Mason Mount’s work without the ball and technical ability have justified his England place all while suffering unfair scornTwo steps forward, one step back. In a way, this has been the story of Gareth Southgate’s England in microcosm. Stirring progress followed by chastening tournament defeat; goodwill earned and then squandered; the heartening emergence of Conor Coady and Tyrone Mings tempered by the sharp decline of Harry Maguire. And here again a broadly encouraging international week curdled at its climax, defeat to Denmark an unhappy epilogue after the wins over Wales and Belgium. Related: Denmark and Eriksen make England pay for Maguire's reckless lunges Related: Nations League roundup: Williams axis strikes late again as Wales top group Related: Scotland march on...
Powerful documentary depicts how the man who won the World Cup with England and then transformed Ireland on and off the pitch squared up to dementiaYou may think there is nothing more that needs to be said about Jack Charlton given all the tributes, stories and retrospectives that followed his death in July but there is plenty more to say and, thanks to Finding Jack Charlton, a powerful documentary, there will soon be more to see.“The trailer [to be released on Tuesday] says: ‘He conquered the world, he transformed a nation, then he faced his greatest challenge,’” says Gabriel Clarke, one of the film’s directors. “Jack and the family showed great courage in enabling us to document it and celebrate...
England compensated for the lack of a cultured technical midfielder by turning the game into a wrestling matchIt wasn’t the perfect performance. Perhaps, in a weird way, that was for the best. Imagine the nonsense we would have had to put up with for the next eight months if England had beaten the world’s No 1 team – and the home of the European parliament to boot – with a perfect performance. The hoopla. The hubris. The jingoistic fervour. The Michel Barnier memes. Lather up Europe, our brave lads are coming for you.Yet in the absence of perfection, you suspect Gareth Southgate will be content simply to pile up results. And this was a very decent result against a good...
Dominic Calvert-Lewin emerged as an alternative to – or foil for – Harry Kane in England’s 3-0 friendly victory over WalesYes, it was only a throwaway friendly at an empty Wembley Stadium between a second-string England and a limited Wales, but … well, maybe there is no “but”. Maybe that’s the end of the sentence. Not every football game has to mean something. Not every event has to be a learning opportunity. And as England scratched their way to a convincing if inoffensive win, the temptation was to wonder whether this lukewarm encounter had changed anything at all. Whether the fabric of the universe had been wrinkled one iota.Still, if there’s anything more tiresome than an England friendly it’s people...
The manager’s conservative style against Denmark shows stodginess is becoming his side’s defining flaw behind a marked lack of progressJust before half-time in Copenhagen on Tuesday night Conor Coady could be heard shouting “Don’t get bored!” at his England teammates as they shuttled the ball across the face of Denmark’s deep defensive lines, keeping possession, waiting for an opening, trying, it turns out, not to get bored.It seemed like an excellent piece of advice at the time. Albeit one that might have been better directed down the ring of pitch-side mics and into the ears of the watching TV audience, weighing up its continued engagement with a match that felt, for much of the 90 minutes, like being lulled into...