We assess the performances of the 10 players who had most to prove in the games against Germany and Brazil and ask whether they should be in next summer’s squadNo goals scored and only three shots on target – it is fair to say England’s displays in their two end-of-year, prestige friendlies against Germany and Brazil were less than sparkling. However, the occasions did allow Gareth Southgate to fully test his increasingly favoured 3-5-2 formation and allow a host of players, some new, some old, to stake their claim for a place in his squad for next summer’s World Cup. The Guardian looks at how the 10 with the most to play for fared. Related: England 0-0 Brazil: five talking...
Brazil’s manager enjoys his visit to Wembley, ‘temple’ of football
Tite discusses Harry Kane and Gabriel Jesus comparisons
England remain a “big team” who have a chance of winning the World Cup with their combination of technical and physical attributes, according to the coach of Brazil.Speaking in a stadium he described as a “temple” of football, Tite talked up his opponent on the eve of the latest glamour friendly at Wembley. Related: Neymar leaves Brazil press conference in tears after friendly win over Japan Continue reading...
Gareth Southgate’s young England side gave the world champions plenty to think about and have the potential to go on to better thingsThe kids are, it turns out, all right. Or in the case of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, a little better than all right on a crisp, fun night at Wembley when Gareth Southgate’s enforced gamble in selecting the most inexperienced England team in 40 years to take on the world champions was a measured success.Southgate has often been portrayed as a strikingly beige figure in his short England reign, an FA insider bringing with him all the chin-stroking touchline charisma of a friendly, doomed supply teacher who really hopes everyone will stop talking and listen to him discuss sedimentary rock...
VARs have been used in major European football leagues and international tournaments as part of an ongoing trial, but some players remain unconvincedA video assistant referees, or VAR, is set to feature in an official game in the United Kingdom for the first time on Friday, as England host Germany in a friendly at Wembley. The system is already used in several high-profile leagues, but the ongoing trial has not gone totally smoothly. Here is the lowdown on football’s next big technological step: Related: The Recap: sign up for the best of the Guardian's sport coverage Related: The Fiver | Another major triumph for masculinity in 2017 Continue reading...
Dier, Winks and Alli made Real Madrid look old, so why not import them wholesale into the stodgiest England team in modern memory?Few footballing figures have attracted such a solemnly tended mythology as Valeriy Lobanovskiy, the coach of Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine in the late Soviet years. Wreathed in an ancient silence beneath his worker’s cap, Lobanovskiy was a monolithic presence during the TV coverage of the 1988 European Championship, appearing suddenly in Stalinist close-up, vast concrete jowls framing the screen, sphinx-like, eternal, as old as the steppes. He was, the internet reveals, only 49 at the time. But presumably being potent, eternal, all-seeing and so on takes it out of you.Lobanovskiy is usually cast as the father of things....