There have
been many raw nights in the history of the England team. When the reality of
the nation’s place in the game’s world order has been delivered with a jolt if
Gareth Southgate’s side can learn anything from their ancestors’ failings it is
that there may be time to fix it. Football fans can book Liverpool Tickets on our website on exclusively discounted
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Southgate
says, very little of any good that his team could take out of this
performance The kind of defeat that might curb a few England careers and
certainly send the manager back to his Euro Cup 2020 planning. This was the
night that England was supposed to go 5 wins from 5 in qualifying and sweep
into the finals next summer. Instead of this, they find themselves with
some vital problems in defense and midfield that need urgent
attention. They have 5 five in the last 2 qualifiers.
If the
warning signs were there against Kosovo in Southampton last month It got worst
in Prague when Southgate’s players found themselves outplayed by a side they
beat 5-0 at Wembley in March. An England team has not lost a qualifying game
for a major tournament for ten years.
You have to
go back to that terrible Wembley night against Croatia in 2007 for the last one
they lost when something was at stake. That was the crushing finale for the
Steve McClaren era and the failure to qualify for Euro 2008. The strange
calibration of Euro 2020 qualifying means that although England look set to
play their group games at Wembley.
They are now
not assured of being a top seed in a home group. As for this night, the
problems ran throughout the team. A failure to hold possession and then defend
when they did not have the ball Once again, Michael Keane looked out of sorts
and while it would be unfair to heap all the blame on the Everton man.
It is hard
to see how Southgate goes into the tournament next summer with the Keane-Harry
Maguire combination at center-back. It was a night when too many of Jordan
Henderson’s passes did not find their mark and Declan Rice did little better.
These are
problems that are not unexpected but to see them combine in quite such
spectacular fashion poses the question once again. Is England really ready to
break the 54-years-of-hurt curse? In November 2017, seven months before the
World Cup in Russia was to come the following year.
Southgate
made drastic changes to his formation. This was one of those nights when it
felt his team was trying to tell him the same might be needed. Harry Kane
scored a penalty in the first 5 minutes making it 5 goals from 4 qualifying
games for the captain.
Yet the
first half was considerably worse than that which followed after the break.
Southgate readily admitted that he had got the formation wrong. Mason Mount
making his first senior starts and lost in the black hole of the
traditional No 10 position Possession was wasted by all but Kane alone.
He once
again showed himself a tough passer of the ball in all situations, although
mostly starved of chances to score. In the half-time, Roy Keane railed against
Rice and Henderson and after the break Southgate switched from the 4-2-3-1 that
had isolated Mount to more of a 4-1-2-3.
Rice sitting
in front of the defense England did create chances but they always looked
likely to give them up too. When the ball fell to the substitute Zdenek
Ondrasek, the 30-year-old debutant who plays for FC Dallas in Major League
Soccer could scarcely have had more time to score the winner.
The last
time England lost a qualifier was against Ukraine in the final match for 2010
World Cup qualification. When a place at the finals was already in the bag and
Fabio Capello was generally agreed to be a genius at qualifying come the end of
the finals the following summer Capello was generally agreed to be a disaster
at tournaments.
Although it
would be hard to see the agreement shift quite so radically for Southgate International
football has a strange way of exposing even the most capable coaches. Perhaps
it is a natural passer that Southgate needs.
It was
notable that in the first half the 21-year-old Spartak Moscow midfielder Alex
Kral caught the eye for the Czechs. Flowing curls and a lot of time on the ball
England rarely managed to connect up midfield and attack. Their best move
coming in the fourth minute.
A ball into
Kane from Mount was expertly turned around the corner and into the path of
Raheem Sterling in full flight down the left-wing. He ran in on goal at an
angle tight to the byline and slammed on the brakes. Defender Lukas Mahouts was
coming in to block in anticipation of the shot.
Down went
Sterling for an easy penalty for referee Damir Skomina to award and Kane had
his 27th international goal in 42 caps. Only once again in the half would they
build that kind of move again. A tackle from Maguire in the 33rd minute began a
good passing sequence that ended with a chance for Kane.
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