45 frustrating minutes here, it looked like it might be a familiar pattern – but then Southgate unlocked something with those highly effective changes. The killer blows were quickly inflicted and now the England coach has some important and intriguing choices to make.

This was a mediocre Wales; Senegal will set a different test. Southgate will see things on the training ground from different players, with varied skill sets, who need rotating as they come in and out of freshness and form. “Different opponents may require different qualities,” Southgate said.

So, Foden and Rashford must start? Just as you were probably not saying straight after England put six goals past Iran.

– The Times

Originally published as England manager Gareth Southgate deserves credit for change at World Cup – but won’t get it