Euro 2024: England to get it right at last if Southgate can let the team off the leash!
Only France arguably has a more deep pool of talent for Euro 2024 than this England team with generational talents and definitely enough quality to go all the way this time! The only question that still has not found the answer yet is if Southgate can let them off the leash to express themselves as always seems to be safety first!
By CHRISTOS SOTIRAKOPOULOS
In 1982 just before the World Cup in Spain the England team released a single that had the title “This time we 'll get it right” but as the long story of the Theee lions goes they did not!
A hugely talented team that had in Ron Greenwood a very experienced manager but never a revolutionist and when it mattered did not deliver.
England limped out of the tournament without a defeat with three group wins and afterwards two draws against West Germany and Spain. The very strange system that World Cup 1982 had in place meant that out of the three teams one was going through to the semi-finals and England just missed out inevitably to the Germans.
40 years later and an equally full of talent squad is in Gareth Southgate´s hands. Then it was Keegan and Brooking (even both were injured through the tournament and Greenwood took eventually the gamble to play them in the last part of the goalless game against Spain) Francis, Hoddle, Sansom, Robson, Mariner, Rix, Mills, Anderson, Coppel, Butcher and Wilkins with two world class goalkeepers in Clemence and Shilton. And still the fact that the manager never tried anything different than 4-4-2, backfired.
Now, Southgate has at his disposal players like Bellingham, Rice, Stones, Trent Alexander Arnold Rashford, Maddison, Foden, Saka, Grealish, Kane Pickford Chilwell and quite a few others, so it's absolutely normal for the english fans to dream.
But still many big decisions to be taken. Who would you play in midfield with Rice and Bellingham. Foden Maddison or TAA? Different roles obviously, but one who can make the whole system work is the new star of Real Madrid as Bellingham can fulfill different roles as a number 10 or 8 or either and he can play box-to-box.
Honestly, it will be such a big chance next summer in Germany for England to win finally a big tournament. And it will be a really big missed chance if they will not stand up and this time to "Get it right" as the song of 1982 was saying!
